Our main purpose for going to Brandywine however was to tour N C Wyeth’s home and studio, as well as the Kuerner farm, which plays such a prominent role in many of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the outside of NC’s home, which he had built for his family in the early 1900’s. It is a rather cozy looking brick house with white trim and a porch spanning the front. And while it looks rather small from the outside, it has a great room (living room), where most of the family’s activities took place. There was placed Ann’s grand piano (Andrew’s sister) with lots of room for the other four siblings to spread out. The dining room was long but narrow, was wood paneled with windows looking out on two sides. It contained the table that NC had designed himself, rather like a stretcher table with bread board ends. There were chairs at each end with benches pulled up to the sides for the children to sit on. He enjoyed eating by candlelight, so no electric lights.
The house was cozily fitted into a bank on the back side; from the front you could look down across the rolling fields to the village of Chadd’s Ford.
A little doll-sized house in the front yard.
Behind the house was NC’s studio, the entrance reached by following the walkway to the end of the building. (The house lays just beyond, down over the bank of trees.)
In the studio are many of the props used by NC --- a bust of George Washington wearing a tricorn hat, a birch bark canoe suspended from the ceiling, swords, guns, lanterns, farm implements… Most poignant to me was his paint palette left laying on the worktable. His daughter Carolyn had written on it “NC Wyeth October 19, 1945, Do Not Use.” NC was killed, along with his young grandson, at a nearby railroad crossing. The “greenhouse” looking area of the studio on the left is really the middle part of the studio. The floor of this area is actually quite a few feet below ground, giving the height needed for NC to work on many of his commissioned murals.
The third section further to the left (not seen in the picture) was built for his daughter, Carolyn to use as an art studio. Interesting to note, there was no access to this area from NC’s side; rather the entrance was on the back side by an almost hidden door.
I was really looking forward to seeing the Kuerner farm, a place that appears in Andrew’s paintings numerous times. The farmhouse was easily recognizable, a solid white three story building with front porch.
From the front porch you could look across to the hill that was also a feature in his paintings. (I won’t list them all, but anyone who is interested can go to the Wikipedia website for more information.)
Here are other views from the porch.
This is the back door and the way we entered the farmhouse and the dog house which housed the German shepherd dog that the Kuerners kept.
Inside the house we weren’t allowed to take pictures, however, if you look at the painting titled Groundhog Day, you can see what the wall paper was like in the kitchen. There was also a table set like is in the painting. And to complete this recreation, there is even a sawn jagged log as you look out the window. The house reminds me of many I have been in where the elderly couple has died and the contents and real estate is being auctioned off. In the corner of the living room is where Karl’s hospital bed was placed while he was dying of cancer. Beyond out the front window is the hill mentioned above. I enjoy Wyeth’s paintings for his art and style, and also for his unique interpretation of the ordinary. And while I enjoy looking at his art, it often leaves me with such depressed feelings.
In the barn I snapped pictures of some of the animals currently residing there. The farm and land has been given acquired by the Brandywine Conservancy, however a member of the Kuerner family still comes daily to care to the animals and tend to the farm.
The calico is named Sophie, and she has achieved fame by having her portrait done.
One of Wyeth’s more famous paintings is called spring fed. This picture nearly mirrors that painting.
If anyone would care to pursue more about Andrew Wyeth, his life, influences, etc the book Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life by Richard Meryman is an excellent resource. I read it after this visit and so the scenes have so much more meaning to me now.
An excellent day!
