Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Mysterious Island, endpaper illustration
Alternate Title(s):Cover Lining for the Mysterious Island
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1918
Dimensions:
28 × 40 in. (71.1 × 101.6 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.429
Research Number: NCW: 429
InscribedLower right: W (encircled); lower left: © C. S. S; on reverse of canvas: Copyright Charles Scribner's Sons; old labels, now encased in plastic and attached to new stretcher: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, with partial name and address: ...mrath / 42 Broadway, / City; label: #75; also adhered to reverse, two labels from Harry Yerger's art shop (framers), Wilmington, DE
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, NY, to 1921; (?); Private collection, Wilmington, DE, ca. 1920s; descended in family; F. Bain Hoopes and Frances H. Hoopes, to 2004
Exhibition HistoryBrooklyn, NY, 1920, no. 25, as "Cover Lining for the Mysterious Island"; Philadelphia, PA, 1921
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 221; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.710, p. 367
Curatorial RemarksThe reproduction history of this image demonstrates how quickly a printed image can deviate from the original art work. In the 1919 edition of The Mysterious Island, the endsheet reproduction shows that the printing plate was retooled in the foreground and an outline added around the tidal pools. For the 1924 and 1925 editions, the plate was printed in green and red, rather than the blue and black of the earlier publications. In the 1930 edition, the plate shows further retooling; outlines are sharpened and cross-hatching is introduced into the areas of ocean spray. Finally, in the 1988 edition, the reproduction made from new photography documents poor restoration on the painting in areas of the major tidal pool, around the figure of the boy, and on the gulls on the beach at the left. Those changes were removed in 2005.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Photo by Jim Schneck