"Stand away from that girl!" repeated de Spain harshly, backing the words with a step forward
Date1915
Artist
N. C. Wyeth
(American painter, illustrator, 1882–1945)
Illustration CitationNan of Music Mountain, by Frank H. Spearman (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions34 × 25 in. (86.4 × 63.5 cm)
frame: 39 1/4 × 30 1/4 in. (99.7 × 76.8 cm)
frame: 39 1/4 × 30 1/4 in. (99.7 × 76.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, 2017
Object number2017-9
On View
On viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextN. C. Wyeth illustrated a scene from this novel about the waning days of the frontier West. Here, a woman is rescued by her cousin as she resists the advances of a man who insists that she marry him. The threatening figure of Henry de Spain with his warning gesture set against the sky and parallel to towering pine trees makes the other figures seem small and earthbound by comparison.
Spearman's book was made into a movie in 1917, when censors insisted on changes to this scene, as the episode seemed to suggest rape.
