"Elizabeth and Essex, Ladies Home Journal"   Lot no. 896

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By N.C. Wyeth 1882-1945

1928 (Estimated)
30.00" x 40.00"
Oil on Canvas
Signed Upper Right
SOLD

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SOLD

Ladies' Home Journal, Vol. 45 no.11

N. C. Wyeth, the patriarch of the legendary Wyeth family, is the most famous student of Howard Pyle. He was noted for his heroic, masculine figures and scenes, his wonderful sense of color and light, and outstanding composition. His early work emphasized western subjects that are extremely valuable, as are his historic illustrations for Treasure Island and The Deerslayer, among other classics. His works hang in many museums. Until 1930, all of his paintings were oil on canvas, after which he changed to oil on gesso board to achieve more vivid colors.

This large 1928 painting was a story illustration in Ladies Home Journal and shows a dramatic moment in the lives of Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who played the courtier’s role of currying favor with the Queen through flattery and flirtation, despite being 34 years her junior. This scene shows Essex entering the Queen’s dressing chamber unannounced, with her thin grey hair exposed, before she put on one of her wigs or painted her face. She never forgave him. Ultimately, he was arrested and convicted of treason for leading a rebellion and attempting to seize control of the City of London. He was beheaded at the Tower of London on February 25,1601.  

NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (AMERICAN 1882-1945) Title: "AND THERE, QUITE CLOSE TO HIM WAS ELIZABETH AMONG HER LADIES, IN A DRESSING GOWN, UNPAINTED, WITHOUT HER WIG, HER GREY HAIR HANGING IN WISPS ABOUT HER FACE, AND HER EYES STARTING FROM HER HEAD."

 

 


Provenance: Titus C. Geesey, Wilmington, Delaware, to 1964.From the Collection of The Wilmington Institute Library, Wilmington, Delaware.EXHIBITED:(possibly) The Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts annual exhibition 1929, catalogue number 15 as 'Elizabeth Queen of England'. (Records are unclear whether the painting exhibited is the present work or another image of Elizabeth from the same story).LITERATURE:Newell Convers Wyeth to James Boyd, Jan 5. 1928, Southern Historical Collection, Library of the University of North Carolina.Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen Jr., N.C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals(New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 263.Christine Podmaniczky, N.C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I. 1079 (1822), p. 508.NOTE:This work was painted as a color illustration for 'Elizabeth and Essex' by Lytton Strachey, Ladies' Home Journal vol. XLV, no. 11 (Nov. 1928) p. 17.This painting is NCW number 1822 in the catalogue raisonné of the works of Newell Convers Wyeth by the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.



Explore related art collections: Magazine Stories / Classical / Fairy Tale / $100,000 & Above / 1920s / Women as Subjects / Brandywine School / Men / Suspense/Mystery

See all original artwork by N.C. Wyeth

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Newell Convers Wyeth had a huge zest for life. He carried his enthusiasm through a great number of paintings, more than 3000 illustrations, numerous vast murals, and many still-life and landscape paintings.

Howard Pyle was his teacher and idol. At first, Wyeth emulated Pyle's approach as nearly as possible, painting much of the same kind of subject matter - medieval life, pirates, Americana. To this he added his own dramatic picture concepts and rich, decorative color. Outstanding in this phase of his work were the more than twenty-five books he illustrated for Charles Scribner's Son's Classics series. The popularity of these books is such that, even after decades, many of them are still in print.

He came to resent the constraints of illustration, and after painting in oils for many years, Wyeth turned to the egg tempera medium and began to paint more for exhibitions. He also encouraged an interest in the arts in his children, giving them every opportunity for self-expression. His daughters, Henriette and Caroline, were both accomplished painters; Ann, a composer; and his son, Andrew, is famous as a painter. His grandson, Jamie, is also an excellent painter.

At the time of his tragic death in a railway crossing accident, N.C Wyeth was one of America's best loved illustrators. 

The October, 1965, issue of American Heritage contains an article by Henry C. Pitz about the career of Wyeth and his family, and a biography by David Michaelis was published in 1998.

 

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