The Brandywine: A Case Study of an Ecological Strategy

Abstract

This case study of the Chadds Ford area of Pennsylvania establishes the existence of a complex relationship between powerful figures in society, the natural environment, and art. The ways in which natural resources are utilized and controlled by the land owners establishes a relationship with the art of local painters and artists. A feedback system is established whereby patrons of the arts support those artists who are able to capture in imagery the local ideology. In the Brandywine it is Andrew Wyeth's images of the landscape that serve the ideology of an elite and stimulate participation, by the community, in the protection and preservation of natural resources which are valuable to downstream users associated with the Dupont family and firm.