Brandywine Museum of Art/Works/The Wrestling Match at the "Pied Merlin" It would have been hard that night, through the whole length of England, to set up a finer pair in face of each other./

The Wrestling Match at the "Pied Merlin" It would have been hard that night, through the whole length of England, to set up a finer pair in face of each other.

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

The Wrestling Match at the "Pied Merlin"
It would have been hard that night, through the whole length of England, to set up a finer pair in face of each other.

Alternate Title(s):Hordle John
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1922
Dimensions:
40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.305
Research Number: NCW: 305
InscribedUpper right: N C WYETH (underlined) / TO HENRY from / CONVERS / 1923
ProvenanceThe artist; wedding gift to Henry Ulrich Holzer, 1923; descended in family to grandson Paul Henry Carr, Ph. D.; [Vose Gallery, Boston, MA, June, 2003]; MBNA America, Wilmington, DE, 2003 - 2005
Exhibition HistoryRockland, ME, 1966, no. 64; Portland, OR, Portland Museum of Art, "The Wyeths: Three Generations, Works form the Bank of America Collection," Oct. 7, 2017-Jan. 28, 2018;
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 204; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.916, p. 441
Curatorial RemarksSee letter NCW to Sidney M. Chase, Aug. 3, 1922, "The reading of the Chronicles of Froissart (all of them) was a very bright spot in the preparation of The White Company" (letter, Wyeth Family Archives, and see two copies of The Chronicles illustrated by Alfred Knapp, NCWS.95. 3424 and .4319, Brandywine River Museum).
The artist presented the painting to Henry Ulrich Holzer, his first cousin, on the occasion of Holzer's marriage to Emma Bandiera in 1923. All images for The White Company were copyrighted by the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation.
"For years we had on our reading list Conan Doyle's White Company, but the only copy in the library was a small, drab-colored book with fine print and no pictures. This past year we have had a copy of the lovely new edition illustrated by N. C. Wyeth, a rather large book with good-sized print and beautiful pictures." From Ruth Teuscher, "Illustrated Books for Boys and Girls," The English Journal, vol. XVI, no. 8 (Oct. 1927), p. 606
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Transparency courtesy of Vose Gallery, Boston, 7/2003