Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Puritan Cod Fishers, composition drawing for Metropolitan Life mural
Alternate Title(s):Puritan Cod Fishers
Medium: Charcoal and graphite on paper
Date: 1944/1945
Dimensions:
38 1/4 × 54 in. (97.2 × 137.2 cm)
Brandywine Museum of Art, Bequest of Carolyn Wyeth, 1996
Accession number: 96.1.532
Research Number: NCW: 2057
InscribedAlong bottom at lower left: PURITAN COD FISHERS; at center: Escalator Hall; at lower right: 12 SLIDES PANEL 310; on verso in pencil, upper left: mural seascape; at lower left: WYETH / N. C. WYETH / Chadds Ford / Pa; in colored pencil along right edge: Puritan Fishing for Met Life Mural
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth
Curatorial RemarksN. C. Wyeth's major work for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was completed by 1941, however, in 1944 he agreed to do another group of murals and began to plan the designs. The drawing for "Puritan Cod Fishers" was complete at the time of his death. The artist's son Andrew Wyeth, probably with the help of son-in-law John McCoy, transferred the design to canvas. Andrew recalled later that he painted this mural himself, while John McCoy painted another of native Americans. Photographic negatives, showing the drawing ruled and numbered for transfer, were found in McCoy's studio (see Ann Wyeth McCoy gift to Brandywine Museum Library).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:photography directly from artwork
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer