Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Christmas Morning
Alternate Title(s):Winter
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1913
Dimensions:
47 × 38 in. (119.4 × 96.5 cm)
Needham Historical Society, Needham, MA
Gift of Stimson Wyeth
Accession number: SUPP2000.1320
Research Number: NCW: 1320
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 1913
ProvenanceThe artist; Stimson Wyeth to ca. 1960
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 58; Needham, MA, 1967, no. 9, as "Winter"; Needham, MA, 1968, no. 11, as "Winter"
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 276; Robert Taylor, "N. C. Wyeth: great illustrator, and much more," The (Boston) Sunday Globe, Oct. 17, 1982, illustration in b/w p. A37; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), P.15, p. 805
Curatorial RemarksThe old man is a portrait from memory of the artist's grandfather Jean Denys Zirngiebel (d. 1905); the painting was probably conceived and executed during an extended visit the Wyeths made to Needham from mid Nov. 1912 to mid March 1913. At that time, the house (Joshua Lewis House, Needham, MA, 1776) belonged to Jean Denys Zirngiebel, Jr., the artist's uncle. Wyeth himself owned the house between 1921 and 1923.
Scribner's purchased only the right to reproduce the painting in the magazine (Brandywine River Museum library, Scribner's Archive, #30644), and for a short time retained the right to sell the painting for $200, with $150 going to the artist. A snapshot filed with letters dated November 1914 however shows the unframed painting hanging over the double entrance doors of Wyeth's Chadds Ford studio.
Scribner's purchased only the right to reproduce the painting in the magazine (Brandywine River Museum library, Scribner's Archive, #30644), and for a short time retained the right to sell the painting for $200, with $150 going to the artist. A snapshot filed with letters dated November 1914 however shows the unframed painting hanging over the double entrance doors of Wyeth's Chadds Ford studio.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Thomas Lingner/The Able Lens, 2/2006