Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Elizabethan Galleons
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1924
Dimensions:
174 1/2 × 132 1/2 in. (443.2 × 336.6 cm)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.802
Research Number: NCW: 802
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceFirst National Bank of Boston; by corporate merger to present owner
References
"The Mural Paintings, An Interview with the Painter N. C. Wyeth," pamphlet published by the First National Bank of Boston, n.d.; N. C. Wyeth, "Banking Requires the Wings of the Sea," Boston Evening Transcript, Sept. 2, 1924; "Sea Trade from its Earliest Inception, Motif of Murals," Boston Herald, Sept. 2, 1924, (includes long quotation from NCW); "First National Bank of Boston, Boston, Mass," Architecture and Building Magazine, vol. LVI, no. 12 (Dec.1924), pg. 111-112, Plate no, 227; "Elizabethan Galleons: By N. C. Wyeth," illus. in color p. 17, and N. C. Wyeth, "Biremes and Galleons," p. 54, Ladies Home Journal, vol. XLII, no. 7 (July 1925, text adapted from Boston Evening Transcript article noted above); "N. C. Wyeth, painter of historic scenes...," (West Chester, PA) Daily Local News, Oct. 24, 1925, photograph by Chester H. Thomas, p. 7; "Paints Dozen Historic Posters," Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9, 1930, p.? (caption mentions Pennsylvania RR commission, but photo is by Chester Thomas); Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), ps. 698, 704; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 161; Francis W. Hatch, "Sole Witness to the Wyeth Canal," Yankee Magazine, (Sept. 1990), p. 47; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), M.23, p. 607
Curatorial Remarks"At the mercy of unchartered seas, the heave and lurch, the rattle and slap of rigging and sails, the whine of the wind in the shrouds, the sporadic shining and gleaming of a capricious sun, the menace of storm clouds? Who would not have sailed with them!" (from "The Mural Paintings, An Interview with the Painter N. C. Wyeth," pamphlet published by the First National Bank of Boston, n.d.).
Chester H. Thomas, a photographer from Kennett Square, PA, took several views of Wyeth posed on the mural stairs in the lower studio in Chadds Ford with this painting as a background. Wyeth kept a framed copy of one of these "portraits" near his desk in the main studio (N. C. Wyeth studio installation research, Brandywine River Museum). An archival photograph of the mural, taken in the artist's Chadds Ford studio, is inscribed on the reverse in the artist's hand: Elizabethan Galleons (underlined) / By the courtesy of and / copyrighted by / The First National Bank / of Boston (Brandywine River Museum library, N. C. Wyeth collection). The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide of the image (NCWS.95.1825.263), probably made from the archival photograph. NCW 808 is the presentation painting for the mural.
Bank of America's collection includes photographs of the mural in situ taken by Margaret Bourke-White on Oct. 29, 1929. The mural was removed from its position in the building at 67 Milk Street, Boston, in 1972.
Chester H. Thomas, a photographer from Kennett Square, PA, took several views of Wyeth posed on the mural stairs in the lower studio in Chadds Ford with this painting as a background. Wyeth kept a framed copy of one of these "portraits" near his desk in the main studio (N. C. Wyeth studio installation research, Brandywine River Museum). An archival photograph of the mural, taken in the artist's Chadds Ford studio, is inscribed on the reverse in the artist's hand: Elizabethan Galleons (underlined) / By the courtesy of and / copyrighted by / The First National Bank / of Boston (Brandywine River Museum library, N. C. Wyeth collection). The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide of the image (NCWS.95.1825.263), probably made from the archival photograph. NCW 808 is the presentation painting for the mural.
Bank of America's collection includes photographs of the mural in situ taken by Margaret Bourke-White on Oct. 29, 1929. The mural was removed from its position in the building at 67 Milk Street, Boston, in 1972.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. transparency directly from artwork 2. N. C. Wyeth in his Chadds Ford studio, painting "The Elizabethan Galleons," from an archival photograph, Brandywine River Museum library; 3. unidentified artist's rendering of interior, First National Bank of Boston, with two of the Wyeth pictures in situ (NCW 802 on the right and NCW 803 on left) published in the Boston Evening Transcript, Sept. 2, 1924
Photo Credit:1. Michael Gould; 2. Photo credit: Chester H. Thomas, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania