NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945) The Vigil 30 x 22 1/4...
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945)
The Vigil
signed 'N.C. WYETH.' (lower right) and inscribed with title, inscribed 'FROM "THE YEARLING" / PRESENTED TO VIRGINIA G. RHEUBY / IN RECOLLECTION OF HER / DYNAMIC AND INTERESTING / FATHER - JUDGE RHEUBY' and signed again (on the reverse)
tempera on Renaissance panel
30 x 22 1/4 in. (76.2 x 56.5 cm.)
Painted in 1939.
Footnotes
Provenance
Dr. Virginia Gould Rheuby (1902-1971), Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, gift from the artist, circa 1943.
Christopher Rheuby (1939-2026), Charlottesville, Virginia, son of the above, by descent from the above, 1971.
Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Elder, Charlottesville, Virginia, by 1985.
Thaddeus "Tad" Alphonse Lindner (1926-2020) and Mary Jean (née Wellford) Lindner (1926-2026), Bethesda, Maryland, acquired from the above, November 1985.
Gift to the present owner from the above, daughter of the above, 2011.
Exhibited
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Fitchburg Art Center, Original Illustrations by N.C. Wyeth, February 1-29, 1940.
(probably) Clearwater, Florida, Clearwater Art Museum, March 11-April 2, 1941.
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Brandywine River Museum, The Classic Illustrations of N.C. Wyeth, January 12-May 19, 1985.
Literature
M.K. Rawlings, The Yearling, New York, 1939, opp. 144, illustrated.
"American Front," Sentinel, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, February 6, 1940, p. 6.
Reader's Digest Condensed Books, Pleasantville, New York, 1966, vol. I, p. 261, illustrated.
D. Allen, D. Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 216.
J. McHugh, "$10,000 Bond Set Today For Art Theft Suspect," The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, April 24, 1987, p. B2.
C. B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume Two, London, 2008, pp. 575, 914, no. I.1276 (752), illustrated.
N.C. Wyeth maintained a long and productive relationship with the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons. Beginning with Wyeth's masterful illustrations for Robert Louis Stevenson's (1850-1894) Treasure Island (1911), Wyeth established a body of work for the publisher that would span several decades. Among the best known are Kidnapped (1913), The Black Arrow (1916), The Boy's King Arthur (1917), The Mysterious Island (1918), The Last of the Mohicans (1919), The Deerslayer (1925), and The Yearling (1939).
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' (1896-1953) third novel, The Yearling, was published in March of 1938. The novel follows Jody Baxter, a young boy, and his family in the backwoods of Florida in the 1870s. The novel was a success, becoming the number one best seller in America for twenty-three consecutive weeks with over 250,000 copies sold in 1938 alone. The Yearling went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1939, and the Scribner's edition, for which Wyeth produced thirteen panels, among them the present work, was published that same year.
Near the end of Chapter XIV, Jody's father, Penny, is bitten by a rattlesnake. Wyeth chooses to depict not the dramatic moment of the bite but rather the solemn aftermath in The Vigil. "It seemed to Jody that he was alone with his father. The vigil was in his hands. If he kept awake, and labored for breath with the tortured sleeper, breathing with him and for him, he could keep him alive. He drew a breath as deep as the ones his father was drawing. It made him dizzy. He was light-headed and his stomach was empty. He knew he would feel better if he should eat, but he could not swallow. He sat down on the floor and leaned his head against the side of the bed. He began to think back over the day, as though he walked a road backward. He could not help but feel a greater security here beside his father, than in the stormy night. Many things, he realized, would be terrible alone that were not terrible when he was with Penny." (M.K. Rawlings, The Yearling, New York, 1938, p. 158)
As is the case with N.C. Wyeth's most successful works, the painting exists in the interstices of the text. The figures are placed by the author, and Wyeth enhances the narrative by depicting the moment just after everyone seemingly has slipped into sleep. Wyeth's use of chiaroscuro lighting along a strong diagonal plane defines the picture. Interestingly, Wyeth echoes this structure in color using the cool blue and green tones in the basin, Jody's pants, the coverlet, and the coverlet's reflection in the window in a parallel diagonal. The three figures are a study of the ages of man; the young boy is at the bedside, the father lies gravely ill and the elderly man has nodded off in an exhausted slumber following the intense time at death's door. The shadow of the rarely sober old doctor is like a fourth figure in the composition continuing the strong diagonal and perhaps providing a visual reference to death looking in but not staying. As Penny says to Jody the next morning, "Ol' Death gone thievin' elsewhere. But wa'n't it a close squeak!" (M.K. Rawlings, The Yearling, p. 164) Despite the sleeping figures, Wyeth conveys both tension and calm simultaneously, a testament to his mature command of mood and narrative expression. The Vigil does not simply illustrate Rawlings' story; it enriches the psychological and emotional experience of the reader.
