Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Last of the Mohicans, title page illustration (view of Fort William Henry)
Alternate Title(s):Fort Ticonderoga
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1919
Dimensions:
13 3/4 × 18 1/2 in. (34.9 × 47 cm)
Courtesy of the Biggs Museum of American Art
Accession number: SUPP2000.1298
Research Number: NCW: 1298
InscribedAdhered to left stretcher, remains of partial Scribner's label, in two pieces, with number 14982 (number corresponds to card in Scribner's file)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth to at least 1950; possibly private collection, New York, NY; (Wilhelmina Hagner, Wilmington, DE); Mr. Sewell C. Biggs, Wilmington, DE, ca. 1970
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, Delaware Art Museum, "Selections from the Sewell C. Biggs Collection of Painting," March 1 - April 17, 1983, no. 46, as "Fort Ticonderoga"; Cooperstown, NY, New York State Historical Association (Fenimore Art Museum), "Hallowed Ground and Holy Water: Lake George in American Art," April 16 - Dec. 31, 1999; Chadds Ford, PA, 2005; Annville, PA, Lebanon Valley College, Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery, "N. C. Wyeth: Storyteller," Aug. 28 - Oct. 11, 2009
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950, " unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 65; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 201; William H. Gerdts and Roxanne M. Stanulis, The Sewell C. Biggs Collection of American Art, A Catalogue, Vol. II, Paintings and Sculpture (Dover, DE: Biggs Museum of American Art, 2002), ps. 412-413; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.748, p. 382
Curatorial RemarksIn February 1919 Wyeth visited the site of Fort William Henry, "clamber(ing) over the remaining banks and ditches which formed the foundations of that valiant embattlement...." (NCW to Carolyn Bockius Wyeth, Feb. 22, 1919, Wyeth Family Archives). Cooper's text included no detailed description of the fort, and Wyeth's view was based solely on his research. His conception does prefigure the modern reconstruction that now stands on the site.
The painting was originally conceived in vertical format, similiar to the other Mohican illustrations. Scribner's Archives, Princeton University Library, holds a sketch (on paper measuring 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in., NCW 2123) that shows the appearance of the original title page composition before this painting was cut to its present horizontal format. In preparation for the commission, the artist read and marked an edition published by A. L. Burt (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.4334).
The painting was originally conceived in vertical format, similiar to the other Mohican illustrations. Scribner's Archives, Princeton University Library, holds a sketch (on paper measuring 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 in., NCW 2123) that shows the appearance of the original title page composition before this painting was cut to its present horizontal format. In preparation for the commission, the artist read and marked an edition published by A. L. Burt (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.4334).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Carson Zullinger, (c) Biggs Museum