Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Long at the window he stood, and wistfully gazed on the landscape
Alternate Title(s):John Alden and Miles Standish; Miles Standish Cherishes the Thought of Priscilla
Date: 1920
Dimensions:
40 1/2 × 30 in. (102.9 × 76.2 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1125
Research Number: NCW: 1125
ProvenanceStandish Lounge, Hotel Roosevelt , New York, NY, 1924; (?); by 1975, with Fenn Galleries, Ltd., Santa Fe, NM;
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1921, as "John Alden and Miles Standish"
References
J. E. Bierwirth, "Some Recent Developments in Municipal Hotel Construction," Hotel Management 7, no. 3 (March 1925), Vol. 37, no. 44, p. 137; W. L. Cook, "Traces Its Line to the Revolution," published in The National Hotel Review, Hotel Roosevelt Section (New York: Gehring Publishing Company, Oct. 25, 1924), p. 52; "The Wooing of Priscilla," The Mentor, vol. 14, no. 6 (July 1926), illustration p. 42 as "Miles Standish Cherishes the Thought of Priscilla,"; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 211; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.798, p. 398-399
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum of Art owns the copy of Houghton Mifflin's 1913 edition of The Courtship of Miles Standish, Elizabeth and other Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (NCWS.95.211) which NCW read and marked as he chose his illustrative program. The copy is illustrated with engravings after an unidentified artist which seem to have furnished Wyeth with some inspiration.
"..."The Heart of the Puritan" compiled by Miss Hanscom of Smith College is a valuable collection of letters and journals which will add greatly to my mental background in working up the Miles Standish pictures." (NCW to "Babe," Jan. 14, 1920, WFA)
In July, 1924, the artist sold some of the Courtship of Miles Standish pictures to the new Hotel Roosevelt, which was decorated throughout in a colonial revival theme. A special section of the National Hotel Review devoted to the Roosevelt (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.819) published Oct. 25, 1924, included a picture of this painting hanging above the fireplace in the hotel's Standish Lounge (see also BRM library # 16701.1).
In his introduction to the edition, the poet's son (and painter) Ernest W. Longfellow wrote, "Mr. Wyeth's illustrations seem to me--and I doubt not that they would have seemed to my father--admirable all through in their richness of color and their unconventional treatment, coupled with their many evidences of the closest study of the period."
"..."The Heart of the Puritan" compiled by Miss Hanscom of Smith College is a valuable collection of letters and journals which will add greatly to my mental background in working up the Miles Standish pictures." (NCW to "Babe," Jan. 14, 1920, WFA)
In July, 1924, the artist sold some of the Courtship of Miles Standish pictures to the new Hotel Roosevelt, which was decorated throughout in a colonial revival theme. A special section of the National Hotel Review devoted to the Roosevelt (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.819) published Oct. 25, 1924, included a picture of this painting hanging above the fireplace in the hotel's Standish Lounge (see also BRM library # 16701.1).
In his introduction to the edition, the poet's son (and painter) Ernest W. Longfellow wrote, "Mr. Wyeth's illustrations seem to me--and I doubt not that they would have seemed to my father--admirable all through in their richness of color and their unconventional treatment, coupled with their many evidences of the closest study of the period."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. image from print source (Brandywine River Museum Library, tear sheet); 2. NCW 1125, as it hung in the Standish Lounge, Hotel Roosevelt, New York, ca. 1924
Photo Credit:1. Rick Echelmeyer; 2. photo from The National Hotel Review, Hotel Roosevelt Section, Oct. 25, 1924, p. 52 (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.819)