Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Blubber Island
Alternate Title(s):Sun-down Island; Sundown--Maine Coast; Sundown: Maine Coast
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1938
Dimensions:
25 × 40 in. (63.5 × 101.6 cm)
National Academy Museum, New York (1464-P)
http://www.nationalacademy.org
Accession number: SUPP2000.993
Research Number: NCW: 993
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH; adhered to panel on reverse, Renaissance Panel label dated 3/18/(19)38 and numbered 645; written in black on Renaissance Panel label: Blubber Island; written on reverse of panel in white paint in NCW's hand: OIL ON GESSO GROUND / PAINTED BY N. C. WYETH (name is underlined) / "BLUBBER ISLAND" / MAINE / 1940; adhered to reverse of panel, label of the National Academy: Blubber Island, 1942; adhered to reverse of panel, label of W. S. Budworth, Shippers, Manhattan
ProvenanceGift of the artist to National Academy of Design, 1942
Exhibition Historyprobably Wilmington, DE, 1938(2), no. 21, as "Sundown--Maine Coast"; Philadelphia, PA, 1939, no. 7, as "Sundown: Maine Coast"; New York, NY, 1939, no. 3, as "Blubber Island"; West Chester, PA, 1940, as "Sun-Down Island"; Southampton, NY, 1966, no numbers; National Academy of Design, New York, NY, "Next to Nature / Landscape Paintings from the National Academy of Design," 1980, illustration in b/w p. 197; Marietta, GA, 1998, no numbers; Portland, ME, 2000, illustration in color, fig. 22 p. 36; Chadds Ford, PA, 2003; New York, NY, National Academy Museum, Feb. 4 -- April 5, 2009, "American Waters: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Hudson, Fulton, and Champlain";
References
C. H. Bonte, "Academy's 134th Annual / Fine New Wine in Old Bottles," Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 29. 1939, A: p. 18; N. C. Wyeth, "Blue-Eyed Boy Leads," West Chester, PA, Daily Local News, June 8, 1940, p. 5; C. H. Bonte, "West Chester County Holds Exhibition of High Merit," Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, 1940, p. SO 10; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.214, p. 771-772
Curatorial RemarksThis was the painting Wyeth chose to give to the National Academy after his election as a full member in 1941. The painting's title is mentioned in the letter Wyeth sent to the membership committee (NCW to "National Academy of Design, Dear Sirs", Feb. 5, 1942, Collection of the National Academy Museum, New York, NY).
Correspondence during the summer of 1938 makes it clear that Wyeth was suffering from a respiratory illness and did little work in Maine, so the picture was probably painted in the studio in Chadds Ford in the fall. In Wilmington, DE, in 1938, the artist exhibited a painting titled "Sundown--Maine Coast" for which there is no visual or verbal documentation. Two months later, he exhibited "Sundown: Maine Coast" in Philadelphia, clearly the same painting, and described in the press (Bonte, 1939, above), as "glowing with color and simple in its makeup as a Rockwell Kent." He submitted "Sun-Down Island" to West Chester, PA, 1940, described in one exhibition review as "a bit of Maine grandeur, with blue water, a dark and forbidding hump of land jutting above it, and a gorgeously illuminated sky" (West Chester, PA, Daily Local News, above); another review (Bonte, 1940) notes that "Sun-Down Island" displays the "wealth of that almost mystic blue,...the hallmark of this artist's work." Andrew Wyeth confirmed that all three of these references apply to "Blubber Island."
Correspondence during the summer of 1938 makes it clear that Wyeth was suffering from a respiratory illness and did little work in Maine, so the picture was probably painted in the studio in Chadds Ford in the fall. In Wilmington, DE, in 1938, the artist exhibited a painting titled "Sundown--Maine Coast" for which there is no visual or verbal documentation. Two months later, he exhibited "Sundown: Maine Coast" in Philadelphia, clearly the same painting, and described in the press (Bonte, 1939, above), as "glowing with color and simple in its makeup as a Rockwell Kent." He submitted "Sun-Down Island" to West Chester, PA, 1940, described in one exhibition review as "a bit of Maine grandeur, with blue water, a dark and forbidding hump of land jutting above it, and a gorgeously illuminated sky" (West Chester, PA, Daily Local News, above); another review (Bonte, 1940) notes that "Sun-Down Island" displays the "wealth of that almost mystic blue,...the hallmark of this artist's work." Andrew Wyeth confirmed that all three of these references apply to "Blubber Island."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:1. Photo by Rick Echelmeyer, 7/2003; 2. Reverse of Renaissance Panel. Photo by Nadia Ghannam, National Academy Museum; 3. Detail of inscription on reverse of Renaissance Panel. Photo by Nadia Ghannam, National Academy Museum; 4. Label adhered to reverse of Renaissance Panel. Photo by Nadia Ghannam, National Academy Museum