Study for Cover
Date1902
Artist
N. C. Wyeth
(American painter, illustrator, 1882–1945)
Illustration CitationStudy for cover of The Saturday Evening Post, February 21, 1903
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions25 3/8 × 17 1/4 in. (64.5 × 43.8 cm)
frame: 29 3/8 × 21 1/4 in. (74.6 × 54 cm)
frame: 29 3/8 × 21 1/4 in. (74.6 × 54 cm)
Credit LineGift of Willis du Pont, 1960
Object number1960-18
On View
On viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextThis sketch for N. C. Wyeth's first published illustration was done after he had been studying with Howard Pyle for only four months. Wyeth wrote home to his mother in Massachusetts: "The Post went wild over my cover and gave me $60 for it—within $5 of their highest given."Wyeth traveled to the West three times between 1904 and 1906 and would have witnessed scenes like this. The bucking horse seemingly in mid-air with flying mane and tail and its expert rider lightly holding the reins convey the spirit of "wild West." A year later, a critic called the 25-year old Wyeth "one of our greatest, if not our greatest, painter of American outdoor life."
