Drafting the Declaration of Independence--1776

Details

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)
Drafting the Declaration of Independence--1776
signed 'N.C. Wyeth' (lower right)--signed again twice and inscribed with title (on the reverse)
oil on panel
23 x 30 in. (58.4 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted in 1944.

Provenance

The artist.
John Brooks Flack, Syracuse, New York.
Private collection, by descent.
[With]Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, 1995.
Lagakos-Turak Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, acquired from the above, 1995.
[With]Lisa Dawn Schneider Curatorial Consultants and Galleries, New York and Boston, Massachusetts.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1995.

Literature

1947 calendar illustration, commissioned by Thomas D. Murphy Co., Red Oak, Iowa.
D. Allen, D. Allen, Jr., N.C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 291.
C.B. Podmaniczky, N.C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, vol. II, London, 2008, p. 698, no. C.182, illustrated.

Lot Essay

The present work depicts the "Committee of Five" which was comprised of the men appointed by Congress in June of 1776 to write the Declaration of Independence. The subjects are, from left to right: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Thomas Jefferson. The men are portrayed in the Philadelphia home belonging to Mrs. Clymer where the drafting occurred.

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