Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Soldiers of the Soil
Alternate Title(s):Tractors and Massed Flags; Spring Plowing for the Allies
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1942
Dimensions:
46 × 35 in. (116.8 × 88.9 cm)
The JPMorgan Chase Art Collection
© Brown & Bigelow, Inc., St. Paul, Minnesota
Accession number: SUPP2000.562
Research Number: NCW: 562
Inscribedlower left: in a box, B & B / c / USA ; / N. C. WYETH
ProvenancePrivate collection, Rego Park, NY, by 1968; (James Graham & Sons, NY, 1968); Indiana National Bank, Indianapolis, IN, 1970; corporate merger to present owner
Exhibition HistoryIndianapolis, IN, Indianapolis Museum of Art, "Art from Business and Corporate Collections," May 25 - June 26, 1977, no. 58; Rockland, ME, 2000, illus. in color fig. 42; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019 (and Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 187
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1971). p. 290, as "Spring Plowing for the Allies"; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.152, p. 688, 689
Curatorial RemarksAlthough none of the reproductions cited above include the title "Soldiers of the Soil" it occurs in Brown & Bigelow records and is inscribed below a related charcoal sketch (NCW 1789) in the collection of the Brandywine River Museum (96.1.516). The sketch is virtually the same picture with an important difference--it shows horse-drawn plows. Clearly, advertising executives felt that mechanized plows presented a more modern image.
The flags represent the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Australia, China and the Polish government in exile.
The flags represent the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Australia, China and the Polish government in exile.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:courtesy of Farnsworth Art Museum, 10/2000