Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Slaughter of the Suitors
Alternate Title(s):The Slaying of the Suitors
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1929
Dimensions:
48 1/4 × 38 1/4 in. (122.6 × 97.2 cm)
Collection of the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY
Accession number: SUPP2000.1230
Research Number: NCW: 1230
InscribedUpper left: N. C. WYETH / ©
ProvenanceThe artist to late 1930; Mrs. T. Whitney Blake, Katonah, NY, 1930-?; (?); (C. G. Sloan & Co., Washington, D. C., Feb. 1978 auction); Private collection, MD; (Illustration House, New York, NY, 1988, no. 63, as "The Slaying of the Suitors" but did not sell); Private collection, CO, 1990 - 1994; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, Sept. 21, 1994, lot no. 191)
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, 1930, no. 14; Wilmington, DE, 1930(1), no. 1
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 213; "American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture," Sotheby's, New York, no. 191, Sept. 21, 1994, color illustration; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1106, p. 517
Curatorial RemarksThe Wyeth Family Archives includes the copy of the book that N. C. Wyeth read and annotated in preparation for the commission, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. The book was found with notes about the commission in NCW's hand, a copy of a letter to Lovell Thompson of Houghton Mifflin dated August 3, 1929, Thompson's reply, dated August 7, 1929, and notes made by NCW for the Illustrator's preface.
In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" who would keep them all together (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174).
In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" who would keep them all together (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting