Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Brandywine Meadows
Alternate Title(s):Landscape Study
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1918
Dimensions:
42 1/4 × 48 in. (107.3 × 121.9 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1364
Research Number: NCW: 1364
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceThe artist; Wyeth family
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1919, no. 42, as "Brandywine Meadows" (won $100 Copeland Prize for best picture); Philadelphia, PA, 1919, no. 74, as "Brandywine Meadows"
References
(Wilmington, DE) Sunday Star, "Mr. N. C. Wyeth," Feb. 2, 1919, p. 22; "War Paintings in City Art Exhibit / N. C. Wyeth's "Brandywine Meadows" Wins $100 Prize as Best Picture," (Wilmington, DE) Evening Journal, Feb. 4, 1919, p. 11; "Fine Arts Exhibit Attracts Especial Interest This Year," (Wilmington, DE) Morning News, Feb. 5, 1919, p. 12; "Much Interest in City Art Exhibit, " (Wilmington, DE) Evening Journal, Feb. 6, 1919, p. 14; N. C. Wyeth, "For Better Illustration," Scribner's Magazine, vol. LXVI, no. 5 (Nov. 1919), illustration in b/w p. 640, as "Landscape Study"; "Familiar Hillside Admired in Art...," (West Chester, PA) Daily Local News, Jan. 1, 1920, p. 6; Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 75; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.128, p. 740
Curatorial RemarksThe importance of this landscape to Wyeth's sense of his own artistic development is evidenced by the artist's decision to exhibit the painting twice in one year and include a reproduction of it in an article he wrote that was published in Scribner's Magazine. The caption in Scribner's reads "Painted out of doors," most likely during fall 1918. The scene is one that Wyeth painted at least several times (see NCW 1210 and NCW 1660), the "hillside along the Wilmington and Northern Railroad just below Brinton's Bridge and overlooking the Brandywine." ("Familiar Hillside Admired in Art," (West Chester, PA) Daily Local News, Jan. 1, 1920). The property was owned by the Forsythe family. According to Andrew Wyeth, the illustrator Zack Hogg stayed in the cabin depicted on the left of the scene while he lived in Chadds Ford in the mid-1920s.
The Brandywine River Museum holds an archival photograph of the painting, stamped on the reverse: THE ROYAL STUDIO / COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS / WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
The Brandywine River Museum holds an archival photograph of the painting, stamped on the reverse: THE ROYAL STUDIO / COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS / WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Jim Schneck, 12/2003