Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Barn on the Brandywine
Alternate Title(s):The Falls at Brinton's Mill
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1919 / 1921
Dimensions:
32 × 40 in. (81.3 × 101.6 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.363
Research Number: NCW: 363
InscribedLower right corner: N. C. WYETH (underlined); on reverse, upside down on top stretcher: N. C. WYETH CHADDS FORD PA; on left stretcher member, label of Haderer & Co. Art Shop; written on frame, #63374/(illegible)16 - 32 1/4 x 40 1/4
ProvenanceBruce and Sophie du Pont Ford; Gordon and Sophie Sharpless, Wilmington, DE
Exhibition HistoryWest Chester, PA, 1923; Wilmington, DE, 1968, no. 7, as "The Falls at Brinton's Mill"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1982, no. 5, illus. in b/w p. 51; Chadds Ford, PA, 1992; Chadds Ford, PA, 1997, no numbers; Chadds Ford, PA, 2002(1)
References
"Art Reception at Normal School," (West Chester, PA) Daily Local News, Nov. 13, 1923, p. 6; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.132, p. 742, 743
Curatorial RemarksThe exact date of this painting is unknown. It shows some of the stylistic traits of Brandywine Meadows of ca. 1918 (NCW 1364), but it could have been the result of a commission for a "mantle decoration" prompted by the exhibition of Buttonwood Farm (NCW 63) in February of 1920 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (NCW to Sidney M. Chase, August 1, 1920, Wyeth Family Archives). The work was first exhibited at the West Chester Normal School library in November, 1923; a review referred to "a view of the mill dam at Brinton's Bridge, with a big buttonwood tree jutting out across the stream..." (West Chester, PA, Daily Local News, Nov. 13, 1923). Since the Wyeths returned from a two year stay in Needham in the summer of 1923, the painting could have been done that summer, or, more likely, completed prior to the move in the fall of 1921.
The Chester County Historical Society holds a photograph by Walter Dennison Hodgson of the barn from almost the same vantage place (Photo Archives, Chester County Historical Society, CCHS#3872), labeled "view of the falls and barn on the Brandywine near Brinton's Forge, Birmingham Twp., 1900-1910." The barn sat on what is presently Andrew Wyeth's Chadds Ford property; Andrew painted the sycamore tree many times and as recently as in 2006.
The Chester County Historical Society holds a photograph by Walter Dennison Hodgson of the barn from almost the same vantage place (Photo Archives, Chester County Historical Society, CCHS#3872), labeled "view of the falls and barn on the Brandywine near Brinton's Forge, Birmingham Twp., 1900-1910." The barn sat on what is presently Andrew Wyeth's Chadds Ford property; Andrew painted the sycamore tree many times and as recently as in 2006.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:none given