Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Silent Burial
Alternate Title(s):The Indian in His Solitude
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1906
Dimensions:
38 1/8 × 24 in. (96.8 × 61 cm)
The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.62
Research Number: NCW: 62
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 06; on reverse on stretcher, [Knoedler's] label: No. 61537 / PICTURE; on backing board, [Knoedler's] label: No. 1537 / PICTURE
ProvenanceOuting Magazine; Emery Mapes, Minneapolis, MN; descended in family; (Knoedler Galleries, New York, ?-1969)
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 48, as "The Indian in His Solitude" (confirmed by installation photographs in Wyeth family archives); Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 15; Chadds Ford, PA, 1973(2); Brookings, SD, 1973, no. 6; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(2); Cedar Rapids, IA, 1990; Stockbridge, MA, Norman Rockwell Museum, June 9-Oct. 28, 2018, "Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition," p. 93, illus. p. 94; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019 (and Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Oct. 4, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020, and Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 121
References
American History Illustrated, vol. IV, no. I (May 1966), color cover; Frederick Ray, O! Say Can You See (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1970), illustration in color p. 19; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 268, illustration in color p. 60; 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), ps. 9-10; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.155, p. 155
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter of March 1906, Wyeth wrote, "I completed a picture to-day (Indian standing in the woods beside a little brook) that totally eclipses anything I ever did....the color is very different." NCW to HZW, "Dear Mama, I'm at the Post Office and that accounts...", undated but March 1906, Wyeth Family Archives). Further, in a letter undated by NCW (and dated in another hand March 23, 1906), "For the first time [Mr. Pyle] looked upon a picture I started Sunday (the Chief's burial). He went all to pieces. That is he went completely wild with my result telling me that it was the biggest picture ever painted in Wilmington, not excluding his own work!"
Outing printed a number of different sized reproductions of the five "Solitude" paintings. In the Dec. 1907 issue (unpaginated, Outing Magazine Advertiser), the publishers advertised reproductions 12 x 16 inches, mounted on heavy boards 17 x 22 inches overall. A page from an advertising section torn from an unidentified magazine offered a boxed set of reproductions, 14 x 23 inches, mounted to 17 x 27 inches (Library, Delaware Art Museum, incorrectly dated August 1904).
Emery Mapes, the first owner of the picture, was one of the founders of the Cream of Wheat Company.
Outing printed a number of different sized reproductions of the five "Solitude" paintings. In the Dec. 1907 issue (unpaginated, Outing Magazine Advertiser), the publishers advertised reproductions 12 x 16 inches, mounted on heavy boards 17 x 22 inches overall. A page from an advertising section torn from an unidentified magazine offered a boxed set of reproductions, 14 x 23 inches, mounted to 17 x 27 inches (Library, Delaware Art Museum, incorrectly dated August 1904).
Emery Mapes, the first owner of the picture, was one of the founders of the Cream of Wheat Company.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 9/2002