Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
It was a magnificent finale, a sight for men and gods. Like the wind he flung by the other horse, and two lengths ahead he went by the corral gate
Alternate Title(s):The Lady Wins
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1915
Dimensions:
36 × 60 in. (91.4 × 152.4 cm)
American Museum of Western Art - The Anschutz Collection
Denver, CO
Accession number: SUPP2000.735
Research Number: NCW: 735
InscribedLower right: To my friend Peter Hurd / from N C WYETH / 1923; on stretcher bar: The Lady Wins by N. C. Wyeth Property of Peter Hurd
ProvenanceThe artist to 1923; Peter Hurd; Harold Hurd, Roswell, NH; Peter Hurd, San Patricio, NM, to at least 1978; (?); (Frontier Spirit Gallery, La Jolla, CA); (Rosenstock Gallery, Denver, CO, 1986); Collection of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Weiss, 1986 - 2005; (Big Horn Gallery, Cody, WY, 2005)
Exhibition HistoryCody, WY, 1980, p. 57, as "The Lady Wins"; New York, NY, Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc., "Masters of the West," Dec. 4 - 29, 1984
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 256; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.579, p. 310
Curatorial RemarksThe artist wrote to his mother in September, 1915, "I have just signed a big canvas for Collier's. A Mexican horserace...in color and interpretation of light it is one of my best." According to David Michaelis's biography of N. C. Wyeth, the artist met Peter Hurd in December, 1923. With N. C. Wyeth's knowledge, Hurd must have given the painting to his father, Harold Hurd, for a letter from the artist to Henriette Wyeth Hurd indicates that a "canvas depicting a race of a great black horse" was owned by the senior Hurd in 1944 (NCW to Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Oct. 13, 1944, Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Digital image directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of W. D. Weiss