Leaving the Wyeths in Pennsylvania


This posting of Ann Breslford McCoy will be my last one centering around the Wyeths in Pennsylvania.  (Later, I will follow their work and homes in Maine.)  Ann, daughter of Anna Wyeth McCoy, built this house on her parents' property, but it looks as beautifully old as the antique homes viewed in my earlier  posts.  I particularly love Ann's house because it is new, but you could never tell - a quality I've tried to emulate in my own home.  As I have done with the previous postings, let's first take a look at her art.  (These paintings were taken from Wyethhurdgallery.com.)

The subject matter of this painting appears to be Maine.

Leaving Chadds  Ford

Elephant Walk

The last two paintings appear to focus on Pennsylvania subject matter.

Now to the home, my main focus here, which appeared in House Beautiful in January 1988.

If you cannot read the caption under the first photo, it mentions the painting over the mantel is of Ms. McCoy at 21 by Henriette Wyeth Hurd.  Love the antique hooked rugs in this home and the previous Wyeth homes.  Note how deep the windows are indicating the thickness of the walls.  The bookcase here is a great color.

Love, love this kitchen.  All the yellow ware on the table and the shelves is antique but used everyday  

according to Ann McCoy, and it inspired my own collection.  The fireplace is to the right above but is not shown to great advantage.  This whole kitchen reminds me a bit of the Weymouth summer kitchen in my previous post.

More hooked rugs, two paintings by her father, John McCoy, a Pennsylvania-made dower chest, and again those deep windows and bookcases.  Not shown in this image is the fireplace to the right of the window.  I'm so into cozy at this time of year, and this room personifies it.

Hope you can read the small caption under the photo.  It explains the artwork and how the floorboards were collected from old farms in the area.   Either of the ladder back chairs might have been the subject matter for Leaving Chadds Ford above.

The painting above the table was an engagement present from her father.  Art is in the lifeblood of this family.  Isn't that bowl wonderful??  And again the deep, deep windows.

Same room, more antiques, more artwork, and hog scraper candlesticks on each side of the apples in the deep window.

Even if you are not in love with antiques (I have a friend who is very Zen and has never stepped foot in an antique shop; she's probably bored to tears.), you have to love this rather spare vignette.  The wonderful, unrestored corner cupboard is the star here or is it that painting, Bluebells by Henriette Wyeth or even the hooked rug.  They're all perfect.

A young neighbor plays here with whalebone miniatures and sits at a miniature desk on a windsor chair.  "The tiny Shakespeare folios also reflect Ms. McCoy's interest in miniatures."

With this house, I end my visit to Wyeth country, but you can probably tell how much it affected me as my husband and I began building and decorating our own home.  We visited this area often and were inspired each time, but as time passes design aesthetics change.  Mine did.  Still, as I post  these images from what-did-not-seem-long-ago (until I looked at the date of the magazines), I realize how much I still admire the talent and authenticity of the Wyeth family and their art.  Taste changes but also remains the same.