Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Tree Cutters
Alternate Title(s):Cutting Logs; Last of the Chestnuts; The Rail Splitters; Woodcutters; Woodcutters in the Snow
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1916 / 1917
Dimensions:
37 1/4 × 49 1/4 in. (94.6 × 125.1 cm)
Diamond M Fine Art Collection, Museum of Texas Tech University
Accession number: SUPP2000.404
Research Number: NCW: 404
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth to 1965; Diamond M Foundation, TX, 1965-1993
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1917, no. 114, as "Tree Cutters"; Philadelphia, PA, "Annual Exhibition of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Feb. 16 - March 2, 1918, no. 2 as "Woodcutters"; West Chester, PA, 1923, as "The Rail Splitters"; Wilmington, DE, 1946, no. 22, as "Woodcutters in the Snow"; Harrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 113, as "Last of the Chestnuts"; Midland, TX, Museum of the Southwest, "The Wyeth Family," Jan. 8 - Feb. 6, 1973; Houston, TX, 1980; Chadds Ford, PA, 1982, no. 23 on p. 47, illus. b/w p. 25; Elmira, NY, 1985, p. 28; Chadds Ford, PA, 1992; San Angleo, TX, 1993; Lubbock, TX, 1999
References
"Art Reception at Normal School," (West Chester, PA) Daily Local News, Nov. 13, 1923, p. 6; Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950, " unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 71, as "Cutting Logs"; Peggy Robbins, "The Magic of N. C. Wyeth," South Carolina Wildlife, (Jan.-Feb. 1979), illus. in color p. 21; James H. Duff, Not For Publication: Landscapes, Still Lifes, and Portraits by N. C. Wyeth (Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine River Museum, 1982), p. 47, illus. b/w p. 25; Pamela Beecher, Three Generations of Wyeths (Elmira, NY: Arnot Art Museum, 1985), p. 28; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York: Brompton Books Corp., Crescent Books, 1992), illus. in color p. 97; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.734, p. 735
Curatorial RemarksThis work is dated by its exhibition in Wilmington in November 1917, "Tree Cutters" one of four paintings Wyeth sent. The title's association with this painting rests with a letter the artist wrote to his mother saying he was shipping four large paintings to Wilmington, one of which he described as "a big snow landscape" (NCW to HZW, Nov. 1, 1917, WFA). It was likely completed in the late winter of 1916/1917.
In February 1918, N. C. Wyeth wrote: "I sent that large winter landscape (splitting up the chestnut logs, showing the valley in the distance) to the Fellowship exhibition in Philadelphia. Personally, I have always thought the canvas my best work in out door painting, and equal to many of the best hung in our annual shows. The day after it was hung I received word from the jury of purchase...to put a price on this picture as they wished to own it. However, I did not want to sell it for it means too much to me as an inspiriting (sic) sketch to have around so refused to let it go....It is the first time that I have been officially recognized in landscape and it makes me very happy, and adds much encouragement to my ambitions" (NCW to HZW, Feb. 22, 1918, WFA). A manuscript by Anton Kamp describes this painting hanging in N. C. Wyeth's living room in Needham in January, 1922 (Brandywine River Museum); and the painting is shown in a photograph taken in the mid-1930s by William E. Phelps hanging above shelves in the southeast corner of the studio (Brandywine River Museum, P114) where it remained until at least 1950, as noted in Richard Layton's inventory of paintings in the studio (Wyeth Family Archives). There is an archival photograph of this image stamped: THE ROYAL STUDIO / COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER / WILMINGTON, DELAWARE (Brandywine River Museum Library, #3293, with notation in ink (by librarian Ruth Bassett) "Last of the Chestnuts." Another painting of the same scene from a different view is NCW 706. Both paintings have been known since the late 1950s or early 1960s as "Last of the Chestnuts," but this is not a title that occured during the artist's life time.
As early as March, 1912, letters mentioned the effect of the chestnut blight on the trees on Wyeth's property (NCW to HZW, March 8, 1912, WFA, "Our chestnut trees are bound to go! So say the tree experts. It makes me sick to think of it. I am wasting no time, however, and am arranging to plant maples, locusts, buttonwood, and so forth, as soon as the ground breaks.")
In February 1918, N. C. Wyeth wrote: "I sent that large winter landscape (splitting up the chestnut logs, showing the valley in the distance) to the Fellowship exhibition in Philadelphia. Personally, I have always thought the canvas my best work in out door painting, and equal to many of the best hung in our annual shows. The day after it was hung I received word from the jury of purchase...to put a price on this picture as they wished to own it. However, I did not want to sell it for it means too much to me as an inspiriting (sic) sketch to have around so refused to let it go....It is the first time that I have been officially recognized in landscape and it makes me very happy, and adds much encouragement to my ambitions" (NCW to HZW, Feb. 22, 1918, WFA). A manuscript by Anton Kamp describes this painting hanging in N. C. Wyeth's living room in Needham in January, 1922 (Brandywine River Museum); and the painting is shown in a photograph taken in the mid-1930s by William E. Phelps hanging above shelves in the southeast corner of the studio (Brandywine River Museum, P114) where it remained until at least 1950, as noted in Richard Layton's inventory of paintings in the studio (Wyeth Family Archives). There is an archival photograph of this image stamped: THE ROYAL STUDIO / COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER / WILMINGTON, DELAWARE (Brandywine River Museum Library, #3293, with notation in ink (by librarian Ruth Bassett) "Last of the Chestnuts." Another painting of the same scene from a different view is NCW 706. Both paintings have been known since the late 1950s or early 1960s as "Last of the Chestnuts," but this is not a title that occured during the artist's life time.
As early as March, 1912, letters mentioned the effect of the chestnut blight on the trees on Wyeth's property (NCW to HZW, March 8, 1912, WFA, "Our chestnut trees are bound to go! So say the tree experts. It makes me sick to think of it. I am wasting no time, however, and am arranging to plant maples, locusts, buttonwood, and so forth, as soon as the ground breaks.")
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:No credit on transparency