Delaware Art Museum
The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum in Wilmington, Delaware. It was founded in 1912 by a circle of friends of the recently deceased in Howard Pyle. The museum's collection has an emphasis on the art of the Pre-Raphaelites, illustrations and American landscape paintings by John French Sloan and his circle.
History
In the winter of 1912 by a group of citizens of the city of Wilmington, among them artists and business, the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts founded in memory of the deceased in the previous year, Howard Pyle. Pyle was a major artistic personality in the city and influenced its cultural life. The aim of the newly formed company was to protect the work of Pyles and made available to the public. With funding from donations from local supporters were acquired at the 100 paintings, drawings and prints Pyles, which formed the basis of a collection that was subsequently expanded to works of other American illustrators.
1935 was the family of the deceased art collector Samuel 1915 Bancroft Jr. get his collection of Pre-Raphaelite art and manuscripts of the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts. In addition, the family of the company gave 11 acres of land on which a museum should be built. $ 350,000 were collected to build the museum, which opened in June 1938 as a Delaware Art Center. The collection opened up more and more of the American art beyond the illustration. 1943 supplemented the Wilmington Academy of Art, the Museum of possibilities of artistic education. 1956 the museum building, a separate, named after him wings with studios and other training premises has been added thanks to a donation of H. Fletcher Brown. The museum was in 1961 by Helen Farr Sloan, wife of the late John French Sloan 1951, supported. With their support, 5,000 properties were acquired for the collection, including many works Sloans, so that the Delaware Art Museum has the most extensive collection of his works.
The name of the Delaware Art Center in 1972 changed with the inclusion in the American Association of Museums in Delaware Art Museum. Since the 1970s, the museum's collection was in their centers of gravity, but also expanded in the field of modern and contemporary art. In 1987, the exhibition area was expanded and also complements a lecture room. From 2003 to 2005 there was a further expansion of the museum. Under the direction of architect Ann M. Beha the original buildings have been renovated and built three new exhibition wing. On 26 June 2005, the museum was reopened.
Collection
The Delaware Art Museum has one of the largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite outside the UK. This is the legacy of Samuel Bancroft Jr., who had collected this art direction. Among the paintings are The Council Chamber by Edward Burnes Jones, La bella mano of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and The Waterfall by John Everett Millais. In addition, Ford Madox Brown, William Holman Hunt and Marie Stillman Spartali for example, are represented in the collection. In addition, the paintings are complemented by works of decorative arts such as chairs, through drawings and photographs.
Another focus of the collection are the works of Howard Pyle, from which the museum owns, among others, the paintings The Mermaid and Marooned. Furthermore, there are in the collection of the works of his pupils as Maxfield Parrish and Frank Schoonover. In addition, in the possession of the museum 's works of other important American illustrators.
The collection of the Delaware Art Museum also includes a large number of works John French Sloan as Wet Night, Washington Square and Spring Rain. The museum also has works by other major American artists. Dating from the 19th century artists such as Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and Raphaelle Peale are represented. The first half of the 20th century is represented by, among others, Edward Hopper, Isabel Bishop and Charles Burchfield. From the period after the Second World War, the museum has works by Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, Andrew Wyeth and Norman Lewis.
Marooned by Howard Pyle
The Mermaid by Howard Pyle
Spring Rain by John French Sloan
Special
The Delaware Art Museum presents numerous temporary exhibitions that have different priorities. Some deal with specific art forms such as Consuming Desires: Modern Marketing Posters (1880-1919) from the year 2005 or the design exhibition Garry Knox Bennett: Call me Chair Maker from 2008 Some deal with in more detail in the permanent exhibition, the artists represented. and collection priorities. So there were several exhibitions, the John Sloan had on the subject, as well as some on the subject of illustrations. Furthermore, there was exhibition of works by African American artists and those that showed the art from the state of Delaware.