Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The man with the hatful of cards picked a hand out of his reserves, put the hat on his head and raised Bill a hundred. Bill came back with a raise of two hundred, and as the other covered it he shoved a pistol into his face observing: "I'm calling the hand that is in your hat."
Alternate Title(s):He shoved a pistol in the man's face and said: "I'm calling the hand that's in your hat.";
Alternate Title(s):Wild Bill Hickok at Cards
Alternate Title(s):Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1916
Dimensions:
32 × 40 in. (81.3 × 101.6 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.469
Research Number: NCW: 469
InscribedUpper right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / To ELVA CORSON / 1921 / from / N.C.W.
ProvenanceThe artist to 1921; Elva Corson; (?); (Andrew Wyeth / Knoedler & Company, New York, NY, 1960); Mr. William E. Weiss, Jr., New York; Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Weiss; (Reno, NV, Coeur d'Alene Art Auction, July 28, 2007, lot no. 83);
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, ca. 1920, no. 6 as "Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards"; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 57, illustraiton in color on cover and in b/w plate 20 on p. 39; Wheeling, WV, Oglebay Institute, "Weiss Family Western Art Collection," Sept. 10 - Nov. 6, 1983, catalogue text by Peter Hassrick, p. 30, illustraiton in b/w p. 31; Billings, MT, Yellowstone Art Center, "Facing West," Nov. 4 - Dec. 31, 1988, illustration in color on cover of exhibition brochure; Denver, CO, 1989, p. 84, illustration in color p. 85; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), illustration in color p. 44, catalogue no. 47 on p. 86, see also p. 75; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 146-147
References
William F. Cody, An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corp, 1920, and later editions by Farrar & Rinehart), f. p. 54; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 201, 230, 260; Alex Nemerov, "'Doing the Old America, The Image of the American West, 1880-1920," in William Treutner, ed., The West as America, Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), p. 320-321, illustration in b/w p. 322, no. 306; Paul Mattick, Jr., "At the Waterhole," Arts Magazine, vol. 66 no. 3 (Oct. 1991), p. 19; Alexander Nemerov, "N. C. Wyeth's Theater of Illustration," American Art Magazine, vol. 6, no. 2 (Spring 1992), illustration in b/w p. 43, fig. 11, see also ps. 43-45, 51, 53, 56; J. M. Fenster, "Nation of Gamblers," American Heritage, vol. 45, no. 5 (Sept. 1994), illustration in color p. 34-35; Jack Kelly, "Poker," American Heritage Magazine; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.647, p. 338-339
Curatorial RemarksIn his autobiography, William E. Cody gave a lengthy description of this poker game between Wild Bill Hickok and a cheating player, prompting Wyeth to depict Cody standing next to the door watching the game. According to a letter from Cody to the artist Robert Farrington Elwell, Cody was unhappy with Wyeth's likeness of him, and had hoped that in the hard-cover book of his memoirs illustrations by Elwell would replace Wyeth's pictures from the magazine serialization. (see William E. Cody to Robert Farrington Elwell, Oct. 12, 1916, Harold McCracken Resarch Library Archives, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY)
Peter Hassrick, who wrote about this painting for the 1983 "Weiss Family Western Art Collection" catalogue, identified the first owner, Elva Corson, as Wyeth's orchard caretaker. The painting may have descended in a local collection; on Dec. 30, 1959, Andrew Wyeth deposited it with Knoedler's, where the painting was sold on Jan. 2, 1960, to William E. Weiss, Jr. (records, Knoedler Gallery library).
Peter Hassrick, who wrote about this painting for the 1983 "Weiss Family Western Art Collection" catalogue, identified the first owner, Elva Corson, as Wyeth's orchard caretaker. The painting may have descended in a local collection; on Dec. 30, 1959, Andrew Wyeth deposited it with Knoedler's, where the painting was sold on Jan. 2, 1960, to William E. Weiss, Jr. (records, Knoedler Gallery library).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:hardcover: digital file provided by owner