Andrew Wyeth's studio designated National Historic Landmark

Interior Department officials on Tuesday renamed and expanded a Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, national landmark tract long associated with artist Andrew Wyeth, adding Wyeth's studio to the previously designated Kuerner Farm that provided inspiration and subjects for many Wyeth creations.

The home and studio of Andrew Wyeth's father, N.C. Wyeth, already have a National Historic Landmark designation that was established in 1997.

Both are maintained and exhibited under the stewardship of the Brandywine Conservancy and Brandywine River Museum of Art, multi-faceted institutions with their own regional and national significance.

The organization's activities range from preservation and display of art and history to public education, land conservation and protection of the Brandywine Creek watershed, which supplies much of northernmost Delaware's drinking water.

Thomas Padon, director of the Brandywine River Museum of Art, said the organization was "delighted" by the federal action.

"The historic properties create a unique and layered experience for our visitors. Much of the art they see in the museum was created in the historic studios of N.C. and Andrew Wyeth close by on the museum's property," Padon said. "Our audience can gain a richer understanding of these artists by seeing where they lived and worked as well as knowing that the land that inspired them has been permanently protected by the conservancy and museum.

The change came on the same day the National Park Service designated nine new historic landmarks around the country, including the Louisiana site of the oldest operating streetcar system in America and the Massachusetts home of patent medicine entrepreneur Lydia Pinkham.

In Chadds Ford, the new Andrew Wyeth Studio and Kuerner Farm National Historic Landmark will take in the converted schoolhouse off Creek Road that Wyeth used as his primary studio for more than 70 years, until shortly before his death in January 2009.

The studio is about 4,000 feet from the Kuerner tract and stands near the Conservancy's main complex off U.S. 1.

Hundreds of Wyeth's paintings are rooted in buildings, places and vistas at the 33-acre Kuerner Farm, alongside the Brandywine Battlefield, also one of the nation's historic landmarks.

"Virtually everywhere visitors turn on the property, vantage points of Andrew Wyeth's artwork, created there over the seven decades he visited the farm, are visible, demonstrating how little the farm has changed through this time," a document filed in support of the landmark designation said.

Andrew Wyeth, ranked among the most prominent American artists of the 20th Century, "regularly visited the Kuerners, spent much of his time on their farm, and drew inspiration for approximately one third of his art there," the nominating document noted. His work, sometimes the topic of critical debate, has been described by some historians in the landmark nominating document as blends of American realism infused with "personal psychology."

The Kuerner farm also was the site of many Wyeth works involving Helga Testorf, who lived near the farm. The paintings, held in secret for years, came to public light and national prominence in 1987.

"Obviously, we're protecting the land that these artists painted on. Some of the studios are on protected land," Andrew Stewart, spokesman for the conservancy said. "Two things tie us together: art and the environment. Although they don't appear to be cohesive, they are in our minds, because we're also protecting the land and the water that people in Wilmington generally drink."

Betsy James Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth's widow, donated the studio property and more than 5,000 objects to the Brandywine Conservancy after her husband's death. It is listed as a contributing resources to the larger Chadds Ford Historic District, determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

The Kuerner Farm, managed and then owned by German immigrants Karl and Anna Kuerner, was donated to the Conservancy in 1998.

Contact Jeff Montgomery at (302) 463-3344 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.

IF YOU GO

Fees are charged for admission to the Brandywine River Museum of Art, at $12 for adults, $6 for seniors and ages 6 to 12. Members and children under 6 are admitted free. Shuttle access is available to historic properties for $8 per person for each property through Nov. 23, with multi-property packages available.

For more information, including tour schedules, call (610) 388-2700 or visit brandywine.org.