Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Stonewall Jackson
Alternate Title(s):The General
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1910
Dimensions:
47 1/4 × 38 1/4 in. (120 × 97.2 cm)
VMI Museum, Lexington, VA
Accession number: SUPP2000.142
Research Number: NCW: 142
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 10
ProvenanceThe artist; probably Mary Johnston, Bath County, VA, to 1936, and the Johnston family to ca. 1955; (Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, 1957); Private collection; (Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY, 1976); (?); (Swanson Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1988)
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 68; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 15; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 116; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(2); Rockland, ME, 2000, illustration in color, fig. 11; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Romance in Conflict, N. C. Wyeth's Civil War Paintings," Jan. 22-March 20, 2011
References
Mary Anna Jackson, "Mrs. 'Stonewall' Jackson Denouces "The Long Roll,'" New York Times Magazine, Oct. 29, 1911; The Civil War Times Illustrated, vol 3, no. 7 (Nov. 1964), cover illustration; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), ps. 353-354, 357-358, 360, 364, 414; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), illustration in color p. 130, and p. 292 for calendar citation; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 185; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.297, p. 207
Curatorial RemarksFrom Warm Springs, VA, where he was visiting Mary Johnston in preparation for the illustrations for The Long Roll, the artist wrote, "I want to avoid pure illustration, and to practically paint a series of war pictures, such abstract subjects as these "The Battle," "The Spy," "The General," in the later case making a portrayal of "Stonewall Jackson" at the same time idealizing the subject enough to keep it from being at all dependent on the personality of Jackson" (NCW to Carolyn Bockius Wyeth, "Here I am! In one of the most fascinating valleys..." and dated in another hand July 22, 1910, Wyeth Family Archives). Wyeth's letter of July 26, 1910, to Mary Johnston reported that he had stopped at the Corcoran Gallery on his return home to spend "three hours" studying John Adams Elder's 1876 portrait of General Thomas J. Jackson which he judged to be accurate. "It's conformity with the photographs I have seen seemed exact, and as it was a three-quarter length, the gauntlet and saber were in evidence. His hair agreed with your conclusion, brown inclined to auburn, with a tendency to fluffiness. His hands, however, were probably idealized." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945. Boston: Gambit, 1971, p. 349; see also A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, vol. 1, Painters Born Before 1850. Washington, DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966, p. 129.)
Wyeth was intensely disappointed in the quality of the reproductions, calling them "miserable smudges," and asserting that by publishing them Houghton Mifflin had done him "considerable damage." In addition, Mary Johnston's book drew fire from many Confederate veterans and N. C. Wyeth found himself in the middle of the controversy. In a long complaint against the book published in The New York Times, Mary Anna Jackson, the general's widow, singled out the frontispiece as a "miserably unjust and unlikeness-like portrait,...utterly featureless..., more the likeness of some brutal prizefighter of physical figure and countenance, all animal without one spark of mental illumination." The artist's reaction to these comments is not recorded, but in 1912 he shipped the painting to Mary Johnston at her home in Virginia, rather than selling it.
;"To-night's mail brough news that makes me feel particularly pleased. From Houghton Mifflin (Mr. Scudder) the letter tells the tale: Dear Mr. Wyeth: "It is a wonderful piece of work and will create a sensation wherever it is shown. It was a great opportunity and you have risen to the occasion. You may have done better work but I have not seen it. When I came back from church this afternoon I found the box waiting to be opened. The picture has held me by its powerful presentation of a great man and the longer I look at it the more I see to admire. The atmosphere has the same quality as your 'Hiawatha's Fishing.' The luminous quality is remarkable. The effect of the halo about his head will suggest St. Stonewall to his admiring southern friends. I hope you will hold it at a good round price and not sell it to the first bidder. We shall make a poster of it. Sincerely yours, Scudder" (NCW to HZW, Wyeth Family Archives, Oct. 19, 1910)
Wyeth was intensely disappointed in the quality of the reproductions, calling them "miserable smudges," and asserting that by publishing them Houghton Mifflin had done him "considerable damage." In addition, Mary Johnston's book drew fire from many Confederate veterans and N. C. Wyeth found himself in the middle of the controversy. In a long complaint against the book published in The New York Times, Mary Anna Jackson, the general's widow, singled out the frontispiece as a "miserably unjust and unlikeness-like portrait,...utterly featureless..., more the likeness of some brutal prizefighter of physical figure and countenance, all animal without one spark of mental illumination." The artist's reaction to these comments is not recorded, but in 1912 he shipped the painting to Mary Johnston at her home in Virginia, rather than selling it.
;"To-night's mail brough news that makes me feel particularly pleased. From Houghton Mifflin (Mr. Scudder) the letter tells the tale: Dear Mr. Wyeth: "It is a wonderful piece of work and will create a sensation wherever it is shown. It was a great opportunity and you have risen to the occasion. You may have done better work but I have not seen it. When I came back from church this afternoon I found the box waiting to be opened. The picture has held me by its powerful presentation of a great man and the longer I look at it the more I see to admire. The atmosphere has the same quality as your 'Hiawatha's Fishing.' The luminous quality is remarkable. The effect of the halo about his head will suggest St. Stonewall to his admiring southern friends. I hope you will hold it at a good round price and not sell it to the first bidder. We shall make a poster of it. Sincerely yours, Scudder" (NCW to HZW, Wyeth Family Archives, Oct. 19, 1910)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of the Farnsworth Art Museum