The Story of Furs

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

The Story of Furs

Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1940
Dimensions:
27 × 25 in. (68.6 × 63.5 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.824
Research Number: NCW: 824
InscribedUpper right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); adhered to reverse of panel, Renaissance Panel label no. 816 dated 10/18/39; painted on reverse of panel: Return of the Fur Hunter
ProvenanceJohn Morrell & Company, Ottumwa, IA; gift to The University of South Dakota, 1941; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, lot no. 159, Dec. 3, 2003)
References Milo Dailey, "Given to University by John Morrell & Co. Collection of N. C. Wyeth Paintings Hanging in USD School of Business, " Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, Sept. 13, 1972, p. 19; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), ps. 156, 291; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.134, p. 682
Curatorial RemarksThe artist's income tax notes for 1940 itemize the expenses involved in creating this painting. Besides the usual costs for materials and models, a particular expense for this painting was "Trip to Peabody Museum (Cambridge, Mass.)," Harvard's museum of archaeology and ethnology. The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide (NCWS.95.1825.149) used in the transfer of the design from paper (NCW 1479) to panel.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Sotheby's, 9/2003