Art Museums and Galleries

The Brandywine River Museum of Art is a museum of regional and American art located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Brandywine. The museum showcases the art of Andrew Wyeth, a major American realist painter, and his family: his father N.C. Wyeth, illustrator of many children’s classics, and his son Jamie Wyeth, a contemporary American realist painter.

Renowned for its holdings of the Wyeth family of artists, the Museum features galleries dedicated to the work of N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. The Museum’s outstanding Heritage Collection is a cross section of American art, with a special focus on artistic practice in the Brandywine valley. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century landscape paintings testify to the beauty which drew well-known artists to the area. Important portraits, still life paintings and notable holdings in American illustration add diversity and breadth to this unique collection.  A robust program of changing exhibitions places the Museum’s collection into the broader contexts of American art. 

N. C. Wyeth House and Studio
In 1911, with the proceeds from his illustrations for Treasure Island, the artist N.C. Wyeth purchased 18 acres of land near the village of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Possessed, he said, of “the most glorious sight in the township,” Wyeth built his home and studio on a hill overlooking the valley—setting down roots which have nourished a family of extraordinary creativity for more than a century.  The house and studio, located five minutes from the museum, retain much of their original character. The main studio, with its spectacular Palladian-style north window, still contains many of the props that were essential to the work of an illustrator, including a birch-bark canoe hanging from the rafters and a collection of firearms. A full-size mural painting, displayed in a soaring 1923 addition, helps tell the story of Wyeth’s career. The house, with its country furnishings, reveals a more intimate picture of family life.

Guided tours of the N.C. Wyeth house and studio introduce visitors to the various aspects of Wyeth’s career and to other members of the family, significantly enriching the museum visit. The N.C. Wyeth House and Studio is a National Historic Landmark and a member site of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Andrew Wyeth Studio
Andrew Wyeth, one of America’s best-known twentieth-century artists, painted many of his most important works of art in his Chadds Ford studio. Given to the Brandywine River Museum of Art by

the artist’s wife, Betsy James Wyeth, the studio provides visitors with a unique opportunity to experience this very personal space.  The artist’s son, Jamie, said, “The world of Andrew Wyeth is best understood by a visit to his studio.”

This studio served as the artist’s principal Pennsylvania work place from 1940 to 2008. Thousands of paintings and drawings were created there, inspired by the people, architecture and landscapes of Chadds Ford. The studio still houses the furnishings, library and collections acquired by the artist, as well as examples of the art materials he used throughout his career. The Andrew Wyeth Studio is a National Historic Landmark and a member site of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Kuerner Farm
For more than 70 years, the Kuerner Farm was a major source of inspiration to Andrew Wyeth. The early 19th-century farmhouse and the red barn dominate the property.  It was here that Wyeth found intriguing subjects for hundreds of tempera paintings, watercolors and drawings.

Wyeth discovered Karl and Anna Kuerner’s farm on one of his boyhood walks. The Kuerners, German immigrants who settled in Chadds Ford after World War I, fascinated the artist. Over time, he developed a complex relationship with the family and the farmscape, aspects of which he explored in many of his best-known works of art.  Thanks in large part to the philanthropic spirit of Karl Kuerner, Jr., and his family, the Brandywine River Museum of Art acquired the Kuerner Farm in 1999. Located ten minutes from the Museum, the Kuerner house (now unfurnished) and farm still evoke a remarkable artistic legacy.  Docent-led tours to the Kuerner Farm provide an in-depth study of the major paintings in Wyeth’s oeuvre that depict Kuerner farm subjects, contrasting the artist’s compositions with actual sites on the property. The tour includes the farm house and barn, and significantly expands a visitor’s understanding of Andrew Wyeth’s creative process. The Kuerner Farm is a National Historic Landmark.


The Brandywine River Museum of Art
1 Hoffman's Mill Road
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
610.388.2700
www.brandywine.org/museum

Click Here for Current Exhibits
Click Here for Upcoming Exhibits

 



The Delaware Art Museum

The Pre-Raphaelites rejected the conventions of their time and focused on the past, particularly the Middle Ages—the time “before Raphael.” Their subjects were drawn primarily from literature, the Bible, Shakespeare, and Arthurian legend. Beautiful, seductive women, often referred to as “stunners,” are depicted in the later works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Comprised of paintings, drawings, photographs, decorative arts, and illustrated books, the Museum’s Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art is the largest Pre-Raphaelite collection outside the United Kingdom.

“Thanks to the passionate acquisitions of Samuel Bancroft, Jr., the Delaware Art Museum in the small city of Wilmington has long boasted the largest and most significant collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the United States.”  —The British Art Journal



The Delaware Art Museum is a private, not-for-profit arts organization supported by earned and contributed income. The Museum is best known for its large collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art, works by Wilmington-native Howard Pyle and fellow American illustrators, and urban landscapes by John Sloan and his circle. Its mission is to connect people to art, offering an inclusive and essential community resource that through its collections, exhibitions, and programs generates creative energy that sustains, enriches, empowers, and inspires.

The Helen Farr Sloan Library and Archives
Located on the lower level of the Museum, the Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives houses over 38,000 volumes and 2,000 linear feet of archives. This non-circulating research collection includes monographs, exhibition catalogs, periodicals, reference works, and extensive vertical files relating to individual artists.

Exhibitions
The Delaware Art Museum regularly presents major traveling exhibitions, offering the community an opportunity to become familiar with a wide variety of artists and artistic movements.


Delaware Art Museum
2301 Kentmore Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19806
302.571.9590
800.232.3714
www.delart.org
 

Widener University Art Collection and Gallery
The Widener University Art Collection and Gallery is a unique campus and community resource for students, staff, employees, and the public. Admission is free.

The Permanent Collection

Represented in the Widener University Collection and the Alfred O. Deshong Collection are paintings by American artists Edward Redfield, Robert Spencer, George L. Noyes, Lilly Martin Spencer, George Washington Nicholson and others.

Japanese Carved Elephant Ivory
Dragon Meiji Period (1868-1912)
Signed Yoshimitsu

The permanent collection includes the work of 19th century American and European painters as well as 18th and 19th century Asian art from the Alfred O. Deshong collection. Deshong was a wealthy Chester industrialist who acquired his collection at a time when Japanese art and design began to influence the style of Western artists.  For example, the Deshong collection includes American Impressionists Edward Redfield, Robert Spencer, and George L. Noyes. The collection also includes photographs and memorabilia that once belonged to the Deshong family.  A few pieces from the permanent collection are displayed throughout the year. In addition, a series of exhibitions of contemporary art is shown September through May.

Alfred O. Deshong holdings include Japanese carved ivory figures, Chinese carved hardstone vessels, Japanese and Chinese lacquerware and numerous large bronze vases. The paintings in Deshong's collection reflect his era with genre scenes of contemporary life and romantic glimpses of customs in distant lands. The artists he favored were mostly European, trained in the academies of Germany and Italy, their education often completed in Paris. Thanks to a generous grant from the Ethel Sergeant Clark Smith Memorial Fund, the entire Deshong Collection of paintings has been restored.
  
During the period in which Alfred Deshong was forming his collections, Japanese art and design had begun to have an enormous impact upon Western artists like Whistler, Degas, and Manet. Deshong was exhibiting a discerning and up-to-date taste when he acquired such items as the beautiful and intricate Oriental bronzes and carved ivories, which form the bulk of his collection and include a monumental bronze vase exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876. Among the many other objects in the collection are Chinese carved hardstone, including jade; Chinese cinnabar lacquer boxes; and extremely detailed Japanese cloisonne enameled vases.

Widener’s College of Arts & Sciences offers instruction to students of all proficiency levels in several art studio courses. In addition to basic and advanced classes in the making of pictures, students can also take a course on two-dimensional design and an advanced studio that incorporates mixed media with internationally recognized artists such as painter Wendy Hatch. 

LOCATION: ON THE RIVERSIDE
Art Collection & Gallery University Center
Widener University
One University Place
Chester, PA 19013
1st floor
610.499.1189
Hours:
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Tuesdays, Thursdays  3:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.

www.widener.edu/about/campus_resources/art_gallery