Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Moving Camp
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1908
Dimensions:
36 1/8 × 26 1/8 in. (91.8 × 66.4 cm)
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Mullin
Accession number: SUPP2000.523
Research Number: NCW: 523
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 08
ProvenanceCollection of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Mullin, TX, ? - 1959
Exhibition HistoryKalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Feb. 17- March 19, 1967; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 57, illus. in color, plate 7 p. 26; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), illus. b/w p. 40, cat. no. 30 on p. 82, also p. 74; Houston, TX, The Museum of Fine Arts, "The Modern West, American Landscapes, 1890-1950," Oct. 29, 2006--Jan. 28, 2007, ps. 66-69, 289, illus. p. 67, fig. 43
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 260; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.218, p. 178
Curatorial RemarksThis was one of four paintings originally commissioned by McClure's Magazine to illustrate Edgar Beecher Bronson's text "The Last Great Sun Dance." Wyeth worked on the series in July and August 1908, and this was probably the second one completed, referred to in a letter as "Indians going to the Dance" (NCW to Stimson Wyeth, "Dear Babe," Aug. 11, 1908, Wyeth Family Archives).
On Sept. 5, 1908, the artist wrote to his mother, "I delivered the Sun Dance pictures which, judging from the praise tendered me at McClures, I should feel in one sense pleased with the result. They were apparently liked very much which was corroborated by their decision to publish them in the Xmas McClures." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 269). The four paintings and the article were not published as planned, most likely due to financial problems the magazine experienced in the fall of 1908 (NCW to HZW, Oct. 2, 1908, Wyeth Family Archives). Bronson's account of the Dance, the basis for this painting, was finally published in Cowboy Life on the Western Plains, The Reminiscences of a Ranchman (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1910), p. 226.
On Sept. 5, 1908, the artist wrote to his mother, "I delivered the Sun Dance pictures which, judging from the praise tendered me at McClures, I should feel in one sense pleased with the result. They were apparently liked very much which was corroborated by their decision to publish them in the Xmas McClures." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 269). The four paintings and the article were not published as planned, most likely due to financial problems the magazine experienced in the fall of 1908 (NCW to HZW, Oct. 2, 1908, Wyeth Family Archives). Bronson's account of the Dance, the basis for this painting, was finally published in Cowboy Life on the Western Plains, The Reminiscences of a Ranchman (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1910), p. 226.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting