The Road to the Jones House

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

The Road to the Jones House

Alternate Title(s):Road to the Jones House; Road to the Jones' House; The Jones House; The Road by the Jones House
Medium: Tempera on hardboard
Date: 1939
Dimensions:
21 5/8 × 40 in. (54.9 × 101.6 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art, gift of C. R. Smith
Accession number: SUPP2000.789
Research Number: NCW: 789
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth to at least 1951; [?]; C. R. Smith
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1939, no. 7; Philadelphia, PA, 1940(1), no. 7; Toledo, OH, 1940, no. 58, as "The Road to the Jones' House"; Wilmington, DE, 1940(2), no. 31; Philadelphia, PA, 1941(3); West Chester, PA, 1943; Washington, DC, 1946, no. 15, as "The Jones House"; New York, NY, 1957, no. 29; Roswell, NM, 1981, no numbers; Portland, ME, 2000, no numbers, p. 60; Chadds Ford, PA, 2003; Tyler, TX, Tyler Museum of Art, "The Wyeths Across Texas," no. 15, p. 70, illus. p. 71;
References Royal Cortissoz, "N. C. Wyeth," New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 10, 1939, 6: p. 8, illustrated in b/w, as "The Road by the Jones House"; N. C. Wyeth, Income tax notes for 1939 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum library); "Wyeth Family Is Accorded First Honors," (West Chester, PA) Daily Local News, June 25, 1943, p. 1; Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 97; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), illustration in b/w p. 187; Roswell, NM, Museum and Art Center, Quarterly Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 4 (fall 1981), illus. b/w; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.215, p. 772
Curatorial RemarksIn October 1939, the artist sent Peter Hurd a list of paintings that would be included in his upcoming Macbeth Gallery exhibition. Wyeth noted six paintings by title, and than wrote that he had completed and would also exhiibit "three new Maine temperas" which dealt with "the lobsterman and one a back country landscape" (NCW to Peter Hurd, dated by NCW Oct. 30 and by context 1939, Wyeth Family Archives), most likely a reference to "The Road to the Jones House." Out of the paintings exhibited at Macbeth's in Dec. 1939, the art critic Royal Cortissoz chose this one to highlight in his review.
No analysis of the paint surface has been done. Wyeth's correspondence cited above suggests the work was done primarily in tempera. NCW 2194 is a composition drawing with extensive color notations.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 7/2003