Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Red Dory
Alternate Title(s):Checking the Traps; Dark Harbor Lobsterman
Medium: Oil on hardboard
Date: ca. 1937 / 1938
Dimensions:
25 × 40 in. (63.5 × 101.6 cm)
Grand Rapids Art Museum
Gift of Peter M. Wege, 2007
Accession number: SUPP2000.521
Research Number: NCW: 521
InscribedLower left, scratched into paint: N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceFrederick E. Stone, Wilmington, DE, and descended in family; (Christie's, New York, NY, Sept. 27, 1990, lot no. 327, as "Checking the Traps"); Private collections, MI, to 2007
Exhibition HistoryWashington, DC, 1939, no. 253, as "Dark Harbor Lobsterman," illus. b/w p. 104; New York, NY, 1939, no. 2, as "The Red Dory," illus. on exhibition invitation (see letter Robert Macbeth to NCW, Nov. 17, 1939, Wyeth Family Archives); possibly New York, NY, New York World's Fair, 1940; Utica, NY, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, "Picture of the Month," April 1941, as "The Red Dory" (in conjunction with a tribute to Robert Macbeth); Philadelphia, PA, 1941(3)
References
The (Washington, DC) Sunday Star, March 26, 1939, illus. b/w p. F-4, as "Dark Harbor Lobsterman"; N. C. Wyeth, Income Tax Notes for 1939 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum Library); Yankee Magazine, vol. XI, no. 5 (May 1947), illus. b/w, p. 24; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.207, p. 769
Curatorial RemarksNo archival material has been found to account for the change in title after the painting's exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in early 1939. But Wyeth seems to have preferred "The Red Dory," since he used it thereafter, at Macbeth Gallery in December, 1939; in his income tax notes for 1939; and in later exhibitions in Utica and Philadelphia.
The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide of the charcoal drawing for this painting (NCWS.95.1825.242).
The first owner of the painting, Frederick E. Stone, was president of the Wilmington Savings Fund Society. In 1930, Stone had commissioned "The Apotheosis of the Family" for the bank's main office.
The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide of the charcoal drawing for this painting (NCWS.95.1825.242).
The first owner of the painting, Frederick E. Stone, was president of the Wilmington Savings Fund Society. In 1930, Stone had commissioned "The Apotheosis of the Family" for the bank's main office.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Transparency supplied by Christie's, 1990