Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Thorgunna, the Waif Woman
Alternate Title(s):The Viking's Wife
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1914
Dimensions:
44 1/4 × 32 1/4 in. (112.4 × 81.9 cm)
American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY
On loan to the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI
Accession number: SUPP2000.1066
Research Number: NCW: 1066
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth; (?); (American Illustrators Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 1979); Private collection, OH; (Sotheby's, NY, May 29, 1986, lot no. 279); (Vose Galleries, Boston, MA); Private collection; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, lot no. 72, May 24, 2001)
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1916(2), no. 832 as "Thorgunna, the Waif Woman"; poss. New York, NY, ca. 1920, no. 11 as "The Viking's Wife"; Albany, GA, 1981, no. 14; New Britain, CT, New Britain Museum of Art, temporary loan, 1981
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 47; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 276; Walt and Roger Reed, The Illustrator in America, 1880-1980 (New York: Madison Square Press, Inc., 1984), color illustration p. 78; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.561, p. 305
Curatorial RemarksScribner's first approached Wyeth with this commission in a letter dated July 27, 1914 (Jospeh H. Chapin to NCW, WFA). At that time it was planned for the December issue, and Wyeth was told the illustrations had to be completed by the middle of September. In mid September, he wrote, "I feel that I have scored a little triumph at Scribner's with the Stevenson pictures. The story was a rush story--that is I was given little time to accomplish the work and thus they planned to reproduce it in black and white. My first picture, Thorgunna, took them by storm and they decided to force the engravers to turn out color plates and make it the frontispiece for the Xmas number...It's undoubtedly the best work I've ever done and I'm glad they are recognizing it" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, dated in another hand Sept. 18, 1914, Wyeth Family Archives).
In Stevenson's story, Thorgunna is not the "Viking's wife." If this is indeed the painting that was exhibited in New York at the galleries of Charles Daniel Frey, someone other than the artist mistakingly indentified the figure.;On Sept. 8, 1914, Wyeth wrote to his mother, "Last night...I dreamed of home, and the inevitable longing for home has continued throughout the day. It has seemed so in keeping with the present subject on my easel that I do not doubt but what the canvas was intensified by the last touches to-day. It is an Icelandic scene, one of those lonesome, haunting, subjects which I so love to do. The character is a woman, one of those big buxom Vikings wives, sitting solemn and brooding on the deck of one of those ancient ships. Behind her, rising out of the sea is a huge fragment of Iceland--a mountain of rocks, a crawling glacier--the spirit of the eternal in every life.
"I have thrown myself so intensely into the subject that it seems as though I were living there. I know every inch of that ponderous deck, its carven treasure chests, and the smell of the bilge water seeping through its timbers. The sounds form that great lonesome land, the sea fowl and the guttural talk of the old se-dogs speaking in monosyllables, and severe. The woman I know; she's an uncanny creature with occult powers. Her full, high breasts show above the fur edging of a barbaric dress of green and red--her heavy, energetic hands are clasped over her stomach, and the singular result is that everyone imagines they can see her breasts rise and fall--a deep reposeful breathing. It as a glorious subject, and how I have enjoyed it! I've thrust my romantic relations with every one I know into that picture! I wish you could all see it; it's the most powerful canvas I've ever done." (WFA)
In Stevenson's story, Thorgunna is not the "Viking's wife." If this is indeed the painting that was exhibited in New York at the galleries of Charles Daniel Frey, someone other than the artist mistakingly indentified the figure.;On Sept. 8, 1914, Wyeth wrote to his mother, "Last night...I dreamed of home, and the inevitable longing for home has continued throughout the day. It has seemed so in keeping with the present subject on my easel that I do not doubt but what the canvas was intensified by the last touches to-day. It is an Icelandic scene, one of those lonesome, haunting, subjects which I so love to do. The character is a woman, one of those big buxom Vikings wives, sitting solemn and brooding on the deck of one of those ancient ships. Behind her, rising out of the sea is a huge fragment of Iceland--a mountain of rocks, a crawling glacier--the spirit of the eternal in every life.
"I have thrown myself so intensely into the subject that it seems as though I were living there. I know every inch of that ponderous deck, its carven treasure chests, and the smell of the bilge water seeping through its timbers. The sounds form that great lonesome land, the sea fowl and the guttural talk of the old se-dogs speaking in monosyllables, and severe. The woman I know; she's an uncanny creature with occult powers. Her full, high breasts show above the fur edging of a barbaric dress of green and red--her heavy, energetic hands are clasped over her stomach, and the singular result is that everyone imagines they can see her breasts rise and fall--a deep reposeful breathing. It as a glorious subject, and how I have enjoyed it! I've thrust my romantic relations with every one I know into that picture! I wish you could all see it; it's the most powerful canvas I've ever done." (WFA)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:photography directly from artwork
Photo Credit:Courtesy the Archive of the American Illustrators Gallery, NYC