Newell Convers Wyeth (1882 - 1945)

Lot 132: Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)

Name: Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)
Brand: Christie's
SKU: ptwrkx0k6b

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Christie's

May 19, 2005

New York, NY, US

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More About this Item

Item Overview

Description

A Rounded Shape on a Little Hillside Caught His Eyes
signed and dated 'N.C. WYETH/06-' (lower left)
oil on canvas
38 x 24 in. (96.5 x 61 cm.)
Painted in 1906.

Artist or Maker

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)

Exhibited

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., 1957, no. 35 (as Trapper).
Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville County Museum of Art, 1974, no. 59 (as The Trapper).
Roswell, New Mexico, The Roswell Museum, 1981.

Literature

D. Allen and D. Allen, Jr., N.C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 268.
J.E. Dell, ed., Visions of Adventure: N.C. Wyeth and the Brandywine Artists, New York, 2000, p. 86, illustrated.

Provenance

Private collection, Clinton County, New York, by 1955.
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, circa 1957-72.
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina, 1973-93.
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Collection of John Edward Dell, to 1995.

Notes

Property from an Important Western Collection

The present work was a frontispiece illustration for a story by Lawrence Mott, "Love in the Wilderness," in the November 1906 issue of The Outing Magazine. The subject of Mott's story revolved around Chictou Bernard, "a French Canadian trapper accused of poaching on 'company lands' and saved from the pursuing police [Clyde] by his devoted girlfriend, Narron...In a romantic narrative like this, Wyeth could have chosen from many moments to create an illustration enhancing the theme of love in this story. Instead, he selected the dramatic point when Clyde discovers the half-frozen heroine. The viewer must imagine what happened before this point and what will unfold next, but the ending is not divulged. By choosing not to illustrate the outcome, Wyeth leaves more to the imagination, and the moment of suspense is heightened by visualization. As [Howard] Pyle instructed, Wyeth used his skill at portraying man in nature to create a painting that works with the writing and does not steal from its emotional content." (V. Manning in Visions of Adventure: N.C. Wyeth and the Brandywine Artists, New York, 2000, p. 87)

This work is included in the N.C. Wyeth catalogue raisonné database that is being compiled by the Brandywine River Museum and Conservancy, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale. This interest may include guaranteeing a minimum price to the consignor of property or making an advance to the consignor which is secured solely by consigned property. Such property is offered subject to a reserve. This is such a lot.