Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Admiral's Ghost
Alternate Title(s):The Ghost of Admiral Nelson
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1940
Dimensions:
30 × 20 1/2 in. (76.2 × 52.1 cm)
The Free Library of Philadelphia, Childrens Literature Research Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.391
Research Number: NCW: 391
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); On reverse, Renaissance panel label, #889, dated 3/26/(19)40; painted on reverse of panel: THE ADMIRALS GHOST / P. 781
ProvenanceThe artist; anonymous donor to present collection, 1941
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 83
References
Letter NC W to Lovell Thompson of Houghton Mifflin Co., May 17, 1940, Houghton Mifflin Archives, Houghton Library, Harvard University; N. C. Wyeth, Income tax notes for 1940 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum library); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 208; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1289, p. 580, 581
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum holds an earlier, unillustrated edition of this book that the artist used to plan his pictures (NCWS.95.595) and a lantern slide of the composition drawing in charcoal (NCWS.95.1825.321). The painting illustrates "The Admiral's Ghost," by Alfred Noyes. In his income tax notes for 1940, the artist listed as some of his resources for this picture "photos of gulls ($2.00)" and "prints of Nelson ($4.50)."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Joseph Painter, 12/2003; Conservation work by Franklin Shores