A woman instrumental in creating the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania has passed away.
Betsy James Wyeth died Tuesday; she was 98-years-old.
During her lifetime, Wyeth was a published author, art collector and a driving force in the career of her husband, artist Andrew Wyeth - serving as his muse, business manager and chief archivist of his work.
She was only 17-years-old when she met a 22-year-old Andrew Wyeth in Cushing, Maine in 1939. They married a year later and moved to Chadds Ford. Their marriage spanned nearly seven decades before Andrew’s death in 2009.
Betsy Wyeth is survived by her two sons, a daughter-in-law, one granddaughter and several nieces and nephews.
The Brandywine River Museum of Art is currently closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but when it reopens, it plans to honor the life of Betsy Wyeth with a memorial tribute of 18 Andrew Wyeth works depicting his wife and muse.