Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
untitled (Earl of Essex aboard ship)
Alternate Title(s):Legend of the Expedition to Spain (Essex Sails for Cadiz); possibly, Sea Panther
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1928
Dimensions:
40 1/8 × 34 1/8 in. (101.9 × 86.7 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1821
Research Number: NCW: 1821
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); written on reverse of canvas: Legend of the Expedition to Spain / 9 3/8 (illegible) / vignette
ProvenanceThe artist; private collection and descended in family; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, May 22, 2002, lot no. 111, as "Legend of the Expedition to Spain (Essex Sails for Cadiz)", did not sell); (on-line auction, Ebay, July 27, 2002); (Cincinnati, OH, Treadway Gallery, March 2, 2003, lot no. 693); Private collection; (Schoonover Gallery, Wilmington, DE, 2004); Private collection; (New York, NY, Christie's, November 29, 2007, lot no. );
Exhibition Historypossibly Wilmington, DE, 1929, no. 95, as "Sea Panther"
References
The artist to James Boyd, Jan. 5, 1928, Southern Historical Collection, Library of the University of North Carolina; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 263; Barbara Hodgdon, The Shakespeare Trade: Performances and Appropriations (Philadelphia: University of Penn Press, 1998), pps. 125-130; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1078, p. 507
Curatorial RemarksThis image was reproduced on the page in vignette style.
The painting may have been exhibited at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in 1929 with the title "Sea Panther". This assumption is based on the fact that two other paintings from "Elizabeth and Essex" were also shown, and the association audiences would have made with "The Sea Panther," a 1918 pirate film starring William Desmond and Mary Warren.
The painting may have been exhibited at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in 1929 with the title "Sea Panther". This assumption is based on the fact that two other paintings from "Elizabeth and Essex" were also shown, and the association audiences would have made with "The Sea Panther," a 1918 pirate film starring William Desmond and Mary Warren.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Photography directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Sotheby's, 4/2002