The White Company, cover illustration

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

The White Company, cover illustration

Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1922
Dimensions:
42 × 29 3/4 in. (106.7 × 75.6 cm)
Collection of the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI
Accession number: SUPP2000.261
Research Number: NCW: 261
InscribedLower right: TO EDWARD WARWICK / FROM WYETH
ProvenanceThe artist; Edward Warwick, ca. 1929, and descended in family; (Illustration House, New York, Nov. 6, 1999, lot no. 109)
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1976(1); Chadds Ford, PA, 1985
References "Greatest Painter of 'Costumed Romance' Once Cowboy...," (Boston, MA) Sunday Herald, Nov. 12, 1922, detail illus. b/w p. 8 section E; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 204; John Edward Dell, ed., Visions of Adventure, N. C. Wyeth and the Brandywine Artists (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000), illus in color p. 37; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.912, p. 440
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter to Sidney M. Chase dated Aug. 3, 1922, Wyeth wrote, "The reading of the Chronicles of Froissart (all of them) was a very bright spot in the preparation of The White Company" (Wyeth Family Archives). There are two copies of The Chronicles in Wyeth's library, an edition illustrated by Alfred Knapp. (NCWS.95.3424 and .4319, Brandywine River Museum). All images for The White Company were copyrighted by the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation.
The giftee (1881-1973) was a Philadelphia painter, engraver, and educator who had ties, like Wyeth, to the Philadelphia Art Alliance and the Philadelphia Sketch Club.
"For years we had on our reading list Conan Doyle's White Company, but the only copy in the library was a small, drab-colored book with fine print and no pictures. This past year we have had a copy of the lovely new edition illustrated by N. C. Wyeth, a rather large book with good-sized print and beautiful pictures." From Ruth Teuscher, "Illustrated Books for Boys and Girls," The English Journal, vol. XVI, no. 8 (Oct. 1927), p. 606.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Peter Ralston, www.pralston.com