Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Merely three children.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1904
Dimensions:
23 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (59.7 × 39.4 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1857
Research Number: NCW: 1857
InscribedLower left towards center: N. C. Wyeth 04; on reverse of canvas: Three Children, Merely Three Children / (additional illegible line)
Provenance(Blackwood / March Fine Art, Essex, MA, March 22, 2006, lot no. 53) ; Private collection, Belmont, MA to 2008;
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 67; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 264; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.29, p. 111
Curatorial RemarksThe artist began this "rush job" when he returned to Wilmington after Christmas vacation. Pyle had secured the story to be illustrated and two other students, Henry Peck and Allen True, also contributed pictures. Wyeth wrote: "My subject is an old fisherman walking down the rocky shore with two children and 'tis in full sunlight. Mr. Pyle predicts that I will have a terrific time painting it. Let us hope not" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "I received your delayed letter" and dated in another hand Jan. 14, 1904). The artist rejected his first attempt and redid the image three more times, writing in March, "Have sent off my Leslie's sunlight picture which I did over again (for the 4th time). The last time I did it in four days and it turned out to be the best picture I've done with the exception of the Concord fight" (NCW to HZW, "It's now very late", dated in another hand March 15, 1904, both letters, Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:digital photography directly from painting
Photo Credit:J. R. Dykes, Photographer