Pyle's Barn

Oil on canvas

ca. 1917-1921

32 1/4 × 39 3/4 in. (81.9 × 101 cm)

Brandywine Museum of Art, Gift of Amanda K. Berls, 1980

NCW: 402

ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (and with Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, 1956 - 1965, #54815); (possibly Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY); Amanda K. Berls, 1966-1980

InscribedLabel originally attached to stretcher but removed: N.C. WYETH 54815 / "PYLE'S BARN" / Ex. No. 18

Curatorial RemarksNotes written in 1980 (Ann Barton Brown, Brandywine River Museum curatorial file) describe a torn label (no longer extant) which was adhered to the reverse of the canvas with the words "illus. for Collier's / The three stood suspended". This information suggests that beneath the image of the barn is NCW 1631, a 1916 illustration for a Feb. 1917 issue of Collier's, making the date for the present work no earlier than summer 1917. No pentimenti confirm the under image and the painting has not been examined using x-radiography.
The barn was a favorite motif of the artist, and part of the property he rented from 1908 to 1911. Wyeth built a replica of the barn (NCWS.95.2003, Brandywine River Museum of Art) for his daughter Carolyn, presented at Christmas 1918. The Pyles were a Chadds Ford family of no relation to Howard Pyle.

ReferencesBrandywine River Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, 1969-1989 (Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine Conservancy, 1991), p. 214, b/w illustration p. 211; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.123, p. 738-739

Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 18; New York, NY, Coe Kerr Gallery, "A Tribute to American Realism, The Collection of Amanda K. Berls and Ruth A. Yerion," January 7- 31, 1976, illus., unpaginated; Chadds Ford, PA, 1980, no. 79, ps. 35 (illus), 36, and 63; Chadds Ford, PA, 1992; Chadds Ford, PA, 1997, no numbers; New Britain, CT, New Britain Museum of American Art, "Double Lives: American Painters as Illustrators, 1850-1950," Dec. 12, 2008 - Feb. 22, 2009 (also Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, Sept. 6 - Nov. , 2008); Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019 (and Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Oct. 4, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020, and Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 148

Image SourceTransparency directly from painting

Photo CreditNo credit on transparency