From the Battlefields of France to the Wheat Fields of America

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

From the Battlefields of France to the Wheat Fields of America

Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1919
Dimensions:
30 × 50 in. (76.2 × 127 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1275
Research Number: NCW: 1275
Inscribedlower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceStewart Speers; Grace Speers Illingsworth, Landsdowne, PA, to 1979; (Illustration House, New York, NY and Martin Diamond, New York, NY, 1979); (Helen Turner, New York, NY, 1980)
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 262; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.791, p. 397
Curatorial RemarksAmong the visual resources found in Wyeth's studio are 4 photographs of women on farm machinery that the artist may have consulted prior to beginning this work (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.858, .1007, .1008 and .1029).
Wyeth was distressed by the quality of the reproduction of this painting. The plates were made during the same engravers strike that affected the quality of the Last of the Mohican pictures and he considered the reproduction "just as bad" (see NCW to HZW, postscript dated in NCW's hand Sept. 17, letter dated in another hand Sept. 14, 1919). Stewart Speers, the first owner, was an employee of Curtis Publishing Company.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Martin Diamond, New Rochelle, New York