Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Dark Harbor Fishermen
Alternate Title(s):Dark Harbor Fisherman
Medium: Tempera on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1943
Dimensions:
35 × 38 in. (88.9 × 96.5 cm)
Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Bequest of Elizabeth B. Noyce, 1996.38.63
Accession number: SUPP2000.335
Research Number: NCW: 335
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined); on reverse, label of the F. WEBER Co., Renaissance Panel, no. 1195, dated July 21, 1943; painted on reverse of panel: VARNISHED EGG TEMPERA PAINTING / N.C. WYETH-1943; other inscriptions written on reverse of panel, upper right: 2060-13 / BMA; upper left: GL3-13-49 / F-593-120 / 476; lower left: 148; top center: CA4504 / S. 3317; incised into bottom frame member: MAURICE FINCKEN-FECIT- ALDAN P (note that further lettering is cut off by mitre edge)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (and with Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, 1956 - 1957); Collection of Robert F. Woolworth, New York, NY, 1957; (Nicholas Wyeth, Inc., New York, NY, 1990); Mrs. Elizabeth B. Noyce, Bremen, ME, 1990 - 1996
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1944, no. 16, as "Dark Harbor Fishermen"; New York, NY, 1944, no. 27 as "Dark Harbor Fisherman"; Wilmington, DE, 1944, no. 39, as "Dark Harbor Fishermen"; travelling exhibition, "Second Annual Portrait of America Exhibition," sponsored by Pepsi-Cola Company, ca. 1946 (9 venues), no. 148, as "Dark Harbor Fishermen"; New York, NY, 1957, no. 33; Rockland, ME, 1982, pg. 9; Rockland, ME, Farnsworth Art Museum, "An Eye for Maine, Paintings from a Private Collection," July 16 - Sept. 18, 1994 (additional venue, Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art); Portland, ME, 2000, illustration in color, fig. 2 p. 8; Chadds Ford, PA, 2003; Burlington, VT, Shelburne Museum, "Wyeth Vertigo," June 22-Oct. 31, 2013, illus. p. 69; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019 (and Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Oct. 4, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020, and Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 195
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 91; Gertrude A. Mellon and Elizabeth F. Wilder, eds., Maine and Its Role in American Art (New York: The Viking Press, 1963), illustration in b/w p. 110; Roul Tunley, "Maine and her Artists," Woman's Day, (Aug. 1964), illustration in color p. 64; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 191, illustration in b/w p. 186; Christopher Hyde, "N. C. Wyeth's Maine Legacy," Down East Magazine, (Nov. 1982), cover illustration in color; Donelson Hoopes, "An Eye for Maine," (exhibition review with text excerpted from exh. catalogue), American Art Review, vol. VI, no. 4, (Aug.-Sept. 1994), illustration in color p. 86; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.222, p. 776, 778
Curatorial RemarksThis painting is dated by the Renaissance Panel label and an archival photograph stamped: PHOTOGRAPH BY / EDW. J. S. SEAL / CHADDS FORD, PA. / NOV 22 1943 (Brandywine River Museum library). Wyeth had painted the same composition in oil on canvas in 1935, a painting he exhibited under the title of "Herring!" (NCW 955).
By 1944, the artist was trying to sell this painting. In April, the price during the National Academy exhibition was $2,000.00. Later in the year, at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts exhibition the price had dropped to $1500 ( Wilmington, DE, 1944 exhibition brochure with price annotations, Delaware Art Museum library). The frame, carved by Maurice Fincken, was probably cut down to fit this painting. Fincken's name appears in Wyeth's address book, "107 Wayne Ave., / Aldan, Pa."
Former owner Elizabeth Noyce located a family on Islesboro descended from two of the fishermen whom the artist encountered as they unloaded their catch at a dock in Lincolnville, Maine, in the mid-1930s. Family members named three of the men: Fred Dodge (standing in foreground); Fernie Barton (sitting); and Frankie Dyer (shoveling herring). The fourth figure is unknown and may have been added to enhance the composition.
By 1944, the artist was trying to sell this painting. In April, the price during the National Academy exhibition was $2,000.00. Later in the year, at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts exhibition the price had dropped to $1500 ( Wilmington, DE, 1944 exhibition brochure with price annotations, Delaware Art Museum library). The frame, carved by Maurice Fincken, was probably cut down to fit this painting. Fincken's name appears in Wyeth's address book, "107 Wayne Ave., / Aldan, Pa."
Former owner Elizabeth Noyce located a family on Islesboro descended from two of the fishermen whom the artist encountered as they unloaded their catch at a dock in Lincolnville, Maine, in the mid-1930s. Family members named three of the men: Fred Dodge (standing in foreground); Fernie Barton (sitting); and Frankie Dyer (shoveling herring). The fourth figure is unknown and may have been added to enhance the composition.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 7/2003