Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Thanksgiving with Indians
Alternate Title(s):The Thanksgiving Feast
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1940
Dimensions:
108 × 212 in. (274.3 × 538.5 cm)
Collection of MetLife, New York
Accession number: SUPP2000.449
Research Number: NCW: 449
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceCommissioned from NCW by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1985, no. 2, color illustration in exhibition brochure
References
N. C. Wyeth, Income Tax Notes for 1940 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum library); "The Days of the Pilgrims Live Again in Our Murals," The Home Office (publication of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.), vol. 23, no. 7 (Dec. 1941), ps. 8-9; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), ps. 169-172; Robert San Souci, N. C. Wyeth's Pilgrims (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1991), color illustration (unpaginated); Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), M.63, p. 627
Curatorial RemarksThe Thanksgiving Feast, which originally included the section now known as Thanksgiving with the Indians, was the only mural completed by Jan. 1st, 1941 (NCW to Peter Hurd, Sept. 26, 1940, indicating that the mural on which Wyeth was working comprised some 60 figures; and NCW to Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Dec. 7, 1940, work finished, both Wyeth Family Archives). Archival photographs show both sections as originally conceived and painted in one unit, stretched along two walls of the artist's studio. In situ, the decoration occupied the entire wall of the Main Lounge in the Lunch Room area of Met Life's new building referred to as Unit 2. An undated photograph (Brandywine River Museum library, James P. Simpson collection) shows the mural in its original setting.
The Brandywine River Museum holds 11 lantern slides of the composition rendered in outline and ruled for transfer (NCWS.95.1825.303-.313), as documented in a letter of late September, "John (McCoy) has traced the sketches and these tracings have been made into slides...," (NCW to Andrew Wyeth, "Dear Andy, I've a few minutes left of daylight..." and dated in another hand Sept. 30, 1940, Wyeth Family Archives). NCW 1431 is the presentation sketch for this composition, and NCW 2160 is an early composition drawing. The Museum's collection also includes extensive correspondence between the artist and the architect Arthur O. Angilly which touches on all phases of the commission.
In the mid-1980s, the MetLife murals were removed from the walls of their original location at One Madison Avenue, New York, and placed on strainers. MetLife now occupies new corporate headquarters on Bryant Park, but this mural remains in the Madison Avenue building.
The Brandywine River Museum holds 11 lantern slides of the composition rendered in outline and ruled for transfer (NCWS.95.1825.303-.313), as documented in a letter of late September, "John (McCoy) has traced the sketches and these tracings have been made into slides...," (NCW to Andrew Wyeth, "Dear Andy, I've a few minutes left of daylight..." and dated in another hand Sept. 30, 1940, Wyeth Family Archives). NCW 1431 is the presentation sketch for this composition, and NCW 2160 is an early composition drawing. The Museum's collection also includes extensive correspondence between the artist and the architect Arthur O. Angilly which touches on all phases of the commission.
In the mid-1980s, the MetLife murals were removed from the walls of their original location at One Madison Avenue, New York, and placed on strainers. MetLife now occupies new corporate headquarters on Bryant Park, but this mural remains in the Madison Avenue building.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. Archival photo stamped March 12, 1941, showing N. C. Wyeth in the mural studio in Chadds Ford, posing in front of Thanksgiving with the Indians (Brandywine River Museum); 3. View of the murals in situ, in an undated photograph (Brandywine River Museum library, James P. Simpson collection)
Photo Credit:1. Photo by: Malcolm Varon, NYC, copyright © 2007; 2. Photo by Edward J. S. Seal; 3. photographer unknown