Vintage Joseph Long Elk Charcoal Print 🎨 Crow Chief, Cataloged N.C. Wyeth For Sale

Size: 26 x 18.5 inches ~

🎨 Joseph Long Elk Charcoal Portrait Print — Cataloged as N.C. Wyeth

I collect this kind of thing myself, so let me tell you about it the way I\'d tell a friend. This is a large charcoal-style portrait print of Joseph Long Elk, a Crow chief, on heavy textured paper with a linen-like finish, and it comes with one of the better documented little mysteries I\'ve had come through the shop. The sheet itself says the artist is unknown. A major sale house later catalogued the original charcoal under N.C. Wyeth\'s name. I\'ll lay out exactly what\'s printed, what\'s documented, and what\'s still an open question, so you know precisely what you\'re buying.

📏 The Sheet, Described

A large reproduction print, approximately 26 inches by 18.5 inches, on heavy paper with a soft, linen-like surface. The image is a right-facing profile of a Native American man rendered in charcoal: densely worked dark hair with a single feather, a strongly modeled brow, nose and jaw, and a robe falling loosely across the shoulders, set against an open, atmospheric ground. It\'s a reproduction of a charcoal study, not an original drawing — the printing date itself isn\'t recorded anywhere on the sheet. Condition is strong: richly toned, clean, with little to no wear. A folding rule appears in the photographs for scale.

🔍 The Printed Margin

The lower margin of the sheet is printed, verbatim: \"JOSEPH LONG ELK, (Crow Chief) · Circa 1917 · Artist Unknown · TROLLEY BARN ANTIQUES, MYSTIC, CONNECTICUT.\" The caption draws its own distinction: \"Circa 1917\" dates the original subject; the sheet captions its own maker as \"Artist Unknown.\" I\'ve quoted the imprint exactly as printed. The drawing this print reproduces did not stay anonymous in the later record.

🏛️ The sale Record

The original charcoal is documented as having sold at Thomaston Place sale Galleries, Thomaston, Maine, on July 29, 2006, as Lot 200, cataloged as \"CHARCOAL N.C. WYETH — JOSEPH LONG ELK\" under the name Newell Convers Wyeth, with a published estimate of $6,000–$8,000 — and, per the sale house\'s published results, a realized price of $6,000. Those figures are the historical record of the original work, cited here for provenance; they aren\'t a claim about this print. What matters for a collector is documentary: a major sale house catalogued the source image under the Wyeth name, decades after this sheet was printed with \"Artist Unknown\" on its own margin.

🗂️ Accompanying Documentation (Shown, Not Included)

The collection this print comes from still holds a supporting paper trail, and it\'s pictured here so you can see it for yourself. It comprises a packet of glossy black-and-white photographs of the portrait, hand-captioned \"N.C. WYETH (charcoal)\" and signed \"R. Izbicki\"; the original film negatives on the strip; and the mailing envelope, printed with Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture letterhead (New York office, 331 East 68th Street, New York City 10021, Third Class Mail) and hand-marked \"Indian Photos.\" That ZIP code — 10021 — didn\'t exist before 1963, so this mailing is 1963 or later; that dates the envelope, not the print inside it. The original that sold at sale was further documented as accompanied by a copy of a letter from Betsy Wyeth — Andrew Wyeth\'s wife, editor of the published collection of N.C. Wyeth\'s letters — and as bearing a pencil \"Sat Sketch\" notation on its back.

The published sale results add the letter\'s subject: Howard Pyle\'s Saturday night drawing classes, the Wilmington program N.C. Wyeth entered in 1902. The \"Sat Sketch\" pencil note and the letter\'s subject line up with each other; the results record no date for the letter, and I don\'t claim one.

The hand that captioned those photographs has a name: Raymond A. Izbicki (1921–2007), a New London County art man with a serious New York pedigree. He helped open Betty Parsons\'s Section Eleven Gallery in the late 1950s and served as a director of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, before coming home to the Mystic–Stonington shoreline in 1975 to deal in art and antiques — the very world this sheet\'s own \"Trolley Barn Antiques, Mystic, Connecticut\" imprint belongs to. Read that way, the caption isn\'t a hopeful scribble; it\'s the considered attribution of a trained gallery eye, set down beside the negatives decades before a Maine sale house independently catalogued the original under the same name.

To be clear on scope: each sale is one print. The negatives, the photo packet, the envelope, and the documented letter are shown to establish the story and are NOT included in the purchase. What ships is the single Joseph Long Elk print, and nothing else.

🧭 The Attribution, As I See It

Three documentary points, laid out so you can weigh them yourself: the sheet\'s \"Artist Unknown\" caption, the photo packet captioned \"N.C. Wyeth\" decades before any sale, and the sale house\'s own cataloguing of the original as N.C. Wyeth in 2006. Two of those three arrived at the Wyeth name with no connection to each other, which is exactly how provenance gets built. The image doesn\'t appear in Wyeth\'s established catalogue of works, so I offer it as precisely what the record supports: a charcoal portrait cataloged and captioned as N.C. Wyeth — a documented attribution, not a signature. Collectors who enjoy a genuine, still-open provenance question will know exactly what\'s on offer here.

