For Immediate Release

CHADDS FORD, PA—From October 1 through November 20, 2005, the Brandywine River Museum presents Andrew Wyeth: Early Watercolors, an extraordinary exhibition of nearly 50 watercolor paintings by Andrew Wyeth. This exhibition demonstrates the fascinating range of subjects Wyeth addressed in watercolor from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. 

Although today Andrew Wyeth is known primarily for his work in tempera, his distinctive and exciting early watercolors helped establish his reputation as an artist. In fact, Wyeth first gained national acclaim during his 1937 debut exhibition of watercolors at the prominent Macbeth Gallery in New York City. Overnight, the twenty-year-old Wyeth was heralded by critics as a major new talent and a worthy successor to Wyeth's idol and America's dean of watercolor, Winslow Homer. 

Of the Macbeth Gallery exhibition, The New York Sun wrote in 1937 that Wyeth "has a brave way of applying wash to the paper, and he is unafraid of color, and with these accomplishments he finds it easy to present you with clean, crisp water colors that immediately catch the eye."

Andrew Wyeth's first one-man exhibition in a museum was at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire in 1939. Andrew Wyeth: Early Watercolors was also organized by the Currier Museum of Art.

Andrew Wyeth: Early Watercolors focuses on the land and people Wyeth painted both in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and coastal Maine, where he has summered since youth. As many of the works are from private collections and have not been viewed publicly, the exhibition offers new perspectives on one of America's best-known and most popular painters. A fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue is available for purchase at the Brandywine River Museum Shop.

Andrew Wyeth: Early Watercolors at the Brandywine River Museum is supported by a generous grant from the Davenport Family Foundation.

Located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, the Brandywine River Museum is open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except Christmas Day. Admission is $8 for adults; $5 for seniors ages 65 and over, students with I.D., and children; and free for children under six and Brandywine Conservancy members. For more information, call 610-388-2700 or visit the museum's web site at www.brandywinemuseum.org.

For digital photography of works appearing in the exhibition, please call 610-388-8337 or email jmaguire@brandywine.org.