Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Hupper Farm
Alternate Title(s):Evening, The Hupper Farm, Maine; Marshall Farm
Medium: Oil and probably some tempera on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1938
Dimensions:
24 3/4 × 39 3/4 in. (62.9 × 101 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, gift of C.R. Smith
Accession number: SUPP2000.424
Research Number: NCW: 424
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); on reverse of panel, Renaissance Panel label of F. Weber Company, no. 646, prepared 3/18/38, with THE HUPPER FARM - MAINE written along edge in ink; scratched into surface of reverse of panel: Marshall Farm; inscribed on reverse of panel in various places: S2846 / # 8 / 4 3/4 - X532 - N (circled) / 51 50 / 3084 (circled)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. NCW (with Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, # S2846 to at least 1957); (Grand Central Galleries, New York, NY); C. R. Smith, to 1960
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1939, no. 5, as "Marshall Farm"; New York, NY, 1940(2), no. 147, as "Marshall Farm"; New York, NY, 1957, no. 30 as "Evening, the Hupper Farm, Maine"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1982, no. 18, illustration in b/w p. 57, as "The Hupper Farm"; Portland, ME, 2000, no numbers, p. 59; Chadds Ford, PA, 2003
References
Royal Cortissoz, "N. C. Wyeth," New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 10, 1939, 6: p. 9, as "the shadowy Marshall Farm"; N. C. Wyeth, Income Tax Notes for 1939 (unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives), as "Marshall Farm"; Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950, " unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 97, as "The Hupper Farm"; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), illustrated in color p. 181; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.210, p. 770
Curatorial RemarksDuring the artist's life time, this painting was referred to only as "The Marshall Farm" (Robert W. Macbeth to NCW, dated Jan. 9, 1940 and March 2, 1940, Wyeth Family Archives). It first appears as "The Hupper Farm" in the 1950 inventory of Wyeth's studio. Both Ann Wyeth McCoy and Andrew Wyeth agreed that "The Marshall Farm" and "The Hupper Farm" are the same painting, although neither can account for why N. C. Wyeth called the painting "The Marshall Farm." The view is of property that had been owned by the Hupper family since the 1890s.
On March 13, 1940, the painting was reviewed by the membership committee of the National Academy, and was exhibited there shortly after Wyeth was accepted as an associate member. Wyeth wrote to his daughter Henriette, "As a newly elected member of the N.A., my modest little panel of the Marshall Farm has made quite a hit (NCW to Henriette Wyeth Hurd, April 3, 1940, Wyeth Family Archives). Robert Macbeth confirmed that statement in a letter to Wyeth dated April 11, 1940: "I had an interesting comment from Andrew Winter the other day about your picture as it came before the Academy Jury during the elections. It seems that a lot of very poor stuff was presented, and yours was the last one to be put on the easel. As a token of the appreciation that the artists felt for something good, they broke into applause when yours was exhibited, --the only one, as I understand it, that received an ovation" (Wyeth Family Archives).
Although no analysis has been done of the paint surface, this work has long been catalogued as a tempera painting and certain effects characteristic of the medium were detected by Joyce Hill Stoner during a visual examination in 2003. Yet other facts and archival material strongly suggest that the painting was executed primarily in oil. Letters make it clear Wyeth painted his first major temperas in the late summer of 1939 (especially, NCW to Peter Hurd, dated by NCW Oct. 30 and by context 1939, Wyeth Family Archives). Andrew Wyeth, who worked in watercolor ("Evening Star") while his father painted this picture in 1938, recalled his father using oil medium (AW to CBP, 1/2007). Tempera on the panel may be the result of later additions by the artist, done in the studio, probably in preparation for the Macbeth Gallery exhibition in December 1939.
On March 13, 1940, the painting was reviewed by the membership committee of the National Academy, and was exhibited there shortly after Wyeth was accepted as an associate member. Wyeth wrote to his daughter Henriette, "As a newly elected member of the N.A., my modest little panel of the Marshall Farm has made quite a hit (NCW to Henriette Wyeth Hurd, April 3, 1940, Wyeth Family Archives). Robert Macbeth confirmed that statement in a letter to Wyeth dated April 11, 1940: "I had an interesting comment from Andrew Winter the other day about your picture as it came before the Academy Jury during the elections. It seems that a lot of very poor stuff was presented, and yours was the last one to be put on the easel. As a token of the appreciation that the artists felt for something good, they broke into applause when yours was exhibited, --the only one, as I understand it, that received an ovation" (Wyeth Family Archives).
Although no analysis has been done of the paint surface, this work has long been catalogued as a tempera painting and certain effects characteristic of the medium were detected by Joyce Hill Stoner during a visual examination in 2003. Yet other facts and archival material strongly suggest that the painting was executed primarily in oil. Letters make it clear Wyeth painted his first major temperas in the late summer of 1939 (especially, NCW to Peter Hurd, dated by NCW Oct. 30 and by context 1939, Wyeth Family Archives). Andrew Wyeth, who worked in watercolor ("Evening Star") while his father painted this picture in 1938, recalled his father using oil medium (AW to CBP, 1/2007). Tempera on the panel may be the result of later additions by the artist, done in the studio, probably in preparation for the Macbeth Gallery exhibition in December 1939.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 7/2003