Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Invocation to the Buffalo Herds
Alternate Title(s):The Petition; The Petitioner
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1908
Dimensions:
36 1/8 × 26 in. (91.8 × 66 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.97
Research Number: NCW: 97
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceFrank W. Packard, Hackensack, NJ; (Christie, Manson & Woods, Houston, TX, April 6, 1970, lot no. 7); Armand Hammer (Armand Hammer Foundation), to 1974; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA,, 1974 - 1988; (American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY); (J. N. Bartfield Galleries, New York, NY); Private collection
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 26 as "The Petition" (as unsigned); Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 18, as "The Petition"; Cody, WY, 1980, ps. 15, 56, and illus. b/w plate 31 on page 50; Japan (3 venues), [organized by American Illustrators Gallery], "The Great American Illustrators," 1993, illus. in color p. 31, no. 10 p. 125; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Art of the American West from a Private Collection," Sept. 5 - Nov. 23, 2003;
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 261; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972, illus. in color p. 53; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.219, p. 179; Anson M. Beard, Jr., A Life in Full Sail (Cambridge, MA: Tide Pool, Ltd., 2012), p. 374, illus. p. 385;
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 was the third he completed (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 261). Bronson's account of the ceremony was published in Cowboy Life on the Western Plains, The Reminiscences of a Ranchman (New York: Geo. H. Doran, 1910): "It [the Buffalo Dance] was opened by a long invocation, addressed apparently to the sun by an aged medicine man" (p. 242). There is no further description of this portion of the ceremony and the details are all Wyeth's.
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 liked 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).
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 liked 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).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Photography courtesy of owner