N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882-1945)

When Drake Saw for the First Time the Waters of the South Sea

, 1906

oil on canvas

signed N.C. Wyeth (lower right); dated (verso)

38 x 24 inches.

Property from the Trusts of Barbara V. and William K. Wamelink, Gates Mills, Ohio

Provenance:

Vose Galleries, Boston, 1967

Private Collection, San Francisco, California

Ronald R. Randall, John Howell-Books, San Francisco, California, 1971

Literature:

John R. Spears, "The Buccaneers, Drake and the Golden Hind," The Outing Magazine, vol. XLVIII, no. 6, September 1906 (frontispiece illustration in black & white)

Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N.C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 268

Christine B. Podmaniczky, N.C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, London, 2008, I.141, p. 147, illus.

Lot note:

Renowned artist of the Golden Age of Illustration, N.C. Wyeth achieved success after studying at Howard Pyle’s school and selling his first drawing to the Saturday Evening Post in 1903, at the age of 21. Wyeth would go on to capture real life, historical characters that were later romanticized in literary sources. The Outing Magazine, an American periodical covering a variety of sporting activities, commissioned the artist in 1906 to create a frontispiece illustration for John R. Spears’ article "The Buccaneers, Drake and the Golden Hind.” In a letter dated March 1906, Wyeth wrote to his father: "I've started one of five drawings for Outing and have it on the way to completion. I made one attempt which proved to be unsatisfactory, the second is more successful. Mr. Pyle is much pleased with it and claims it to be a big jump ahead. The subject is Sir Francis Drake at the top of a tropical tree gazing for the first time on the South Seas." (NCW to ANW, "Dear Papa, I just received the double letter..," undated but March 1906, Wyeth Family Archives.) Almost two weeks later, he reported: "I've finished a picture for Outing also, (Sir Francis Drake at the top of a tree...)....I managed to get one of the best illustrations I ever did from it. It pleased me greatly as it was not the result of an inspiration, but of the weaving to-gether of cold hard facts and technical knowledge..." (NCW to HZW, "Dear Mama, To-day its bright and cold..." undated but March 1906 by context, Wyeth Family Archives)

Spears’ article recounts Sir Francis Drake’s 1572 expedition to the Isthmus of Panama, where he attacked Nombre de Dios, a major port of call for the Spanish treasure fleet. According to the tale, the attack was unsuccessful, and Drake and his men spent the rainy season hiding in the backwaters of Panama. When good weather returned, Drake and several of his men crossed the isthmus to see when the pack-mule trains of treasure would leave from the recently arrived Spanish flotilla and travel to Nombre de Dios. “…with cheerful hearts the little band started forth and for seven days worked laboriously…Finally as they neared the city they came to a large hill, on the crest of which grew a ceiba tree that towered high above the surrounding forest. Here they paused while Drake…climbed up among the many clinging vines until he reached a limb where his view was unobstructed, and looking away to the south saw for the first time the waters of the South Sea…filled with a feeling he could not describe, Drake raised his hands toward heaven and begged Almighty God ‘to give him life and leave to sail an English ship in those seas.’” (John R. Spears, "The Buccaneers, Drake and the Golden Hind," The Outing Magazine, vol. XLVIII, no. 6, September 1906, p. 744)

Wyeth’s admiration for Pyle’s tutelage is revealed in When Drake Saw for the First Time the Waters of the South Sea through the careful attention to authentic details. The adventurer’s costume of slashed doublet, bright hose, and high leather boots epitomizes the idealized buccaneer and adventurer of the 16th and 17th centuries. However, Wyeth unquestionably draws from his brilliant imagination to achieve an aesthetic that is undeniably his own. The composition vividly captures the sense of discovery, with Drake framed by a dramatic cloud as he hovers between bright sky and sea and the lush, dark jungle foliage below. As Douglas Allen explains, “there is a heroic treatment of anatomy, for example, that makes a Wyeth masculine type so gloriously strong and virile—you look for a new discovery and technique—then that romance of color, of wave, of cloud…” (N.C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 140). With his attention to both accuracy of narrative as well as an expert application of composition, light and color, the present painting is an impressive example of Wyeth’s illustration work.