Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Saturday Evening Post, cover illustration
Alternate Title(s):Bronco Buster; Bucking Bronco
Medium: Oil on canvas on hardboard
Date: 1903
Dimensions:
27 1/2 × 19 1/2 in. (69.9 × 49.5 cm)
Museum of the American West collection, Autry National Center, Los Angeles
Accession number: SUPP2000.568
Research Number: NCW: 568
InscribedLower left: N. C. Wyeth / -03-
ProvenancePurchased in early 1900s and descended in family of first owner; (Christies, New York, NY, Sept. 27, 1990, lot no. 326)
Exhibition HistoryIndianapolis, IN, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, "Illustrators of the American West," July 9 - Sept. 19, 1993, unnumbered checklist; Chadds Ford, PA, 2002(2); Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019 (and Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Oct. 4, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020, and Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 113;
References
Dudley Lunt, "The Howard Pyle School of Art," Delaware History, vol. V, no. 3 (March 1953), p. 161; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 28; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations, and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 271; James H. Duff, The Western World of N. C. Wyeth (Cody, WY: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1982), p. 9; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 67; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.7, p. 103; Peter Ker, "The Complicated Legacy of N. C. Wyeth," PMA Magazine (Portland, ME: Portland Museum of Art), Fall 2019, illus. p. 22;
Curatorial RemarksThis was Wyeth's second attempt at this image, and it shows minor variations from the first which had been signed "Sketch-1902" (NCW 1078). Clearly Wyeth preferred the second version, writing "I finished the bucking horse today. It simply knocks the other flat" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, Jan. 5, 1903, Wyeth Family Archives). The 1907 reproduction is not mentioned in the artist's correspondence and it is not known whether he or the Saturday Evening Post sold the reproduction rights to F. A. Schneider.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Photography directly from painting
Photo Credit:Museum of the American West collection, Autry National Center, Los Angeles