CHICAGO — Two Works from N.C. Wyeth led Hindman’s American and European Art auction December 13. “When Drake Saw for the First Time the Waters of the South Sea” was originally commissioned by Outing magazine in 1906 as a frontispiece illustration for John R. Spears’ article “The Buccaneers, Drake and the Golden Hind.” The oil on canvas of 38 by 24 inches sold for $275,000.

Wyeth wrote to his father in March 1906: “I’ve started one of five drawings for Outing and have it on the way to completion. I made one attempt which proved to be unsatisfactory, the second is more successful. Mr Pyle is much pleased with it and claims it to be a big jump ahead. The subject is Sir Francis Drake at the top of a tropical tree gazing for the first time on the South Seas.” About two weeks later, he wrote again: “I’ve finished a picture for Outing also, (Sir Francis Drake at the top of a tree…)…I managed to get one of the best illustrations I ever did from it. It pleased me greatly as it was not the result of an inspiration, but of the weaving to-gether of cold hard facts and technical knowledge…”

Wyeth’s “Leaping from Rock to Rock in Sheer Delight,” an oil on canvas measuring 44 by 32 inches, sold for $162,500. Wyeth painted it in 1913 as an illustration for Henry Van Dyke’s The Lost Boy, published in the December issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine that year.

Both works came from the trusts of Barbara V. and William K. Wamelink of Gates Mills, Ohio.

Watch for a full review in a future issue.