Wyeth (lower left) oil on board 29 ½ x 22 ½ in. He asked to see it so many times that the artist finally gave it to the boy as a gift sometime before the tragic auto accident that took both their lives. Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945) Jack the Giant-Killer signed N.C. Jack of the Tales) found unprecedented fame and fortune by cashing in on his own overly embellished legendonly to have. Some years after the illustration was published, Wyeth’s young grandson Newell saw the original in his grandfather’s studio and became entranced with it. The legend retires After leaving the safe but stifling confines of Fabletown for the cruel and dream-crushing streets of Hollywood, the incomparable Jack Horner (a.k.a. Wyeth’s son Andrew, who recalled his father’s fascination with creating a two-headed character, noted that the final silver bowl in the painting matches one the artist had given to his wife. For example the spoon changes from an over-size tea spoon to larger serving spoon. A preliminary drawing for lantern slide projection on to the canvas shows that Wyeth made small but telling changes during the execution of the painting. The picture’s tension derives from the contrary attitudes of the giant’s two heads, the one seemingly solicitous of Jack’s well-being with a generous helping of food, the other larger head turned away and winking in gleeful malice at his guest’s impending doom. But like all his best work, this particular painting creates drama even out of something as innocuous as serving food to a guest. The colors are brighter and more saturated. By this time in his career, the painting style had become more detailed, less impressionistic, with a thinner application of oil paint than earlier. The Anthology of Children’s Literature, the last major book he illustrated, gave him ample opportunity to indulge his imagination and abilities in a wide variety of stories, fables and fairy tales. Robinson Crusoe derives, of course, from Daniel Defoes novel, first published in 1719.
Other works included in the collection were illustrations for Heidi, Robin Hood and Little John, and Arion and the Dolphin.ĭespite his reputation for paintings of larger-than-life adventure, Wyeth painted fewer illustrations of fantastical subjects than he did of historical characters and tales. Jack the Giant-Killer is a traditional tale of ambiguous provenance, although it was probably not in print in its modern form until the eighteenth century (see essay accompanying 0023). Wyeth created for an Anthology of Children’s Literature, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1940. Jack the Giant-Killer is one of seventeen illustrations by N.C.