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Andrew Wyeth & N. C. Wyeth

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According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task. According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task.
Puritan Cod Fishers1947108 1/2 x 157 1/2 in.(275.59 x 400.05 cm) oil on canvas
Provenance
MetLife, Inc. Corporate Collection (Commissioned for New York offices)
Heather James Fine Art
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“I hope the time will never come when I shall feel satisfied. To reach the goal of one’s ambitions must be tragic.” – N.C. Wyeth

About Puritan Cod Fishers

  • Composition Drawing

    Composition Drawing

    See the composition drawing to this painting, “Puritan Cod Fishers, composition drawing for Metropolitan Life mural” (1944-1945).
  • "Puritan Cod Fishers" in the Gallery

    "Puritan Cod Fishers" in the Gallery

    “Puritan Cod Fishers” (1947) in our gallery in Palm Desert, California.
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According to the catalogue raisonné compiled by The Brandywine River Museum of Art, the preliminary drawing for Puritan Cod Fishers was completed by N. C Wyeth prior to his death in October 1945. The entry records an image of the sketch as well as the artist’s inscriptions and its title, Puritan Cod Fishers, characterized by the catalogue as ‘alternate’. In either case, the large-scale canvas is a unique work that Andrew Wyeth later recalled was painted solely by his hand, a demarcated collaboration of the father’s design and composition brought to fruition by a remarkable son’s execution. For Andrew, it must have been a deeply felt and emotional experience. Given his father’s attention to detail and authenticity, the lines of the small sailing craft represent a shallot, in use during the sixteenth century. On the other hand, Andrew likely deepened the hues of the restless sea more so than his father might have, a choice that appropriately heightens the perilous nature of the task.

“I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it… I always want to see the third dimension of something… I want to come alive with the object.” – Andrew Wyeth

History

Before there was television and of a time when film was still in its infancy, N. C. Wyeth’s illustrations electrified the stories he visually shaped and annotated. As a young reader of “Treasure Island,” who can deny the urgency to read on to the next glossy illustration? Or, in excited anticipation, thumb through the pages repeatedly to the pictures ahead, so alive and vivid and full of bravado?  

In 1939, The Metropolitan Life Company offered Wyeth a commission of a different sort; a series of canvas murals that would rely less on bravado perhaps, but instead, a deep sense of time and place. They would offer an energetic and grand vision and express the spirit of national pride by celebrating the strong values that express what it means to be American. Wyeth was thrilled. The fourteen mural panels he agreed to produce would bring the world of Pilgrims to glowing life and “serve as a graphic and dramatic expression of the spirit of New England” (Douglas Allen, et al., N. C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations, and Murals, pg. 169).  Wyeth, an artist of unparalleled skill and fully invested in the authenticity of the characters that populate his narratives, relished the opportunity to convey the pride he felt toward his ancestral past.

“The romance of early colonization, especially that of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts, had always excited me. My ancestor, Nicholas Wyeth, came from Wales to Massachusetts in 1647. The spirit of early days on the Massachusetts coast was an oft-discussed subject in my home. I was born in Needham, not far from the town of Plymouth, to which I made many pilgrimages during my boyhood, spending thrilling days in and around that historic territory. With this as a background, it was natural that in my mind and heart should fly to Plymouth and to the Pilgrims as a fitting subject for a series of New England paintings. If then, the warmth and appeal of these paintings is apparent to those who study them, it is principally because they are, in some related way, a statement of my own life and heritage.” (Douglas Allen, et al., N. C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, pg. 171)

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“To elevate the little into the great is genius.” – N.C. Wyeth

MARKET INSIGHTS

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  • The graph prepared by Art Market Research shows that since 1976, paintings by N.C. Wyeth have increased at a 11% annual rate of return.

  •  The record price for N.C. Wyeth at auction was set in 2018 when Portrait of a Farmer, a smaller painting from 1943, sold for nearly $6M. No N.C. Wyeth paintings on this monumental scale have appeared at auction.

