N. C. WYETH | UNTITLED (THREE INDIANS AT A STREAM IN SNOWY WOODS)

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Stewart, Needham, Massachusetts

Mr. James Turbayne, Needham, Massachusetts

Sold: James R. Bakker Antiques, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 15, 1996, lot 102

Private collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts (acquired at the above sale)

Sold: Christie's, New York, December 2, 1998, lot 61

Acquired by the present owner at the above sale

Christine B. Podmaniczky, N.C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, vol. I, London, 2008, no. I.42, p. 115, illustrated

In 1902, N.C. Wyeth traveled to Wilmington, Delaware to study under the renowned illustrator Howard Pyle. Pyle required his students to submit oil compositions for weekly criticism in class. The present work, which Wyeth described at the time as "the best thing I ever did," is one of these classroom submissions. He explained the genesis of this painting in a letter to his mother dated 1904:

"Friday night about five-thirty I went in Arthurs [sic] studio which was then vacant and layed down beside Schoonover's 'pack toboggan' which has just come. I fell to pipe dreaming when all of a sudden I perceived a vivid picture of three Indians in their pre-historic garb discussing and examining a fresh moose track in the ponderous depths of a Maine woods. It was so clear and distinct in my mind I did not think over five minutes as to how I should do it. I instantly made a wild dash for the supply store and took out the essential articles to produce a canvas 40" by 25"...7 a.m. found me slapping on paint at a great rate. I worked steady all Sat. [sic]...and at five in the afternoon had finished the best thing I ever did. I was surprised at myself at the good color which I did not realize I was obtaining...I think I'll pass it in as a composition. I will then get a deep crit. [sic] on it and possible make another for exhibition purposes" (Letter from N.C. Wyeth to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, dated by NCW "6.30 Monday morning" and in another hand March 21, 1904, Wyeth Family Archives).