Untitled (Figure of a woman in 17th-century dress)

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)
Sitter:

Judith Bayard Stuyvesant

Untitled (Figure of a woman in 17th-century dress)

Medium: Gouache on paper
Date: ca. 1930
Dimensions:
12 3/4 × 7 15/16 in. (32.4 × 20.2 cm)
Brandywine Museum of Art, Bequest of Carolyn Wyeth, 1996
Accession number: 96.1.61
Label Copy:
Andrew Wyeth believed that this figure represents the wife of Peter Stuyvesant; researchers at the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia agree it may be Judith Bayard Stuyvesant.

The image is similar in size, medium, and composition to the portrait of Johan Printz which Wyeth did for the frontispiece illustration to Christopher Ward's The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware 1609-64 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1930) and was probably executed as an additional illustration for that publication. In the text, however, there is no mention of Stuyvesant's wife and little mention of any females other than Christina of Sweden, so the figure's identity remains a mystery.
Research Number: NCW: 897
InscribedNone on recto or verso
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth
References Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1146, p. 528, 529
Curatorial RemarksAndrew Wyeth believes that this figure represents the wife of Peter Stuyvesant; researchers at the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia agree it may be Judith Bayard Stuyvesant.
The image is similiar in size, medium, and composition to the portrait of Johan Printz which Wyeth did for the frontispiece illustration to Christopher Ward's The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware 1609-64 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1930) and was probably executed as an additional illustration for that publication. In the text, however, there is no mention of Stuyvesant's wife and little mention of any females other than Christina of Sweden, so the figure's identity remains a mystery.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, ordered 1/2005