Westward Ho!, cover illustration

In preparation for this commission, the artist read and annotated an edition of Westward Ho! published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, London, 1907 (Brandywine Museum of Art, Walter & Leonore Annenberg Research Center, # 22481). To research galleons of the period, Wyeth had assistance from fellow Pyle student Sidney M. Chase, who provided him with books and prints from the Haverhill, Massachusetts, public library (see NCW to SMC, Dec. 27, 1919, Wyeth Family Archives).

Cover illustrations were particularly important to the publisher—that first image was the one to attract buyers in a bookshop window. On Dec. 30, 1919, the artist reported, "Westward Ho! cover is drawn in and ready for color and looks very promising" (NCW to "Dear Folks," Dec. 30, 1919, Wyeth Family Archives). In a letter to Joseph H. Chapin, art editor at Scribner's, the artist recounted that this canvas, for all the detail and lettering, took him ten days to complete (see NCW to Joseph Hawley Chapin dated in NCW's hand "Friday Morning / 5.30 o'clock," Archives of Charles Scribner's Sons, Princeton University). Pentimenti from the hand-lettering are still visible above and below the image, although several inches have been cut from the top of the painting.