The Andrew Wyeth house and studio is now officially open for tours. The Murphy Road site in Chadds Ford opened for Brandywine Conservancy members earlier this spring, but opened to the general public on July 3.
Wyeth died in 2009 and a year later his wife gave the property to the conservancy. The Wyeth family lived in the house from 1940 to 1961. Andrew Wyeth continued to use the property as his studio into 2008.
George A. “Frolic” Weymouth, founder and chairman of the conservancy, said it’s important for the public to have access to the studio. It’s part of a significant legacy.
“You’re dealing with one of the greatest minds of our time. It’s nice to see where that mind worked,” he said.
He added that few people — mainly close friends, family and models — ever saw the inside of the studio.
Weymouth’s comment came during a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 2.
Visitors can see where the family lived and where two Wyeths, Andrew and Jamie, created some of their more famous pieces. It was in the living room where Jamie Wyeth painted his famous portrait of President John F. Kennedy.
Also in the tour are some of Andrew Wyeth’s 1,200 toy soldiers, fencing gear and library. It took the Brandywine River Museum a year to get the studio ready for the tours.
There are eight tours per day, Tuesday through Sunday. The cost is $8, plus the cost of admission to the museum.
The Andrew Wyeth Studio joins the N.C. Wyeth Studio and Kuerner Farm that are also open to tours. Each tour is separate.
Photo caption: George A. “Frolic Weymouth, left, Ginny Logan, Brandywine Conservancy’s executive director, and Jim Duff, conservancy executive director emeritus, cutt the ribbon to officially open the Andrew Wyeth Studio to public tours. Photo by Rich Schwartzman
[Editor’s note: What follows is a story from the ChaddsFordLive.com archives posted after a press tour of the studio in April.]
Glimpsing the Andrew Wyeth Studio
A part of Andrew Wyeth’s private life will become public this summer when the Brandywine River Museum opens his former home and studio to public tours.
“Andrew Wyeth is one of the most beloved artists in American history and he was actually a very private person. It’s really wonderful to see the private studio where he painted some of his most famous works and enter his private world. It’s a really unique opportunity,” said Hillary Holland, director of public relations for the Brandywine Conservancy.
There are photos, sketches and reproduced paintings throughout the old house and studio that Andrew and Betsy Wyeth called home from 1940 to 1961. The artist continued to use the studio there until 2008.
In the entranceway is a poster of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy done by Jamie Wyeth and signed by Kennedy. Jamie then gave it to his father. There are numerous other photos of family, friends, actors and models in the front room.
The entranceway, kitchen, library, living room and studio itself will be part of the tour. All have been restored to how they were when the artist was living and working there. Some of the restorations were recreated from the memories of sons Jamie and Nicholas Wyeth, as well as friend George A. “Frolic” Weymouth.
“The studio became Andy’s world,” said guide and interpreter Mary Nell Ferry.
Yet, she added that the library “shows Andrew the man,” and his wide range of interests. There are hundreds of books on everything from art to history and a skeleton in the corner that he gave to Jamie for Halloween.
However, the man is revealed in other rooms as well. In the old living room, there are Wyeth’s 1,250 toy soldiers that he collected all his life and a window sill with fencing swords and a mask. The artist was sickly as a child and fencing helped him restore his strength.
The living room has a copy of N.C. Wyeth’s “Old Pew.” Ferry said N.C.’s imagination helped fuel Andrew’s.
Jamie Wyeth also used the living room as a studio for a few years — from 1961-1968. Included on display are copies of his John F. Kennedy portrait and other sketches. It was in that space where he painted “Draft Age.”
Part of the tour includes a four-minute video of Jamie talking about the importance of the showing his father’s studio.
“To see the space where Andy worked opens a new world to the audience,” he says in the video. “It gives a new dimension to his work.”
The kitchen area, added in the 1950s, will show different paintings over the fireplace because Andy always changed what was hanging there, Ferry said. He would hang a recently finished painting there, then get reaction from family and friends.
“It was a changing showplace,” she said.
Other objects in the kitchen, including a day bed, long table and refrigerator, are part of the re-creation.
The studio is the heart of the tour. It was there where he created thousands of paintings — including “Pennsylvania Landscape” — that helped make him famous.
There, too, are studies and photographs along with the reproduction of “Racoon,” showing chained dogs by a table. Visitors to the studio view the image through the reflection of a mirror.
Ferry said Wyeth would check his paintings in the mirror and upside down for composition.
“He considered himself an abstract painter,” Ferry said. “You check your work and it should be just as pleasing in that position as it was in the upright position.”
Sketches, studies and quick watercolors are all around the studio, on the walls and on the floor. Ferry said the watercolors allowed Wyeth to catch his moments, his quick thoughts.
Public tours are scheduled to start July 3, but members of the Brandywine Conservancy may begin touring the house in June. Tours will be limited to 14 people. The cost will be $8 plus the price of admission to the museum.
Curator Christine Podmaninczky said it took the museum more than a year to get the studio ready. All the original items — including the library books and 1,250 toy soldiers — had to be catalogued, removed and then returned to their original positions.
The building had to be improved. A new roof was put on and the ceiling was reinforced.
The Wyeths moved into the house after Peter Hurd and his wife Henriette moved out of the small structure that was once a schoolhouse. Hurd was Andrew Wyeth’s brother-in-law and Henriette his sister.
It was originally built as a schoolhouse in 1875. N.C. Wyeth bought the property in 1925. It’s within walking distance of the N.C. Wyeth house and studio.
The museum also runs tours of the N.C. Wyeth Studio and the Kuerner Farm.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
