George A. Weymouth, chairman of the museum's board of trustees, described the gift as an ``emotional'' decision for the Wyeth heirs, particularly Andrew Wyeth, 78, who used the property until recently as a second studio.
``In the typical fashion of the Wyeth family, they left [the museum] everything. I don't think they even took one chair for themselves,'' Weymouth said at a news conference held yesterday under a large tent in front of the studio.
For the last two years, a large crew of museum staff, contractors, conservators and horticulturists from the Brandywine Conservancy, which owns the museum, have worked to restore the property and its landscaping as they were in a particular year: 1945.
The museum officials chose the year of N.C. Wyeth's death over other years - for instance, during the height of his career in the 1920s, when he illustrated many of the Scribner book classics such as Robinson Crusoe - mainly because the museum has extensive photo documentation of the studio as it looked in 1945. The Wyeth family and museum staff also felt that that year marked the end of an era, when Wyeth used the studio exclusively for his work and private teaching. After that, the property became Carolyn Wyeth's. She left the studio unchanged, although she continued to teach there.
``Fortunately, there was this fascination to keep the studio exactly like it was,'' Duff said.
Although the exterior of the Wyeth house was recently restored, the building is not scheduled to open until next year. The museum is also limiting its tours of the studio to five days a week and 14 people on each 45-minute tour. A shuttle bus will take visitors to and from the studio, which is close to the museum.
