Brandywine Museum of Art/Works/"It ees in the night, too, that the men with the pack mules go from Black Canyon across the line into Mexico. All the time it ees in the night."/

"It ees in the night, too, that the men with the pack mules go from Black Canyon across the line into Mexico. All the time it ees in the night."

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

"It ees in the night, too, that the men with the pack mules go from Black Canyon across the line into Mexico. All the time it ees in the night."

Medium: Oil on canvas applied to hardboard
Date: 1925
Dimensions:
24 5/8 × 51 in. (62.5 × 129.5 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1694
Research Number: NCW: 1694
InscribedLower left: TO MARIANA / from N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 1920; on reverse of panel in paint: SMUGGLER'S PACK TRAIN / ON THE / MEXICAN BORDER; paper label attached to backing, in hand writing: Illus. from "A Son of His Father" / by Harold Bell Wright / McCall's Mag. Sept. 1925
ProvenanceThe artist; Private collection and descended in family
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 265; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1024, p. 488
Curatorial RemarksThis painting was probably done on two separate, almost square canvases as illustrated in the reproduction. As in several other instances (for example, see NCW 1374), Wyeth made the two canvases into one picture by adhering both to a hardboard panel. He added an approximately 1 1/2 inch wide strip down the center to make the transition and complete the image.
The date in the inscription is a mystery, and possibly a mistake. The image is story-specific to A Son of his Father (written in 1925), and thus could not have been completed earlier.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer