Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Moose Call
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1904
Dimensions:
27 × 19 1/16 in. (68.6 × 48.4 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.852
Research Number: NCW: 852
InscribedLower right: N. C. Wyeth / '04; on reverse of canvas in blue: W
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, 1904-1906; Mr. Herbert Lawton, New York, NY, 1906-?; Private collection, NY, ?-1993; (Illustration House, New York, NY, May 7, 1994, lot no. 50); Collection of John Edward Dell; (Wyeth Hurd Gallery, Santa Fe, NM); (Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE); Private collection, Chadds Ford, PA; (Christie's, New York, NY, May 24, 2007, lot no. 83);
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 2002(2)
References
____, "Wilmington's Colony of Artists, No. 12, N. C. Wyeth," Wilmington Sunday Star, January 23, 1910, p. 11; William C. Weber, ed., Joseph Hawley Chapin, 1869-1939, Artist, Art Director, Friend (New York: Scribner's Press, 1939), see essay by N. C. Wyeth, unpaginated; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 81; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), ps. 274, 285, illustration in b/w p. 58; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), illustration in b/w p. 105; John Edward Dell, ed., Visions of Adventure, N. C. Wyeth and the Brandywine Artists, (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000), detail in color p. 59 and illustration in color p. 62; Erin R. Corrales-Diaz, "The Indian In His Solitude, N. C. Wyeth's Images of Native Americans," Nineteenth Century, Magazine of the Victorian Society in America, vol. 28, no. 2 (Fall 2008), ps. 8 and 10; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.40, p. 114; Andrew Jewell and Janis Stout, eds., The Selected Letters of Willa Cather (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013);
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter dated April 16, 1904, Wyeth wrote, "I passed in a composition entitled "The Moose Call." One Indian on a lake in the moonlight calling a moose. Mr. Pyle liked it exceedingly and strongly advised me to remain and while in the spirit of it to finish it right up and take it on to New York where he feels sure I will sell it and that I can surely obtain work by it....It's no doubt the best thing I ever did. That is, the most complete and professional" (NCW to Henriette Z. Wyeth, dated in another hand April 16, 1904, Wyeth Family Archives; excerpt reproduced in Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 81). In a tribute to Scribner's art editor Joseph H. Chapin published in 1939, Wyeth remembered selling the painting to Scribner's in 1904.;Scribner's issued prints of this image in several forms; (1) Gray-green tint over-all, image area 14 1/2 x 10 in. (36.8x 25.5 cm), signature on original painting visible in lower right: N. C. WYETH / 04; along bottom of image: COPYRIGHT 1906 CHARLES SCRIBNERS' SONS THE MOOSE CALL (Brandywine River Museum library, Wyeth scrapbook E); (2) gray tones with red and yellow added, image area 14 1/8 x 9 15/16 in. (35.7 x 25.3 cm), signature on original painting visible in lower right: N. C. WYETH; along bottom of image: COPYRIGHT 1906 CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS THE MOOSE CALL. According to a record at Princeton University Library (Scribner's Archives), this print went through seven editions between Oct. 1906 and August, 1919, a total of approximately 8,000 copies. Because Scribner's owned the painting and the copyright, the artist received no royalties on the sale of this print.
In an article in the Wilmington (Delaware) Sunday Star (Jan. 23, 1910), Wyeth recalled this as the first picture that he sold.While he misremembered the date of its publication, he noted "it has been widely sold as prints....it has even been the victim of the so-called colorists, who have done the artist much injustices by their gaudy coloring in vivid red and yellow. The Moose Call has been hung in the Congressional library, at Washington, in the Collection of Representative American Illustrators."
In a 1908 letter, written in Boston to her brother Roscoe, the author Willa Cather noted, "I can get you stunning pictures here very cheaply," listing among those she purchased for him 'Calling the Moose' by N. C. Wyeth, for $1.75.
In an article in the Wilmington (Delaware) Sunday Star (Jan. 23, 1910), Wyeth recalled this as the first picture that he sold.While he misremembered the date of its publication, he noted "it has been widely sold as prints....it has even been the victim of the so-called colorists, who have done the artist much injustices by their gaudy coloring in vivid red and yellow. The Moose Call has been hung in the Congressional library, at Washington, in the Collection of Representative American Illustrators."
In a 1908 letter, written in Boston to her brother Roscoe, the author Willa Cather noted, "I can get you stunning pictures here very cheaply," listing among those she purchased for him 'Calling the Moose' by N. C. Wyeth, for $1.75.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer