The scope of the collections was established in the late 1960s with the founding of the Museum, one devoted to American art with a particular emphasis in art of the Brandywine region—landscape, still life, trompe l’oeil, illustration and work created by three generations of the Wyeth family.
The Museum’s Heritage Collection highlights the work of artists who have associations with the Brandywine or greater Pennsylvania regions; it includes works that trace the growth of American landscape, still life and trompe l’oeil painting by artists such as Raphaelle Peale, James Peale, William Michael Harnett, William Trost Richards and Horace Pippin. The recent Richard M. Scaife Bequest, with fine examples of American Impressionism and landscape traditions from across the United States, significantly extended the Brandywine’s holdings.
The Museum’s collection of American illustration is one of the most comprehensive in the country and particularly rich in the work of F. O. C. Darley, Howard Pyle and major Pyle students such as Harvey Dunn, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, Maxfield Parrish, Frank E. Schoonover and Jessie Willcox Smith.
Internationally known for its holdings by three generations of members of the Wyeth family, the Brandywine holds an immersive selection of their work. The N. C. Wyeth collection encompasses many of the artist’s most celebrated illustrations, in addition to outstanding land- and seascapes, still lifes and portraits. Andrew Wyeth is represented with examples of his most important tempera and watercolor paintings dating from all decades of his career. Jamie Wyeth is represented by notable examples of early work through his most recent portraits. Other members of the Wyeth family, including Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Peter Hurd, John McCoy and Carolyn Wyeth, are well documented within the collection.