Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Wasteful West, untitled headpiece illustration (bison)
Alternate Title(s):American Bison
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1905
Dimensions:
21 × 21 in. (53.3 × 53.3 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1907
Research Number: NCW: 1907
InscribedUpper right: WYETH / 1 9 0 5 (double underline); inscribed in longhand on reverse of canvas: The Wasteful West / Wyeth / (illegible group of letters or numbers); stamped on side stretcher member: THE (illegible) STRETCHER / PAT. APPL. 19 (illegible) / BY BIELENBERG & CO. / NEW YORK
Provenance(?); Ralph S. Day, Leonia, NJ, ca. mid 1930s to 1977; Mrs. Ralph S. Day to 1986; Private collection, Dumont, NJ; [Waldwick, NJ, Leighton Galleries, Nov. 15, 2018, lot no. 33]; Private collection
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, Curtis Publishing Company, Oct. 1905
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 272; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.88, p. 128
Curatorial RemarksWyeth wrote to both his mother and Carolyn Bockius that he had received work from the Post, a cover and five illustrations for an Emerson Hough article. This image was probably intended as the cover illustration, given the square format which the Post used. "I got the work yesterday and completed the cover to-day at noon...(a buffalo bull--on a hilltop, bellowing, in bright moon light) quite effective I think if they can print it decently (NCW to Carolyn Bockius, dated by NCW only Sunday--4:30, "It's going to gust...," and in another hand dated Aug. 13, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives). For this commission (5 paintings), Wyeth received $275.00, "d____ good for any magazine" he wrote (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Dear Mama, I know I haven't written" and dated Oct. 1, 1905 in another hand, Wyeth Family Archives).
In the Post layout, this image became a headpiece illustration. Art editors chose to use a painting of moose by Philip Goodwin for the cover.
"The Kit Carson drawings are creating quite a stir at the Curtis Pub. Co., as I saw to-day that they had them all framed in gold and hung on exhibition down in their big hall. They were the only pictures on the wall of deep red plush and I tell you they look pretty well" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Dear Mama, My heavens!..." and dated in another hand Oct. 5, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives).
In the Post layout, this image became a headpiece illustration. Art editors chose to use a painting of moose by Philip Goodwin for the cover.
"The Kit Carson drawings are creating quite a stir at the Curtis Pub. Co., as I saw to-day that they had them all framed in gold and hung on exhibition down in their big hall. They were the only pictures on the wall of deep red plush and I tell you they look pretty well" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Dear Mama, My heavens!..." and dated in another hand Oct. 5, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 7/15/2005