Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The War Clouds
Alternate Title(s):The Prophecy of the War Cloud
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1908
Dimensions:
38 × 25 1/2 in. (96.5 × 64.8 cm)
Private collection, MA
Accession number: SUPP2000.850
Research Number: NCW: 850
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 08
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY; Richard T. Shelton, St. Louis, MO, 1909 - 1952; St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, MO, 1952 - 1982; Douglas Allen, Jr., 1982 - 1985; (J. N. Bartfield Galleries, New York, NY); Association Administrators and Consultants, Inc., CA, 1985 - 1992; (J. N. Bartfield Galleries, New York, NY, 1992); Private collection
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Art of the American West from a Private Collection," Sept. 5 - Nov. 23, 2003;
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 284, as "The Prophecy of the War Cloud"; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 275, illustration in b/w, p. 55; Alexander Nemerov, "N. C. Wyeth's Theater of Illustration," American Art Magazine, vol. 6, no. 2 (Spring 1992), illustration in b/w, p. 52; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.263, p. 193; Anson M. Beard, Jr., A Life in Full Sail (Cambridge, MA: Tide Pool, Ltd., 2012), p. 375;
Curatorial RemarksOn Dec. 5th, 1908, the artist wrote to his mother, "I put in a good round day in the studio and to-morrow I hope to finish the picture. "The Prophecy of the War Cloud" is its title and I believe it will prove to be one of my most practical pictures" (Wyeth, ed., p. 284). NCW 91 is a signed charcoal composition drawing dated 1905, but more likely executed in 1904.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Carson Zullinger, 11/2003