Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Captain George Waymouth on the Georges River
Alternate Title(s):Captain Waymouth in the Mouth of the George River
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1937
Dimensions:
32 × 24 1/2 in. (81.3 × 62.2 cm)
The Matthew and Ellen Simmons Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.979
Research Number: NCW: 979
InscribedLower left, scratched into paint: N. C. WYETH; Renaissance Panel label adhered to reverse, no. 585, dated 9/24/1937
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Depositors Corporation, Augusta, ME, 1971; (Judy & Alan Goffman Fine Art, New York, NY, by 1981); Private collection, New York, NY, 1984; (Christie's, New York, NY, May 19, 2005, lot no. 189); The Matthew and Ellen Simmons Collection
Exhibition HistoryPortland, ME, 1938; New York, NY, 1957, no. 102, as "Captain Waymouth in the Mouth of the George River"; Lubbock, TX, 1959, no. 33; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 67; Lewiston, ME, 1973; Rockland, ME, 1982, ps. 6, 9, b/w illustration, p. 7
References
"The Romance That Is Maine's," The Boston Herald, June 19, 1938, Rotogravure Section, unpaginated; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 216; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1221, p. 554
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter to A. R. McIntyre of Little, Brown & Company dated March 23, 1936, Wyeth proposed "The Discoverers of the Maine Coast, Capt. Waymouth's ship Archangel sailing the Labyrinths of the Georges Islands" as one of the illustrations for Trending into Maine, a list he made before Roberts had conceptualized the text. (Kenneth Roberts Papers, Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library). On Sept. 21, 1937, while working on this painting, Wyeth wrote to Roberts: "I have of course, gone up and down the Georges, between the islands and Thomaston, many times. Recently I rowed up the west branch above Thomaston as far as I could go which is but a few miles--just a narrow stream with plenty of quick water. Waymouth could not possibly [have] taken his ship further in than Thomaston so I am showing her at anchor in the channel there, with Waymouth and nine other men in a ships small boat making their way further up the stream. It is logical to think that the "Archangel" sailed up the Georges before a gentle following wind out of the southwest, and probably on a coming tide, near full." (Kenneth Roberts Papers, Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library)
;The Brandywine River Museum holds the composition drawing (NCW 2078, 96.1.519) for this work, and a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.133) made from the drawing and used to transfer the image from paper to panel.
;The Brandywine River Museum holds the composition drawing (NCW 2078, 96.1.519) for this work, and a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.133) made from the drawing and used to transfer the image from paper to panel.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Avigail Schimmel, 7/2001