Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"For four long summer months of dust and heat Cassidy had been a freighter"
Alternate Title(s):The Freighter; The Ore Wagon (The Misadventures of Cassidy); The Stage Driver
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1907
Dimensions:
38 × 25 in. (96.5 × 63.5 cm)
Courtesy of Wells Fargo
Accession number: SUPP2000.107
Research Number: NCW: 107
InscribedLower right.: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 07
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth to 1953; (Brandywine Galleries, Albuquerque, NM, 1953); Lewis W. Douglas, for Southern Arizona Bank and Trust, Phoenix, AZ, 1953-1975; (by corporate merger) First National Bank of Arizona; (by corporate merger) First Interstate Bank of Arizona
Exhibition HistoryProbably New York, NY, 1908(2), as "The Freighter"; Harrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 44, as "The Ore Wagon (The Misadventures of Cassidy)," color illustration (unpaginated); Tucson, AZ, Tucson Art Center, "Art Collected by Arizona Banks," Oct. 1-30, 1966, no. 21 as "The Stage Driver"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 34; Tucson, AZ, First National Bank of Arizona, "Tucson Bicentennial Commemoration," Aug. 20 - Sept. 19, 1975; Phoenix, AZ, 1982, catalogue no. 4, b/w illustration p. 16; Tucson, AZ, Tucson Museum of Art, "Arizona Collects the West," Oct. 5- Dec. 12, 1983; Sun City, AZ, Sun Cities Art Museum, "N. C. Wyeth, Remington, and Russell," Jan. 10 - Feb. 3, 1988; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), p. 75, color illustration p. 20, no. 27 on p. 82
References
Henry C. Pitz, "N. C. Wyeth," American Heritage, vol. XVI, no. 6 (Oct. 1965), illus. in color p. 46; Henry C. Pitz, The Brandywine Tradition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1969), illus. in color and bound between ps. 126-127; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972, p. 266, illus. b/w p. 54; Henry C. Pitz, Howard Pyle, Writer, Illustrator, Founder of the Brandywine School (New York: Bramhall House, Clarkson Potter, 1975), illus. in color p. 185; James E. Serven, "Wagons of the West," Arizona Highways, vol. 52, no. 4 (April 1976), illus. in color p. 35; Rosemary Holusha, "The Douglas Art Collection," Arizona Highways, vol. 56, no. 11 (Nov. 1980), illus. in color p. 42; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York: Brompton Book Corp., Crescent books, 1992), illus. in color p. 22; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), illus. in color after p. 20; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.178, p. 163; Toby Thompson, "Perspective: N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945)," Western Art and Architecture, vol. 8, no. 6 (Dec. 2014/Jan. 2015), illus. in color, p. 100;
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter to his mother dated Jan. 13, 1907, Wyeth wrote, "I now start on a McClure set The Southwestern Freighting story, one of the strongest stories I ever (underlined) read" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "I've started out the New Year..." and dated in another hand Jan. 13, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives). By the end of the month he wrote, "The pictures ... are a great disappointment to me, secondly the story is so confounded strong that it makes my efforts appear terribly weak (NCW to HZ W, "This Friday ends a week...," and dated in another hand Jan. 25, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives). He delivered them to McClure's on Feb. 1 (NCW to HZW, "I am now on the way to NY..." and dated in another hand Feb. 1, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives), and there is no subsequent explanation of why the story and pictures weren't published until May, 1908.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Photography directly from painting
Photo Credit:Craig Smith, Photographer, 6/2003