Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Lovers
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1911
Dimensions:
dimensions unavailable
known by reproduction only
Accession number: SUPP2000.1766
Research Number: NCW: 1766
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 11 (from reproduction)
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), ps. 381-382; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 208; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.327, p. 217
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter to Mary Johnston (Jan. 27, 1911, WFA), Wyeth cited chapter 19 as his inspiration for this picture, but confessed to a lack of information about the dress of each of the figures. "What sort of outside wrap and bonnet would [Judith] wear this spring afternoon? And please, say a few words about her hair and face? And Colonel Cleave, would he wear a cavalryman's jacket, or a coat with skirts? A sash?...I find that the selection of his costume is so much a matter of choice. I think it better for you to decide." Mary Johnston responded with watercolor sketches done by a friend, Richmond poet and artist Margaret May Dashiell (1869-1958). The Brandywine River Museum of Art holds two sheets of sketches (96.1.122).
Despite the guidance from Johnston and Dashiell, Wyeth admitted to having trouble with this picture, and finally "cast it aside and started a new one." (NCW to MJ, Feb. 20, 1911, WFA ) Mary Johnston evidently recommended that the two figures were of the same height, but Wyeth allowed "I could not for the life of me" make them equally tall without dwarfing the hero." "The romantic appeal," he wrote, "came from making Cleave dominant in height."
"Yesterday morning, I shipped my fourth Civil War picture, "The Lovers." I am glad they're off on their honeymoon! It was wearing to see them, day after day, nestled in each others arms, on the verge of a loud resounding kiss. I felt always like saying, "For heaven sake, do it!" (NCW to ANW, Feb. 24, 1911, WFA).
The Wyeth Family Archives includes photographs of the countryside around Warm Springs, Virginia, which Mary Johnston sent to the artist. Wyeth was intensely disappointed in the quality of these reproductions, calling them "miserable smudges," and asserting that by publishing them Houghton Mifflin had done him "considerable damage" (Wyeth, ed., above)
Despite the guidance from Johnston and Dashiell, Wyeth admitted to having trouble with this picture, and finally "cast it aside and started a new one." (NCW to MJ, Feb. 20, 1911, WFA ) Mary Johnston evidently recommended that the two figures were of the same height, but Wyeth allowed "I could not for the life of me" make them equally tall without dwarfing the hero." "The romantic appeal," he wrote, "came from making Cleave dominant in height."
"Yesterday morning, I shipped my fourth Civil War picture, "The Lovers." I am glad they're off on their honeymoon! It was wearing to see them, day after day, nestled in each others arms, on the verge of a loud resounding kiss. I felt always like saying, "For heaven sake, do it!" (NCW to ANW, Feb. 24, 1911, WFA).
The Wyeth Family Archives includes photographs of the countryside around Warm Springs, Virginia, which Mary Johnston sent to the artist. Wyeth was intensely disappointed in the quality of these reproductions, calling them "miserable smudges," and asserting that by publishing them Houghton Mifflin had done him "considerable damage" (Wyeth, ed., above)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:web: digital scan from printed image, Brandywine River Museum library; hardcover: digital photography from printed source
Photo Credit:web: BRM staff, 1/2006; Rick Echelmeyer, 9/20/2006