“Natural Selections: Andrew Wyeth Plant Studies” will be on view at the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pa. through February 7, 2016.

The exhibition includes many rarely seen works on paper by Andrew Wyeth that demonstrate his minute observation and distinctive use of color. Although much care and attention went into their creation, these works were largely unseen in the artist’s lifetime. Wyeth worked out how to accentuate, sublimate—or in some cases eliminate—images in his final compositions. The drawings that are assembled here underscore Wyeth’s sense of discovery and pleasure in nature. 

Wyeth often created detailed preliminary studies in pencil or watercolor to explore ideas about the subject and composition to prepare for landscape paintings in watercolor or egg tempera. Even in preliminary works, such as Blackberry Branch (1943) and Summer Freshet Study (1942), the artist shows his intense involvement in subjects through the close, almost scientific approach he took to describing the specific character and quality of their forms. This investigative method draws upon longstanding European traditions of artistic study exemplified by the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, artists Wyeth particularly admired.

For more information, visit http://www.brandywine.org/museum.