Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Village Street, Port Clyde, Maine
Alternate Title(s):Mrs. Cushman's House; Mrs. Cushing's House
Medium: Tempera on hardboard
Date: 1944
Dimensions:
21 1/2 × 37 3/8 in. (54.6 × 94.9 cm)
New Britain Museum of American Art,
Harriet Russell Stanley Fund (1947.06)
Accession number: SUPP2000.126
Research Number: NCW: 126
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined); frame inscribed: F. Coll. Wilm. Del.
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth to 1947
Exhibition History(note that this may have been one of three large scenes of Maine Wyeth selected to show at Bowdoin College in May-June 1945); Wilmington, DE, 1946, no. 9, as "Mrs. Cushman's House"; Washington, DC, 1946, no. 5; New York, NY, 1946, no. 5; Waterville, ME, Colby College Art Museum, "Maine / 100 Artists of the 20th Century," June 25 - Sept. 30, 1964, p. 44, as "Mrs. Cushing's House"; Harrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 109; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 77, illustraion in b/w (unpaginated); Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 135; San Francisco, CA, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, "The Art of Andrew Wyeth," June 16 - Sept. 3, 1973, no. 92, illustraion in color p. 130; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 9; Chadds Ford, PA, 1982, no. 25, illustraion in b/w p. 33; Elmira, NY, 1985, p.12 and 28; Portland, ME, 2000, no numbers, p. 60; Hartford, CT, Old State House Museum, "'Masterpieces of American Art," June 13 - August 11, 2001; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 193
References
Life Magazine, vol. 20, no. 24 (June 17, 1946), illustr. in color p. 79; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), b/w illus. p. 186; Franklin and Joseph Kennedy, "N. C. Wyeth's Maine Paintings," Maine Life Magazine, vol. 39, no. 4 (Fall 1984), b/w illus. ps. 42-43; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York: Brompton Books Corp., Crescent Books, 1992), color illus. ps. 110-111; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.224, p. 778, 780
Curatorial RemarksThe authority for the title and date of this painting rests with notations on the reverse of an archival photograph (Brandywine River Museum library). In the artist's hand is written: Village Street, Port Clyde, Me. / Egg tempera / N. C. Wyeth. Stamped below the inscription is: PHOTOGRAPH BY / EDW. J. S. SEAL / CHADDS FORD, PA. / OCT -7 1944. It is likely then that this painting dates from the artist's 8 week visit to Port Clyde in the late summer of 1944. A letter from the artist (NCW to Andrew Wyeth, dated by NCW "Sunday 6 p.m., I've just finished your gesso panel...," and in another hand Sept. 21, 1944, Wyeth Family Archives) confirms that he did three temperas that summer, but does not name them. In a synopsis of the letters she compiled in the early 1990s, Betsy James Wyeth noted that this painting was indeed one of the three done that summer.
Despite the fact that Wyeth had used the Weber Company's Renaissance Panels for many years, this picture is painted on a homemade panel, whose texture and color differ from the commercially available panels. NCW 2215 is a composition sketch with extensive color notations; NCW 2246.101 a notebook page of studies identified by Betsy James Wyeth as for this work. NCW 2047 (Brandywine River Museum, 96.1.521) is the final composition drawing. The painting retains a gilded frame carved by Frank Coll of Wilmington, Delaware. In the Seal photograph the painting appears in a wood-grained frame.
Despite the fact that Wyeth had used the Weber Company's Renaissance Panels for many years, this picture is painted on a homemade panel, whose texture and color differ from the commercially available panels. NCW 2215 is a composition sketch with extensive color notations; NCW 2246.101 a notebook page of studies identified by Betsy James Wyeth as for this work. NCW 2047 (Brandywine River Museum, 96.1.521) is the final composition drawing. The painting retains a gilded frame carved by Frank Coll of Wilmington, Delaware. In the Seal photograph the painting appears in a wood-grained frame.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 8/1999