Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Christmas in Old Virginia
Alternate Title(s):Christmas at Mount Vernon
Medium: Oil on canvas mounted on 1/2" fiberboard
Date: 1927
Dimensions:
53 × 135 1/2 in. (134.6 × 344.2 cm)
Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library, Martinsburg, WV
www.youseemore.com/martinsburgberkeley
Accession number: SUPP2000.51
Research Number: NCW: 51
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceInterwoven Stocking Company (later Martinsburg Mills) to 1970; Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1928, color illustration ps. 56-57; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "A Brandywine Christmas," Nov. 24, 1971- Jan. 2, 1972
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), ps. 147, 288, 294; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.62, p. 658
Curatorial RemarksThis commission is referred to in a letter dated July 29, 1927, "My Mt. Vernon picture made quite a hit with the firm which bought it--so that's done."
A conservation examination in 2001 by Nancy Pollak of Art Care Associates revealed that this image originally had been painted on a stretched canvas. Changes to the design necessitated that the artist enlarge the image on all four sides, which he accomplished by adhering the painted canvas and additional canvas strips to a 1/2 inch thick fiberboard support. It is possible that Wyeth adhered the canvas to a support of Celotex, a corn derived building product he had used in the ceiling of his Chadds Ford dining room.
Presumably to be used by merchants selling their products, cloth banners with this image reproduced on it were distributed by Interwoven. An untrimmed banner measures approximately 21 1/2 x 59 1/2 inches and the image size itself approximately 15 1/2 x 57 3/4 inches (Brandywine River Museum of Art, #39098). Untrimmed banners have metal gromets in all four corners and in the lower right corner: COPYRIGHT BY INTERWOVEN STOCKING COMPANY.
A conservation examination in 2001 by Nancy Pollak of Art Care Associates revealed that this image originally had been painted on a stretched canvas. Changes to the design necessitated that the artist enlarge the image on all four sides, which he accomplished by adhering the painted canvas and additional canvas strips to a 1/2 inch thick fiberboard support. It is possible that Wyeth adhered the canvas to a support of Celotex, a corn derived building product he had used in the ceiling of his Chadds Ford dining room.
Presumably to be used by merchants selling their products, cloth banners with this image reproduced on it were distributed by Interwoven. An untrimmed banner measures approximately 21 1/2 x 59 1/2 inches and the image size itself approximately 15 1/2 x 57 3/4 inches (Brandywine River Museum of Art, #39098). Untrimmed banners have metal gromets in all four corners and in the lower right corner: COPYRIGHT BY INTERWOVEN STOCKING COMPANY.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency from painting
Photo Credit:Harriet Wise Photography ©2002