Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Sea-Spider
Alternate Title(s):They said that Stannard sat on that lonely island like a bloated spider, watching the yellow current that tore past Blerveaux Light and carried doomed vessels down to the Isle of Lost Ships.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1914
Dimensions:
39 1/2 × 31 1/2 in. (100.3 × 80 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.570
Research Number: NCW: 570
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined); lower right: THE SEA-SPIDER / TO (underlined) John Oliver / La Gorce / from N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceThe artist; gift to John Oliver La Gorce, 1926; Estate of John Oliver La Gorce to the National Geographic Society, 1972; National Geographic Society, Washington, DC, to 2012; (New York, NY, Christie's, Dec. 6, 2012, lot no. 50)
Exhibition HistoryWashington, DC, National Geographic Society, Explorers Hall, "The Artist Explores Our World," July 14 - Nov. 27, 1988, no numbers
References
"An Invitation to Explore," souvenir book of the National Geographic Society, Washington, ca. 1933(?) (painting shown hanging on wall in photograph of John Oliver La Gorce's workroom); Gilbert Grosvenor, "The National Geographic Society and Its Magazine," National Geographic Magazine, vol. LXIX, no. 1 (Jan. 1936), p. 156; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 255; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.549, p. 300
Curatorial RemarksFrom the artist's correspondence (NCW to Andrew Newell Wyeth, "I'm directing this letter to you..." and dated in another hand "Nov. 18, 1914?" but autumn by context, Wyeth Family Archives), Wyeth was at work on the illustrations for this story in mid-November 1914.
Correspondence between the artist and National Geographic's John Oliver La Gorce confirms that Wyeth reworked the painting before shipping it to La Gorce (dated by Wyeth "May (?), 1926," Collection of the National Geographic Society), changing the rocks on the left into an ocean view, and painting clouds over the building in the center background. The image was abstracted and printed in blues, orange and white on the cover of the "Summer Fiction Number" (Collier's, July 17, 1915) and used as a poster-style advertisement for the same issue.
In the mid 1970s a private art dealer in New York and later Coe Kerr Gallery, New York (see advertisement in Southwest Art, May 1977, p. 1) handled a very similar painting with dimensions reported as 40 x 34 inches. That painting is unlocated and related archival material (Brandywine River Museum catalogue raisonne files) is not adequate to determine if Wyeth painted a copy of the present work.
Correspondence between the artist and National Geographic's John Oliver La Gorce confirms that Wyeth reworked the painting before shipping it to La Gorce (dated by Wyeth "May (?), 1926," Collection of the National Geographic Society), changing the rocks on the left into an ocean view, and painting clouds over the building in the center background. The image was abstracted and printed in blues, orange and white on the cover of the "Summer Fiction Number" (Collier's, July 17, 1915) and used as a poster-style advertisement for the same issue.
In the mid 1970s a private art dealer in New York and later Coe Kerr Gallery, New York (see advertisement in Southwest Art, May 1977, p. 1) handled a very similar painting with dimensions reported as 40 x 34 inches. That painting is unlocated and related archival material (Brandywine River Museum catalogue raisonne files) is not adequate to determine if Wyeth painted a copy of the present work.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Photography directly from artwork; 2. digital scan of printed image, from Collier's Weekly, vol. 55, no. 18 (July 17, 1915), p. 17, Brandywine River Museum library; 3. digital scan of printed image, from Collier's Weekly, vol. 55, no. 18 (July 17, 1915), cover illustration, Brandywine River Museum library
Photo Credit:1. National Geographic Image Collection; 2 and 3, BRM staff