Andrew Wyeth must have drawn the Kuerner Farm a thousand times over 70 years, contemplating a scene less than two miles from his childhood home, writes Adam Clair for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Karl Kuener Sr., a German World War I machine gunner, ended up renting and, eventually, owning a farm in Chadds Ford and raising Brown Swiss dairy cattle.
Artist Andrew Wyeth discovered the farm in 1933 as a teenager and became obsessed with its landscape, architecture, and with Kuerner and his wife, Anna.
Wyeth’s father, N.C., died in 1945, struck by a train that ran through the farm. Kuerner became a father figure for Wyeth, intrigued by the farmer’s military background.
For Kuerner, young Wyeth reminded him of his brother, a painter back in Germany.
“Any other kid that would come over here, my grandfather would have put him to work,” said Karl J. Kuerner, grandson of Karl Kuerner Sr. “Andy had free rein of the place. He could come and go as he pleased.”
An exhibit at the Brandywine Museum of Art, “Andrew Wyeth at Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth,” features more than 40 Wyeth paintings inspired by the farm.
Find out more about Andrew Wyeth’s connection to the Kuerner Farm in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
