Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Clippers
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: SUPP2000.803
Research Number: NCW: 803
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceFirst National Bank of Boston; by corporate merger to present owner
References
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, 2 Sept. 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; "Clipper Ships: By N. C. Wyeth," illus. in color p. 16, and N. C. Wyeth, "Tramps and Clippers," p. 38, Ladies Home Journal, vol. XLII, no. 8 (August 1925, adapted from Boston Evening Transcript text noted above); John Walker Harrington, "Colorful Assets in the Murals," The Burroughs Clearing House (1926), p. 20; F. J. Stimson, "Boston of the Future," Scribner's Magazine, vol. LXXXIV, no. 1 (July 1928), illus. b/w p. 10; "N. C. Wyeth, noted illustrator..., " photograph by William Shewell Ellis, (Wilmington, DE) Delmarva Star, April 21, 1929, Rotogravure section, p. 2; Francis W. Hatch, "Sole Witness to the Wyeth Canal," Yankee Magazine, (Sept. 1970), p. 47; 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; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), M.24, p. 608, 609
Curatorial Remarks"The flight across the pouring seas like gulls tipping the wave-crests! The most beautiful image afloat ever created by the hand of man!" (from "The Mural Paintings, An Interview with the Painter N. C. Wyeth," pamphlet published by the First National Bank of Boston, n.d.).
With this mural in the background, the artist posed in his Chadds Ford studio for the Wilmington, DE, photographer William Shewell Ellis. The Brandywine River Museum library holds two archival photographs of the mural, both taken in the studio, one inscribed on the reverse in the artist's hand: "The Clippers" (underlined) / The First National / Bank of Boston / Mural -- 16 x 20 feet. The museum also holds two prints of this image (Brandywine River Museum library collection, 4451a, 4451b) marked in lower left: (c) Campbell Prints Inc. NY.
NCW 807 is the presentation painting for this mural, and NCW 2508 is an oil study marked by the artist "Sketch."
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.
With this mural in the background, the artist posed in his Chadds Ford studio for the Wilmington, DE, photographer William Shewell Ellis. The Brandywine River Museum library holds two archival photographs of the mural, both taken in the studio, one inscribed on the reverse in the artist's hand: "The Clippers" (underlined) / The First National / Bank of Boston / Mural -- 16 x 20 feet. The museum also holds two prints of this image (Brandywine River Museum library collection, 4451a, 4451b) marked in lower left: (c) Campbell Prints Inc. NY.
NCW 807 is the presentation painting for this mural, and NCW 2508 is an oil study marked by the artist "Sketch."
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. 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 (Library collection, Brandywine River Museum)
Photo Credit:1. Michael Gould