Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Bloody Angle
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1912
Dimensions:
46 1/4 × 33 1/4 in. (117.5 × 84.5 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Gift of Charles S. Crompton, Jr., in memory of his wife, Milbrey Dean Crompton, 2014
Accession number: 2014.1
Label Copy:
Wyeth intended The Bloody Angle to evoke the general horror of war and specifically to depict a crucial part of the Battle of Spotsylvania, Virginia (1864). Johnston’s text is powerful. "Then the storm broke, she wrote, "and the angle became the spot on earth where, it is estimated, in all the history of the earth the musketry fire was the heaviest. It became The Bloody Angle."
Wyeth compressed both blue and gray soldiers into the lower two thirds of the picture, with the figures in the chaos of battle rising to a compositional angle symbolizing an horrific apex in the history of the war and of the country. He admitted to Mary Johnston that the composition was also constructed with Houghton Mifflin’s advertising department in mind, feeling it would make an effective design for an advertising poster.
Wyeth intended The Bloody Angle to evoke the general horror of war and specifically to depict a crucial part of the Battle of Spotsylvania, Virginia (1864). Johnston’s text is powerful. "Then the storm broke, she wrote, "and the angle became the spot on earth where, it is estimated, in all the history of the earth the musketry fire was the heaviest. It became The Bloody Angle."
Wyeth compressed both blue and gray soldiers into the lower two thirds of the picture, with the figures in the chaos of battle rising to a compositional angle symbolizing an horrific apex in the history of the war and of the country. He admitted to Mary Johnston that the composition was also constructed with Houghton Mifflin’s advertising department in mind, feeling it would make an effective design for an advertising poster.
Research Number: NCW: 144
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); written on reverse of canvas, not in NCW's hand: BLOODY ANGLE / -- GETTYSBURG -- / PICTURE FOR MARY JOHNSTON / -- THE LONG ROLL -- ; written on tacking edge: 5.437 - L
ProvenanceMrs. Charles S. Crompton, Jr.
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1972 (not in catalogue); Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(2); Rockland, ME, 2000, color illustration, fig. 14; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "N. C. Wyeth's Collection of Firearms and Edged Weapons, " Jan. 23- May 17, 2009; 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 (and Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Oct. 4, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020, and Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 127
References
Robert Newton Linscott, The Boy's Book of Battles (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1914), illus. in color on cover; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 414; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 208; Eddie Woodward, "Invisible Ed," Civil War Times, vol. XLIII no. 4 (Oct. 2004), p. 22; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.375, p. 241; Chris MacKowski and Kristopher D. White, "Another Butchery," Civil War Times, vol. 54, no. 6 (December 2015), illus. p. 33;
Curatorial RemarksThe artist took the unusual step of sending this canvas to Mary Johnston to seek her approval. He wrote to her, "Do not shudder that I have chosen "The Bloody Angle," for I believe there is the feeling of desperate struggle without cause for repulsion" (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 414).
With Houghton-Mifflin's advertising department in mind, the artist admitted to Mary Johnston that he consciously constructed the mass of figures as an effective poster design. The composition is similar to that used by F. C. Yohn in an illustration of a battle that was published in the July 1911 issue of Scribner's ("The enemy had a very fine silken flag...", pg. ).;Wyeth compressed both blue and gray soldiers into the lower two thirds of the picture, with the figures in the chaos of battle rising to a compositional angle symbolizing an horrific apex in the history of the war and of the country.
Letters indicate Wyeth painted this picture and "The Road to Vidalia" in September 1912. From the following letter written in August, 1911, it is clear that Wyeth must have used Miller's "Photographic History of the Civil War," published in 1911, as a general reference for both images. "Chadds Ford, Pa. / (to) Review of Reviews Co., New York City / Dear Sirs / It is far beyond any of my words to tell you what the "Photographic History of the Civil War" means to me. To be drawn so intimately in touch with those stirring days is like realizing an extravagant dream! - The impression made upon me is deep and profound and I feel highly grateful for the revelation. I don't know how to thank you! Furthermore, being an illustrator, the books are invaluable as a source of information. / Yours sincerely, / N. C. Wyeth." The ten volumes are catalogued in the studio library (NCWS.95.94).
On Sept. 13, Wyeth wrote to his mother that this picture was "enthusiastically received...[as] fearfully realistic." Mary Johnston, he reported was "delighted." The text accompanying the picture is powerful. Johnston wrote: ....Then the storm broke, and the angle became the spot on earth where, it is estimated, in all the history of the earth the musketry fire was the heaviest. It became "The Bloody Angle." (p. 302)
With Houghton-Mifflin's advertising department in mind, the artist admitted to Mary Johnston that he consciously constructed the mass of figures as an effective poster design. The composition is similar to that used by F. C. Yohn in an illustration of a battle that was published in the July 1911 issue of Scribner's ("The enemy had a very fine silken flag...", pg. ).;Wyeth compressed both blue and gray soldiers into the lower two thirds of the picture, with the figures in the chaos of battle rising to a compositional angle symbolizing an horrific apex in the history of the war and of the country.
Letters indicate Wyeth painted this picture and "The Road to Vidalia" in September 1912. From the following letter written in August, 1911, it is clear that Wyeth must have used Miller's "Photographic History of the Civil War," published in 1911, as a general reference for both images. "Chadds Ford, Pa. / (to) Review of Reviews Co., New York City / Dear Sirs / It is far beyond any of my words to tell you what the "Photographic History of the Civil War" means to me. To be drawn so intimately in touch with those stirring days is like realizing an extravagant dream! - The impression made upon me is deep and profound and I feel highly grateful for the revelation. I don't know how to thank you! Furthermore, being an illustrator, the books are invaluable as a source of information. / Yours sincerely, / N. C. Wyeth." The ten volumes are catalogued in the studio library (NCWS.95.94).
On Sept. 13, Wyeth wrote to his mother that this picture was "enthusiastically received...[as] fearfully realistic." Mary Johnston, he reported was "delighted." The text accompanying the picture is powerful. Johnston wrote: ....Then the storm broke, and the angle became the spot on earth where, it is estimated, in all the history of the earth the musketry fire was the heaviest. It became "The Bloody Angle." (p. 302)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 3/10/2000
On view