Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Life Mask of John Keats
Alternate Title(s):Death Mask of John Keats
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1926
Dimensions:
31 1/2 × 32 in. (80 × 81.3 cm)
Private Collection, Delaware, Courtesy of Art Finance Partners LLC, New York
Accession number: SUPP2000.964
Research Number: NCW: 964
InscribedLower left: To My FRIEND / PAUL HORGAN - 1930 / N. C. WYETH (underlined) / -1926- ; on reverse of canvas: Son of His Father / Section B / July / (a charcoal bust-size portrait of unidentified man)
ProvenanceThe artist to 1930; Paul Horgan, Roswell, NM and Middletown, CT, to 1958; The Brueckner Museum of Starr Commonwealth, Albion, MI, to 2012; (New York, NY, Chrisities, Sept. 25, 2012, lot no. 108; did not sell);
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1927, no. 140, as "The Life Mask of John Keats"; Lubbock, TX, 1951, no. 6, as "Death Mask of Keats"; Greenville, DE, Somerville Manning Gallery, "N. C. Wyeth: Painter and Illustrator," June 14-Sept. 14, 2019, as "Life Mask of John Keats";
References
"Society Folk Throng To Private Showing of Delaware Artists," Wilmington (DE) Morning News, Nov. 2, 1927, p. 6, as "a death mask of the poet, Keats"; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), S.20, p. 790
Curatorial RemarksA two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Paul Horgan was one of America's best known southwestern writers. Horgan's life-long friend Peter Hurd introduced him to N. C. Wyeth.
The Brandywine River Museum holds a plaster life mask of Keats (NCWS.95.2693) that was found in the N. C. Wyeth house, as well as the green glass globe (NCWS.95.6653) and similar tea cups. The family's oral history includes an episode of Carolyn Wyeth breaking the original mask painted by NCW in 1926 and replacing it at a later date. Carolyn Wyeth also included the mask in a still life she painted (BRM 2003.10).
The inscriptions on the reverse of this painting made it likely that underneath the still life is the left half of NCW 1725. The was confirmed in July 2014 when Joyce Hill Stoner and Jim Schneck used IRR techniques to determine the presence of the under image.
The Brandywine River Museum holds a plaster life mask of Keats (NCWS.95.2693) that was found in the N. C. Wyeth house, as well as the green glass globe (NCWS.95.6653) and similar tea cups. The family's oral history includes an episode of Carolyn Wyeth breaking the original mask painted by NCW in 1926 and replacing it at a later date. Carolyn Wyeth also included the mask in a still life she painted (BRM 2003.10).
The inscriptions on the reverse of this painting made it likely that underneath the still life is the left half of NCW 1725. The was confirmed in July 2014 when Joyce Hill Stoner and Jim Schneck used IRR techniques to determine the presence of the under image.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Digital photography directly from painting
Photo Credit:Hollis Conway, Conway Photography, 11/2003