If the woman in the wagon was scared to death at the sight of the prairie, I surely had cause to be afraid; but I was not. I was uplifted

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

If the woman in the wagon was scared to death at the sight of the prairie, I surely had cause to be afraid; but I was not. I was uplifted

Alternate Title(s):I shall never forget the sight. It was like a great green sea.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1921
Dimensions:
32 1/8 × 40 in. (81.6 × 101.6 cm)
Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York. Clara S. Peck Fund Purchase
Accession number: SUPP2000.1048
Research Number: NCW: 1048
Inscribedat bottom center: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / (in another hand) 1918; on reverse of canvas in pencil: Vandermark's Folly / October 1921
ProvenanceThe artist; gift to Wendell Dodge; descended in family; (Illustration House, New York, New York, 1994)
Exhibition HistoryMontreal, Canada, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Oct. 14, 2017-Feb. 4, 2018, "Once Upon a Time...The Western"
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 262; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.882, p. 429; Brian Lee Whisenhunt, "The Rockwell Museum," American Art Review, vol. xxx, no. 3 (May-June 2018), detail on cover, illust. p. 49;
Curatorial RemarksAccording to notes made in 1992, this painting was inscribed at the bottom center "N. C. WYETH / to my friend Wendell," an inscription that must have been removed when the erroneous date of 1918 was added.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York.