Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Boy's King Arthur, cover illustration
Alternate Title(s):Two Knights: A Sword Fight on Horseback
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1917
Dimensions:
40 5/8 × 29 7/8 in. (103.2 × 75.9 cm)
The Kelly Collection of American Illustration
Accession number: SUPP2000.175
Research Number: NCW: 175
InscribedUpper right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY; (with Scribner's retail department, 1927); (?); (Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY); Mr. Yale Kneeland III, by 1974; private collection, Jacksonville, FL, 1984 - ca. 1991; (American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY); (Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE, 1993)
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 110, as "Two Knights: A Sword Fight on Horseback" (identified incorrectly as being from The White Company); Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 39; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 97; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 75; Washington, D. C., Federal Reserve System, "Art of the Illustrator, Works from the Kelly Collection of American Illustration," June 2 - Nov. 28, 1997, cover illus. in color, no. 32 pg. 21; Newport News, VA, 2000; New York, NY, Dahesh Museum, "Stories to Tell: Masterworks from the Kelly Collection of American Illustration," Feb. 14 - May 21, 2006, no. 85, illus. p. 10; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, "Enchanted Castles and Noble Knights," Nov. 28, 2014-Jan. 4, 2015
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 550; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 209; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York: Brompton Books Corp., Crescent Books, 1992), illus. in color p. 54; Guida M. Jackson, Encyclopedia of Traditional Epics (Santa Barbara, CA: A B C-Clio, 1994), illus. b/w p. 34; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.658, p. 343
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum holds the copy of the Boy's King Arthur that Wyeth read in preparation for this commission (NCWS.95.171, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908. Illustrations by Alfred Kappes) and marked with notes as he selected the incidents to picture.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Greg Staley