IRVING, Washington. [N.C. Wyeth.
Rip Van Winkle.
Philadelphia: David McKay Company, 1921.
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+$500
First Wyeth-Illustrated Edition of Rip Van Winkle; Signed by Both N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth
First Wyeth-illustrated edition of Washington Irving’s classic tale, with N.C. Wyeth’s celebrated color illustrations. Quarto, original brown cloth stamped in gilt with a pictorial cover label, top edge gilt, pictorial endpapers. Signed and inscribed on the half-title by both N.C. Wyeth and his son, the painter Andrew Wyeth, the first inscription reading, “Autograph by the illustrator of this book July 20th 1931 N.C. Wyeth,” and the second, “to Gillett from Andy.” Andrew Wyeth’s inscription is made to Gillett Whitney, a childhood friend and the son of George Gillett Whitney, headmaster of the Westtown Friends School and himself a pupil of N.C. Wyeth. In very good condition. A scarce copy, signed by two generations of the Wyeth family of artists.
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) was the foremost American illustrator of his generation, whose vivid illustrations for the Scribner’s editions of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and other classics defined the look of adventure literature for the twentieth century. His 1921 edition of Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, published by David McKay, pairs Irving’s tale of a man who sleeps through the American Revolution with Wyeth’s richly colored plates. His son Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) became one of the most celebrated American painters of the century, known for Christina’s World and for his spare, luminous scenes of rural Pennsylvania and Maine. This copy, signed by both father and son, unites two generations of the most famous family in American art.