Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Black Arrow, endpaper illustration
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1916
Dimensions:
26 1/2 × 40 in. (67.3 × 101.6 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.487
Research Number: NCW: 487
InscribedUpper right: (indistinctly) N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, to Jan. 1926; Cleveland Public Library, 1926 - ?; (?); (Sotheby's, New York, NY, May 31, 1984, lot no. 210; (?); (Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc., New York, NY, 1990); Collection of John Edward Dell, to 1995; (Wyeth Hurd Gallery, Santa Fe, NM); (Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE, 1999); (Hammer Galleries, New York, NY, 2002); Sam Wyly, Dallas TX; [Dallas, TX, Dallas Auction Gallery, Oct. 5, 2016, lot no. 49)
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 219; John Edward Dell, ed., Visions of Adventure, N. C. Wyeth and the Brandywine Artists (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000), illustration in color ps. 33-34; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.604, p. 320; Diego Cordoba, "N. C. Wyeth," in Illustrators Magazine (London: The Book Place), Autumn 2018, issue 23, illus. p. 22-23
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum holds the unillustrated 1915 Scribner's edition of The Black Arrow which the artist read to prepare for this commission, with notes on the endsheets and markings throughout (NCWS.95.163).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to ANW, 2/26/1916, WFA). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to ANW, 2/26/1916, WFA). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:photography directly from painting