178

Verso:
Label on reverse of frame: M. Rusling Wood, / Lithographer, / 218 William Street NY

Farmer with Pumpkin is listed as NCW Number 1318 in the Brandywine Museum’s N. C. Wyeth Catalogue Raisonné.

In a 1925 interview for the Ladies’ Home Journal, Wyeth reflected, “My brothers and I were brought up on a farm and from the time I could walk I was conscripted into doing every conceivable chore that there was to do about the place. This early training gave me a vivid appreciation of the part the body played in action.

“Now, when I paint a figure on horseback, a man plowing, or a woman buffeted by the wind, I have an acute bodily sense of the muscle-strain, the feeling of the hickory handle, or the protective bend of the head or a squint of eye that each pose involves. After painting action scenes I have ached for hours because of having put myself in the other fellow’s shoes as I realized him on the canvas.”

PROVENANCE:
Ferry-Morse Seed Company, 1913
The Harris Moran Seed Company, Modesto, California, 1960

LITERATURE:
The Popular Magazine, vol. XXX, no. 2 (November 1, 1913), front cover, illustrated
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), page 269 listed, and page 68, illustrated halftone
Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), page 287

Condition ReportCraquelure in sky and hairline cracks in pumpkin and shirt, original canvas, recently cleaned at W.C.C.F.A., extensive inpainting in sky, 3 inch diameter spot of inpainting center right, spot lower left corner, 2 spots lower right, several spots on pumpkin, farmers hand, and shirt.

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders; such statements are educated opinions and should not be regarded as facts. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has no responsibility for any errors or omissions.