Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Black Spruce Ledge (Lobstering Off Black Spruce Ledge)
Medium: Tempera on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1939
Dimensions:
33 1/2 × 42 in. (85.1 × 106.7 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.608
Research Number: NCW: 608
InscribedLower left.: N. C. WYETH (underlined); painted on reverse in NCW's hand: "BLACK SPRUCE / LEDGE" / PAINTED IN EGG TEMPERA / ON GESSO GROUND / DO NOT VARNISH (underlined) / N.C. WYETH / PORT CLYDE / MAINE 1939; adhered to panel, Renaissance Panel label no. 812 dated 10/6/1939; adhered to reverse of panel, (Knoedler's) label: No. 703 / PICTURE; (Knoedler's) label adhered to top frame member: No. 703 / FRAME; written along top of frame liner: YELLOW + BLUE CLAYS
ProvenanceThe artist to 1940; Forbes Lithographic Mfg. Co., New York, NY; (?); (Hirschl & Adler, New York, NY, 1986-1988); (Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY, ca. 1988); (with Lisa Dawn Schneider Curatorial Consultants and Galleries, New York, NY, 1988; Private collection, New York, NY, 1988-2011; (New York, NY, Christies, Nov. 30, 2011, lot no. 90).
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1939, no. 6; Portland, ME, 2000, illustration in color, fig. 25, p. 40; Chadds Ford, PA, 2003; 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. 189
References
N. C. Wyeth, Income Tax Notes for 1939 and for 1940, (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum Library); Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.217, p. 773
Curatorial RemarksIn the summer of 1939, the artist began to work in tempera, a medium he learned about from his son-in-law Peter Hurd and his son Andrew. In late August he wrote, "I start tomorrow on my first tempera panel for myself. I shall have a full month to do what I want." Later in the fall, he wrote to Peter Hurd "Three new Maine temperas you haven't seen deal with the lobstermen..." One of the three was this painting which the artist sold to Forbes Lithographic Mfg. Company for $750 in January, 1940. Forbes reproduced the image as an art print and a calendar image, both entitled "Lobstering Off Black Spruce Ledge." Wyeth completed another version of the painting (NCW 1426) in 1941.
A composition drawing in charcoal dated 1939 (NCW 2058) appears in a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.250, Brandywine River Museum) that was undoubtedly used in the transfer of the design from paper to panel. The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth collection includes a related drawing in pencil (NCW 2204).
In an undated and unattributed review of New York 1939 (probably by Henry McBride, in the New York Sun, BRM library), the author felt that this picture demonstrated the influence of modern photography on the artist's work, "...the clouds in the picture...might almost have been first caught by the camera, so like they are to the effects seen in prize-winning photos."
A composition drawing in charcoal dated 1939 (NCW 2058) appears in a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.250, Brandywine River Museum) that was undoubtedly used in the transfer of the design from paper to panel. The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth collection includes a related drawing in pencil (NCW 2204).
In an undated and unattributed review of New York 1939 (probably by Henry McBride, in the New York Sun, BRM library), the author felt that this picture demonstrated the influence of modern photography on the artist's work, "...the clouds in the picture...might almost have been first caught by the camera, so like they are to the effects seen in prize-winning photos."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:no credit given