Although our original purpose for stopping at Chadds Ford was to go to the Brandywine River Museum, we decided to first go to Longwood Gardens. That piece of spontaneousness saved the day because as it turned out, Longwood Gardens was wonderful even in the Winter and the Brandywine Museum was getting ready for the next days opening of the Jamie Wyeth exhibit that we already saw at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Two thirds of the museum was closed, taken up with the Jamie Wyeth exhibit.
As we stepped up to the ticket booth at Longwood Gardens, Kennet Square, PA we wondered whether the $17 senior price for admission would be worth it in January. Our misgivings were immediately erased as we walked down a path in the winter sunlight and sought out the wonders of the winter garden landscape. The intricate patterns in the ice on the ponds, the edible ornament tree to which the birds flocked and the elegance of the tree branches against the sky.
Pierre DuPont purchased the property now known as Longwood Garden from descendents of George Peirce in 1906. One of the structures on the property was what is now knows as the Perice-DuPont house. It is a lovely house complete with it's own mini-Conservatory, where Harry sat and sketched for a while, reminding himself how difficult it is to make sketches capture the feeling of a place...
After lunch in the cafe we entered the magnificent conservatory. There is nothing like the sight of blooming flowers and the sound of fountains to melt a winter weary heart.
Mid-afternoon we went to the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, PA. Chadds Ford, was Howard Pyle's home (book illustrator in the hey day of book illustrators) and his school of art drew N.C. Wyeth to Chadd's Ford. N.C. 's did well in his chosen craft and sired a family of artists of whom the most notable was Andrew Wyeth whose son Jamie now carries on the family business. The Museum houses their works and other art of the Brandywine River School. It is housed in an old mill building adjacent to Brandywine creek. There is also a modern circular glass addition to the building with great views of the creek. We found the collection to be somewhat uninspiring but there were a few high points.
Our route back to the hotel took us along the aptly named Ridge Road and other winding roads through the gently sloping hills. Once all farms until the DuPonts built their mansions and the farms became estates and are now upscale suburbia. Driving along these roads and glimpsing the gnarly trees and houses set on the tops of slopes you begin to understand from whence Wyeth got his inspiration.