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The Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art provides a fascinating look at the art of the region through the lens of land conservation in its summer exhibition. “Lure of the Brandywine: A Story of Land Conservation and Artistic Inspiration” is on view from June 7 through August 10. Several special programs take place during the exhibition’s run, including gallery talks, a Brandywine Arts Evening on July 11, and a Water Moves Family Workshop on July 12.
John McCoy (1910-1989), Brandywine at Twin Bridges, 1953, tempera on panel.
“Lure of the Brandywine” celebrates the organization’s dual mission to display art from the Brandywine region and to preserve the environment. The exhibition features landscape paintings created by artists of the mid-19th century through today who have lived and worked in the Brandywine region. The landscape’s unique attributes are what attracted artists such as Jasper Cropsey, William T. Richards, and members of the Wyeth family to the area, which is now largely protected through the efforts of the Brandywine Conservancy.
The paintings are organized in groups that illustrate the primary environmental programs of the Brandywine Conservancy:
- Saving Agricultural Lands
- Protecting Historic Structures
- Enhancing Water Quality
- Connecting Trails and Greenways
- Preserving Scenic Character
- Conserving Natural Resources.
“Lure of the Brandywine affords an interesting look at one aspect of our collection–landscape painting–in a different context that enhances the connection to the Brandywine Valley,” says Thomas Padon, director of the Brandywine River Museum of Art.
Frank Delle Donne, Landscape with a Tree, n.d., Oil on canvas.
The exhibition presents artists’ responses to the pastoral Brandywine Valley while making thought-provoking connections to the Conservancy’s activities that have preserved more than 59,000 acres of scenic and natural resources, farmland, and historic properties in the Wilmington and Philadelphia region.
The Brandywine River Museum of Art is open daily (except Christmas Day) from 9:30am to 4:30pm. Admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors ages 65 and over, $6 for children ages 6 and older, and free for Brandywine Conservancy members and children 5 and younger. Museum admission is free on Sunday mornings from 9:30am to noon through November 24.