  • Puritan Cod Fishers is an exceedingly rare example as the concept was begun by N.C. Wyeth, then the painting was completed by his son, acclaimed American painter Andrew Wyeth.

  • The highest price at auction for an Andrew Wyeth painting is $23,290,000 USD.

Top Results for Andrew Wyeth at Auction

Tempera on panel, 19 x 27.25 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 9 November 2022.

“Daydream” (1980) sold for $23,290,000 USD.

Tempera on panel, 19 x 27.25 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 9 November 2022.
Tempera on panel, 42 x 38 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 24 May 2007.

“Ericksons” (1973) sold for $10,344,000 USD.

Tempera on panel, 42 x 38 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 24 May 2007.
Tempera on panel, 48 x 32.3 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 2 December 2009.

“Above the Narrows” (1960) sold for $6,914,500 USD.

Tempera on panel, 48 x 32.3 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 2 December 2009.

Top Results for N.C. Wyeth at Auction

Tempera on Renaissance panel, 40 x 60 in. Sold at Sotheby’s New York: 23 May 2018.

"Portrait of a Farmer (Pennsylvania Farmer)" (1943) sold for $5,985,900 USD.

Tempera on Renaissance panel, 40 x 60 in. Sold at Sotheby’s New York: 23 May 2018.
Oil on canvas, 43 x 30 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 22 November 2016.

"Hands Up" (1906) sold for $4,951,500 USD.

Oil on canvas, 43 x 30 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 22 November 2016.
Oil on canvas, 46 x 69 1/4 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 28 October 2020.

"Indian Love Call" (1927) sold for $3,510,000 USD.

Oil on canvas, 46 x 69 1/4 in. Sold at Christie’s New York: 28 October 2020.

N.C. Wyeth Paintings in Museum Collections

"The Lobsterman (The Doryman)" (1944), egg tempera on wood, 23 1/4 x 47 1/4 in.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

“The Lobsterman (The Doryman)” (1944), egg tempera on wood, 23 1/4 x 47 1/4 in.
Our lives depended upon our helmsman (1940) oil on hardboard (Renaissance panel), 30 x 20 1/2 in.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania

Our lives depended upon our helmsman (1940) oil on hardboard (Renaissance panel), 30 x 20 1/2 in.
“Island Funeral” (1939), egg tempera and oil on hardboard, 44 1/2 x 52 3/8 in.

Brandywine River Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania

“Island Funeral” (1939), egg tempera and oil on hardboard, 44 1/2 x 52 3/8 in.
"They Took Their Wives with Them on their Cruises" (c. 1938), oil on board, 34 x 24 in.

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

“They Took Their Wives with Them on their Cruises” (c. 1938), oil on board, 34 x 24 in.
"The Water Burial" (1906), oil on canvas, 24 x 38 in.

Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma

“The Water Burial” (1906), oil on canvas, 24 x 38 in.
“I think one’s art goes as far and as deep as one’s love goes.” – Andrew Wyeth

Image Gallery

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Additional Resources

Read this biography of N.C. Wyeth written by Andrew Wyeth, celebrated painter and N.C. Wyeth's son.

"My Father" by Andrew Wyeth

Read this biography of N.C. Wyeth written by Andrew Wyeth, celebrated painter and N.C. Wyeth’s son.
Virtually tour the artist's home and studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania through this video from the Brandywine River Museum of Art.

The N.C. Wyeth House & Studio

Virtually tour the artist’s home and studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania through this video from the Brandywine River Museum of Art.
See the composition drawing to this painting, "Puritan Cod Fishers, composition drawing for Metropolitan Life mural" (1944-1945).

Composition Drawing

See the composition drawing to this painting, “Puritan Cod Fishers, composition drawing for Metropolitan Life mural” (1944-1945).

Authentication

NC Wyeth CR
Wyeth Pilgrioms

See the inclusion of The Departure of the Mayflower for England in 1621 in Christine B. Podmaniczky’s catalog raisonne, the online catalogue raisonne, and in Robert San Souci’s book N.C. Wyeth’s Pilgrims.

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Other Works by N.C. and Andrew Wyeth

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