Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
I hereby pronounce yuh man and wife!
Alternate Title(s):A Brief Western Wedding Ceremony; The Wagon Race; Wagon Race
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1907
Dimensions:
38 1/8 × 25 in. (96.8 × 63.5 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.108
Research Number: NCW: 108
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / -07; on stretcher, (Knoedler's label): No. 54799
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (and with Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, 1956-1968, # 54799), to 1972; Private collection, Greenwich, CT, 1972 - ca. 1995; (Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE, 1995 - 1997)
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1908(2), as "A Brief Western Wedding Ceremony"; New York, NY, 1957, no. 8 as "The Wagon Race"; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 7; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 35 as "Wagon Race"; New York, NY, 1995, no. 22, illustrated in exhibition brochure in color, no numbers; Greenville, DE, 1995, illustrated in exhibition brochure in color on cover; Chadds Ford, PA, 2002(2)
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 266, illustration in color p. 37; Amy Janello and Brennon Jones, The American Magazine (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), illustration in color p. 181; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.181, p. 164
Curatorial RemarksThe artist's correspondence makes it clear that he began work on these pictures in early January, 1907, but by the end of the month he wrote, "The pictures ... are a great disappointment to me, secondly the story is so confounded strong that it makes my efforts appear terribly weak (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "This Friday ends a week...," and dated in another hand Jan. 25, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives). He delivered them to McClure's on Feb. 1 (NCW to HZW, "I am now on the way to NY..." and dated in another hand Feb. 1, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives), and there is no subsequent explanation of why the story and pictures weren't published until May, 1908. In a review of the 1908 exhibition, published in an unidentified newspaper, a critic wrote that the painting was "splendidly drawn and conceived, but that Wyeth had made a mistake in letting the spokes of the wheels stand out so strong."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 9/2002