Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Vigil
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1939
Dimensions:
30 1/4 × 22 1/4 in. (76.8 × 56.5 cm)
Private collection, Washington, DC
Accession number: SUPP2000.752
Research Number: NCW: 752
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); on reverse, Renaissance panel label, no. 766, dated 3/24/39; inscribed on reverse: The Vigil (underlined) / from "The Yearling" ("The Yearling" is underlined) / Presented to Virginia G. Rheuby (name is underlined) / in recollection of her / dynamic and interesting / father - Judge Rheuby (Judge Rheuby is underlined) / from N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceThe artist; gift to Virginia G. Rheuby; descended in family; (Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Elder, Charlottesville, VA, 1985); Mary Jean Lindner;
Exhibition HistoryFitchburg, MA, 1940; probably Clearwater, FL, 1941; Chadds Ford, PA, 1985
References
"American Front," Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel, 6 Feb. 1940, p. 6; Reader's Digest Condensed Books, illustrated vol. I, p. 261 (Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Association, 1966); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 216; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1276, p. 575
Curatorial RemarksAt least eight of Wyeth's paintings for The Yearling, including this one, were used as models for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1946 movie adaptation of the book. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings felt that "the most effective shots in the film were exact reproductions of (Wyeth's) paintings." (Time Magazine, vol. XLIX, no. 6 (Feb. 10, 1947), p. 12)
Henry White Taylor was the first director of the Clearwater (Florida) Art Museum but prior to this post was in the Bucks County-Philadlephia region, a former student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He had met N. C. Wyeth by 1928 and was probably the organizer of the exhibition in Clearwater of Wyeth's Yearling paintings.
Henry White Taylor was the first director of the Clearwater (Florida) Art Museum but prior to this post was in the Bucks County-Philadlephia region, a former student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He had met N. C. Wyeth by 1928 and was probably the organizer of the exhibition in Clearwater of Wyeth's Yearling paintings.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting