Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Sirens
Alternate Title(s):Odysseus and the Sirens
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1929
Dimensions:
48 1/2 × 38 1/4 in. (123.2 × 97.2 cm)
Brandywine Museum of Art, Museum purchase, 1991
Accession number: 91.2
Copyright: © Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Label Copy:
To create the illustrations for The Odyssey of Homer, Wyeth used many of the modernist conventions that he began exploring in the late 1920s in his personal painting. The tension between the modernist style and an older—in this case, ancient—narrative was a dynamic Wyeth often set up in both his commissioned and personal work during this period. Documented at the Brandywine River Museum of Art is a copy of The Odyssey of Homer with the following notation in N. C. Wyeth's hand underneath the illustration of The Sirens: "This illustration gives me more satisfaction than any one of the others of this series from the standpoint of design, execution and dramatic expression (signed) N. C. WYETH."
The Brandywine River Museum of Art holds archival photographs of this canvas in a preliminary stage, with the charcoal design drawn in but before the addition of color (# 3367). The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth collection includes a page of preliminary composition studies (NCW 2176) annotated in the artist's hand, "Trial composition sketches / for The Sirens (underlined)/ N. C. W." The Wyeth Family Archives includes the copy of the book that N. C. Wyeth read and annotated in preparation for the commission, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891). The book has notes about the commission and for "The Illustrator’s Preface" in NCW's hand.
To create the illustrations for The Odyssey of Homer, Wyeth used many of the modernist conventions that he began exploring in the late 1920s in his personal painting. The tension between the modernist style and an older—in this case, ancient—narrative was a dynamic Wyeth often set up in both his commissioned and personal work during this period. Documented at the Brandywine River Museum of Art is a copy of The Odyssey of Homer with the following notation in N. C. Wyeth's hand underneath the illustration of The Sirens: "This illustration gives me more satisfaction than any one of the others of this series from the standpoint of design, execution and dramatic expression (signed) N. C. WYETH."
The Brandywine River Museum of Art holds archival photographs of this canvas in a preliminary stage, with the charcoal design drawn in but before the addition of color (# 3367). The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth collection includes a page of preliminary composition studies (NCW 2176) annotated in the artist's hand, "Trial composition sketches / for The Sirens (underlined)/ N. C. W." The Wyeth Family Archives includes the copy of the book that N. C. Wyeth read and annotated in preparation for the commission, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891). The book has notes about the commission and for "The Illustrator’s Preface" in NCW's hand.
Research Number: NCW: 588
InscribedUpper left: N. C. WYETH / ©; 2 labels on reverse, 1. an exhibition label: "Detach this stub [label torn] ack of Frame / Tie or Gl [label torn] Works. / Title Odysseus [label torn] irens / Artist N. C. Wyeth / Return Address C [label torn] ADDS FORD PA [some of this in N. C. Wyeth's hand]; 2. on stretcher, lower right: FARMERS BANK / 00001; on canvas in red: "10" with a circle around it
ProvenanceThe artist to late 1930; Mrs. T. Whitney Blake, Katonah, NY, 1930-?; (?); (Helen L. Card, New York, NY, 1960); Private collection, NJ, ca. 1960-1965; (Greenwood Bookshop, Wilmington, DE); (?); Corporate collection, Pittsburgh, PA; (Richard York Gallery, New York, 1990)
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, 1930, no. 11; Wilmington, DE, 1930(1), no. 20; Easton, MD, Academy of the Arts, "America's Storytellers: N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle", Dec. 2, 1999 - Jan. 22, 2000; Rockland, Maine, Farnsworth Art Museum, "Every Picture Tells a Story," April 27-Dec. 30, 2013;
References
Ernest W. Watson, "N. C. Wyeth: Giant On A Hilltop," American Artist, vol. 9 no. 1 (Jan. 1945), color illus. p. 21; May Hill Arbuthnot, Children in Books (Chicago: Scott Foresman and Co., 1947), illus. p. 270; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 213; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1101, p. 515
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum holds archival photographs of this canvas in a preliminary stage, with the charcoal design drawn in but before the addition of color (# 3367). The Andrew and Betsy Weyth collection includes a page of preliminary composition studies (NCW 2176) annotated in the artist's hand "Trial composition sketches / for The Sirens (underlined)/ N. C. W. The Wyeth Family Archives includes the copy of the book that N. C. Wyeth read and annotated in preparation for the commission, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. The book was found with notes about the commission in NCW's hand, a copy of a letter to Lovell Thompson of Houghton Mifflin dated August 3, 1929, Thompson's reply, dated August 7, 1929, and notes made by NCW for the Illustrator's preface.
Documented at the Brandywine River Museum is a copy of The Odyssey of Homer with the following notation in N. C. Wyeth's hand underneath the illustration of The Sirens: This illustration gives me more satisfaction than any one of the others of this series from the standpoint of design, execution and dramatic expression (signed) N. C. WYETH. In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174).
Documented at the Brandywine River Museum is a copy of The Odyssey of Homer with the following notation in N. C. Wyeth's hand underneath the illustration of The Sirens: This illustration gives me more satisfaction than any one of the others of this series from the standpoint of design, execution and dramatic expression (signed) N. C. WYETH. In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:1. Brandywine River Museum photography files. 2. Archival photograph (Brandywine River Museum library collection, #3367), showing composition drawn on canvas, prior to application of paint