Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Captain Blood
Alternate Title(s):The Pirate (Captain Blood);
Medium: Oil on canvas on hardboard
Date: 1922
Dimensions:
sight: 20 3/4 x 21 7/8 in. (52.7 x 55.5 cm)
From the collection of Houghton Mifflin Company
Accession number: SUPP2000.1306
Research Number: NCW: 1306
InscribedLower left: WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceHoughton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA
Exhibition HistoryNeedham, MA, 1968, no. 13, as "The Pirate (Captain Blood)"; Needham, MA, 1982, no numbers
References
(untitled note), New York World, July 23. 1922; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 217; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.928, p. 445; detail, reproduced on the cover, Naval War College Review, (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press), vol. 62, no. 3 (Summer 2009)
Curatorial RemarksA letter dated April 21, 1922, from Roger L. Scaife of Houghton Mifflin to the artist, referenced a check for $350, which included payment for the right of reproduction together with ownership of the artwork and copyright (Houghton Mifflin Archives, Houghton Library, Harvard University).
In a scrapbook compiled for the Wyeth family by Richard Layton (Brandywine River Museum library, N. C. Wyeth collection, scrapbook E), a clipping from the New York World of July, 23, 1922, noted: N. C. Wyeth, the illustrator, has been spreading himself on one of his favorite stunts--the making of a pirate picture. In his frontispiece for Rafael Sabatini's soon-to-come "Captain Blood" (Houghton Mifflin), he displays "a lean, graceful gentleman, dressed in the Spanish fashion, all in black, with silver lace, a gold-hilted sword dangling beside him from a gold embroidered balderick, a broad caster with a sweeping plume set above carefully curled ringlets of deepest black." When you're getting pirates, we guess, get the Wyeth brand. They satisfy!"
In a scrapbook compiled for the Wyeth family by Richard Layton (Brandywine River Museum library, N. C. Wyeth collection, scrapbook E), a clipping from the New York World of July, 23, 1922, noted: N. C. Wyeth, the illustrator, has been spreading himself on one of his favorite stunts--the making of a pirate picture. In his frontispiece for Rafael Sabatini's soon-to-come "Captain Blood" (Houghton Mifflin), he displays "a lean, graceful gentleman, dressed in the Spanish fashion, all in black, with silver lace, a gold-hilted sword dangling beside him from a gold embroidered balderick, a broad caster with a sweeping plume set above carefully curled ringlets of deepest black." When you're getting pirates, we guess, get the Wyeth brand. They satisfy!"
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Michael Gould