Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Pony Express
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1912
Dimensions:
32 1/4 × 47 1/4 in. (81.9 × 120 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.743
Research Number: NCW: 743
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / N. C WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceAT&T, Somerset, NJ; (Sotheby's, New York, NY, Nov. 28, 2001, lot no. 211)
Exhibition HistoryParis, France, United States Embassy, 1986-1987; Washington, DC, Office of Senator Bill Graham of Texas, June-August 1987; The Hague, Netherlands, United States Embassy, 1990-1992; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 135
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 293; Douglas McCreary Greenwood, Art in Embassies / Twenty-Five Years at the U. S. Department of State / 1964-1989 (Washington, DC: Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies, 1989), illus. p. 28; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.21, p. 644
Curatorial RemarksA T & T's advertising account was handled by N. W. Ayer & Son of Philadelphia. The identical composition was also reproduced as a pen and ink drawing for the same advertisement (Box 21, N. W. Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution), but it's not clear whether the ink drawing is Wyeth's work. The painting is dated by its publication date.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. digital scan of proof
Photo Credit:1. Courtesy of Sotheby's, 9/2001; 2. N.W. Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution