Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"They got to fightin' on which should get the first hoss: so I bent my gun on them and made them draw lots"
Alternate Title(s):Forced to Draw Lots
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1906
Dimensions:
38 × 26 in. (96.5 × 66 cm)
Needham Free Public Library, Needham, Massachusetts
Accession number: SUPP2000.531
Research Number: NCW: 531
InscribedLower left: TO UNCLE DENYS / FROM / N. C. WYETH (underlined) / -06- ("To Uncle Denys from" inscribed by the artist's brother Nat, per letter of May 3, 1907)
ProvenanceThe artist; Jean Denys Zirngiebel, Jr., 1907; [?]; Mrs. Frank Winthrop, ?-1972
Exhibition HistoryCody, WY, 1980, p. 57, illustration in b/w plate 22; Pueblo, CO, Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, "From Newsprint to Canvas: Illustrators / Painters of the Old West," Sept. 8 - Nov. 30, 1990
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 266; Alexander Nemerov, "N. C. Wyeth's Theater of Illustration," American Art Magazine, vol. 6, no. 2 (Spring 1992), illustration in b/w p. 39 fig. 3, see also p. 37; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.134, p. 142
Curatorial RemarksIn gratitude for early support of his career in art, Wyeth presented his maternal uncle with one of his paintings. In May 3, 1907, he wrote to his mother, "Why don't you give that picture of the fellow holding up the miners in the town street to Uncle Deny (sic). If you decide to do so let Nat put "To Uncle Deny from Convers 1907" on it."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Stephen Morrison