Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
study for Bronco Buster
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1902
Dimensions:
26 × 18 in. (66 × 45.7 cm)
Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Willis du Pont, 1960
Accession number: SUPP2000.1078
Research Number: NCW: 1078
InscribedLower right: Sketch / -1902-
ProvenanceCollection of Willis du Pont, to 1960
Exhibition History(Probably) Birmingham, AL, Birmingham Museum of Art, "Brandywine Heritage," Feb. 7 - March 10, 1976; Wilmington, DE, Howard Pyle Studio, "Howard Pyle Studio Centennial," Nov. 3 - 6, 1983; Washington, DC, The Trust for Museum Exhibitions, "The Best of American Illustration. Selections from the Delaware Art Museum," numerous venues between 10/85-2/89, no. 71; Fort Lauderdale, FL, Museum of Art, "Masterpieces of American Illustration from the Delaware Art Museum," Jan. 26 - March 25, 1990; Indianapolis, IN, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, "Illustrators of the American West," July 9 - Sept. 19, 1993, unnumbered checklist; Portland, ME, 2000, illustration in color, fig. 3 p. 10
References
Dudley Lunt, "The Howard Pyle School of Art," Delaware History, vol. V, no. 3 (March 1953), p. 161; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (Crown Publishers, 1972), illustration in b/w p. 26; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York: Brompton Book Corp., Cresent Books, 1992), illustration in color p. 8; Roland Elzea and Iris Snyder, American Illustration The Collection of the Delaware Art Museum, (Wilmington, DE: Delaware Art Museum, 1991), p. 157
Curatorial RemarksThis sketch is similar in size and coloration to the finished painting (NCW 568). The sketch contains fewer details and the rider is not anchored on the horse as well as in the finished painting. Wyeth clearly felt that the second attempt was more successful, writing "I finished the bucking horse today. It simply knocks the other flat" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, January 5, 1903, Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Digital photography directly from painting