Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
So the change was made, and they went forward as briskly as they durst on the uneven causeway
Alternate Title(s):Crossing the Fens
Date: 1916
Dimensions:
40 x 32 in.
Private Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1801
Research Number: NCW: 1801
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY; Tucker collection; (?); (New York, NY, Sotheby's, May 23, 2017, lot no. 46);
Exhibition HistoryBrooklyn, NY, 1920, no. 21 as "Crossing the Fens"
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 219; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.608, p. 322
Curatorial RemarksScribner's records confirms that this painting was oil on canvas and sold to the Tucker family (Brandywine River Museum, Scribner's archives, #B11136). The Brandywine River Museum holds the unillustrated 1915 Scribner's edition of The Black Arrow which the artist read to prepare for this commission, with notes on the endsheets and markings throughout (NCWS.95.163).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to Andrew Newell Wyeth, 2/26/1916, Wyeth Family Archives). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to Andrew Newell Wyeth, 2/26/1916, Wyeth Family Archives). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency from tear sheet, Brandywine River Museum Library
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 12/2002