Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades
Alternate Title(s):Blind Pew; Old Pew
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1911
Dimensions:
47 × 38 in. (119.4 × 96.5 cm)
The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.13
Research Number: NCW: 13
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 1911; lower left: © CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, NY, to 1915; purchased in 1915 by Bartlett Arkell, for the Fort Rensselaer Club, Canajoharie, NY; (Vose Gallery, Boston, MA, 1953)
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, 1912, no. 1 as "Old Pew"; Philadelphia, PA, 1912(2), no. 159; San Francisco, CA, 1915, no. 59; San Francisco, CA, 1916, no. 6620; New York, NY, 1957, no. 100, as "Blind Pew"; Swarthmore, PA, Swarthmore College, March 1964, "Three Generations of Wyeths"; Harrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 77; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 21, b/w illus. (unpaginated); Chadds Ford, PA, 1968, no. 11; Wilmington, DE, 1969, no number; Chadds Ford, PA, 1971, no. 58, color illus. p. 50; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 55; Brookings, SD, 1973, no. 8; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 25; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(1); Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(3), no. 118, b/w illus. p. 6; Chadds Ford, PA, 1985, color illus. on exhibition brochure; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), no. 17, color illus. p. 102; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(1); Chicago, IL, 1997, no. 1; Rockland, ME, 1998, no. 62 p. 164, color illus. p. 62; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "N. C. Wyeth's Treasure Island: Classic Illustrations for a Classic Tale," Sept. 10- Nov. 20, 2011; Paris, Mona Bismarck Foundation, "The Wyeths, Trois generations d'artistes americains," Nov. 10, 2011- Feb. 12, 2012, illus. in color, p. 23; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019 (and Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Oct. 4, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 131
References
(Philadelphia) Public Ledger, Nov. 10, 1912, review of PAFA exhibition (available on AAA film, roll P55, frame 719); "The Stouthearted Heroes of a Beloved Painter," Life, vol. 43, no. 24 (Dec. 9, 1957), illus. in color p. 96; John Lewis, The Twentieth Century Book (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1967), illus. p. 207; Henry C. Pitz, The Brandywine Tradition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1969), illus. in color (unpaginated); Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), illus. in color p. 400; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 218, illus. b/w p. 81; Susan E. Meyer, "N. C. Wyeth," American Artist Magazine, vol. 39, no. 391 (Feb. 1975), illus. in color. p. 41; Robert Taylor, "N. C. Wyeth: great illustrator and much more," The (Boston) Sunday Globe, Oct. 17, 1982, illus. b/w p. A41; Richard Meryman, "The Wyeth Family, American Visions," National Geographic, vol. 180, no. 1 (July 1991), illus. in color, p. 83; "The World of N. C. Wyeth," Randall House, Santa Barbara, CA, Rare Books Catalogue XXIV, 1992, illustration in b/w; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), illus. b/w p. 203; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.334, p. 221; Brett Sokol, "A Dynasty of Light," American Way (magazine of American Airlines), July 2017, illus. in color, p. 54; Dennis Nolan, "Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition" (Stockbridge, MA: Norman Rockwell Museum of American Illustration, 2018), p. 21; Diego Cordoba, "N. C. Wyeth," in Illustrators Magazine (London: The Book Place), Autumn 2018, issue 23, illus. p. 12; David M. Lubin, "Hidden Cargo: Overlooked Dimensions of N. C. Wyeth's Treasure Island Illustrations" in Jessica May and Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives" (Brandywine River Museum of Art and Portland Museum of Art, 2019), p. 34, fig. 11
Curatorial RemarksAndrew and Betsy Wyeth and members of the Forsythe family in Chadds Ford believe that the model for Old Pew was Samuel Forsythe, who was indeed blind.
In his 1998 biography of N. C. Wyeth, David Michaelis points out that Wyeth used features of his childhood home for the architecture of the fictional Admiral Benbow Inn shown in the background of this painting. (David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth: A Biography. New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1998, p. 202).
In his 1998 biography of N. C. Wyeth, David Michaelis points out that Wyeth used features of his childhood home for the architecture of the fictional Admiral Benbow Inn shown in the background of this painting. (David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth: A Biography. New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1998, p. 202).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. Digital scan
Photo Credit:2. Courtesy of the Forsythe family
On view