Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"Criers called the stirring news that the time for the Sun Dance had come"
Alternate Title(s):Calling the Sun Dance; The Signal
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1908
Dimensions:
35 1/2 × 26 1/4 in. (90.2 × 66.7 cm)
W. S. Farish
Accession number: SUPP2000.246
Research Number: NCW: 246
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYTH (underlined) / '08
ProvenanceCollection of Frank W. Packard, Hackensack, NJ, ca. 1955; (Christie, Manson & Woods, Houston, TX, April 6, 1970, lot no. 8, as "The Signal")
Exhibition HistoryBridgeport, CT, 1974, no. NC 8, as "Calling the Sun Dance"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1975; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 15, p. 56, illus. b/w p. 46 plate no. 27, as "Calling the Sun Dance"
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 200, color illus. p. 52; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.220, p. 180
Curatorial RemarksThis was one of four paintings originally commissioned by McClure's Magazine to illustrate Edgar Beecher Bronson's text "The Last Great Sun Dance." Wyeth worked on the series in July and August, 1908 and this painting was probably the last he completed (NCW to HZW, Aug. 28, 1908, Wyeth Family Archives)
On Sept. 5, 1908, the artist wrote to his mother, "I delivered the Sun Dance pictures which, judging from the praise tendered me at McClures, I should feel in one sense pleased with the result. They were apparently like very much which was corroborated by their decision to publish them in the Xmas McClures." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 269). The four paintings and the article were not published as planned, most likely due to financial problems the magazine experienced in the fall of 1908 (NCW to HZW, Oct. 2, 1908, Wyeth Family Archives). Cowboy Life on the Western Plains is a compilation of Bronson's accounts of the west, illustrated with images by many artists.
On Sept. 5, 1908, the artist wrote to his mother, "I delivered the Sun Dance pictures which, judging from the praise tendered me at McClures, I should feel in one sense pleased with the result. They were apparently like very much which was corroborated by their decision to publish them in the Xmas McClures." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 269). The four paintings and the article were not published as planned, most likely due to financial problems the magazine experienced in the fall of 1908 (NCW to HZW, Oct. 2, 1908, Wyeth Family Archives). Cowboy Life on the Western Plains is a compilation of Bronson's accounts of the west, illustrated with images by many artists.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:M. S. Rezny Photography Inc., 7/2004