Live Auction 20978American Art
NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945)
Lot 81 Property from a Private Collection

NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945)

"Come, Live with Us, for I Think Thou Art Chosen"

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USD 50,400

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NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945)
"Come, Live with Us, for I Think Thou Art Chosen"
signed 'N.C. Wyeth' (lower right)
oil on canvas
44 x 32 in. (111.8 x 81.3 cm.)
Painted in 1913.

The artist.
Carolyn Brenneman Wyeth, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, wife of the above.
Carolyn Wyeth, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, daughter of the above.
Frank E. Fowler, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.
Dr. Noah Meadows, Marietta, Georgia.
Private collection, Atlanta, Georgia.
Christie's, New York, 25 April 2002, lot 62, sold by the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Specialist note

The present work was reproduced as an illustration for Henry Van Dyke's story "The Lost Boy," published in the December 1913 edition of Harper's Magazine and in book form the following year. This tale about Jesus Christ as a boy follows his journey in Jerusalem after becoming separated from his parents. The present work illustrates the moment when Enoch the Essene says to Jesus, "We alone are serving the kingdom. Come, live with us, for I think thou art chosen."

Pleased with his work for the story, the artist wrote of the present painting, "It promises to surpass my best—and I am happy" (as quoted in C.B. Podmaniczky, J.H. Stoner, N.C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings, vol. I, London, 2008, p. 285). He later wrote to his mother, "Harper's were delighted with my interpretation of Christ..." (unpublished letter, Oct. 3, 1913, Wyeth Family Archives)