Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Adventure with a Giant Squid
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1939/1940
Dimensions:
30 1/16 × 20 1/2 in. (76.4 × 52.1 cm)
The Free Library of Philadelphia, Childrens Literature Research Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1013
Research Number: NCW: 1013
Inscribedon reverse of panel in paint: THE ADVENTURE OF / THE GIANT SQUID; adhered to reverse, Renaissance Panel label no. 836, with illegible date that is probably 10/27/(19)39
ProvenanceThe artist; anonymous donor to present collection, 1941
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1941(2);
References
N. C. Wyeth, Income tax notes for 1940 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum library); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 208; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1262, p. 570
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum holds an earlier, unillustrated edition of this book (NCWS.95.595) that the artist used to plan his pictures; a composition drawing (NCW2070, 96.1.544); and a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.66) used in the transfer of the image from paper to panel. The picture illustrates an excerpt from "The Adventures of Billy Topsail" by Norman Duncan.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Joseph Painter, 9/2002; Conservation work by Franklin Shores