Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Navajo herder in the foothills.
Alternate Title(s):The Navajo Herder
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1908
Dimensions:
37 3/8 × 28 3/8 in. (94.9 × 72.1 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.10
Research Number: NCW: 10
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 08
ProvenanceThe artist; Nathaniel Wyeth, to 1954; (?); (Heritage Bookshop, Los Angeles, CA, ca. 1969); (John Howell Books & Art, San Francisco, CA, 1970); Douglas Allen, Jr., 1970 - ca. 1981; Private collection, NY; (J. N. Bartfield Galleries, New York, NY)
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1971, no. 55 p. 44, illus. b/w p. 47; Chadds Ford, PA, 1975; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(3), no. 119; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 56, illus. in b/w plate 2 on p. 21, also p. 16; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), illus. in color p. 24, cat. no. 31 on p. 82; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Art of the American West from a Private Collection," Sept. 5 - Nov. 23, 2003;
References
Betsy J. Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 275-276; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 275 and illus. b/w p. 45; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.260, p. 190; Anson M. Beard, Jr., A Life in Full Sail (Cambridge, MA: Tide Pool, Ltd., 2012), p. 374, illus. 384;
Curatorial RemarksIn early October 1908, the artist wrote to his mother that he had completed and signed this painting. Several days later he wrote, "The one I said I had signed in my last letter has been painted twice over since" (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 275). Later, "Tomorrow I shall repaint the head of my Navaho (sic) sheepherder." By Oct 22, he had delivered it to Scribner's and was pleased with the reception. In a letter of Dec. 13, 1909, Wyeth wrote that he was sending "an Indian picture" to his brother Nat as a wedding present. Although there is no positive identification, this painting, returned to the artist from Scribner's in Jan. 1909, was presumably in the artist's possession in December of that year and was one of two pictures of native Americans in Nathaniel Wyeth's collection. (The other, NCW 821, was probably inherited by Nathaniel from Andrew Newell Wyeth who received it as a Christmas present in 1906).
A composition drawing (NCW 2644) for the figure came to light in 2012, having descended in the family of one of Carolyn Bockius Wyeth's sisters. Notes accompanying the drawing indicate that the sister, Hildegarde Bockius, posed for the sheepherder.
A composition drawing (NCW 2644) for the figure came to light in 2012, having descended in the family of one of Carolyn Bockius Wyeth's sisters. Notes accompanying the drawing indicate that the sister, Hildegarde Bockius, posed for the sheepherder.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting