N.C. Wyeth (1882–1945)
Brandywine Museum of Art, 1 Hoffman’s Mill Road, Chadds Ford, PA 19317
610-388-2700
ABOUT
N. C. Wyeth spent much of his life and career here as one of the most successful illustrators of the first half of the 20th century. Experience the studio where Wyeth created many of his memorable works of art, and the home where he and his wife Carolyn raised their extraordinarily creative children. The dramatic space in which Wyeth worked reflects the robust, outsized personality that shaped his art. Standing in the main studio, one can easily imagine the great illustrator at work, creating characters that would become icons for generations of readers.
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“This is the little corner of the world wherein I shall work out my destiny.”
— N.C. Wyeth
N.C. Wyeth (1882–1945)
N.C. Wyeth was one of America’s foremost illustrators in the 20th century. In 1902, Wyeth joined the Howard Pyle School of Art in Wilmington, Delaware and became one of the period’s most popular magazine illustrators. In 1911, Charles Scribner’s Sons commissioned Wyeth to illustrate Treasure Island. Skillfully blending romance and realism, he gave dramatic form to Stevenson’s characters and soon became as famous as the authors whose stories he illustrated. While sought after for book and magazine commissions throughout his career, Wyeth was troubled by the distinction made between illustrators and artists. His private work includes paintings of Chadds Ford as well as his summer property in Port Clyde, Maine. N.C. Wyeth settled in Chadds Ford and with his wife, Carolyn, raised five talented children. Wyeth died suddenly in 1945, but his imagination and larger-than-life personality helped shape the next two generations of artists in the Wyeth family.
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With proceeds from the Treasure Island commission (1911), N.C. Wyeth purchased eighteen acres of land on a hillside near the village of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He called the property “the most glorious sight” in the township and immediately arranged for a house and studio to be built. In this idyllic location, set amidst beautiful, rolling countryside in the Brandywine River valley, Wyeth felt “totally satisfied that this is the little corner of the world wherein I shall work out my destiny.”
Wyeth had a hand in designing both the house and studio. The house, with its warm brick exterior, “harmonizes absolutely with the landscape,” he wrote. The design, reflective of aspects of local vernacular architecture, was “modest, simple in arrangement,…and homey.” He and his wife Carolyn nurtured a family of five talented children in this delightful home, including painter Andrew Wyeth.
The main room of the studio, dominated by an immense three-part Palladian-style window, is a huge cavernous space containing three easels, approximately 900 reference books, and many of the “props” Wyeth used in his work. An early 19th century birch bark canoe is on display and busts of Washington, Lafayette and John Paul Jones peer down from high bookshelves. Here, Wyeth created his iconic visions of knights, cowboys and pirates, painting hundreds of book and magazine illustrations that brought these and other characters to life.
In 1923, Wyeth added the equally dramatic mural studio to achieve the additional height needed for his mural work. This studio is presided over by William Penn. Man of Vision. Courage. Action, a mural Wyeth created in 1932 for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. Returned to the studio in 1997, the Penn mural gives visitors the opportunity to experience the scale in which Wyeth worked.
