Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Old Kris
Alternate Title(s):Ole St. Nick; " 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse"
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1925
Dimensions:
39 1/2 × 29 1/2 in. (100.3 × 74.9 cm)
The Wyeth Foundation, Chadds Ford, PA
Accession number: SUPP2000.50
Research Number: NCW: 50
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); lower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined); written on reverse of canvas: Dec. cover CG / 9 1/8 / Y 3216 / Crop out bottom / to same height as / (crossed out) October cover / Move up artist's signature
ProvenanceThe artist to ca. 1940; Private collection, to ca. 1970; Anna Brelsford McCoy to 2003
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 126, as "Old Kris"; Morristown, NJ, 1983, no. 9; Lititz, PA, Millport Museum, 1988; Lititz, PA, 1995
References
Richard Meryman, "The Wyeths' Kind of Christmas Magic," Life Magazine, (Dec. 17, 1971), illus. in color p. 122; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), illus. in color p. 135; Susan E. Meyer, "N. C. Wyeth," American Artist Magazine, vol. 39, no. 391 (Feb. 1975), b/w illus. p. 44; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York: Brompton Books Corp., Crescent Books, 1992), illus. in color, p. 63; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1011, p. 484, 485
Curatorial RemarksThe excerpt from "The Night Before Christmas" was printed under the image on the magazine cover. An editor's note (p. 138) read: "There's an elfin quality about N. C. Wyeth's Santa Claus. His pack is made, so Wyeth says, from a bit of winter sky, and twenty minutes past twelve (as shown on the clock in the picture) is the real mystic hour in children's minds."
Wyeth made changes on the painting after its initial publication, altering the figure and eliminating an elaborately-tooled leather belt and a decorated pocket on his costume. The Wyeth family always called the present image "Old Kris."
An ink drawing of the image occured on an undated Christmas card. A copy of the card is filed with letters from Dec., 1925 in the Wyeth Family Archives and another copy can be found at the Archives of American Art (microfilm roll #4002, frame 901), sent to the art collector and critic Christian Brinton; a third card is in the collection of the Sanderson Museum, Chaddds Ford, PA.
Wyeth made changes on the painting after its initial publication, altering the figure and eliminating an elaborately-tooled leather belt and a decorated pocket on his costume. The Wyeth family always called the present image "Old Kris."
An ink drawing of the image occured on an undated Christmas card. A copy of the card is filed with letters from Dec., 1925 in the Wyeth Family Archives and another copy can be found at the Archives of American Art (microfilm roll #4002, frame 901), sent to the art collector and critic Christian Brinton; a third card is in the collection of the Sanderson Museum, Chaddds Ford, PA.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. digital scan of printed image (Brandywine River Museum library)
Photo Credit:1. Brandywine River Museum photography files; 2. BRM staff