Mowing

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

Mowing

Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1907
Dimensions:
37 1/2 × 26 3/4 in. (95.3 × 67.9 cm)
Private Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.9
Research Number: NCW: 9
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / CHADDS FORD, PA 07
ProvenanceThe artist; (?); Mr. and Mrs. William T. Taylor, Sr., 1965; Collection of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth; Private collection, New York, NY
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 57; Wilmington, DE, 1968, no. 21; Chadds Ford, PA, 1971, no. 54 on p. 44, b/w illustration p. 48; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 43, color illustration in print package attached to back of catalogue; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 24; Laguna Beach, CA, "Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters," July 16 - August 29, 1976, illustration in souvenir program; Chadds Ford, PA, 1982, no. 24, b/w illustration p. 11; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), p. 16, no. 4 on p. 199, color illustration, p. 19; Chadds Ford, PA, 1992; Chadds Ford, PA, 1997, no numbers, color illustration p. 9; Portland, ME, 2000, color illustration, fig. 10, p. 20
References Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 214-215; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 65, color illustration p. 64; Susan E. Meyer, "N. C. Wyeth," American Artist Magazine, vol. 39, no. 391 (Feb. 1975), color illustration p. 42; American Home Magazine (July 1975), color illustration ps. 46-47, and reproduction offered as "a picture suitable for framing"; George H. Straley, "Remembrance of N. C. Wyeth," Susquehanna Magazine, May 1982, b/w illustration p. 37; "N. C. Wyeth: Not For Publication," County Lines Magazine, vol. V, no. X (June 1982); American Heritage Magazine, May-June 1987, illus. in color p. 56; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 157-158, color illustration after p. 20; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.207, p. 172; Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N. C. Wyeth, American Regionalist" in Rural Modern, American Art Beyond the City (NY: Rizzoli, 2016), p. 161, illus. in color, p. 161;
Curatorial RemarksAlthough Howard Pyle greatly approved of this picture and thought it one of Wyeth's "best pieces of painting and characterization" to date, Wyeth quickly came to feel that the girl "predominated and subordinated all of the bigness of the harvesting." In a subsequent version (NCW 112), Wyeth placed the harvesters in the foreground in an attempt to "tell of the spirit of harvest and the sumptuousness of the hay field." (all quotes, NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, August 2, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives). Betsy James Wyeth identified the models as Ed Miller, Helen Devonshire, and "Grandfather Turner," all of Chadds Ford.
Although unremarked in the print edition, the date "07" is perceptible in the artist's inscription, according to the present owner.
Probably in the 1970s, the Brandywine River Museum published a reproduction of this painting; the image size of the reproduction measures 26 1/4 x 18 5/8 inches.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Camerarts, Inc., New York, Ali Elai, Photographer