N. C. Wyeth

Provenance:
The Artist.
First Unitarian Church of Wilmington, Wilmington, Delaware, a gift from the above, 1937.

Literature:
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, p. 204.
Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, London, I.796, p. 398.
Accessible on the Brandywine Museum of Art's online Catalogue Raisonné at https://collections.brandywine.org/ncwcr, no. NCW: 582.

Lot Essay:
One of the most revered American illustrators of the 20th century, Newell Convers Wyeth’s output throughout the decades was prolific and varied. He produced innumerable book illustrations but also completed commissioned murals and frescoes for public buildings, starting in the 1920s. With its frontal presentation of the figure of Christ, its overall stylized appearance and gold background, Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me recalls the tradition of Byzantine religious painting, which ranged from monumental frescoes adorning the walls of churches to modestly sized panels. In this icon-reminiscent painting, Wyeth illustrates an episode from Matthew 19:14 (KJV), when Jesus welcomed children and infants in his embrace, suggesting that all segments of the population were deserving of his word and benevolence. The painting was fittingly donated by the artist in 1937 to the First Unitarian Church of Wilmington, Delaware, where Wyeth married his wife Carolyn Brenneman Bockius, and where the couple and their family were parishioners.