Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"We must be in the dungeons," Dick remarked
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1916
Dimensions:
40 3/8 × 32 1/4 in. (102.6 × 81.9 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1381
Research Number: NCW: 1381
InscribedUpper right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); lower left: © C.S.S.; label affixed to stretcher: FROM / SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE / FIFTH AVENUE AT 48TH STREET, NEW YORK; label affixed to stretcher: PUBLICATION RIGHTS ARE NOT INCULDED WITH / THE SALE OF THIS PAINTING. / WYETH, N. C. #B11133 / "WE MUST BE IN THE DUNGEON" DICK REMARKED. / THE BLACK ARROW PAGE 128 (written in pencil faintly, "$200.");
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY; Mrs. T. Whitney Blake, New Haven, CT; Mr. and Mrs. Sherman R. Hoyt, Katonah, NY, to ca. 1940; Mr. and Mrs. Albert Turner; Robert and Rosemary Turner Collection; (Phillips, New York, NY, Jan. 20, 1998, lot no. 281); (American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY, 1998); Private collection, 1998-2018; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, May 23, 2018, lot no. );
Exhibition HistoryRockland, ME, 1998, no. 76 p. 165, illustration in color p. 76
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 219, illustration in b/w p. 89; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.612, p. 325
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum holds the unillustrated 1915 Scribner's edition of The Black Arrow which the artist read to prepare for this commission, with notes on the endsheets and markings throughout (NCWS.95.163). The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth collection includes a composition drawing for the image (NCW 1382).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to ANW, 2/26/1916, WFA). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to ANW, 2/26/1916, WFA). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of the Delaware Art Museum