✍️ Context: N.C. Wyeth

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882–1945) was among the most prolific and influential American illustrators, credited with well over three thousand known works and the founder of a noted artistic family. Early portrait and charcoal figure studies fall within his documented range. The convergence is the interesting part: the photo packet and the sale catalogue arrived at the Wyeth name with no connection between them, and the lot\'s Betsy Wyeth letter ties the subject to Pyle\'s Saturday classes. That\'s the documented record provenance is built on.

✉️ The Skowhegan Envelope, in Detail

The mailing envelope shown among the photographs is worth its own note. Skowhegan is a long-established and highly selective American art institution, and this envelope carries its New York office address, 331 East 68th Street, New York City 10021, along with the \"Third Class Mail / Address Correction Requested\" marks of a period bulk mailing. Across the face, in pen, it\'s captioned \"Indian Photos.\" That New York office was the institution\'s administrative and executive presence, distinct from its residency campus in Maine. Like everything else in the documentation, the envelope is presented for exactly what it is — the wrapper the photographic material travelled in — shown, not sold.

🖼️ Display, Framing, and Care

At approximately 26\" x 18.5\", this is a substantial sheet that frames into a commanding piece. I\'d window-mat a print like this to protect the deckle edge and to float the printed margin caption in view, since that caption is part of the object\'s documentary interest. UV-filtering glazing is a good idea for any charcoal-toned image on paper kept in daylight. Store and display it flat or framed rather than rolled long-term, and handle it by the margins with clean hands, as with any work on paper.

📋 At a Glance

• Object: Large charcoal-style portrait print, \"Joseph Long Elk (Crow Chief).\"
• Size / stock: Approx. 26\" x 18.5\"; heavy, linen-textured paper.
• Type: Reproduction print, not an original drawing; printing date unrecorded.
• Margin (printed): \"Joseph Long Elk, (Crow Chief) · Circa 1917 · Artist Unknown · Trolley Barn Antiques, Mystic, Connecticut.\"
• sale record (of the original): Thomaston Place, Maine, July 29 2006, Lot 200, cataloged N.C. Wyeth, est. $6,000–$8,000; realized $6,000 (house\'s published results).
• Documentation shown (not included): Wyeth-captioned photo packet, original negatives, Skowhegan \"Indian Photos\" envelope (postmarked 1963 or later, per its ZIP code).
• Attribution: N.C. Wyeth, reached independently twice — the photo packet was captioned Wyeth decades before the sale, and the sale house catalogued the original N.C. Wyeth on its own, with a Betsy Wyeth letter in the lot.
• Condition: Light, across the nine sheets I hold from this printing — most crisp, a few (including the one pictured) with a little more storage waviness and softer edges; none torn, taped, foxed, or damaged.
• Availability: Nine sheets from the same printing, sold individually.

❓ Collector FAQ

Is this an original drawing? No. It\'s a reproduction print of the original charcoal, on the same heavy, linen-finished paper described above, captioned on the sheet. No date for the printing appears anywhere on it. The original is the work recorded at sale.

What does \"cataloged as N.C. Wyeth\" mean? When the original went to sale (Lot 200, Thomaston Place, 2006), the sale house entered it under the name Newell Convers Wyeth. That\'s a documented attribution regarding the original, not a signature on this print.

Are the negatives, photo packet, or letter included? No — each sale is one print. Those items are shown to establish provenance and aren\'t part of the sale.

Is the Wyeth authorship certain? It\'s a documented attribution, not a certainty; the image isn\'t in Wyeth\'s established catalogue. It\'s captioned Wyeth in this collection\'s packet decades before the sale, and catalogued N.C. Wyeth by the sale house independently — two roads, no connection, one name.

What are the dimensions? Approximately 26\" x 18.5\" on that same heavy paper; you can check it yourself against the folding rule pictured beside it.

How many are available? Nine, from the same printing, sold one at a time.

📝 Summary

A named Crow chief, drawn in charcoal circa 1917, printed later on heavy stock with a linen-like texture and captioned \"Artist Unknown\" — yet the original drawing this sheet reproduces was catalogued by a Maine sale house under N.C. Wyeth\'s name in 2006 (Lot 200, Thomaston Place). The collection it comes from still keeps the paper trail: a photo packet captioned \"N.C. Wyeth\" long before that sale, the original negatives, and a Skowhegan \"Indian Photos\" envelope, all shown here though none of it ships. Two independent records, no connection between them, converging on one name — that\'s the documented mystery this piece carries. Good for the collector of American illustration, of Native portraiture, or of a genuinely open provenance question. Sold individually, one print from a run of nine.