The rifle came down through the empty air. Like the wind itself, the silver queen shot into flight.

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

The rifle came down through the empty air. Like the wind itself, the silver queen shot into flight.

Alternate Title(s):Blue Lock, the Queen; Silver Queen Shot into Flight; Two Men and a Horse
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1916
Dimensions:
32 1/4 × 40 in. (81.9 × 101.6 cm)
The Hronopoulos Family Collection, La Jolla, CA
Accession number: SUPP2000.615
Research Number: NCW: 615
InscribedLower right: WYETH (underlined); written on reverse of canvas: -- 6 3/4
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (with Knoedler Galleries, # 54821); Carolyn Wyeth; (Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY, 1973); Anschutz Collection, Denver, CO, 1973 - 2005
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 9, as "Two Men and a Horse"; 18 venues, including 2 in China, April 1974 - March 1982, "American Masters in the West," sponsored by the Anschutz Collection; 24 US venues and 8 international venues, Nov. 1983 - Aug. 1991, "Masterpieces of the American West, Selections from the Anschutz Collection," sponsored by the Anschutz Collection, cat. number 89
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 256; Peggy and Harold Samuels, The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1976), fig. 319, as "Sliver Queen Shot into Flight"; Elizabeth Cunningham and George Schriever, Masterpieces of the American West, Selections from the Anschutz Collection (Denver, CO: Anschutz Collection, 1983), no. 89, as "Blue Lock, the Queen" ; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.625, p. 330
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. photography directly from painting; 2. reverse, showing backboard
Photo Credit:1. and 2. Courtesy of George Hronopoulos