Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Popular Magazine, cover illustration
Alternate Title(s):The Skier; The Ski Runner; The Ski-runner
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1910
Dimensions:
41 3/8 × 27 1/8 in. (105.1 × 68.9 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.242
Research Number: NCW: 242
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / -10; on reverse: THE SKI RUNNER / COPYRIGHTED
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (and with Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, by 1956, # 54801); Carolyn Wyeth to 1990; Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Valloti to 1998; Collection of Jim and Jocelyn Stewart, to 2014; (New York, NY, Sotheby's, Nov. 20, 2014, lot no. 5);
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, 1912, no. 7 as "The Ski-runner"; New York, NY, 1957, cat. no. 46 as "The Ski Runner"; Southampton, NY, 1966, no numbers; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 46, as "The Skier"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1975
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 269; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.302, p. 211
Curatorial RemarksThis painting was done during a visit by Stimson Wyeth, who posed for photographs that the artist then used to draw the figure. (unpublished letter NCW to Carolyn Bockius Wyeth, dated variously 8/11 or 8/13/1910). "I have just completed, and shipped, on the same train with Babe," he wrote, "a cover for the Popular. The most striking and strongest I have done in a long time. 'The Ski Runner' is its title."
The painting seems to be very similar to another painting connected with Street & Smith and now destroyed. In 1988, a daughter of Henry H. Ralston, Vice President in Charge of Publications at Street & Smith, wrote to James B. Wyeth about a painting by N. C. Wyeth with which she had grown up; "We also had at one time "The Ski Jumper"--a picture of a young man with a long tassel-cap streaming out behind going off a hill-top. He was standing straight-up, arms down at his sides, and wearing old-fashioned wide skiis. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a fire about 15 years ago." As of 2003, there is no published image to associate with this painting.
The painting seems to be very similar to another painting connected with Street & Smith and now destroyed. In 1988, a daughter of Henry H. Ralston, Vice President in Charge of Publications at Street & Smith, wrote to James B. Wyeth about a painting by N. C. Wyeth with which she had grown up; "We also had at one time "The Ski Jumper"--a picture of a young man with a long tassel-cap streaming out behind going off a hill-top. He was standing straight-up, arms down at his sides, and wearing old-fashioned wide skiis. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a fire about 15 years ago." As of 2003, there is no published image to associate with this painting.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 12/2002