Illustration for "Drums"

Artist Newell Convers Wyeth (American, 1882 - 1945)

Dateca. 1928

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 26 1/2 x 40 1/8 inches (67.31 x 101.92 cm)
Framed: 32 x 45 3/4 x 2 inches (81.28 x 116.21 x 5.08 cm)

Credit LineGift of Sarah and Landon Rowland

Object number2006.6

SignedSigned upper right: N. C. Wyeth / W (artist's monogram)

On View

Not on view

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionThis horizontally oriented painting shows a colonial-era military battalion marching through a forest from the viewer's left to right. The men generally hold their guns in their right hands and prop them up by leaning them against their right shoulders. The trees tower over the men. The scene is painted in mostly dark, cool, monochromatic tones.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Wyeth: Three Generations of Artistry, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, September 17–November 29, 2009.

Gallery Label

N. C. Wyeth was commissioned to paint this work as part of a set of illustrations for a special edition of James Boyd's (1888-1944) renowned Revolutionary War-era novel Drums, published in 1928. As the book's front and back endpaper image, Wyeth's horizontal composition encourages the viewer to fall in line with the marching colonial troop and metaphorically enter the novel's narrative. The scene's cool, silvery tonality sets a serious mood for Boyd's story.

One of the most popular American artists of the early 20th century, Wyeth produced more than 3,000 illustrations in addition to paintings and murals which showcase his technical skill and reveal his preference for historical subjects. Wyeth also founded a family dynasty of artists, including his son Andrew.

Provenance

The artist;

to Dr. Philip Gillette Cole, NY;

possibly Samuel and Saidye Bronfman, Montreal, Canada;

to Baron Alain de Gunzburg and Baroness Minda Bronfman de Gunzburg, Paris;

to (Drouot Richelieu, Paris, 1 July 2005, lot 40 [as "Illustration pour 'Drums' de James Boyd"]);

to (Sotheby’s, New York, 30 November 2005, lot 235);

to Sarah and Landon Rowland, Kansas City, MO, 2005;

to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2006.

Published References

James Boyd, Drums (New York: C. Scribner’s Illustrated Classics, 1928), endpapers.

William Chauncy Langdon, Every Day Things in American Life, 1607–1776 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1937), 119 (repro. as Colonial Forces Recruited from the Peoples of the Mountain Regions).

Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen Jr., N. C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (1972; New York: Bonanza Books, 1984), 198.

Drouot Richelieu, Paris, July 1, 2005, lot 40 (as Illustration pour Drums de James Boyd).

Sotheby’s, New York, November 30, 2005, lot 235.

Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 23, 545-48 (repro.), 2: 255-56 (repro.).

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