Striking Poses: Portraits from the Museum's Collections, the latest exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum,offers visitors the opportunity to examine many unique synergies between portrait sitters and artists. This exhibition of approximately 40 works includes a wide range of examples of unusual and vibrant portraits by artists such as Peter Hurd, Norman Rockwell, Benjamin West, George A. Weymouth, Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, and N.C. Wyeth.

Historically, portraits often included symbols that emphasize a subject's role in society or pay tribute to personal accomplishments. Today, portrait subjects are often shown in more casual poses and informal settings. When a subject strikes a particular stance or offers a particular demeanor, artists respond by using composition and tone to convey the subject's unique expression. This approach, whether planned or spontaneous, results in a collaborative creation.

For example, Jamie Wyeth's Draft Age depicts former Chadds Ford resident Jimmy Lynch. At the time of the Vietnam War, when this work was painted, both the artist and sitter were candidates for the draft. Clad in a leather motorcycle jacket instead of a uniform, Lynch conveys a detached, rakish air. Wyeth placed the figure in a shallow, shadowed space, and the strong light from the side heightens the figure's defiant pose.

In George Weymouth's portrait, Mrs. Battle, the artist uses dramatic lighting to illuminate the subject's face and expressive, gesturing hands. It also highlights the gold filigree trim of her jacket to emphasize elegance, poise, and directness.

Artists also make striking images of themselves. N.C. Wyeth's Self Portrait with a Palette was painted after his student days with Howard Pyle, but still very early in his career. Wyeth's strong composition, limited coloration, and bravura brush strokes reveal his growing confidence and artistic ability. Norman Rockwell's Self Portrait (1947), gives the artist's comic view of his own thin, be-spectacled person. The precise drawing and exaggerated expression are reminiscent of the early work of Maxfield Parrish, an artist Rockwell greatly admired.

Some portraits are partially fictionalized renderings of a person created from the artist's memory. Andrew Wyeth notably created many such works, including Spring (1978), a portrait of Chadds Ford farmer Karl Kuerner. Based on drawings the artist made during Kuerner's final illness, the painting evokes the stoicism of the German immigrant. It suggests Kuerner as a timeless figure in a metaphorical relationship with the landscape.

Striking Poses: Portraits from the Museum's Collections includes works from the museum's permanent and extended loan collection.

The Brandywine River Museum is open daily (except Christmas Day) from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults; $6 for seniors ages 65 and over, students, and children ages 6-12; free for children under six and Brandywine Conservancy members.

Through July 11, museum admission also includes <I>Eye to Eye: Portrait Miniatures from the Collection of Phyllis and Jamie Wyeth<I>, as well as <I>John Haberle: American Master of Illusion.<I> For an additional fee of $5 for each tour, visitors can see the N.C. Wyeth House & Studio (Tuesday through Sunday) and the Kuerner Farm, a major source of inspiration for Andrew Wyeth (Thursday through Sunday). Tours depart from the museum at scheduled intervals.

The Brandywine River Museum is located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. For more information, call 610-388-2700 or visit www.brandywinemuseum.org.