Brandywine River Museum of Art

'Tis the season for chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Take a deeper dive into this and other classic winter works by Andrew Wyeth during our next virtual gallery talk with the artist's granddaughter, Victoria Wyeth, on December 14 and 15. This month Victoria will explore Andrew Wyeth's fascinating depictions of winter, one of the artist's favorite seasons. Limited tickets remain for these online programs. Register at www.brandywine.org/events... Image: Andrew Wyeth (1917 - 2009), Roasted Chestnuts, 1956. 2020 Andrew Wyeth / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. collections.brandywine.org.

Born on this day in 1904, in Philadelphia, Marjorie Henderson Buell was best known by her pen name Marge, under which she drew the popular Little Lulu cartoons beginning in 1935. She grew up near Malvern and attended Villa Maria Academy, where she was a student when she sold her first cartoon in 1920. Buell went directly to work in the industry rather than study art further. Her cartoons, often focused on the female point of view, appeared in Country Gentleman, Collier’s, ...Life magazine and Judge. In a shrewd business move, she retained the copyright to her early work, which was very popular and published widely. She secured a recurring cartoon in the Saturday Evening Post with her Little Lulu comic, a regular feature for nine years. After World War II, Buell branched out, licensing her character for comic books, film, dolls, greeting cards and product endorsement. Throughout her career, she maintained creative control over her intellectual property, even as another artist took over the daily work of drawing her comic books. Image: Marjorie Henderson Buell (1904 - 1993), The First Female Athlete, ca. 1920-1930. collections.brandywine.org

Born on this day in 1850, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, Jennie Augusta Brownscombe balanced a career in both fine art and illustration. She taught at a local high school as a young woman to help support her widowed mother. In 1871, she moved to New York to study seriously at the Cooper Institute School of Design and the National Academy of Design. Brownscombe was a founding member at the Art Students League of New York. During her ten years in New York, she made illustrations,... wrote articles about art, and taught classes at the League. She capped her education with a trip to Europe to study in Paris and the French countryside. Her skills in several media, including oil, watercolor and etching, as well as her commercial work as an illustrator, designer and portrait painter made her a versatile artist with a successful career. Her paintings often created romantic narratives reflecting the lives of young women. As an illustrator, she was sought-after to render images that would appeal to a female magazine subscribers. As an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Mayflower Descendants, she also depicted scenes of American history imbued with emotional and nostalgic overtones. Image: Jennie Brownscombe (1850 - 1936), Kingdom, Crown and Scepter, 1875. bit.ly/2Ka2Hji

Looking for the perfect holiday stocking stuffer? Our Brandywine Honey is back in stock! This sweet treat is produced at Two Gander Farm, located within a beautiful 260-acre preserve owned by the Brandywine Conservancy in Downingtown, PA. Support our local community and mission this holiday season with your honey purchase here: bit.ly/3lUmlh6 Special Limited-Time Offer: Now through Thursday, Dec. 10, receive a complimentary Brandywine Railroad Train Ornament with all online orders of $50 or more as a special thank you to all of our patrons who have supported us over this last year. * For guaranteed arrival by 12/25, orders should be placed no later than Dec. 10, by 11:59 p.m. Your complimentary ornament will be automatically included when we ship out your order.

Art helped change Hough's life, and brought him to a very different side of the justice system. Last November, he was named artist in residence for the Philadelphia district attorney's office. It was a project believed to be the first of its kind.

There’s only one week left to view our special exhibition Witness to History (Now - Nov. 1, 2020)! In case you missed it earlier this month, photographer Stephen Somerstein joined us virtually for a discussion about the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March and his experiences in documenting this significant moment in America’s Civil Rights Movement. The engaging conversation also featured Dr. Clayborne Carson, the Ronnie Lott Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, and was moderated by Brandywine curator Amanda Burdan, Ph.D. Click below to watch!

Is anyone else suddenly dreaming of a proper snow day? Image: Karl J. Kuerner (b. 1957), Miss Wyeth, 1981. Karl J. Kuerner. bit.ly/3qLeBAT #MuseumMomentOfZen #MuseumFromHome #Snow

Capturing the spirit of the season, Norman Rockwell’s The Fiddler features a festive pumpkin in the corner and autumnal garland draped across the composition. A recent acquisition to the Museum’s collection, this work was originally commissioned as the cover of the October 22, 1921 issue of The Country Gentleman by Curtis Publishing, Philadelphia. Rockwell’s dramatic lightingmimicking footlights on a stagepowerfully brings the image of this musician to life. Generously... donated to the Brandywine by Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Sordoni III, The Fiddler is an important addition to the Museum’s treasured collection in American illustration. Along with N. C. Wyeth, Rockwell was one of the most prominent figures in the Golden Age of American Illustration. Click here to learn more about this acquisition, now on view at the Brandywine: bit.ly/39gEH6F Image: Norman Rockwell (1894 - 1978), The Fiddler, 1921. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Sordoni III, 2019. bit.ly/2wn4mvm

