Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Beethoven and Nature
Alternate Title(s):Beethoven
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1917
Dimensions:
48 9/16 × 42 1/2 in. (123.3 × 108 cm)
Courtesy of the Steinway Art Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.543
Research Number: NCW: 543
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH / © N. WYETH and SON
ProvenanceSteinway & Sons, New York, NY
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1917, no. 120, as "Beethoven"; New York, NY, 1922, illus. ps. 51 and 145; Montgomery, AL, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, "American Paintings from Corporate Collections," March 7 - May 6, 1979 [also Washington, DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art; Indianapolis, IN, Indianapolis Museum of Art; San Diego, CA, San Diego Museum of Art], p. 102, illus. p. 103; Chadds Ford, PA, 1997, no numbers
References
James Huneker, The Steinway Collection of Paintings by American Artists Together with Prose Portraits of the Great Composers (New York: Steinway & Sons, 1919); "The Second Annual of Illustrations for Advertisements in the United States" (New York: The Art Directors Club, 1923), ps. 51 & 145; Osbourne McConathy, ed., Music Highways and Byways (New York: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1936); Madeleine Goss, Beethoven Master Musician (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1931), frontispiece; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 145, illus. in b/w on p. 148; James F. Green, The New Hess Catalogue of Beethoven's Works, West Newbury, VT: Vance Brook Publishing, 2003, cover illustration; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.34, p. 648; Silke Bettermann, Beethoven im Bild (Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus/Carus, 2012), ps. 61 and 122, illus. p. 60; Diego Cordoba, "N. C. Wyeth," in Illustrators Magazine (London: The Book Place), Autumn 2018, issue 23, illus. p. 27
Curatorial RemarksJust before beginning this commission, Wyeth read Schindler's biography of Beethoven to acquaint himself "with a few incidental details of B's appearance" although his "conception had been formed for months" (NCW to Stimson Wyeth, Feb. 28, 1917, Wyeth Family Archives). Wyeth's letter to his mother dated Nov. 1, 1917, contains the postscript, "Finished the cows in the moonlight yesterday. My best work. It, and the Beethoven and a big snow landscape will be in the Wil. show."
For his birthday in October, 1917, Wyeth received from his brother Stimson a bust of Beethoven (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.4588). He wrote that Stimson had "picked out the one I love the most out of the larger collection the Caproni's show in their catalogue. It was the one I studied most when I painted the Steinway picture" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Just a note before the rush..." and dated in another hand Nov. 1, 1917, Wyeth Family Archives). The letter makes clear that also for his birthday, Carolyn Bockius Wyeth "promised" him the Beethoven death mask (NCWS.95.1532), so both three dimensional "portraits" of Beethoven found in the artist's studio were acquired after this painting was completed.
For his birthday in October, 1917, Wyeth received from his brother Stimson a bust of Beethoven (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.4588). He wrote that Stimson had "picked out the one I love the most out of the larger collection the Caproni's show in their catalogue. It was the one I studied most when I painted the Steinway picture" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Just a note before the rush..." and dated in another hand Nov. 1, 1917, Wyeth Family Archives). The letter makes clear that also for his birthday, Carolyn Bockius Wyeth "promised" him the Beethoven death mask (NCWS.95.1532), so both three dimensional "portraits" of Beethoven found in the artist's studio were acquired after this painting was completed.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 1997