Museum reaping benefits of trustee's bequest

Museum reaping benefits of trustee’s bequest

Posted by ChaddsFordLive on March 6, 2016

When publisher and American art patron Richard Mellon Scaife died in 2014, he bequeathed his art collection, which included over 500 works, to the Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, a gift that continues to benefit art lovers.

'The Tow Path' by is one of the paintings that will be featured in the New Terrains exhibit. — 'The Tow Path' by William Merritt Chase is one of the paintings that will be featured in the New Terrains show at the Brandywine River Museum.

On April 8, the Brandywine River Museum will present “New Terrains: American Painting from the Richard M. Scaife Bequest.” New Terrains presents over 25 important works of American art from Scaife, a Pittsburgh philanthropist and former trustee of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art, a museum press release said.

The exhibition showcases paintings by artists who are new to the collection, such as Hudson River School painters Martin Johnson Heade, John Kensett, and Albert Bierstadt. Their luminous, contemplative views of nature influenced the grand tradition of mid-19th-century landscape painting in America, the release said.

Other exciting introductions to the collection through the Scaife bequest are works by American impressionists William Merritt Chase, Theodore Robinson, and Edward Redfield, Julian Alden Weir and others. These late-19th and early 20th-century artists changed the course of American landscape painting through their adaptation of European art trends. Their interpretive approach to rendering their surroundings with vibrant color and energetic brushwork is amply demonstrated in the exhibition, the release said.

The exhibition, which will run through Nov. 6 and honors Scaife’s generous vision for the museum, is included with museum admission.

The Brandywine River Museum of Art features an outstanding collection of American art housed in a 19th-century mill building with a dramatic steel and glass addition overlooking the banks of the Brandywine. Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except Thanksgiving Day and Christmas, the museum is located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford.

For more information, call 610-388-2700 or visit brandywinemuseum.org. Starting on March 19, the museum will extend its hours slightly, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.