Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Great Spirit of the Cornlands
Alternate Title(s):From the Land of Hiawatha
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1942
Dimensions:
25 × 24 1/4 in. (63.5 × 61.6 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1032
Research Number: NCW: 1032
Inscribedlower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); Renaissance Panel label adhered to reverse, #95(last digit read as "9"--could be "8"?), dated 10/9/1940
ProvenanceMinnesota Valley Canning Company; Green Giant Company; Private collection, MN, to 2003;
Exhibition HistoryChicago, IL, Art Institute of Chicago, "Art Directors Club of Chicago, Exhibition of Advertising Art," March 1 - 31, 1943; New York, NY, 1943(2), illustration in b/w, p. 126
References
ADCC Record of Advertising Art (Chicago: Art Directors Club, 1944), ps. 60 and 61; Barbara L. Wilson, " 'Hiawatha,' Longfellow's Indian Epic," Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, July 23, 1950, p. 36, b/w illus.(detail); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 295; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.167, p. 693
Curatorial RemarksThe Leo Burnet Company, which handled this account for Minnesota Valley Canning, actually sent corn leaves to the artist, so he would know the "width and general contour" of the variety of corn the client wanted shown (letter on American Artists letterhead to Sidney Mendelsohn of American Artists, marked COPY and dated Aug. 12, 1942, Wyeth Family Archives), as well as "Kodachrome transparencies showing fields of corn" (American Artists Company to NCW, August 19, 1942, Wyeth Family Archives). The advertising copy included a stanza from Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha" (see tear sheet, Brandywine River Museum library, 11521a).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Robert Fogt Photography, 5/2004