Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
untitled (illustration for Back to the Farm)
Alternate Title(s):Boy with the Cows; Driving the Cattle Where the Meadow Brook is Brawling
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1907
Dimensions:
dimensions unavailable
known by reproduction only
Accession number: SUPP2000.1056
Research Number: NCW: 1056
ProvenanceThe artist
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 274, illustration in b/w p. 63 as "Driving the Cattle Where the Meadow Brook is Brawling"; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.203, p. 170; Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N. C. Wyeth, American Regionalist" in Rural Modern, American Art Beyond the City (NY: Rizzoli, 2016), p. 161;
Curatorial RemarksThis was the first painting Wyeth did in the "Back to the Farm" series. He showed the canvas to Howard Pyle and described to his mother the occasion, "The fellows told me (after the interview with Mr. Pyle) that when I put the picture up before him his face turned red and perspiration came out on his neck...He said it was the first big note ever sounded under his teaching...Somehow, it has surprised everyone! They all seem dumbfounded that I could handle an extremely subtle and gentle subject in a realistic and vigorous way, and now I feel more confident about the reality of it, because the country folk, farmer mind you, have all liked it and have picked out every big feeling in it." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1045, Boston: Gambit, 1971, p. 214). In September, Wyeth showed the canvas to his friend and fellow Pyle student Sidney Chase: "When he saw my picture of the boy with the cows, his eyes filled and the tears rolled down his cheeks. What compensation!" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Never in all my life..." and dated in another hand Sept. 27, 1907, Wyeth Family Archives). In response to the quality of the proofs, shown to the artist in June 1908, Wyeth wrote, "I have never been bit so hard with poor reproductions before and feel that last summer's work is for naught at all" (NCW to HZW, "I wrote a letter last night..." and dated in another hand June 21, 1908, Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Digital photography from printed source (Brandywine River Museum library, bound tear sheet)
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 7/11/2006