Chadds Ford, PA.- The Brandywine River Museum is proud to present “Farm Work by Jamie Wyeth”, an extensive exhibition that surveys five decades of his lively depictions of farm animals, equipment, buildings and landscape. Wyeth’s depictions of farm work and life combine his artistry, wit and sense of wonder. “I always said that if born in New York, I would be painting cabs or something, but it happens that I was raised in an area where there were farms. There are wonderful objects on the farm and things about farm life, so that is where the attraction is,” says Jamie Wyeth. “Farm Work by Jamie Wyeth” is on view at the museum until September 11th.
Point Lookout, the farm on the Brandywine that Wyeth moved to in the late 1960s after his marriage to Phyllis Mills, has been the primary location for many of his paintings, but other farms have had a strong impact as well. His earliest farm works were painted as a teenager on trips to the Olson farm in Maine that was made famous by his father, Andrew. In Chadds Ford during the same years, he made countless visits to a nearby farm where he met Den-Den, the pig who became the subject of his life-size “Portrait of Pig”. Wyeth painted the portrait at Point Lookout where he took the pig to live in order to save her from the butcher. Den-Den was joined by a coterie of animals that grew over the years to include chickens, geese, goats, cattle, horses, and wild birds. All have been subjects of paintings by Wyeth, who says, “Animals just intrigue the hell out of me, really much more than people.”
Other aspects of the farm have also held a strong attraction for the artist. Barns, plows, saws, buckets, and bales of hay intrigue him as ordinary objects and strong shapes. The farm is a magical association with objects that are reflected in his interpretations. He describes the painting “Tin Woodsman” as being informed by The Wizard of Oz, saying, “Through this whole farm obsession of mine, I sort of viewed myself as a latter day Dorothy — my life is filled with real and imagined characters.” Farm Work by Jamie Wyeth is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on this subject. It includes over 70 works drawn from private and public collections across the country. The accompanying catalogue is fully illustrated in color and contains extensive commentary by the artist.
In the mid-1960s, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in the historic Brandywine Valley, faced possible massive industrial development. The impact would have dramatically changed the character and future of a community that was then largely rural. At the same time, and for decades thereafter, development proposed throughout the region, particularly in floodplain areas, threatened to devastate water supplies for numerous communities in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, including the City of Wilmington. Appreciating the need for rapid action, a group of local residents bought endangered land and founded the Brandywine Conservancy in 1967. The first conservation easements, protecting more than five and one-half miles along the Brandywine, were granted in 1969. Today, the Conservancy holds more than 430 conservation easements and has protected more than 44,000 acres in Chester and Delaware counties, Pennsylvania, and in New Castle County, Delaware. In 1971, the Conservancy opened the Brandywine River Museum in the renovated Hoffman’s Mill, a former gristmill built in 1864 that was part of the Conservancy’s first preservation efforts.
With nearly six million visitors to date, the museum has established an international reputation for its unparalleled collection and its dedication to American art with primary emphasis on the art of the Brandywine region, American illustration, still life and landscape painting, and the work of the Wyeth family. Among the hundreds of artists represented are Howard Pyle, many students of Pyle who affected the course of American illustration, N. C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie Wyeth. There is work by hundreds of famous illustrators. Landscape, still life, portrait and genre painting includes work by Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, Asher Durand, W. T. Richards, William Harnett, John Haberle, J. D. Chalfant, Horace Pippin, and many others, while the major still life collection includes paintings by William Harnett, John Peto, George Cope, John Haberle, Horace Pippin, and many more artists. Nearly 300 special exhibitions have been shown in the museum’s six galleries, along with constant installations of work from the collection. Visit the museum’s website at … www.brandywinemuseum.org
