Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Fisherman's Family
Alternate Title(s):Maine Fisherman's Family; John Teel and Family
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1933 / 1934
Dimensions:
60 × 71 3/4 in. (152.4 × 182.2 cm)
The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.898
Research Number: NCW: 898
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH
Provenancedescended in the Wyeth family
Exhibition HistoryPossibly West Chester, PA, 1934, no. 52, as "John Teel and Family"; Philadelphia, PA, 1935(2); Chadds Ford, PA, 1995, no. 21, color illustration p. 44; Rockland, ME, 2001; Rockland, ME, Farnsworth Art Museum, "N. C. Wyeth: Painter," May 21-Dec. 31, 2016; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 179
References
"Wyeths Hold One-Family Exhibition," Philadelphia Record, March 31, 1935, 4: p. 6; C. H. Bonte, "That Gifted Wyeth Family Exhibiting at the Alliance," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 1935, p. SO 9; Richard Layton , "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 79; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), P.43, p. 820; Sebastian Smee, "At water's edge, moods swirl in N. C. Wyeth's 'Fisherman's Family,'" Boston Globe, Aug. 1, 2016; Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N. C. Wyeth, American Regionalist" in Rural Modern, American Art Beyond the City (NY: Rizzoli, 2016), p. 164, 166, illus. in color, p. 165;
Curatorial RemarksWyeth depicted fisherman John Teel, his wife, and his granddaughter in three paintings done between 1933-34 and 1940. This oil on canvas version was exhibited in Philadelphia in the spring of 1935 and probably the year before at the Chester County Art Association. An archival photograph (Brandywine River Museum library # 3261) showing the design drawn in charcoal on the canvas (prior to the application of color) links the composition to NCW 1094. In the charcoal drawing the artist eliminated the foreground of NCW 1094 to focus on the figures, but the drawing still retains the figure of the boy shown in NCW 1094. Ultimately Wyeth decided to remove the boy in his final treatment of NCW 898, but pentimenti prove the close relationship between the two paintings.
The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.256) of the framed painting, and six archival photographs. Three of those photographs are inscribed in the artist's hand on the reverse with various titles: Dark Harbor Fisherman, John Teel and Family, and Maine Fisherman's Family. These photographs show the original frame, a simple black molding of ovalo-fillet-cove profile, approximately 3 3/4-4 inches wide.
This painting or NCW 1094 is mentioned in the diary of Mary Edith Hinshaw, who visited the N. C. Wyeth studio in the summer of 1934 (unpublished but excerpted in "The Window," publication of W. H. Morning, Jr. Arts Center, Asheboro, NC, Fall 1997, vol. 1, issue 4.)
The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.256) of the framed painting, and six archival photographs. Three of those photographs are inscribed in the artist's hand on the reverse with various titles: Dark Harbor Fisherman, John Teel and Family, and Maine Fisherman's Family. These photographs show the original frame, a simple black molding of ovalo-fillet-cove profile, approximately 3 3/4-4 inches wide.
This painting or NCW 1094 is mentioned in the diary of Mary Edith Hinshaw, who visited the N. C. Wyeth studio in the summer of 1934 (unpublished but excerpted in "The Window," publication of W. H. Morning, Jr. Arts Center, Asheboro, NC, Fall 1997, vol. 1, issue 4.)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. design drawn in charcoal on canvas, prior to application of paint, showing additional figure of boy at the lower left which the artist ultimately chose to leave out of the completed painting (archival photograph, Brandywine River Museum library).