N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945)Tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades1911Oil on canvas, 47 x 38 in. (119.3 x 96.5 cm)Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Collection
NCW NUMBER
13
TITLE
Tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades
Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, to 1915; purchased in 1915 by Bartlett Arkell, for the Fort Rensselaer Club, Canajoharie, NY; (Vose Gallery, Boston, MA, 1953)
EXHIBITION HISTORY
Boston, MA, 1912, no. 1 as "Old Pew"; Philadelphia, PA, 1912(2), no. 159; San Francisco, CA, 1915, no. 59; San Francisco, CA, 1916, no. 6620; New York, NY, 1957, no. 100, as "Blind Pew"; Swarthmore, PA, Swarthmore College, March 1964, "Three Generations of Wyeths"; Harrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 77; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 21, b/w illus. (unpaginated); Chadds Ford, PA, 1968, no. 11; Wilmington, DE, 1969, no number; Chadds Ford, PA, 1971, no. 58, color illus. p. 50; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 55; Brookings, SD, 1973, no. 8; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 25; Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(1); Chadds Ford, PA, 1976(3), no. 118, b/w illus. p. 6; Chadds Ford, PA, 1985, color illus. on exhibition brochure; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), no. 17, color illus. p. 102; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(1); Chicago, IL, 1997, no. 1; Rockland, ME, 1998, no. 62 p. 164, color illus. p. 62; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "N. C. Wyeth's Treasure Island: Classic Illustrations for a Classic Tale," Sept. 10- Nov. 20, 2011; Paris, Mona Bismarck Foundation, "The Wyeths, Trois generations d'artistes americains," Nov. 10, 2011- Feb. 12, 2012, illus. in color, p. 23;
INITIAL USE
Color illustration f. p. 38, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911)
REFERENCES
(Philadelphia) Public Ledger, Nov. 10, 1912, review of PAFA exhibition (available on AAA film, roll P55, frame 719); "The Stouthearted Heroes of a Beloved Painter," Life, vol. 43, no. 24 (Dec. 9, 1957), illus. in color p. 96; John Lewis, The Twentieth Century Book (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1967), illus. p. 207; Henry C. Pitz, The Brandywine Tradition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1969), illus. in color (unpaginated); Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), illus. in color p. 400; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 218, illus. b/w p. 81; Susan E. Meyer, "N. C. Wyeth," American Artist Magazine, vol. 39, no. 391 (Feb. 1975), illus. in color. p. 41; Robert Taylor, "N. C. Wyeth: great illustrator and much more," The (Boston) Sunday Globe, Oct. 17, 1982, illus. b/w p. A41; Richard Meryman, "The Wyeth Family, American Visions," National Geographic, vol. 180, no. 1 (July 1991), illus. in color, p. 83; "The World of N. C. Wyeth," Randall House, Santa Barbara, CA, Rare Books Catalogue XXIV, 1992, illustration in b/w; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), illus. b/w p. 203; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.334, p. 221
CURATORIAL COMMENT
Andrew and Betsy Wyeth and members of the Forsythe family in Chadds Ford believe that the model for Old Pew was Samuel Forsythe, who was indeed blind.
IMAGE SOURCE
1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. Digital scan
