Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Parting
For we both knew without a word said that we had come to where our ways parted
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1913
Dimensions:
40 1/8 × 32 1/8 in. (101.9 × 81.6 cm)
Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Accession number: SUPP2000.277
Research Number: NCW: 277
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / © (additional wording obviously painted out)
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY; Russell G. Colt, New York, NY; Mr. Brian R. Gray, by 1965; Private collection, London, England, to 1973; (Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY, 1973)
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 102; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(1)
References
Roger Cooper, "Famous Artist Praises Stevenson," The Spotlight, March 13, 1931, ps. 1and 4; Reader's Digest Best Loved Books for Young Readers, illustrated vol. 7, p. 136 (Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Association, 1968); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 219; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 225; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.478, p. 278
Curatorial RemarksNotes and insertions found in Wyeth's copy of "Bonnie Scotland Painted by Sutton Palmer" by A. R. Hope Moncrieff (A. & C. Black, 1912), suggest that the artist used this book (NCWS.95.608) as a visual resource for the Kidnapped paintings.
"Former President Roosevelt highly prized Wyeth's interpretation of the parting of David Balfour and Alan Breck in "Kidnapped." He owned the original" (from Cooper, above). Despite the interviewer's statement, no archival material at Roosevelt's home Sagamore Hill supports this assertion. It is possible that Roosevelt borrowed the painting from Scribner's.
"Former President Roosevelt highly prized Wyeth's interpretation of the parting of David Balfour and Alan Breck in "Kidnapped." He owned the original" (from Cooper, above). Despite the interviewer's statement, no archival material at Roosevelt's home Sagamore Hill supports this assertion. It is possible that Roosevelt borrowed the painting from Scribner's.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA