Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Adventures of Richard Hannay, dust-jacket illustration
Alternate Title(s):The Thirty-Nine Steps, dust-jacket illustration
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1939
Dimensions:
14 × 13 1/2 in. (35.6 × 34.3 cm)
Collection of Joel and Suzanne Sugg
Accession number: SUPP2000.563
Research Number: NCW: 563
InscribedLower left: W (enclosed in circle); adhered to reverse, Renaissance Panel label dated 8/11/38, number 700
ProvenanceHoughton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA, through at least 1976; Private collection, Cambridge, MA; (Martin Diamond, 1978); Private collection, Miramar, FL, by 1987
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 224, 225; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1256, p. 567
Curatorial RemarksThis is the artist's second depiction of Buchan's hero Richard Hannay. Correspondence between N. C. Wyeth and editors at Houghton Mifflin Company make clear that the model for the figure was Percival Christopher Wren, the author of Beau Geste. (see Lovell Thompson of Houghton Mifflin Company to NCW, 5/16/1936, Houghton Mifflin Archives, Houghton Library, Harvard University). The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth collection includes the composition drawing for the commission (NCW 1439), and the Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.95) of the drawing that was used in the transfer from paper to panel.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting