Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Courtship of Miles Standish, cover illustration
Alternate Title(s):Miles Standish; Miles Standish, The Captain of Plymouth
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1919
Dimensions:
28 3/4 × 26 3/4 in. (73 × 67.9 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1132
Research Number: NCW: 1132
Inscribedlower left: W (encircled)
ProvenanceStandish Lounge, Hotel Roosevelt , New York, NY, 1924; (?); Danenberg Galleries, New York, NY, 1972; Mort Kunstler, 1972 - 1987; (American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY, ca. 1988); Private collection; (Barridoff Galleries, Portland, ME, August 4, 1999, lot no. 214); Cawley Family; (Christie's, New York, NY, Nov. 30, 2006, lot no. 166)
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1921; New York, NY, New York Historical Society Museum, "200 Years of American Illustration," Nov. 19, 1976 - Feb. 15, 1977, no. 328; Stockbridge, MA, Old Corner House, "The Illustrator's Moment / Works by Abbey, Fogarty, Leyendecker, Pyle, Rackham, N. C. Wyeth," July 1 - Oct. 31, 1978, catalogue by Diana Strazdes, no. 30 p. 90, illustration in b/w p. 91; Chicago, IL, American Chamber Symphony, "An American Vision," Dec. 1-2, 1984, illus. in color p. 9;
References
"The Wooing of Priscilla," The Mentor, vol. 14, no. 6 (July 1926), as "Miles Standish, The Captain of Plymouth", illustration p. 41; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 211; Henry C. Pitz, 200 Years of American Illustration (New York: Random House, 1977), illustration in color p. 180, as "Miles Standish"; Walt and Roger Reed, The Illustrator in America / 1880-1980 (New York: Madison Square Press, 1984), illustration in color, p. 78; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.745, p. 380
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum of Art owns the copy of Houghton Mifflin's 1913 edition of The Courtship of Miles Standish, Elizabeth and other Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (NCWS.95.211) which NCW read and marked as he chose his illustrative program. The copy is illustrated with engravings after an unidentified artist which seem to have furnished Wyeth with some inspiration.
"My work schedule is behind as usual but as I've got a "bang-up" Standish cover going I'm not worrying so much." (NCW to Henriette Z. Wyeth and Andrew N. Wyeth, Dec. 19, 1919, Wyeth Family Archives). Later in a letter dated Dec. 30, 1919, Wyeth told his family he had finished the picture and was "highly pleased" with it.
In his introduction to the edition, the poet's son (and painter) Ernest W. Longfellow wrote, "Mr. Wyeth's illustrations seem to me--and I doubt not that they would have seemed to my father--admirable all through in their richness of color and their unconventional treatment, coupled with their many evidences of the closest study of the period."
"My work schedule is behind as usual but as I've got a "bang-up" Standish cover going I'm not worrying so much." (NCW to Henriette Z. Wyeth and Andrew N. Wyeth, Dec. 19, 1919, Wyeth Family Archives). Later in a letter dated Dec. 30, 1919, Wyeth told his family he had finished the picture and was "highly pleased" with it.
In his introduction to the edition, the poet's son (and painter) Ernest W. Longfellow wrote, "Mr. Wyeth's illustrations seem to me--and I doubt not that they would have seemed to my father--admirable all through in their richness of color and their unconventional treatment, coupled with their many evidences of the closest study of the period."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 10/1999