Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Popular Magazine, cover illustration
Alternate Title(s):A Hindu Mystic; Seated Arab
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1912
Dimensions:
48 × 34 1/4 in. (121.9 × 87 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1405
Research Number: NCW: 1405
InscribedLower right: Pearson Barnes.
ProvenanceStreet & Smith, New York, NY, 1912-1961; Conde Nast Publications, Inc., New York, NY, 1962-1964; (Graham Gallery, New York, NY, 1964-1971, as "Seated Arab"); Private collection, New York, NY, 1971-2004; (Christie's, New York, NY, Dec. 2, 2004, lot no. 126)
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1964, no. 18, as "Seated Arab"; Greenville, SC, 1974, no 76, illus. b/w p. 12, as "A Hindu Mystic"; San Mateo, CA, La Galeria, "Wyeth / N. C. Andrew James," May 1 - June 16, 1977;
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 269; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.449, p. 264
Curatorial RemarksThe name Pierson Barnes occurs in the 1900 and 1920 census of Birmingham Township. (United States Census, Delaware County, Birmingham Township, Courtesy of Susan Hauser). Barnes's presence in Chadds Ford about 1910/1911 is documented in a letter NCW wrote describing "a half hour's visit with Pearson (sic) Barnes" (Wyeth Family Archives, Sept. 5, 1910) and in several letters written by the historian Chris Sanderson to his mother (Thomas R. Thompson, Chris (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1973), ps. 180 and 182). Barnes worked as a day laborer and boarded with Lydia Archie, a black preacher who established a church in the section of Chadds Ford called "Little Africa." According to Andrew Wyeth, N. C. Wyeth "borrowed" Barnes's name as a joke when he encountered a rule at Popular Magazine that an artist was not allowed two consecutive covers.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Christie's