Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out"
Alternate Title(s):Israel Hands; "One More Step, Mr. Hands!"; One Step More, Mr. Hands
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1911
Dimensions:
47 × 38 3/8 in. (119.4 × 97.5 cm)
New Britain Museum of American Art,
Harriet Russell Stanley Fund (1953.18)
Accession number: SUPP2000.154
Research Number: NCW: 154
InscribedLower right: N C WYETH (underlined); lower left: © CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, to 1915; purchsed by Bartlett Arkell for the Fort Rensselaer Club, Canajoharie, NY, 1915; (Vose Galleries, Boston, MA, 1953)
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 81, as "One Step More, Mr. Hands"; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 24, illus. b/w (unpaginated); Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn Museum, "A Century of American Illustration," March 22- May 14, 1972, no. 50, detail illus. in color; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 61, as "One More Step, Mr. Hands!"; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 8 p. 8, illus. b/w p. 18; New Britain, CT, New Britain Museum of American Art, "Illustration," May 4 - June 1, 1980; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), no. 14 p. 200, illus. in color p. 98; Norfolk, VA, Chrysler Museum of Art, "Myth, Magic, and Mystery: One Hundred Years of American Children's Book Illustration," June 2 - Sept. 8, 1996 (also Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and Delaware Art Museum), illus. in color on pages 52 and 142, no. 153; Hartford, CT, Old State House Museum, "Masterpieces of American Art," June 13 - August 11, 2001; Stockbridge, MA, Norman Rockwell Museum of American Illustration, June 9-Oct. 28, 2018, "Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition," p. 98; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "N. C. Wyeth's Treasure Island: Classic Illustrations for a Classic Tale," Sept. 10- Nov. 20, 2011
References
Walt Reed, ed., The Illustrator in America / 1900-1960s (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1966), b/w illus. p. 73; Time Magazine, Aug. 26, 1966 (review of Rockland, ME, 1966 exhibition), illus. b/w p. 63; Michael Dineen et al., Great Art Treasures in America's Smaller Museums (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967), illus. b/w p. 27; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 218; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 199-201, illus. b/w p. 200; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.342, p. 227; Diego Cordoba, "N. C. Wyeth," in Illustrators Magazine (London: The Book Place), Autumn 2018, issue 23, illus. p. 2; D. B. Dowd, "Nostalgia Illustrated: N. C. Wyeth, Advertising, and American Cultural History," in Jessica May and Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives" (Brandywine River Museum of Art and Portland Museum of Art, 2019), p. 66, fig. 1
Curatorial RemarksWyeth's depiction of this incident in the text has much in common with the 1899 illustration by Walter Paget that was reproduced in the 1909 Scribner's edition Wyeth read in preparation for the commission. Wyeth adopted the same skewed view into the mast that Paget used, but he chose to illustrate the conversation between Jim Hawkins and Israel Hands that takes place before Hawkins fires the pistols. This decision creates considerable tension that is lacking in Paget's composition.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. photography directly from painting; 2. digital scan of "The coxswain loosed his grasp upon the shrouds...," illustration by Walter Paget for Treasure Island
Photo Credit:1. E. Irving Blomstrann; 2. BRM staff