Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Untitled (Marines landing on beach)
Medium: Oil on hardboard
Date: 1944
Dimensions:
42 × 30 1/4 in. (106.7 × 76.8 cm)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Collection
use courtesy of Archives, Merck & Co., Inc.
Accession number: SUPP2000.2033
Research Number: NCW: 2033
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
Provenance(?); All Saints Episcopal Church, Darby, PA; Private collection, 1997-1998; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, Dec. 3, 1998, lot no. 310); (Frank E. Fowler, Lookout Mountain, TN); MBNA America, Wilmington, DE, 1999 - 2005
Exhibition HistoryRockland, ME, 2000, color illustration, fig. 40; Paris, Mona Bismarck Foundation, "The Wyeths, Trois generations d'artistes americains," Nov. 10, 2011- Feb. 12, 2012, illus. in color, p. 99; Portland, OR, Portland Museum of Art, "The Wyeths: Three Generations, Works form the Bank of America Collection," Oct. 7, 2017-Jan. 28, 2018;
References
"Picture Parade," section of The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 11, 1944, cover illustration in color; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 832; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 295; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.185, p. 698, 699
Curatorial Remarks"On Wednesday, three hours of film was projected [in my studio]: the uncensored pictures of Tarawa. You see, I am to do an interpretation of that horrific battle...to publicize the value and need of blood plasma and so it was that a special government release of these films was granted for the purpose...The blood plasma creators, of Sharp and Doehm (sic) were here too" (NCW to Caroline Pyle Wyeth, printed in Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 832). The charcoal composition drawing is held privately. The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.200) of the composition drawing used in the transfer of the design from paper to panel, and a mounted copy of the finished poster produced by Sharp and Dohme (NCWS.95.6579) that came from the artist's studio. Also found in the artist's studio were pages from newspaper accounts of the battle (NYT, Dec. 12, 1943, "The Men of Tarawa," ps. 18-19), and a collection of black and white photographs from the AP of several South Pacfic battles, all used as visual resources by the artist (Brandywine River Museum library, NCW Visual Resources collection).
Andrew Wyeth recalled that this is the painting on which his father was working as Andrew drew his 1944 pencil sketch entitled "N. C. Wyeth in His Studio."
Andrew Wyeth recalled that this is the painting on which his father was working as Andrew drew his 1944 pencil sketch entitled "N. C. Wyeth in His Studio."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:photography directly from artwork
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer