Joseph's middle name is Wyeth, so you could say I'm a bit of a fan. Taking the kids to the Brandywine for a tour of the Wyeth home and studio was essential to me. It was every bit as gorgeous as I'd remembered it.
Twenty years ago, I was shooting a basketball thing at Villanova, I think, and was chatting with a guy working security at the door. Turns out he also worked security at the Brandywine, and he was nice enough to gift me two guest passes. I used one pass, and saved the other since it didn't have an expiration date. Sure enough, 20 years later, I got to use the very battered (but still valid) second admission pass. It pays to be a hoarder!
The pantry of the Wyeth house. A full-time caretaker lives there year round. It would be an interesting, and challenging, job, I think.N.C.'s studio is a short walk from his family's home. The center is a self-portrait, and on either side are his parents. His studio is filled with bound books and artifacts, which he used as reference materials for his paintings.We took a shuttle from the Brandywine River Museum to the Wyeth home. N.C. Wyeth had the home built in 1911.N.C. Wyeth designed his studio with huge, north-facing windows. The Palladian windows have 220 panes — our shuttle driver told me he counted them to verify!N.C. knew he wanted a brick Colonial, and had the bricks turned on their ends for better insulation.Photos on top of a dresser in N.C. and Carolyn Wyeth's room. The couple had five children: three became artists (including their youngest, Andrew), one became a pianist and one became an engineer for Dupont. Many of the children also married artists and the grandchildren became artists too. Andrew never went to school, and like his sisters, began learning from his father as a teenager.A butterfly landed on the exterior of the studio.Another non-commissioned work. N.C. completed this painting in 3 hours. You can see his studio's Palladian windows reflected on the jar.N.C. died tragically when his car stalled on train tracks and was hit by a train. A young grandson was also killed. The day he died, one of his daughters wrote on his palette, "Do Not Use." It was the last day he ever painted.N.C. was also a muralist, and had soaring ceilings in his studio for this purpose. Children under 6 are not permitted on the tour, glad we made the cutoff.The living room of the Wyeth home.The tour guide describes a non-commissioned work by N.C., depicting an aerial view of an island funeral. N.C. was best known as an illustrator, and struggled to be taken seriously as a fine artist.In Sept. 2021, the Brandywine flooded and the museum grounds were damaged.
