
Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
Sold for US$51,200 inc. premium
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Provenance
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, consigned from the artist, by October 1958.
Howard Joseph Sachs (1891-1969) and Eleanor Burtis (née Saxe) Sachs (1900-1983), New York, acquired from the above, October 30, 1958.
By descent to the present owner from the above, 1983.
Exhibited
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Andrew Wyeth: Recent Paintings, October 28-November 22, 1958, n.p., no. 27.
Literature
"The Young Realist," TIME, November 17, 1958, vol. LXXII, no. 20, p. 73, illustrated.
"Andrew Wyeth," Studio International, January 1959, pp. 120-122.
The Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Study Center of the Brandywine Museum of Art confirms that this object is recorded in Betsy James Wyeth's files.
Andrew Wyeth's Cormorants was painted on a small island off the coast of Maine near his summer home. When Wyeth spoke of the present work to TIME, he remarked, "I rowed over...There was a terrific shrieking and neck-turning. The picture took only half an hour, but the birds kept dropping on me all the time. There was a strange feeling of aloneness of the cormorants not wanting you. They kept talking among themselves." (as quoted in "The Young Realist," TIME, November 17, 1958, vol. LXXII, no. 20, p. 73)