Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"Oh, Morgan's men are out for you; and Blackbeard--buccaneer!"
Alternate Title(s):Blackbeard; Blackbeard, Buccaneer
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1917
Dimensions:
50 1/4 × 35 1/8 in. (127.6 × 89.2 cm)
Private collection, Delaware
Accession number: SUPP2000.160
Research Number: NCW: 160
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); label on backing board: HIRAM H. HOELZER / RESTORER OF PAINTINGS / 1411 THIRD AVENUE / NEW YORK, NEW YORK
ProvenanceThe artist; purchased by Mr. R. R. M. Carpenter, Dec. 1917 and descended in family; [New York, NY, Christie's, Nov. 20, 2019, lot no. 26]
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1917, no. 163 as "Blackbeard"; Harrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 71, as "Blackbeard, Buccaneer"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 76; Rockland, ME, 1998, no. 79 p. 165, illus. in color p. 79; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 1153
References
Russell, W. Clark, The Wreck of the Grosvenor (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, n.d.), dust-jacket illus. and frontispiece illus., as "They had shipped the mast in the longboat"; Oliver G. Swan, Deep Water Days (Philadelphia: Macrae Smith Pub. Co., 1929), color illus. f. p. 160; Oliver G. Swan, Anchors Aweigh! (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1929), frontispiece illustration; American History Illustrated, vol. II, no.3 (June 1968), color cover; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 277, illustration in b/w, p. 133; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.698, p. 362
Curatorial RemarksOn Dec. 22, 1917, the artist wrote "Dear friend Carpenter, ...I was of course pleased that you bought "The Great Adventure" (which is my private title for "Black Beard.")...I am sending in the same mail the magazine in which your picture appeared together with other smaller sketches. The poem, although conservative, is certainly worth while and caused lots of favorable comment." (Wyeth Family Archives)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Brandywine River Musuem file photo