Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Troops by the hundred were passing--tattered, war-hardened, lean, efficient troops, whose road-pace was eagerness itself.
Alternate Title(s):Troops by the Hundred Passing; Troops by the Hundred Were Passing; Troops by the Hundreds Were Passing
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1912
Dimensions:
25 1/16 × 34 1/8 in. (63.7 × 86.7 cm)
Collection of the Christian C. Sanderson Museum, Chadds Ford, PA
Accession number: SUPP2000.146
Research Number: NCW: 146
InscribedLower right: TO / MRS. SANDERSON / from N. C. WYETH (underlined) / May 1913; upper left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) ; on reverse, label adhered to canvas: Property of: Everybody's / June 11 / June 15 / Sally Castleton / 11" wide cut in middle (with further layout instructions); 3 labels adhered to stretcher, 1: 1972 BRM label; 2: 35 (refers to Harrisburg exhibition); 3: remains of unidentified exhibition label; written along stretcher at right: PRIVATE
ProvenanceThe artist; Hannah Sanderson, 1913-1943; Christian C. Sanderson, Chadds Ford, PA, 1943-1966
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 35, as "Troops by the Hundred Were Passing"; Wilmington, DE, 1966, no. 11, as "Troops by the Hundred Passing"; Wilmington, DE, 1968, no. 20; Philadelphia, PA, 1966, no. 11; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 119, as "Troops by the Hundreds Were Passing"; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Romance in Conflict, N. C. Wyeth's Civil War Paintings," Jan. 22-March 20, 2011
References
Civil War Times, (July 1969), cover illustration in color; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 412; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 258; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.432, p. 257
Curatorial RemarksMost of the pictures for this commission were probably complete by May 11, 1912, when Wyeth wrote to his mother (WFA) that he had just shipped off the products of "10 days hard labor...pictures of war, of soldiers and guns, and men with hard strife-worn faces!"
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 3/2004