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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945)
The Vigil
signed 'N.C. WYETH.' (lower right) and inscribed with title, inscribed 'FROM "THE YEARLING" / PRESENTED TO VIRGINIA G. RHEUBY / IN RECOLLECTION OF HER / DYNAMIC AND INTERESTING / FATHER - JUDGE RHEUBY' and signed again (on the reverse)
tempera on Renaissance panel
30 x 22 1/4 in. (76.2 x 56.5 cm.)
Painted in 1939.
Footnotes
Provenance
Dr. Virginia Gould Rheuby (1902-1971), Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, gift from the artist, circa 1943.
Christopher Rheuby (1939-2026), Charlottesville, Virginia, son of the above, by descent from the above, 1971.
Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Elder, Charlottesville, Virginia, by 1985.
Thaddeus "Tad" Alphonse Lindner (1926-2020) and Mary Jean (née Wellford) Lindner (1926-2026), Bethesda, Maryland, acquired from the above, November 1985.
Gift to the present owner from the above, daughter of the above, 2011.
Exhibited
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Fitchburg Art Center, Original Illustrations by N.C. Wyeth, February 1-29, 1940.
(probably) Clearwater, Florida, Clearwater Art Museum, March 11-April 2, 1941.
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Brandywine River Museum, The Classic Illustrations of N.C. Wyeth, January 12-May 19, 1985.
Literature
M.K. Rawlings, The Yearling, New York, 1939, opp. 144, illustrated.
"American Front," Sentinel, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, February 6, 1940, p. 6.
Reader's Digest Condensed Books, Pleasantville, New York, 1966, vol. I, p. 261, illustrated.
D. Allen, D. Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 216.
J. McHugh, "$10,000 Bond Set Today For Art Theft Suspect," The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, April 24, 1987, p. B2.
C. B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume Two, London, 2008, pp. 575, 914, no. I.1276 (752), illustrated.
N.C. Wyeth maintained a long and productive relationship with the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons. Beginning with Wyeth's masterful illustrations for Robert Louis Stevenson's (1850-1894) Treasure Island (1911), Wyeth established a body of work for the publisher that would span several decades. Among the best known are Kidnapped (1913), The Black Arrow (1916), The Boy's King Arthur (1917), The Mysterious Island (1918), The Last of the Mohicans (1919), The Deerslayer (1925), and The Yearling (1939).
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' (1896-1953) third novel, The Yearling, was published in March of 1938. The novel follows Jody Baxter, a young boy, and his family in the backwoods of Florida in the 1870s. The novel was a success, becoming the number one best seller in America for twenty-three consecutive weeks with over 250,000 copies sold in 1938 alone. The Yearling went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1939, and the Scribner's edition, for which Wyeth produced thirteen panels, among them the present work, was published that same year.
Near the end of Chapter XIV, Jody's father, Penny, is bitten by a rattlesnake. Wyeth chooses to depict not the dramatic moment of the bite but rather the solemn aftermath in The Vigil. "It seemed to Jody that he was alone with his father. The vigil was in his hands. If he kept awake, and labored for breath with the tortured sleeper, breathing with him and for him, he could keep him alive. He drew a breath as deep as the ones his father was drawing. It made him dizzy. He was light-headed and his stomach was empty. He knew he would feel better if he should eat, but he could not swallow. He sat down on the floor and leaned his head against the side of the bed. He began to think back over the day, as though he walked a road backward. He could not help but feel a greater security here beside his father, than in the stormy night. Many things, he realized, would be terrible alone that were not terrible when he was with Penny." (M.K. Rawlings, The Yearling, New York, 1938, p. 158)
As is the case with N.C. Wyeth's most successful works, the painting exists in the interstices of the text. The figures are placed by the author, and Wyeth enhances the narrative by depicting the moment just after everyone seemingly has slipped into sleep. Wyeth's use of chiaroscuro lighting along a strong diagonal plane defines the picture. Interestingly, Wyeth echoes this structure in color using the cool blue and green tones in the basin, Jody's pants, the coverlet, and the coverlet's reflection in the window in a parallel diagonal. The three figures are a study of the ages of man; the young boy is at the bedside, the father lies gravely ill and the elderly man has nodded off in an exhausted slumber following the intense time at death's door. The shadow of the rarely sober old doctor is like a fourth figure in the composition continuing the strong diagonal and perhaps providing a visual reference to death looking in but not staying. As Penny says to Jody the next morning, "Ol' Death gone thievin' elsewhere. But wa'n't it a close squeak!" (M.K. Rawlings, The Yearling, p. 164) Despite the sleeping figures, Wyeth conveys both tension and calm simultaneously, a testament to his mature command of mood and narrative expression. The Vigil does not simply illustrate Rawlings' story; it enriches the psychological and emotional experience of the reader.
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