George Alexis Weymouth

George Alexis Weymouth (June 2, 1936 – April 24, 2016), better known as Frolic Weymouth, was an American artist, whip or stager, and conservationist. He served on the United States Commission of Fine Arts in the 1970s and was a member of the Du Pont family.

Family and personal life

His mother, Dulcinea "Deo" Ophelia Payne du Pont (November 28, 1909 – February 8, 1981), was the eldest of Eugene Eleuthere du Pont's (August 27, 1882 – December 15, 1954) four daughters. Frolic was six generations removed from Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, the founder of the DuPont corporation. In 1930, Dulcinea married investment banker George T. Weymouth (December 14, 1904 – June 7, 1990).

Weymouth was christened George Alexis Weymouth. According to a well-known story, shortly after George's birth, his 3-year-old brother, Gene, lost his foxhound. After repeatedly asking his mother, "Where's Frolic?" his exasperated mother replied, "Shut up! Here's your damn Frolic!" and thrust George before Gene. The name stuck.

Weymouth graduated from St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts in 1954. He received his undergraduate degree in American studies from Yale University in 1958. Weymouth suffered from dyslexia, but he believed that being from a prominent family enabled him to graduate from Yale. "I couldn't read and write or spell. I still can't. I don't know anything but painting pictures and being on a horse," he said in 2007. Big Bend was the Lenape's original term for the land, which lies along the Brandywine Creek. Other sources point to the land of Big Bend being the site of a Lenape village known as Queonemysing (place of the long fish). The chief Secetareus and his people of the Unami group, their totem the tortoise, of the Lenni-Lenape or Delawares, sold to William Penn the land between Chester Creek and Christina Creek (thus including Big Bend), December 19, 1688.

Weymouth died at the age of 79 on April 24, 2016, at his home in Chadds Ford. The announced cause of death was complications of congestive heart failure.

Through his circle of fellow artists, Weymouth became a close friend and relation of artist Andrew Wyeth. He was married to artist Anna Brelsford McCoy, Andrew Wyeth's niece. They divorced in 1979. Jamie Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth's son, married Weymouth's cousin Phyllis.

In a conversation about Andy Warhol, Jamie Wyeth expressed the opinion that Frolic Weymouth was the "real character."

Weymouth surrounded himself with art and gardens. A centerpiece in Weymouth's Big Bend is "The Vidette," an enormous painting of a horseman in the snow dating from 1912. This N.C. Wyeth work is occasionally on loan for exhibitions. Anna Hyatt Huntington's "Greyhounds Playing" graces the garden. Elsewhere, a carved wooden Indonesian fertility bench features two interlocked monkeys, highlighting Weymouth's admitted fascination with fornication.

Conservationist

Frolic Weymouth driving his coach at the head of Winterthur's Point-to-Point carriage parade.

In the mid-1960s, Weymouth convinced friends F.I. du Pont and William Prickett to help him buy two parcels in Chadds Ford, along the banks of the Brandywine Creek which had been proposed for industrial development. This purchase led to the founding of the Tri-County Conservancy, which became the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art, an environmental, arts, and cultural preservation organization that presaged similar foundations all over the country. Frolic was the chairman of the board of the Brandywine Conservancy from its beginning until his death. In the summer of 1985, he spent three months in England and managed to drive a carriage . He whipped another in France.

He once drove from New York City's Upper East Side to Saratoga Springs, New York, and then on to Shelburne, Vermont. Carriages are not uncommon around Central Park but taking the carriage through Harlem caused a sensation.

Awards and recognition 1971–77: Appointed by President Richard Nixon to the United States Commission of Fine Arts 1974: Served on the Visual Arts Panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts 1981: Received the University of Delaware merit award for community service 1989: Received National Society of Fund Raising Executives' Outstanding Fund Raising Volunteer award 1990: Received the National Arts Club annual award 1999: Received Cliveden Heritage Preservation award 2000: Received Garden Club of America special citation award for exemplary service in the field of conservation and environmental protection 2007: Received the Henry Francis du Pont Award from the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library

Exhibitions 1991 George A. Weymouth: A Retrospective at the Brandywine River Museum 1991 George A. Weymouth: A Retrospective at the Jacksonville Art Museum 2001 George A. Weymouth: Landscapes and Portraits of Brandywine at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2018: The Way Back: The Paintings of George A. Weymouth at the Brandywine River Museum