She is also survived by another son, Nicholas, an art dealer, and a granddaughter. The museum plans to honor Betsy Wyeth, when it reopens after the COVID-19-related shutdown, with an exhibit of 18 works her husband made depicting her over the years.īetsy Wyeth died at home in Chadds Ford after several years of declining health, a family spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the early 1970s, she helped turn a 19th-century gristmill into the Brandywine River Museum, providing a public home for hundreds of pieces by three generations of the family. “She’s made me into a painter that I would not have been otherwise.”Įarly in their marriage, Betsy Wyeth introduced her husband to neighbor Christina Olson, who became the subject of his 1948 series, “Christina’s World.” “Betsy galvanized me at the time I needed it,” Wyeth said.

Now a National Historic Landmark, the Andrew Wyeth Studio is open to the public seasonally for tours. Speaking to biographer Richard Meryman in 1966, Andrew Wyeth said his wife “made me see more clearly what I wanted.” Following Andrew Wyeth’s death in 2009, Betsy generously gifted her husband’s studio to the Brandywine River Museum of Art. They divided their time between coastal Maine and the sloping hills of Chadds Ford in southeastern Pennsylvania, the landscapes he captured in his muted, often melancholy paintings. She is also survived by another son, Nicholas, an art dealer, and a granddaughter.Betsy James met Andrew Wyeth in Maine, where their families lived, and married him a year later, in 1940. Speaking to biographer Richard Meryman in 1966, Andrew Wyeth said his wife “made me see more clearly what I wanted.” Betsy James met Andrew Wyeth in Maine, where their families lived, and married him a year later, in 1940.

Betsy james wyeth