Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Soldiers of the Home Front
Alternate Title(s):Food Will Win the War
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1943
Dimensions:
30 × 20 1/2 in. (76.2 × 52.1 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1681
Research Number: NCW: 1681
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined); on reverse, Renaissance Panel label, # 1148, dated 2/5/43; written in pencil across top of label: Food Will Win the War; stamped in red across bottom of label: AMERICAN ARTIST (illegible)/87 WEST 4 (illegible)/NEW YORK MURRAY HILL 2-24(illegible)
ProvenanceMrs. N. C. Wyeth; Private collection, PA, to 2007;
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 39; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 270; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1311, p. 589
Curatorial RemarksCorrespondence between N. C. Wyeth and American Artists Company, the agency through which the artist did much of his commercial work in the 1940s, makes it clear that the basic concept for this picture was proposed by Dr. Clarence Poe, longtime editor of Progressive Farmer: "a typical, sturdy farmer and farmer's wife against a harvest background being honored and recognized for achievement by something symbolizing America....Mr. Wyeth may find some way to suggest how the housewife's vegetables and canned goods could be pictorially represented." (American Artists Company to NCW, March 12, 1942, Wyeth Family Archives). Progressive Farmer even stipulated the "type of jars and the products" shown in the painting (AA Co. to NCW, May 5, 1942, Wyeth Family Archives). This was a "reproduction rights only" commission and the painting itself was retained by the artist. The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide of the composition drawing (NCWS.95.1825.184); the drawing had been submitted to Progressive Farmer in 1942 (Celia Mendelsohn to NCW, Jan. 13, 1943, Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 7/2000