Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Self-portrait in Skating Cap
Alternate Title(s):Self-portrait in Stocking Cap; Self-Portrait, 1918
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1918
Dimensions:
32 × 40 1/8 in. (81.3 × 101.9 cm)
The Wyeth Foundation, Chadds Ford, PA
Accession number: EL5-2007.1
Research Number: NCW: 136
InscribedPrinted label adhered to back of frame: REG. NO. 69 (written in crayon) CASE NO. 31-6 (written in crayon) / SURVEY OF AMERICAN PAINTING / OCTOBER 24 - DECEMBER 15 1940 / CARNEGIE INSTITUTE PITTSBURGH (note that NCW did not participate in this exhibition; rabbet size is similar to Andrew Wyeth's "Wood Chopper" which was exhibited in the frame); two labels adhered to stretcher: NO. 1926 / FRAME and NO. 1626 / PICTURE; carved into top frame member: F. COLL Wilm Del
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth to ca. 1960; Ann Wyeth McCoy; Anna Brelsford McCoy; Point Lookout Farmlife and Water Preserve Foundation to 2012;
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1919, no. 89 as "Self Portrait"; Brookings, SD, 1973, no. 26, illus. in b/w, as "Self-Portrait in Stocking Cap"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1997, no numbers
References
(Wilmington, DE) Sunday Star, Feb. 2, 1919, illus. p. 22; The Delmarva Sunday Star, Feb. 9, 1919, section 2, p. 1; Muriel Caswall, "King of the Pirates, Armed to the Teeth, Discovered in Needham," Boston Sunday Post, Nov. 27, 1921, b/w illus. p. F.1; Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950, " unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 93; Henry C. Pitz, "N. C. Wyeth," American Heritage, vol. XVI, no. 6 (Oct. 1965), illus. p. 37; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), ps. 579-580, illus. in color after p. 576; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 250 and illus. b/w p. 251, as "Self-Portrait, 1918"; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), P.19, p. 806
Curatorial RemarksThis is probably the self-portrait to which N. C. Wyeth referred in a letter to his mother dated Feb. 22, 1918: "Back of me, on my easel stands a self-portrait which...is the most virile and alive study I have seen in years....(it) indicates a decidedly stronger grip on the fundamentals of realistic painting and shows me conclusively that I have been growing steadily in the power to see things truthfully and with life..." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., ps. 579-580)
The artist's daughter Ann McCoy recalled that her father's self portraits were always done with mirrors, never photographs.The impetus for this portrait was the discovery of a boyhood cap knitted by his grandmother, which the artist found years later in a trunk. It is likely that the same cap appears in NCW 2035, a boyhood drawing.
The artist's daughter Ann McCoy recalled that her father's self portraits were always done with mirrors, never photographs.The impetus for this portrait was the discovery of a boyhood cap knitted by his grandmother, which the artist found years later in a trunk. It is likely that the same cap appears in NCW 2035, a boyhood drawing.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 1997