Brandywine Art Museum Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Andrew Wyeth’s Birth with Retrospective Show

The Brandywine Valley is known for its breathtaking scenery and beautiful rivers, its vineyards and wineries and peaceful serenity. It’s no wonder that artists past and present have drawn inspiration for their work from Brandywine’s charming countryside. Perhaps the most well-known of these artists is Andrew Wyeth. A resident of Chadds Ford, Wyeth is known for his realistic regional paintings, capturing strikingly beautiful landscapes of the Brandywine Valley for the world to see.

Although Wyeth passed away in 2009 at the age of 91, he is still very much remembered and celebrated throughout the region. July 12, 2017, marked what would have been his 100th birthday, and to commemorate the special occasion, the Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum have teamed up to co-curate an exhibition showcasing over 100 of Wyeth’s most notable pieces from major museums and private collections.

“Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect” brings together a collage of Wyeth’s most popular pieces as well as his most rarely seen works, in chronological order from their dates of creation. This is the first career retrospective of Andrew Wyeth since his death.

 Andrew Wyeth

Walk through the exhibit and get a firsthand look at Wyeth’s depictions of realism of people, places and objects of the 20th century. The exhibit will be on display at the Brandywine River Museum of Art until Sunday, September 17, and then will move to the Seattle Art Museum in October. There’s still time left to enjoy this insightful display, so purchase your tickets today. General admission is $18 for adults, $15 for adults over age 65, $6 for students and free for children 5 and under. There is no extra cost for the exhibit.

If you can’t make it to the exhibit, not to worry—the museum has a year-round large collection of not just pieces of Andrew Wyeth’s, but of several other family members, including Wyeth’s father, illustrator N.C. Wyeth, son Jamie and others, as well as an array of 19th– and 20th-century American art.

There’s also a shuttle that will take you from the exhibit to Andrew Wyeth’s personal studio, where he worked on thousands of paintings and drawing for nearly seventy years, right up until the year before his death. Step into his home and observe his surroundings, including his own personal collections, original furnishings and library. Another ten minutes from the museum is Kuerner Farm, where Wyeth found the inspiration for much of his creations. The museum runs a shuttle to and guided tours for both Kuerner Farm and Andrew Wyeth’s studio from April through mid-November. Guided tours are $8 per person and approximately an hour long.

For more information about the exhibit or the museum, visit the museum’s website or call (610) 388-2700.

The Brandywine River Museum of Art is located at 1 Hoffman’s Mill Road in Chadds Ford; phone: (610) 388-2700.

  • Feature photo: Andrew Wyeth/Artists Rights Society (ARS)
  • Andrew Wyeth photo: Wyeth family archives
  • Andrew Wyeth studio photo: JJ Tiziou