Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Half Moon in the Hudson (decoration in three panels)
Medium: Oil on canvas (adhered to wall at site)
Date: 1924
Dimensions:
each panel approximately 14 × 8 ft. (4.27 × 2.44 m)
disposition unknown
Accession number: SUPP2000.2412
Research Number: NCW: 2412
InscribedRight panel in lower right: N. C. WYETH / 1924 (from reproductions)
ProvenanceHotel Roosevelt, New York, NY
References
N. C. Wyeth to Roger L. Scaife of Houghton Mifflin Company, July 8, 1924 (Houghton Mifflin Archives, Houghton Library, Harvard University); "The First Albany "Day Boat": The Half Moon," New York Times, Sept. 14, 1924, p. RPA2; "Roosevelt Opens Monday," (Boston) Evening Transcript, Sept. 20, 1924; A. M. Adams, "The United Enters New York--Why and How," The National Hotel Review, Hotel Roosevelt Section (New York: Gehring Publishing Co., Oct. 25, 1924), ps. 31, 54; "Hotel Roosevelt, New York City," Architecture and Building Magazine, vol. LVI, no. 11 (Nov. 1924), p. 102, Plate 209; Isabel Hoopes, "N. C. Wyeth," All Arts Magazine (Sept. 1925), ps. 9, 11, 13; "The Half Moon in the Hudson," The World (New York), Color Gravure Section, Sept. 26, 1926, full color reproduction (central panel only); Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall, How the Old World Found the New (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1929), frontispiece in color (central panel only); Charles G. Vannest and Henry Lester Smith, Socialized History of the United States (New York: Scribner's, 1931, 1934, 1936), p. 13 (central panel only); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), ps. 161, 166-167; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), M.26, p. 610
Curatorial RemarksIn July 1924, the artist notified Roger Scaife of Houghton Mifflin Company that he had sold several Courtship of Miles Standish paintings to the as yet unopened Hotel Roosevelt and that he was currently working on a mural for the hotel's dining room; the motif, he noted, was Henry Hudson's Half Moon passing up the river. He created the scene in three panels of equal size which were painted in his Chadds Ford studio. The Wyeth Family Archives includes a photograph of N. C. Wyeth standing in his Chadds Ford studio in front of the left and central panels.
The mural in situ was described as "wholly posteresque in its treatment, [giving] the note to every other feature in the room....in the picture, sunlight shines from cliffs on the opposite sides of the river...but in the foreground, the near bank, is in deep shadows of which a rich blue forms the prevailing tone. This blue it is that is reflected from other portions of the room, from the window hangings, from the chair seats, and from the carpet." (National Hotel Review, Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.819; see also, "The Roosevelt," BRM library # 16701.1)
The BRM holds color proofs found in the studio for the reproduction of the central panel in Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall, How the Old World Found the New (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1929).;In a letter to Christopher Ward (dated Sept. 19, 1924, MSS 107-24-F138, Collection of the University of Delaware), Henriette Wyeth wrote, "You will be interested to know that Papa just returned from New York after three days hard work superintending the putting up of the three panels in the "Roosevelt." They are quite the most decorative and succesful murals he has painted, and are arousing much admiration and comment. The "John Alden" illustration was hung also, and looks extremely well."
The mural in situ was described as "wholly posteresque in its treatment, [giving] the note to every other feature in the room....in the picture, sunlight shines from cliffs on the opposite sides of the river...but in the foreground, the near bank, is in deep shadows of which a rich blue forms the prevailing tone. This blue it is that is reflected from other portions of the room, from the window hangings, from the chair seats, and from the carpet." (National Hotel Review, Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.819; see also, "The Roosevelt," BRM library # 16701.1)
The BRM holds color proofs found in the studio for the reproduction of the central panel in Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall, How the Old World Found the New (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1929).;In a letter to Christopher Ward (dated Sept. 19, 1924, MSS 107-24-F138, Collection of the University of Delaware), Henriette Wyeth wrote, "You will be interested to know that Papa just returned from New York after three days hard work superintending the putting up of the three panels in the "Roosevelt." They are quite the most decorative and succesful murals he has painted, and are arousing much admiration and comment. The "John Alden" illustration was hung also, and looks extremely well."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Digital scan from printed source (Hoopes, above); 2. Digital scan of center panel in color, from print source ("The World," above); 3. Dining room of the Hotel Roosevelt, showing NCW 2412 in situ (National Hotel Review, above); digital scan of archival photo, Wyeth Family Archives
Photo Credit:1. Library of Congress Photoduplication Service; 2. Rick Echelmeyer; 3 and 4, photographers unknown