Author Description

This illustrated exhibition catalogue was developed by the Concord Museum in association with the landmark project, N. C. Wyeth s Men of Concord, which consists of a special exhibition and public programs. The exhibition will be presented in the Museum s Wallace Kane Gallery from April 15, 2016 through September 18, 2016. N. C. Wyeth s Men of Concord will bring together for the first time in nearly eighty years the twelve original panels N. C. Wyeth painted for the book, Men of Concord and Some Others, as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau (Houghton Mifflin, 1936). Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945) is one of America s foremost painters and illustrators. He enjoyed a long and celebrated career creating illustrations for magazines and books, most famously Scribner s Illustrated Classics series, as well as murals and other works painted on commission or independently as an outlet for his own artistic inclinations. While Wyeth s success as an illustrator is widely known and well-documented, few people are aware of the artist s longstanding appreciation and admiration of Henry David Thoreau. This fascination ultimately resulted in Men of Concord, published selections from Thoreau s Journal for which Wyeth painted the twelve oil panels as illustrations. Although it is hard to imagine given his widespread popularity today, Thoreau s reputation in the early twentieth century was largely that of an amateur naturalist. Seeking to enhance Thoreau s status as a great American philosopher, Wyeth viewed a commission to illustrate Thoreau s writings as an opportunity to both fulfill his own deeply felt personal and creative aspirations as well as to elevate Thoreau in the estimation of the wider public. N. C. Wyeth first put forth the idea of illustrating Thoreau s writings to the Boston publishing giant Houghton Mifflin in 1918. The final product was not published until 1936. In his Journal, Thoreau often commented on the people he encountered on his daily journeys. M