Brandywine River museum shares stories behind art
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Andrew Wyeth was known for painting subjects that he knew well, most notably his female models -- Christina Olson, Siri Erickson and Helga Testorf.
“It wasn’t unusual for Wyeth to become obsessed with a subject, whether it was a landscape or a person,” said Mary Cronin, supervisor of education at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, which is the home of many of Wyeth’s pieces.
He painted more than 250 portraits of Testorf, which spurred a lot of rumors as she was not his wife and many of the works were nude paintings.
“It’s rumored they had a relationship, but whether that’s true or not, we don’t know the full nature of their relationship. We know they had a long friendship,” said Cronin.
On the other hand, some believed that Wyeth and his wife, Betsy Wyeth, spread the rumors of a relationship between Wyeth and Testorf.
“Some people said that the Wyeths manufactured it,” said Cronin “That they pretended that Betsy didn’t know. And that they made it seem like a big scandal because then that landed Wyeth on the cover of all these magazines. And that brought him great publicity.”
While it’s unknown what is true and what is fact, these stories, among others, will be part of the Brandywine River Museum’s Romance and Rumor event on Valentine’s Day from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“This is just a great way to spend time with your friends or the one you love and do something fun and different,” said Hillary Holland, director of public relations at the museum.
All of the stories are documented in some way, said Cronin, and she used Richard Meryman’s autobiography for the background and stories behind Wyeth’s work.
Volunteer tour guides will be stationed on each floor. It will not be a formal tour, but the guides will be there to narrate the art that has a story. On the first floor there are a few works by Rose O’Neill and Howard Pyle, both illustrators and writers, with a rumor or romance story.
“It’s not true love and happily ever after love, but this particular work was one that we always thought was funny,” said Cronin, referring to O’Neill’s “Gas.”
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