Born on this day in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in 1907, Henriette Wyeth was the oldest child of N. C. Wyeth and Carolyn Bockius Wyeth. She enjoyed a long career as a painter of portraits, floral still lifes and landscapes. Wyeth began her art studies in her father’s studio as a young girl. At age 13, Wyeth enrolled at the Normal Arts School in Boston, and just a few years later she entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By age 16, she was painting family members a...nd receiving portrait commissions from prominent residents of Pennsylvania and Delaware. In 1929 Wyeth married artist Peter Hurd (1904-1984), who had studied with her father, and in the mid-1930s the couple moved to Hurd’s native New Mexico, where they raised their family and established a ranch near Roswell. Wyeth continued to produce lyrical still lifes and floral landscapes after the move to New Mexico. She also gained a national reputation as a portrait painter. Among her most high-profile commissions was for the official portrait of First Lady Patricia Nixon in 1978 (White House Collection). Image: Henriette Wyeth (1907 - 1997), Portrait of Mrs. N. C. Wyeth, 1929, artist, artist's estate, or other rights holders. bit.ly/3dMaEFY

A still misty fall day on the Brandywine.

Born on this day in 1882 in Needham, Massachusetts, N. C. Wyeth was one of the leading illustrators of the 20th century, known for his iconic portrayals of pirates, knights and cowboys. After a period of study with the great illustrator and teacher Howard Pyle beginning in 1902, Wyeth quickly became one of the period’s most popular magazine illustrators. The tremendous success of his illustrations for Treasure Island in 1911 soon followed and launched his career as a book ...illustrator leading to numerous commissions, including for Kidnapped (1913), The Boy's King Arthur (1917), The Last of the Mohicans (1919) and The Yearling (1939). Wyeth also enjoyed a reputation for his commercial work in advertising and as a muralist. Wyeth was troubled by the distinction made between illustrators and artists. To escape what he felt were the pejorative connotations of being an illustrator, he sought recognition in his private work as a painter of still lifes, portraits and landscapes. Wyeth and his wife Carolyn raised five talented children: three grew to be artists (Henriette, Carolyn and Andrew), one a musician (Ann) and the fifth a mechanical engineer (Nathaniel). N. C. Wyeth’s house and studio in Chadds Ford are now part of the Brandywine River Museum of Art and open seasonally to the public. Image: N. C. Wyeth (1882 - 1945), Island Funeral, 1939. bit.ly/34lrhpt

Happy National Apple Day! "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" . . . unless you’re Snow White. In this fascinating illustration for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," artist Nancy Ekholm Burkert fills the scene with tons of eerie details, textures and symbols. Interested in diving in further? On October 28, join us for Creepy Tales from the Vault: Virtual Lecture as we explore the details and stories behind some of the spookiest works of art from our collection. Learn... more and register at www.brandywine.org/creepy-tales Image: Nancy Ekholm Burkert (b. 1933), ". . . And There She Made a Poisoned Apple" (detail), ca. 1972. Nancy Ekholm Burkert. collections.brandywine.org See more

Fun and easy to collect, acorns can be quickly transformed into beautiful, inexpensive decorations for your home. For a few ideas on how to repurpose these fall treasures for your home décor, click here: bit.ly/2ISpKyF

For when you need to take your pandemic puzzle game to the next level.

Born on this day in 1875 in Lincoln, Maine, Eleanor Plaisted Abbott is best known for her illustrations of fairy tales and children’s stories. She attended art school in Philadelphia, as well as in Paris, but it was her encounter with Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute that sparked her illustration career. Abbott was a member of the The Plastic Club, a Philadelphia organization dedicated to promoting the work of women artists. She worked for Harper’s Magazine, Scribner’s an...d The Saturday Evening Post and illustrated such timeless tales as Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson and Little Women. She and her family settled in Rose Valley where she also did scenic design for Hedgerow Theatre Company. Her elegant and graceful figures, especially in watercolor, defined a very recognizable style that is today acknowledged as important to the development of classic science fiction illustration. Image: Elenore Plaisted Abbott (1875 - 1935), On a Rude Throne Sat the Mother, ca. 1914. https://bit.ly/3448D4J