Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"There was no such monstrous lock as that last night, Ollie?"
Alternate Title(s):The Smugglers
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1907
Dimensions:
dimensions unavailable
location unknown
Accession number: SUPP2000.652
Research Number: NCW: 652
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 07 (from reproduction)
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, 1907-1911; Gift to S. Wilbur Corman, Cleveland, OH, 1911
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), ps. 230, 274; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.193, p. 167
Curatorial RemarksWyeth solicited this subject matter from Scribner's. "The other day I wrote to...Mr. Chapin asking him to let me try a marine story some time (sic) (I have gradually grown intensely enthusiastic over the New England fisherman's life and marine work) and then the very next day he called me...and asked me to take a sea story by "Connolly" (the leading marine writer of to-day)" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Dear Mama, I started out the New Year poorly...," dated in another hand Jan. 13, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives).
Information about this painting and identification of the first two owners come from a Scribner's inventory card (Brandywine River Museum, Scribner's archives, #24399).
Information about this painting and identification of the first two owners come from a Scribner's inventory card (Brandywine River Museum, Scribner's archives, #24399).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Digital scan from printed source (Brandywine River Museum library, tear sheet)
Photo Credit:web: BRM staff; hardcover: Rick Echelmeyer