Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Vedette
Alternate Title(s):The Vadet
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1910
Dimensions:
48 1/4 × 38 1/4 in. (122.6 × 97.2 cm)
Private collection, Chadds Ford, PA
Accession number: SUPP2000.21
Research Number: NCW: 21
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 10
Provenance[?]; Union Club of Boston, to 1965
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1912(3), no. 145, as "The Vadet"; Haverhill, MA, 1913; Harrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 36; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 13, illus. b/w; Chadds Ford, PA, 1968, no. 2; Chadds Ford, PA, 1969; Chadds Ford, PA, 1971, no. 66, illus. b/w p. 53; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 118; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 40, illus. b/w p. 9; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(2); Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Visions of Winter," Jan. 14 - March 11, 1984; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), no. 8, illus. in color p. 20, see also p. 30; Chadds Ford, PA, 1997, no numbers; Rockland, ME, 2000, illus. in color, fig. 10; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Romance in Conflict, N. C. Wyeth's Civil War Paintings," Jan. 22-March 20, 2011; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 126
References
(Philadelphia) Ledger, Nov. 30, 1912 (AAA microfilm, roll P55, frame 734); (Philadelphia) Record, Dec. 1, 1912 (AAA film, roll P55, frame 742); Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Gambit: Boston, 1971), p. 363, 381-382; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 208, illus. b/w p. 127; Carol Billman, "N. C. Wyeth," American History Illustrated, vol. XX, no. 10 (Feb. 1986), illus. p. 29; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), illus. in color after p. 52; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.299, p. 208
Curatorial RemarksA sketch of the motif of this painting headed a letter Wyeth wrote to his mother on Nov. 2, 1910 (see Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 363). The artist considered the picture, which he called "The Spy," the best of the three he had done for the commission (The Battle and the portrait of Stonewall Jackson). The Wyeth Family Archives includes photographs of the countryside around Warm Springs, Virginia, which Mary Johnston sent to the artist.
Wyeth was intensely disappointed in the quality of the reproductions, calling them "miserable smudges," and asserting that by publishing them Houghton Mifflin had done him "considerable damage."
Archival photographs (Brandywine Conservancy / Early History / Box # ) show the painting on display during Chadds Ford, PA, 1969.
Wyeth was intensely disappointed in the quality of the reproductions, calling them "miserable smudges," and asserting that by publishing them Houghton Mifflin had done him "considerable damage."
Archival photographs (Brandywine Conservancy / Early History / Box # ) show the painting on display during Chadds Ford, PA, 1969.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. painting on display during Chadds Ford, PA, 1969
Photo Credit:1. Rick Echelmeyer, 7/2000; 2. photographer unknown