Indian and Panther

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

Indian and Panther

Alternate Title(s):Indian and Mountain Lion
Medium: Charcoal and crayon on paper
Date: 1904
Dimensions:
17 1/2 × 23 in. (44.5 × 58.4 cm)
Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art
Accession number: SUPP2000.1474
Research Number: NCW: 1474
InscribedLower right: John Bancroft, Jr. / from N. C. Wyeth / '07
ProvenanceThe artist to 1907; John Bancroft, Jr., Wilmington, DE; (?); (Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY); private collection, CT; (Peter Davidson, NY, by 1982); (Hirschl & Adler, 1984-1986 and returned to Peter Davidson); (American Illustrators Gallery, NY, 1991)
Exhibition HistoryMarietta, GA, 1998, no nos., illus. in color, unpaginated
References "Howard Pyle, Diversity in Depth, Notes from Howard Pyle's Monday Night Lectures, June-November 1904," Delaware Art Museum, 1973, p. 23-24
Curatorial Remarks"Now, Mr. Wyeth, this lacks just a little of being a great composition. In the main it is well told, but you have been a little overdramatic with your figures. A panther crouching to spring on his victim is not possessed of passion but merely a desire to eat. He is cool, calculating, hungry. ... When you throw your own self into the animal you make him human. You should consider him being different from yourself."
"The action of the Indian, too, is overstated. He knows escape is impossible and his only hope lies in meeing the attack. He wouldnot lean back as you have him but would instinctively brace himself for the blow." The criticism of Howard Pyle, as reproduced in "Notes from Howard Pyle's Monday Night Lectures, June-November 1904," printed in "Howard Pyle, Diversity and Depth," Wilmington, DE: Wilmingtons Society of the Fine Arts, 1973, ps. 23-24.
Members of the Bancroft family of Wilmington were collectors and supporters of the arts in general and of the Pyle school in particular.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:photography directly from artwork
Photo Credit:Paulus Leeser, photographer; Courtesy of Nicholas Wyeth, Inc.