Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

7000 paintings and sketches by Andrew Wyeth  organized by his wife are now in the guardianship of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. 

 

 

The Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine house half each of this collection;

all to be made available for exhibition, loan and study.

 

 

The first such exhibition in 2022 at the Brandywine Museum included paintings of the African Americans living in Chadds Ford.

I have added some of these to an earlier post about Andrew Wyeth.

 

This institutionalization of the preparatory work of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings may assist in restoring

figurative and representational art to a more considered place in the American canon

after the long prominence of everything abstract and conceptual in mixed and traditional media.

 

 

Betsy Wyeth (1921-2020) was not only the giver of titles to her husband’s work, and the registrar of his immense oeuvre but also a restorer of some of the old structures in Chadds Ford and in her native Maine. 

 

 

 

On the left a gristmill.  On the right the Brandywine River

Nightsleeper and detail, 1979, tempera on hardboard panel 

Listed at the centennial of the artist’s birth as being in the family collection.

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

The Wyeth’s dog, Nell, asleep on a window seat in the Wyeth home. 

 

She was instrumental in the conversion of the mill house which is today the Brandywine River Museum.

 

 

There is some light distortion in some of these works because they are under glass and the gallery lights are numerous and very bright.

 

 

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Pennsylvania Landscape, 1941, tempera on panel

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American Brandywine River Museum

 

 

Andrew Wyeth was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

detail of Pennsylvania Landscape, 1941, tempera on panel

 

 

He movingly identified the whole state of Pennsylvania with a buttonwood tree above an old farmhouse in Chadds Ford.

 

 

 detail of Pennsylvania Landscape, 1941, tempera on panel. 

 

“I think of it as the whole Pennsylvania landscape,” Wyeth said. ” with that marvelous buttonwood tree in the middle. I am almost suspended looking down…”

 

 

 

Chadds Ford is a village in the valley of the Brandywine River which flows south, perhaps five miles, out of Pennsylvania and into the state of Delaware. 

 

 

 

Osborne Hill (Crows in a Landscape), 1943, tempera on hardboard panel.

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American.  Brandywine River Museum

 

The highest point in the Brandywine River Valley.

The point from which the British organized the moves of their army in the Battle of the Brandywine in September 1777.

 

 

A well-watered area, Swedes and then English Quakers and, later, Germans, have been in these Lenni Lenape lands in and around Chadds Ford since 1638.  Farming.

 

 

 

The Valley of the Brandywine, Chester County, Pennsylvania.  (September) 1886-87, oil on canvas

William Trost Richards, 1883-1905, American. Brandywine River Museum

 

 

 

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Bringing Wood, 1937, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

Painted when the artist was 19, this was the home of his childhood friend, David Lawrence. 

This painting and other watercolours launched Andrew Wyeth‘s career when they were exhbited in New York.

 

 

 

From the website of the New York Times, Credit: Andrew Wyeth/Artists Rights Society (ARS)

Black Hunter, 1938, tempera on panel (David Lawrence).

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 Wyeth Foundation for American Art on exhibit at the Brandy Wine River Museum in 2022

 

One of the rare portraits where the subject looks directly at the viewer.

 

 

 

The museum notes that the houses were made of fieldstone or rubble.  Some buildings were made of manufactured bricks and lumber. 

Others were made of stone towards the end of the 18th century when some farming families had begun to prosper.

 

 

 

 

Untitled (John Andress House), 1943, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Brown Swiss Study, 1957, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

 

Study for Tenant Farmer, 1961, watercolour on paper.

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

Tenant Farmer, 1961, tempera on masonite.  Delaware Art Museum.

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

The artist said that this deer seemed to him to be almost a part of the building.  Then his dream was invaded by hundreds of deer and he got rid of the image by painting this.

 

 

 

 

Untitled (Big Bend), 1961;  watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

Burning Trash, 1963, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

The Hatton House, 1967, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Slight Breeze Study, 1968, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Slight Breeze, 1968, tempera on panel

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

747, 1980, tempera on panel

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Tree House Study, 1982; watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Battleground Study, 1984, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

The Battle of Brandywine, a Revolutionary War battle was fought on September 11, 1777 very near Chadds Ford.

The British won the battle and, unopposed, entered Philadelphia late that September.

 

 

 

The Forge Study, 1984, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Untitled (Brinton’s Mill), 1985, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

Untitled (The Academy) 1987, watercolour on paper

(formerly on Route 322; torn down)

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

 

Painter’s Folly, 1989, tempera on panel

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

The artist was given the run of this property by its owners, Helen and George Sipala

The Museum notes that ‘Marriage’ was painted from the artist’s experience one morning in this house.

 

 

 

Marriage, 1993, tempera on panel

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American. New Salem Museum and Academy of Fine Art. Photo from the website of Sotheby

 

 

This testimony of the painter Bo Bartlett was provided to Sotheby’s when this painting was auctioned.  He was with Andrew Wyeth when he finished making this painting:

 

“….The Sipalas, a married couple, being fans of Andrew’s, allowed him, like many other neighbors did in those years, to roam around their homes inside and out in search for the desired angle or perspective to tap into his psyche and find the illusive thing that ignited him.

 

“It was under these circumstances, as the story goes, that Andy wound up observing the Sipalas in their bed early one morning. That Andy was a peeping tom was understood and accepted…

 

 

 

 

 

Widows Walk Study, 1990, watercolour and pencil on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Swifts – First Version, 1991, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Untitled (The Craig Farm), 2003, watercolour and pencil on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Ark Study, 2004, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth,1917-2009, American