--A careless, strong willful white man who had lived the Indian life for many years--

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

--A careless, strong willful white man who had lived the Indian life for many years--

Alternate Title(s):The Scout; The Squaw Man
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1908
Dimensions:
34 × 26 in. (86.4 × 66 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.72
Research Number: NCW: 72
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / -08
Provenance(?); Mrs. Boyd Hunt, Tucson, AZ, by 1957; descended in family; (?); Corporate collection, Dallas, TX, by 1985; (Lisa Dawn Schneider, New York, NY, 1991); (?); (Christie's, New York, NY, May 19, 2005, lot no. 121)
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 43, as "The Scout"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 19, as "The Squaw Man"
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 270; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.221, p. 180
Curatorial RemarksIn an advertisement from the early 1930s published by N. W. Ayer & Son, an advertising firm for which Wyeth worked, the painting is shown on exhibition at the Ayer Galleries, part of Ayer's new building on Washington Square, Philadelphia. (N. W. Ayer Advertising Agency Records, 1849-2001, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution).
The painting's inclusion in the Harrisburg, PA, 1965 exhibition is confirmed by installation photographs (library collection, Brandywine River Museum of Art). Also extant, a black and white photograph of the painting stamped on the reverse: E. R. Deats / Fine Arts Photographers/ Paintings, Sculpture, Objects of Art, etc. / 10 S. 18th Str / Philadelphia (Brandywine River Museum of Art, curatorial files, gift of Betsy James Wyeth, from papers formerly belonging to E. Coe Kerr).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Christie's