Pyle, one of the foremost illustrators in the United States at the time, began teaching art classes at
Drexel University in 1895. However, he was dissatisfied with the confines of formal art education, and beginning in 1898, he began teaching students during the summers at the Turner Mill in Chadds Ford. The mill, alongside the Brandywine, provided views of a scenic landscape to inspire the artists. Pyle also hosted artists' gatherings at his residence at
Painter's Folly. In 1900, he left Drexel and opened his own
school attached to his personal art studio. Pyle created this school so that he might train a generation of illustrators who were artistically and financially successful. He hoped that through this, he would foster an American style of painting, something he felt the country lacked. In order to develop that intrinsically American style, Pyle believed that his students must spend time outdoors, taking in the scenery and the history of their country. To help facilitate this, Pyle frequently brought his students to Chadds Ford, where he would tell his students stories about the area’s
revolutionary history while they painted landscapes. After Pyle's death, Arthurs purchased the Pyle studio and continued the school from 1912 to 1950. Wyeth stayed in his Wilmington studio for a time before moving to Chadds Ford, where he taught his own children, including artist
Andrew Wyeth. In his study
The Brandywine Tradition (1968), author and illustrator
Henry Clarence Pitz wrote of the movement's "concern for human values, . . . delight in the exercise of the pictorial imagination, the feeling that design should follow the behest of content and the conviction that the illustrator has a power over and a responsibility to his audience." The style was a source of inspiration for, and used extensively by
Disney previsualization artists for the animated film,
Treasure Planet. ==Gallery==