On view in Brandywine’s Strawbridge Family Gallery, this exhibition features a dollhouse and model trains that were previously owned by members of the famously creative Wyeth family, which they lovingly outfitted with handcrafted tiny furnishings, paintings, and unique details.
The Wonderful World of Wyeth Miniatures features two model train displays that belonged to artist Jamie Wyeth and Nicholas Wyeth, both sons of the renowned American artist Andrew Wyeth. Nicholas Wyeth’s 8x12 foot standard gauge train display features historic “tinplate” Lionel trains from the 1920s and 30s traveling around colorful buildings and scenery, including a grand bridge modeled after New York’s iconic Hellgate Bridge and a grouping of military miniatures collected by his father, Andrew. Jamie Wyeth’s 4x6 foot N-gauge train display—one of the smallest model trains and originally co-owned by Wyeth and his friend and fellow toy collector, artist Andy Warhol—features personalized details by both artists, including a miniature figurine modeled after Wyeth’s famous Pumpkinhead self-portrait.
Wyeth Miniatures also includes one of the rooms from a captivating nine-foot-tall dollhouse previously owned by Ann Wyeth McCoy—the talented composer, pianist, and daughter of N.C. and Carolyn Bockius Wyeth—which was built by her husband, the artist John McCoy. Outfitted by her family with several handmade furnishings, the dollhouse room is decorated with miniature paintings by her sister and brother-in-law Henriette Wyeth and Peter Hurd, as well as by her brother Andrew Wyeth. One of Jamie Wyeth’s tiny paintings designed for the dollhouse will be displayed for the first time in years, and several miniature furniture creations by Nathaniel Wyeth, Ann's mechanical engineer brother, will also be on view along with their hand-made crates, each carefully lettered: “It’s another miniature from the Wyeth shops.”