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Lot Essay
The present work was commissioned as the frontispiece image for the April 1916 issue of All Around Magazine to illustrate Wright Beach Paulhan's short story, "The Gold Bird." "One of the first entertainments of the homes was that of reading aloud from standard and popular classics of literature...these were supplemented by popular publications, such as Century, Collier's Weekly, Harper's Monthly and Scribner's...children and adults read together, buoyed by novel and imaginative illustrations accompanying familiar stories, long before the coming of radio, the motion picture, and television would change this familiar and social dynamic forever. American artists perfected their abilities to work in a vivid and dramatic style. The creation of 'storied pictures,' as book and magazine illustration was called, offered not only steady work but also access to a vast and democratic audience spanning generations, geography and social classes." (S.C. Larson, Wondrous Strange: The Wyeth Tradition, Rockland, Maine, 1998, p. 15)
Wyeth's first book commission came in 1911, illustrating Treasure Island for publisher Charles Scribner. His work was so well received that he was hired to illustrate a range of books which came to be known as "Scribner's Classics," including Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe, The Boy's King Arthur and The Last of the Mohicans, among others. Subsequently and throughout his career, Wyeth produced cover illustrations for the most notable magazines and publications, among them Saturday Evening Post, Harper's, Scribner's, Collier's, Century, Outing, Ladies Home Journal and All Around Magazine.
As demonstrated by Adventurers, Wyeth had an extraordinary ability to create living characters from an author's work of fiction. Because of his own vivid imagination, he envisaged all aspects of a story, often times finding that special moment which would engage the viewer and arouse interest. Few artists could excel in stimulating the curiosity of readers than Wyeth about the story behind his dramatic illustrations.
Skillfully composed with a dramatic perspective, Wyeth depicts the adventurers as they row away from the viewer. The characters rendered are quintessential Wyeth figures: strong and heroic, purposefully embarking on their journey. The scene is unified by Wyeth's bold style, "His color is rich, warm and freshly harmonious. He has an extraordinary skill at capturing the quality of light itself, not merely its symbolic representation in the arrangement of planes and their shadows, and he exercised it to the fullest, with an almost offhand delight in his mastery. His compositions are massive, with the play of great bodies, or look of rock, or rise of tree, or the bulk of something fashioned by builders. There is substance to his forms and reality to his objects." (D. Allen and D. Allen, Jr., N.C. Wyeth, New York, 1972, p. 11)
This painting is included in the N.C. Wyeth catalogue raisonné database that is being compiled by the Brandywine River Museum and Conservancy, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
Wyeth's first book commission came in 1911, illustrating Treasure Island for publisher Charles Scribner. His work was so well received that he was hired to illustrate a range of books which came to be known as "Scribner's Classics," including Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe, The Boy's King Arthur and The Last of the Mohicans, among others. Subsequently and throughout his career, Wyeth produced cover illustrations for the most notable magazines and publications, among them Saturday Evening Post, Harper's, Scribner's, Collier's, Century, Outing, Ladies Home Journal and All Around Magazine.
As demonstrated by Adventurers, Wyeth had an extraordinary ability to create living characters from an author's work of fiction. Because of his own vivid imagination, he envisaged all aspects of a story, often times finding that special moment which would engage the viewer and arouse interest. Few artists could excel in stimulating the curiosity of readers than Wyeth about the story behind his dramatic illustrations.
Skillfully composed with a dramatic perspective, Wyeth depicts the adventurers as they row away from the viewer. The characters rendered are quintessential Wyeth figures: strong and heroic, purposefully embarking on their journey. The scene is unified by Wyeth's bold style, "His color is rich, warm and freshly harmonious. He has an extraordinary skill at capturing the quality of light itself, not merely its symbolic representation in the arrangement of planes and their shadows, and he exercised it to the fullest, with an almost offhand delight in his mastery. His compositions are massive, with the play of great bodies, or look of rock, or rise of tree, or the bulk of something fashioned by builders. There is substance to his forms and reality to his objects." (D. Allen and D. Allen, Jr., N.C. Wyeth, New York, 1972, p. 11)
This painting is included in the N.C. Wyeth catalogue raisonné database that is being compiled by the Brandywine River Museum and Conservancy, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.