Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Departure of the Mayflower for England in 1621
Alternate Title(s):Return of the Mayflower
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1941
Dimensions:
102 1/2 × 159 1/2 in. (260.4 × 405.1 cm)
Collection of MetLife, New York
Accession number: SUPP2000.440
Research Number: NCW: 440
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceCommissioned from NCW by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1985, no. 14, as "Return of the Mayflower"
References
"The Days of the Pilgrims Live Again in Our Murals," The Home Office (publication of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.), vol. 23, no. 7 (Dec. 1941), ps. 8-9; N. C. Wyeth, Income Tax Notes for 1941 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum Library); Robert San Souci, N. C. Wyeth's Pilgrims (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1991), illus. on title page and again in text (unpaginated); Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), M.70, p. 630
Curatorial RemarksTitle authority from draft letter NCW to Arthur O. Angilly, undated but 1941, painting mentioned as nearly complete (Brandywine River Museum library). Extant is a composition drawing for this image (NCW 2127) and a drawing that has been lined and numbered for transfer (NCW 1450). The Brandywine River Museum holds lantern slides made from a drawing and used to transfer the composition from paper to canvas (NCWS.95.368, .369), and extensive correspondence between the artist and the architect Arthur O. Angilly which touches on all phases of the commission. Wyeth had painted an almost identical composition in a vertical format for The Courtship of Miles Standish (see NCW 1131) in 1920.
In the mid-1980s, the MetLife murals were removed from the walls of their original location at One Madison Avenue, New York, and placed on strainers. By 2009, this mural had been removed to MetLife's new corporate headquarters on Bryant Park.
In the mid-1980s, the MetLife murals were removed from the walls of their original location at One Madison Avenue, New York, and placed on strainers. By 2009, this mural had been removed to MetLife's new corporate headquarters on Bryant Park.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Photo by: Malcolm Varon, NYC, copyright © 2007