Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"Bucking."
Alternate Title(s):Jim's Canyon, Colorado; "Settin' pretty"
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1905
Dimensions:
38 × 26 1/8 in. (96.5 × 66.4 cm)
Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming
Gift of John M. Schiff; 2.77
Accession number: SUPP2000.524
Research Number: NCW: 524
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH / JIM'S CANYON, COLO / -1904- ; label adhered to verso: COE KERR GALLERY / 49 EAST 82nd STREET / NEW YORK, N.Y. 10028
ProvenanceThe artist; [?]; John M. Schiff, New York, NY
Exhibition HistoryCody, WY, Whitney Gallery, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Special Exhibition Opening Season, June 1 - Oct. 1, 1969, "no. 89-94 Series of six paintings of Scenes from a Cow Camp," n. p.; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 56 and plate 14 p. 33, as "Jim's Canyon, Colorado"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), b/w illustration p. 9, catalogue number 2 on p. 78, also on p. 75
References
"Wilmington Artists in the March Magazines," undated (but March 1906 by context) and unattributed article from Wilmington, DE, newspaper; Philip Ashton Rollins, Jinglebob (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930), endpaper illustration as "Settin' Pretty"; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 274 and 285, b/w illustration p. 40; Robert W. Engel, "N. C. Wyeth's Day with the Round-Up," Buffalo Bill Historical Center Newsletter, vol. 14, no. 3 (Fall 1990), p. 2; Sarah E. Boehme, "N. C. Wyeth, From the Hashknife to the Palette Knife," Points West (Cody, WY: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Fall, 2002), p. 12; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.114, p. 137
Curatorial RemarksThis picture, painted in Wilmington in July, 1905 (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "It's now about 8:30...," and dated in another hand July 14, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives), is a vertical version of a horizontal composition Wyeth painted in October 1904 in Denver titled "A Bucking Horse in Camp" (NCW to Andrew Newell Wyeth, Nov. 3, 1904, Wyeth Family Archives). The inscription below the signature references Wyeth's inspiration, his 1904 trip to Colorado.
As early as May, 1905 (see NCW to Carolyn B. Bockius, May 8, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives), Joseph Chapin suggested the possibility of publishing prints of the "Round-up" pictures. This was one of two images selected for "Cow-Punchers" that Scribner's reproduced as individual prints. According to an advertisement in the December 1906 magazine, prints sold for 75 cents each, and Wyeth felt he earned a "good royalty," which was 10% of sales (Scribner's Archive, Princeton University Library). The reproductions were printed by the Electro-Light Engraving Company of New York. At some point, the image was made into a "Happy Hours" puzzle, two examples of which are held by the Brandywine River Museum (see NCWS.95.4700 and .4701), and reproduced on the cover of a music collection, "Songs for the Rodeo," published by Paull-Pioneer Music Corp, 1937 (Brandywine River Museum library, 32.99).
"Wilmington Artists in the March Magazines," an undated (but March 1906 by context) and unattributed article from a Wilmington, DE, newspaper, states that "The full-page illustrations in color are in his best style and their originals have been sold to a New York collector."
As early as May, 1905 (see NCW to Carolyn B. Bockius, May 8, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives), Joseph Chapin suggested the possibility of publishing prints of the "Round-up" pictures. This was one of two images selected for "Cow-Punchers" that Scribner's reproduced as individual prints. According to an advertisement in the December 1906 magazine, prints sold for 75 cents each, and Wyeth felt he earned a "good royalty," which was 10% of sales (Scribner's Archive, Princeton University Library). The reproductions were printed by the Electro-Light Engraving Company of New York. At some point, the image was made into a "Happy Hours" puzzle, two examples of which are held by the Brandywine River Museum (see NCWS.95.4700 and .4701), and reproduced on the cover of a music collection, "Songs for the Rodeo," published by Paull-Pioneer Music Corp, 1937 (Brandywine River Museum library, 32.99).
"Wilmington Artists in the March Magazines," an undated (but March 1906 by context) and unattributed article from a Wilmington, DE, newspaper, states that "The full-page illustrations in color are in his best style and their originals have been sold to a New York collector."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. digital scan from object
Photo Credit:1. (BRM photo files); 2. BRM staff