3 pm - Brandywine River Museum

Nicole over looking the Brandywine River
Victoria Wyeth

We were fortunate enough to catch the end of Victoria Wyeth's, the granddaughter of Andrew Wyeth and niece of James Wyeth, daily tour of the Wyeth galleries. It was amazing to have someone who personally knew the artists speaking about their work; we learned many interesting details about the Wyeth family. For example, Andrew Wyeth the son of N.C. Wyeth, refuses to teach anyone how to paint or draw. He believes an artist is born with all the talent, and should be exhibiting this talent by the age of 2. Consequently his son James Wyeth devoted developing his art skills, and truly came into his own after he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the late JFK. He later befriended Andy Warhol, and developed his art by observing cadavers in a morgue. Jamie's exhibit in the Brandywine Museum focused mostly on his work on the dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Wyeth has a large body of work focused on Nureyev, even some painted posthumous (Nureyev died of AIDS in 1993)--a testimony to Wyeth's amazing memory. A fascinating part of the exhibit were Nureyev's old costumes showcased in the exhibit was well. Victoria also mentioned that her Uncle Jamie began painting on corrugated cardboard due to Andy Warhol's urgings to paint everyday objects (he preferred not to, so painting on cardboard was a happy compromise). Jamie Wyeth also dislikes painting on white paper because he feels it is a reminder of the space he has yet to paint--thus he usually works on medium toned backgrounds.

A mixed medium depiction of Nureyev by Jamie Wyeth

Another intersting fact Victoria told us was that Andrew respects Jamie's work because Jamie's art varies so greatly from his fathers. Andrew, who apparently stopped working with oils in 1930, works with watercolor to capture images quickly, dry brush tempura, and tempura. Jamie's favorite medium, on the other hand, is oil paint. Currently Jamie is working on an island of the East Coast given to him by his parents and has a new obsession with orinithological portraits after he received a tiny vulture (aka "culture vulture) from a friend.