An N.C. Wyeth painting used as an illustration for a 1929 Good Housekeeping story was auctioned June 8.
Funds raised from the sale will help renovate the Chadds Ford church where it hung, writes Bedatri D. Choudhury for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The winning bid has not yet been announced, but it was estimated the painting would fetch between $250,000 and $400,000.
The Bruce Barton story, “The Little Maid in the Captain’s House” appeared in Good Housekeeping’s “Children of the Bible” series.
Chadds Ford artist N.C. Wyeth’s painting “In Naaman’s House” was used for the story’s illustration. It was auctioned by Freeman’s/Hindman in Philadelphia.
The original painting was gifted in 1963 to the Brandywine Baptist Church by Wyeth’s widow, Carolyn Bockus Wyeth.
“The qualities [shown in the painting] of being charitable, of helping others and using children as intercessors between humans and gods,” made it an apt gift for a church, said Raphaël Chatroux, Freeman’s|Hindman’s head of department, Modern and Impressionist art. “It was really their pride. A jewel for many years.”
The painting sale proceeds cover church renovations and restores an adjoining historical cemetery ahead of next year’s Semiquincentennial.
Find out more about the painting and the church that displayed it in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
