Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
title unknown (World War I scene)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1918
Dimensions:
40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
Collection of Joel and Suzanne Sugg
Accession number: SUPP2000.291
Research Number: NCW: 291
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined twice) / © PUBLISHING RIGHTS RESERVED / (N. C. WYETH); written on reverse: Ben Carpenter
ProvenanceThe artist; Benjamin Gardner Carpenter II and Harriet (Price) Carpenter, Chadds Ford, PA; and descended in family to 1996; Collection of Chris and Marianne Foard; (Schoonover Studios, Ltd., Wilmington, DE, 1997)
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1976(2); Lubbock, TX, 1999; Rockland, ME, 2000, color illustration, fig. 31
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 287, p. 293; Walter Rawls, Wake Up, America! World War I and The American Poster (New York: Abbeville Press, 1988), p. 161; Colonel Raymond K. Bluhm, Jr., ed., U.S. Army A Complete History (Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 2004), illustration in color, p. 572; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.741, p. 379
Curatorial RemarksDouglas Allen catalogued this image as a poster for the American Red Cross, possibly because of the prominence of the Red Cross arm band on the soldier. No record of its use exists at the headquarters of the National American Red Cross, but it may have been commissioned by a local chapter. In style and subject matter it is similar to NCW 1399, reproduced in the Jan. 1919 issue of Red Cross Magazine. The article is illustrated with one painting and several photographs; perhaps this image was originally intended for the article but not used. The copyright notation suggests that the artist may have given the painting away before the image was reproduced, thus retaining the right of reproduction at a later date.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from image
Photo Credit:Courtesy of the Farnsworth Art Museum