Artist:
Andrew Wyeth
(American, 1917 - 2009)
Pennsylvania Landscape
Alternate Title(s):Lafayette's Headquarters
Medium: Tempera on panel
Date: 1941
Dimensions:
35 × 47 in. (88.9 × 119.4 cm)
Accession number: 82.8
Copyright: © 2024 Wyeth Foundation for American Art / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Label Copy:
Visible beyond the branches of the massive buttonwood tree that dominates the foreground (and still stands today) in this painting is the eighteenth-century Gideon Gilpin House that served as General Lafayette’s headquarters during the Battle of the Brandywine.
Wyeth combined elements in creating this work, saying, “I think of it as the whole Pennsylvania landscape in one picture – with that marvelous buttonwood tree in the middle. I’m almost suspended, looking down. Of course it’s a composite view. I never stand in one spot when I paint a landscape. I float. I move. It’s impossible for me to be photographic.” This painting was one of eight Wyeth works chosen by the Museum of Modern Art for their landmark exhibition Americans 1943: Realists and Magic Realists. It was an important moment in Wyeth’s early career, bringing him national attention and praise from critics and audiences as the exhibition traveled from New York to nine cities throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Visible beyond the branches of the massive buttonwood tree that dominates the foreground (and still stands today) in this painting is the eighteenth-century Gideon Gilpin House that served as General Lafayette’s headquarters during the Battle of the Brandywine.
Wyeth combined elements in creating this work, saying, “I think of it as the whole Pennsylvania landscape in one picture – with that marvelous buttonwood tree in the middle. I’m almost suspended, looking down. Of course it’s a composite view. I never stand in one spot when I paint a landscape. I float. I move. It’s impossible for me to be photographic.” This painting was one of eight Wyeth works chosen by the Museum of Modern Art for their landmark exhibition Americans 1943: Realists and Magic Realists. It was an important moment in Wyeth’s early career, bringing him national attention and praise from critics and audiences as the exhibition traveled from New York to nine cities throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Curatorial RemarksDate of object originally recorded as 1941; date revised 4/4/1998 on the authority of a letter on file in the artist's personal archive.
While the preservationist spirit of the colonial revival fueled the opening of many museums and historic sites—like the nearby Winterthur Museum, which opened in 1941—Andrew Wyeth’s painting Pennsylvania Landscape (Lafayette’s Headquarters) seeks to discover the feeling of history present in the land itself. In his autobiography, Wyeth conveyed his "strong feelings for the American Revolutionary War, the aura of which surrounds me here and which I feel from my constant wandering around these hills in the Brandywine Valley."
Label: In Pennsylvania Landscape, Wyeth depicts the eighteenth-century Gideon Gilpin House, a part of the Brandywine Battlefield, visible between the branches of a massive buttonwood or sycamore tree, which has itself become entangled in history. The Major General Lafayette, barely twenty years old at the time, engaged in the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, his first military engagement in America. Though since disproven, Revolutionary lore long-held that Lafayette, who was quartered at the Gilpin House, received medical attention for his wounded leg under the tree shown. Now known as the "Lafayette Sycamore," the 400-year-old sentinel still stands today.
Pictorially, Wyeth used the buttonwood tree to dominate the composition, pulling the viewer’s eye through the picture with the varied angles and lines of its branches. The artist’s use of egg tempera allowed him to capture detail and texture with amazing clarity, conveying the significant presence of this ancient tree. Wyeth did not paint a literal view, but rather combined elements when creating a composition. He said, "I think of it as the whole Pennsylvania landscape in one picture – with that marvelous buttonwood tree in the middle. …I’m almost suspended, looking down. Of course it’s a composite view. I never stand in one spot when I paint a landscape. I float. I move. It’s impossible for me to be photographic." Behind the tree, Wyeth included the Brandywine River, actually located about a mile from this spot.
While the preservationist spirit of the colonial revival fueled the opening of many museums and historic sites—like the nearby Winterthur Museum, which opened in 1941—Andrew Wyeth’s painting Pennsylvania Landscape (Lafayette’s Headquarters) seeks to discover the feeling of history present in the land itself. In his autobiography, Wyeth conveyed his "strong feelings for the American Revolutionary War, the aura of which surrounds me here and which I feel from my constant wandering around these hills in the Brandywine Valley."
Label: In Pennsylvania Landscape, Wyeth depicts the eighteenth-century Gideon Gilpin House, a part of the Brandywine Battlefield, visible between the branches of a massive buttonwood or sycamore tree, which has itself become entangled in history. The Major General Lafayette, barely twenty years old at the time, engaged in the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, his first military engagement in America. Though since disproven, Revolutionary lore long-held that Lafayette, who was quartered at the Gilpin House, received medical attention for his wounded leg under the tree shown. Now known as the "Lafayette Sycamore," the 400-year-old sentinel still stands today.
Pictorially, Wyeth used the buttonwood tree to dominate the composition, pulling the viewer’s eye through the picture with the varied angles and lines of its branches. The artist’s use of egg tempera allowed him to capture detail and texture with amazing clarity, conveying the significant presence of this ancient tree. Wyeth did not paint a literal view, but rather combined elements when creating a composition. He said, "I think of it as the whole Pennsylvania landscape in one picture – with that marvelous buttonwood tree in the middle. …I’m almost suspended, looking down. Of course it’s a composite view. I never stand in one spot when I paint a landscape. I float. I move. It’s impossible for me to be photographic." Behind the tree, Wyeth included the Brandywine River, actually located about a mile from this spot.