Poems of American Patriotism, endpaper illustration

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

Poems of American Patriotism, endpaper illustration

Alternate Title(s):American Eagle
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1922
Dimensions:
27 × 40 1/8 in. (68.6 × 101.9 cm)
Collection of the Hill School, Pottstown, PA
Accession number: SUPP2000.770
Research Number: NCW: 770
InscribedLower right: W (encircled)
ProvenanceN. C. Wyeth; purchased by Michael F. Sweeney for The Hill School, 1923
Exhibition HistoryLititz, PA, 1991; Roanoke, VA, 1991; Rockland, ME, Farnsworth Art Museum, "Poems of American Patriotism," May 15 - Sept. 26, 2010; Sandwich, MA, Heritage Museum and Gardens, "The Wyeths: America Reflected," June 6 - Sept. 27, 2015
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 212; "Sweeney's Legacy," Hill (The Hill School Bulletin), Sept. 1980, illus. ps. 14-15; Tom Brokaw, et al, One Nation, Patriots and Pirates Portrayed by N. C. Wyeth and James Wyeth (Boston: Bulfinch Press, Little Brown and Co., 2000), fig. 28 on p. 29; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.896, p. 434; Martha Severens, "The Wyeths: America Reflected," American Art Review, vol. xxvii, no. 3 (May-June 2015), illus. p. 101; Cécile Whiting, “Andrew Wyeth and Birds of War,” Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art 7, no. 2 (Fall 2021), https://doi.org/10.24926/24716839.12367.
Curatorial RemarksThe unillustrated edition of Poems of American Patriotism that the artist read and annotated in preparation for this commission is in the collection of the Brandywine River Museum (NCWS.95.157). The artist's reaction to the Hill School purchase is expressed in a letter to Arthur L. Bailey, librarian of the Wilmington Institute Library, "At present, I am sitting on top of the world!" (NCW to ALB, May 14, 1923, Wilmington Institute Library).
This canvas was treated during the summer of 2017 by Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner at the University of Delaware/Winterthur Conservation lab.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 4/14/1999