Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Winter. "Death"
Alternate Title(s):Cold Maker; Winter
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1909
Dimensions:
33 × 29 1/2 in. (83.8 × 74.9 cm)
The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.12
Research Number: NCW: 12
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 09
ProvenanceThe artist; (sold during Philadelphia, PA, 1910 exhibition); [?]; Private collection, Baltimore, MD, ca. 1944-1969
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1910, no. 794 as "Winter," winner of $100 Beck Prize; Chadds Ford, PA, 1971, no. 57, illus. in b/w p. 49; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 13, cover illus. in color; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 20; Los Angeles, CA, The Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, UCLA, "The American Personality, The Artist-Illustrator of Life in the United States, 1860-1930," Oct. 12 - Dec. 12, 1976 (also Fort Worth, TX, Amon Carter Museum of Art, July 8 - Aug. 22, 1976), no. 265; Princeton, NJ, 1977, no. 15; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), illus. in color p. 21, no. 6 p. 199; Cedar Rapids, IA, 1990; Rockland, ME, 1998, no. 14 p. 164, illus. in color p. 14; Paris, Mona Bismarck Foundation, "The Wyeths, Trois generations d'artistes americains," Nov. 10, 2011- Feb. 12, 2012, illus. in color, p. 18, p. 71;
References
"...Award N. C. Wyeth Water Color Prize," Philadelphia Inquirer, ? Nov. 1910, illus. b/w (see AAA film, roll P55, frame 327); "Water Color Show to Close Today," (Philadelphia) Press, Dec. 18, 1910, includes list of paintings sold during exhibition (AAA film, roll P55, frame 331); George B. Grinnell, Blackfeet Indian Stories (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), frontispiece illus. as the "Cold Maker"; Susan E. Meyer, "N. C. Wyeth," American Artist Magazine, vol. 39, no. 391 (Feb. 1975), illus. b/w p. 40; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), ps. 311 and 379, illus. f. p. 304; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 275, illus. in color p. 61; Erin R. Corrales-Diaz, "The Indian In His Solitude, N. C. Wyeth's Images of Native Americans," Nineteenth Century, Magazine of the Victorian Society in America, vol. 28, no. 2 (Fall 2008), p. 11-12; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.286, p. 202-203
Curatorial RemarksAccording to a letter to his mother written in February 1909 ("Your rapid fire succession...," dated in another hand Feb. 28, 1909), Wyeth decided to write his own poems for the four seasonally inspired paintings. The letter includes rough drafts of poems for "Winter" and "Spring," and a request for his mother's opinion of the texts. (WFA)
In a letter dated Nov. 17, 1910, the artist wrote to his family in Needham, "the U. S. government have asked me for "Winter" (Indian with blowing-drapery) to send to Rome for the big international show." In the correspondence there is no further mention of this loan, and the only Wyeth painting listed in the catalogue of the Roman Art Exposition of 1911 was NCW 641.
The Brandywine Conservancy reproduced this painting in 1972, in conjunction with the summer exhibition (Chadds Ford, PA, 1972). The image measures 27 x 24 inches and is overprinted at the top with: N. C. WYETH. Printed below the image: © Brandywine River Museum - all rights reserved / EXHIBITION / May 20 to October 15, 1972 / Brandywine River Museum / Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
In a letter dated Nov. 17, 1910, the artist wrote to his family in Needham, "the U. S. government have asked me for "Winter" (Indian with blowing-drapery) to send to Rome for the big international show." In the correspondence there is no further mention of this loan, and the only Wyeth painting listed in the catalogue of the Roman Art Exposition of 1911 was NCW 641.
The Brandywine Conservancy reproduced this painting in 1972, in conjunction with the summer exhibition (Chadds Ford, PA, 1972). The image measures 27 x 24 inches and is overprinted at the top with: N. C. WYETH. Printed below the image: © Brandywine River Museum - all rights reserved / EXHIBITION / May 20 to October 15, 1972 / Brandywine River Museum / Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting