Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)
A Man of a Certain Probity and Worth, Immortal and Natural (New England; The Wood Sled)
signed 'N.C. Wyeth' (lower left)
oil on Renaissance panel
34 1/2 x 28 3/8 in. (87.6 x 72.1 cm.)
Painted in 1936.
Footnotes:
Provenance
The artist, until October 1939.
Private collection, Wilmington, Delaware.
By descent within the family of the above to the present owner.

Exhibited
Utica, New York, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, March 12-28, 1938. (as The Wood Sled)
New York, Macbeth Gallery, In the Georges Islands, Maine: Paintings by N. C. Wyeth, December 5-30, 1939.
Concord, Massachusetts, Concord Museum, N. C. Wyeth's Men of Concord, April 15-September 18, 2016, pp. 34-5.

Literature
F.H. Allen, ed., Men of Concord and Some Others as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Boston, 1936, frontispiece, pl. 1, illustrated.
'The Clan Wyeth Presents Its Famed Patriarch,' The Art Digest, December 15, 1939, vol. 14, no. 6, p. 8, illustrated.
NCW Income Tax Notes, 1939.
A. Douglas, A. Douglas, Jr., N. C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 220. (as Plate I. A man of a certain probity and worth, immortal and natural! (frontispiece))
L.P. Wilson, 'N.C. Wyeth, Thoreau, and Men of Concord,' The Concord Saunterer, Concord, Massachusetts, 2000, vol. 8, p. 91. (as A Man of a Certain Probity ...)
C. B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume Two, London, 2008, pp. 548-49, no. I.1207 (1338), 868, 901, illustrated.

This lot includes an original copy of Men of Concord and Some Others as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau edited by Francis H. Allen with illustrations by N.C. Wyeth and published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1936.

The life and work of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) held great personal meaning for N. C. Wyeth and the completion and release of Men of Concord and Some Others, as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau in 1936 was a gratifying achievement. The present work, along with the nine other oil panels that Wyeth produced to illustrate the book demonstrate his prowess as a painter of landscapes and human characters. Furthermore, these works represent the culmination of a project closer to his personal ideals and beliefs than any other he completed during his artistic career.

Wyeth was born and raised in Needham, Massachusetts and began his formal art training in 1902 in Wilmington, Delaware as a student of renowned 19th century American illustrator, Howard Pyle (1853-1911). It was under Pyle that Wyeth would discover Thoreau, one of America's greatest authors of the 19th century, and found in him a spiritual guide and creative influence throughout his artistic career. Wyeth soon exceeded the abilities of his teacher, quickly finding employment with popular magazines of the period, including Century, Harper's Monthly, Cosmopolitan Book, and Scribner's. In 1911, he was given his first commission for Scribner's popular series of classical stories and was asked to illustrate Robert Louis Stevenson's (1850-1894) Treasure Island, which he produced a total of 17 paintings for. Following this milestone, Wyeth was commissioned in 1919 to illustrate James Fenimore Cooper's (1789-1851) novel, The Last of the Mohicans. As the 1920s approached, It became clear that Wyeth's abilities as an illustrator were unmatched and his future as one of the great American painters of the genre was cemented.

Prior to receiving his monumental commission to illustrate The Last of the Mohicans, Wyeth was advocating to the publishers at Houghton Mifflin near the end of 1918 for a book that would illustrate the entries of Thoreau's journal and expressed that it was his ambition, 'To paint in mural form, either in a book or upon walls of some building a series of interpretations of this author[']s message as expressed in his works and in his life.' (N. C. Wyeth to Julia Starkey, December 14, 1918, N. C. Wyeth/Houghton Mifflin Correspondence, Houghton Mifflin Company Correspondence and Records, MS Am 1925 (1962), Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) Beginning in the Spring of 1909, Wyeth became a disciple of Thoreau and embraced the simplicity of the naturalist's life and writings. By this time, he finished reading Thoreau's writings, likely Walden, and made his first of many voyages to Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau's writings resonated deeply with Wyeth, famously declaring in 1911, 'The Subtle and glorious glimpse into the life and soul of Thoreau is marvelous and means exceedingly more to me than the Bible and the works of all other men, dead and alive, put together!' (N. C. Wyeth to Stimson Wyeth, October 1, 1911, The Wyeths: The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945, B.J. Wyeth, ed., Boston, 1971, p. 389)

Houghton Mifflin's director, Roger Livingston Scaife (1875-1951), was not immediately receptive to Wyeth's proposed project, but Wyeth would find support in fellow Thoreauvian, Francis Henry Allen (1866-1953), a respected Thoreau editor and bibliographer, early Thoreau society member, and member of the Houghton Mifflin editorial staff. Allen, along with Bradford Torrey (1843-1912), coedited the fourteen volumes of Thoreau's Journal that Houghton Mifflin published in 1906 as volumes 7-20 of the Manuscript and Walden Editions of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau. Allen also released his Bibliography of Henry David Thoreau and Notes on New England Birds through Houghton Mifflin. After criticism from Wyeth, Scaife permitted Wyeth to begin planning the structure of the book with Houghton Mifflin as publisher and Allen proposed that Wyeth select journal entries from his coedited 1906 text rather than Harrison Gray Otis Blake's (1816-1898) four volumes of journal selections published by Houghton Mifflin in the late 19th century. Initially, the book was to be titled Thoreau's Seasons and Wyeth envisioned it being arranged by the seasons of the year.

Allen played a major role in helping Wyeth produce the finished book as he balanced his ongoing projects with other publishers. Wyeth had ongoing commitments with Scribner's and Cosmopolitan Book and was offered by Houghton Mifflin both Courtship of Miles Standish and George Herbert Palmer's (1842-1933) translation of the Odyssey. With a nationally regarded reputation as one of America's foremost illustrators, he had his pick for more commissions than he could take on and Thoreau's Seasons seemed to be an unreachable project. However, after nearly a decade since the inception of the project, it finally began to take shape in 1930 when Allen took over the editorial responsibility from Wyeth. Allen made selections from Thoreau's text 'To consist entirely of character sketches and bits of narrative to bring out his knowledge of human nature' and began to focus on the personalities of Concord that could be included in the finished book and matched them with specific journal entries of Thoreau's that would be interpreted and illustrated by Wyeth. (L.P. Wilson, 'Evolution of Men of Concord,' N. C. Wyeth's Men of Concord, exhibition catalogue, Concord, Massachusetts, 2016, p. 25) Houghton Mifflin embraced the direction that Allen took and revised the project from Thoreau's Seasons to Men of Concord.

Wyeth diligently worked on the panels for the book between October 1935 and the summer of 1936, writing that summer to Ferris Greenslet (1875-1959), Houghton Mifflin director, 'The Thoreau series is proving to be the most gratifying job I have done in years and I hope the results will measure up to your expectations.' (N.C. Wyeth to Ferris Greenslet, June 21, 1936, N. C. Wyeth/Houghton Mifflin Correspondence, Houghton Mifflin Company Correspondence and Records, MS Am 1925 (1962), Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) Men of Concord and Some Others, as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau finally appeared in November 1936 with great pleasure from Wyeth. The book's passages and entries from Thoreau's Journal that Allen selected were ultimately illustrated with ten color plates from Wyeth's oil on panels, including the present work, and with twenty-four pen-and-ink drawings that were, at the time unknown to Houghton Mifflin and the public, completed by his son, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). The book also featured illustrated endpapers, an illustrated dust jacket, and was issued in a box that contained an applied illustrative panel identical to one used within the book. The final product was one that deeply satisfied Wyeth as both an artist and as a devoted student of Thoreau.

For the present work, Wyeth sought inspiration from Herbert Wendell Gleason's (1855-1937) photogravures of snow-covered landscapes, such as Winter Landscape from Fair Haven Hill, that Houghton Mifflin used as illustrations for their 1906 edition of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau. Wyeth enriched both Gleason's black-and-white images and Thoreau's description of a winter sunset in New England. The sky of the present work is painted with a rich variety of color and, by removing a line of trees in the middle ground seen in Gleason's images, he delineates with near perfection the figure and the ox team. Wyeth's mastered ability to produce colorful and dramatic skyscapes is beautifully demonstrated in the present work and gives life to Thoreau's declaration, 'Ah, what isles those western clouds! In what a sea!' describing New England sunsets. (H. Thoreau quoted in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Boston, 1906, vol. 10, p. 430.)

The present work was reproduced as the frontispiece for the book and accompanied by an abbreviated quote from Thoreau's journal entry on December 1, 1856 describing Cyrus Hubbard as, 'A man of a certain New England probity and worth,' a quality valued by both Wyeth and Thoreau. (F.H. Allen, ed., N.C. Wyeth, ill., Men of Concord and Some Others, as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Boston, 1936, n.p., illustrated frontispiece) The full entry is preceded by the title A New England Farmer and reads:

'I see the old pale-faced farmer out again on his sled now for the five-thousandth time, — Cyrus Hubard, a man of a certain New England probity and worth, immortal and natural, like a natural product, like the sweetness of a nut, like the toughness of hickory. He, too, is a redeemer for me. How superior actually to the faith he professes! He is not an office-seeker. What an institution, what a revelation is a man! We are wont foolishly to think that the creed which a man professes is more significant than the fact he is. It matters not how hard the conditions seemed, how mean the world, for a man is a prevalent force and a new law himself. He is a system whose law is to be observed. The old farmer condescends to countenance still this nature and order of things. It is a great encouragement that an honest man makes this world his abode. He rides on the sled drawn by oxen, world-wise, yet comparatively so young, as if they had seen scores of winters. The farmer spoke to me, I can swear, clean, cold, moderate as the snow. He does not melt the snow where he treads. Yet what a faint impression that encounter may make on me after all! Moderate, natural, true, as if he were made of earth, stone, wood, snow. I thus meet in the universe kindred of mine, composed of these elements. I see men like frogs; their peeping I partially understand.' (F.H. Allen, ed., N.C. Wyeth, ill., Men of Concord and Some Others, as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Boston, 1936, pp. 157-58)

The passages that Wyeth chose to illustrate for the book, such as the present work depicting Cyrus driving the ox team through the snow-covered fields, center on the theme of vocation and that all of man's employments harbor attractive qualities. Thoreau addressed vocation many times throughout his journals, famously stating in his entry on June 15, 1852 that, 'The motive of the laborer should be not to get a living, to get a good job, but to perform well a certain work.' (as quoted in D.F. Wood, 'Getting a Living,' N. C. Wyeth's Men of Concord, exhibition catalogue, Concord, Massachusetts, 2016, p. 21)

The present work is possibly the second of two almost identical paintings that Wyeth completed, as Wyeth annotated the title and 'Painted in 1934' in an income tax note for 1939. Wyeth may have completed the first picture in in the early stages of planning the project in 1934 and later transferred the design to a Renaissance Panel. The Brandywine Museum of Art retains a lantern slide of an outline drawing of the composition that would have aided in this transfer process, as well as several related preparatory sketches. (C. B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume Two, London, 2008, p. 548) Upon completing the present work, Wyeth inscribed 'New England' on the reverse of the panel, possibly indicating that for Wyeth, the image represented the nature and character of not just Concord, but of the entire region. Furthermore, it has also been noted that Wyeth deemed the scene universal and perfectly able to be presented without its textual reference, as Wyeth chose to exhibit it in his show In the Georges Islands, Maine: Paintings by N. C. Wyeth at Macbeth Gallery in December 1939. (Concord Museum, N. C. Wyeth's Men of Concord, exhibition catalogue, Concord, Massachusetts, 2016, p. 34)

Houghton Mifflin reported favorable responses to the project from critics and sales for the book were healthy. Not long after the completion of the Men of Concord series, Wyeth began to consider his plans for the panels and how they might be dispensed. Ultimately, Wyeth hoped that the panels would remain together, preferably in Concord at Concord Library and quoted $650 per panel. However, selling the series together to the library or a private donor proved to be an impossible feat and the panels were eventually broken up and sold off individually. The present work along with three others are recorded as remaining in private hands, while The Concord Free Public Library in Concord, Massachusetts holds four in its collections, The Boston Atheneum holds one, and the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania retains the famed Men of Concord (ACN. 80.3.37) cover illustration. (C. B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume Two, London, 2008, pp. 548-50)

For N.C. Wyeth, there would be no other project that he would bring such a deeply rooted and personal connection with the subject, having devoted himself to the writings of Thoreau for nearly thirty years by the time the project was completed. Upon the completion of the panels for the project, Wyeth wrote to Houghton Mifflin editor, Lovell Thompson that, 'There is more heart in this series for Men of Concord, and better sustained than [for] any book I ever did. It is [with] real regret that I must conclude the set now. (N. C. Wyeth to Lovell Thompson, July 9, 1936, N. C. Wyeth/Houghton Mifflin Correspondence, Houghton Mifflin Company Correspondence and Records, MS Am 1925 (1962), Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) Men of Concord and Some Others, as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau and the illustrations therein are representative of Wyeth's achieved ambition to pay tribute to the life and work of Thoreau in the most accomplished way that he knew how – through the art of illustration.