Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Behind Simpson's dead-mule barricade we made ready for attack from the circling redskins. The carcases were soon stuck full of arrows, and Woods was winged in the shoulder.
Alternate Title(s):A Fight on the Plains; Fight on the Plains; A Shower of Arrows Rained on Our Dead Mules from the Closing Circle of Redmen; A Shower of Arrows Rained on Our Dead Horses from the Closing Circle of Red-Men
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1916
Dimensions:
32 3/8 × 40 3/8 in. (82.2 × 102.6 cm)
The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.27
Research Number: NCW: 27
InscribedLower right: To MR. AND MRS. HARLAN PYLE / from N.C. WYETH; label on stretcher: Estelle D. Pyle / Chadds Ford / Del. Co., Pa
ProvenanceThe artist; Mr. and Mrs. Harlan Pyle
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 28 as "Fight on the Plains"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1971, no. 72, b/w illustration p. 58; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 24; Brookings, SD, 1973, no. 12; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 22; Chadds Ford, PA, 1975; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(2); Princeton, NJ, 1977, no. 17 as "A Fight on the Plains"; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 17 (text), color illustration p. 30, p. 57; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), p. 201 no. 31, color illustration p. 15, see also p. 82, as "A Shower of Arrows Rained on Our Dead Horses from the Closing Circle of Redmen"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), color illustration p. 42, p. 83 no. 45, see also p. 75; Cedar Rapids, IA, 1990; Paris, Mona Bismarck Foundation, "The Wyeths, Trois generations d'artistes americains," Nov. 10, 2011- Feb. 12, 2012, illus. in color, p. 22;
References
William F. Cody, An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corp., 1920), b/w illustration f. p. 282 as "A Shower of Arrows Rained on Our Dead Mules from the Closing Circle of Red-Men"; Henry C. Pitz, "N. C. Wyeth", American Heritage Magazine, vol. XVI, no. 6 (Oct. 1965), color illustration ps. 48-49; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), letter numbers 441, 451, ps. 523, 534; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 201, b/w illustration p. 54; Peter Hassrick, The Way West, Art of Frontier America (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1977), b/w illustration p. 200; Alex Nemerov, Doing the "Old America," The Image of the American West, 1880-1920, in The West As America, Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, ed. by William H. Truettner (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), b/w illustration on p. 294, no. 265; Stephen May, "N. C. Wyeth's Wild West," Southwest Art, vol.20, no. 9 (February 1991), color illustration p. 98; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York: Brompton Books Corp., Crescent Books, 1992), color illustration ps. 34-35 as "A Shower of Arrows Rained on Our Dead Horses from the Closing Circle of Red-Men"; Alexander Nemerov, "N. C. Wyeth's Theater of Illustration," American Art Magazine, vol. 6 no. 2 (Spring 1992), b/w illustration p. 39, see also p. 37; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 241, b/w illustration p. 242; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.645, p. 336-338
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting