Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Beggars Fight
Alternate Title(s):The Beggars' Fight; The Fight of the Beggars
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1929
Dimensions:
48 1/4 × 38 1/4 in. (122.6 × 97.2 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1229
Research Number: NCW: 1229
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH / © / (third line painted out); on reverse, label of Newman Gallery, "Reg. No. 9534"
ProvenanceThe artist to late 1930; Mrs. T. Whitney Blake, Katonah, NY, 1930-?; (?); (Newman Galleries, Philadelphia, PA, 1973); Collection of Mr. S. H. du Pont, 1974; (Illustration House auction, New York, NY, Oct. 7, 1989, lot no. 61); Private collection, CO, to 1994; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, Sept. 21, 1994, no. 192)
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, 1930, no. 13, as "The Beggars' Fight"; Wilmington, DE, 1930(1), no. 19, as "The Fight of the Beggars"; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 106
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 213; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1103, p. 516
Curatorial RemarksThe Wyeth Family Archives includes the copy of the book that N. C. Wyeth read and annotated in preparation for the commission, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. The book was found with notes about the commission in NCW's hand, a copy of a letter to Lovell Thompson of Houghton Mifflin dated August 3, 1929, Thompson's reply, dated August 7, 1929, and notes made by NCW for the Illustrator's preface.
The letter dated August 3, 1929, is a detailed response to what seems like criticism from Thompson for making one of the figures in this painting bald. The letter contains a lengthy passage describing Wyeth's reaction to The Odyssey in general, and becomes the basis for his illustrator's preface.
In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" who would keep them all together (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174).
The letter dated August 3, 1929, is a detailed response to what seems like criticism from Thompson for making one of the figures in this painting bald. The letter contains a lengthy passage describing Wyeth's reaction to The Odyssey in general, and becomes the basis for his illustrator's preface.
In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" who would keep them all together (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from artwork