Delaware Art Museum

The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. Founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, it holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects and is distinguished by its dual focus on American art and illustration from the 19th to the 21st century and on the English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement of the mid-19th century. The museum matters as a major repository of Howard Pyle's work and as the holder of the largest and most important collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art and manuscript materials in the United States.

The museum was founded in 1912 after the death of Howard Pyle, the best-known American illustrator of his day, who died unexpectedly in 1911 while on a trip to Italy. A group of his students and patrons in Wilmington, including Frank Schoonover, Stanley Arthurs, and Louisa du Pont Copeland, established the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts (WSFA) to honor his memory. The charter stated its purpose as promoting "the knowledge and enjoyment of and cultivation in the fine arts in the State of Delaware." Over 100 paintings, drawings, and prints were purchased from Pyle's widow Anne to form the initial collection, and the Pyle Collection grew further through the largess of Willard S. Morse, who gave over 100 pen and ink drawings between 1915 and 1919. From 1912 to 1922, the WSFA lacked a permanent home, holding annual exhibitions at the Hotel duPont. In 1922, it rented three rooms in the New Library Building on the corner of 10th and Market Streets in downtown Wilmington.

The museum's trajectory changed dramatically in 1931 when the estate of Samuel Bancroft offered to donate a Pre-Raphaelite collection and 11 acres of land. Despite the Great Depression, the WSFA raised $350,000 for a new building designed by architects Victorine and Samuel Homsey with associate architect G. Morris Whiteside II. The Delaware Art Center opened in June 1938, and the Wilmington Academy of Fine Arts ran educational programs on the ground floor. World War II gas rationing drastically reduced attendance, and the Academy disbanded in 1943, turning its assets over to form the basis of the museum's education department, which grew to more than 500 students by 1954.

Postwar growth necessitated expansion in 1956, funded by a $300,000 donation from H. Fletcher Brown for studios and training facilities. A 1970 renovation added air conditioning and humidity control. Accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums came in 1972, prompting the name change to Delaware Art Museum to reflect the institution's growing strength. A 1987 expansion doubled the museum's size. The most ambitious expansion came in 2005, financed by a $24.8 million loan in tax-exempt bonds to be repaid by 2037, part of a $32.5 million project that doubled the building's size under the direction of architect Ann M. Beha. During construction, programming moved to what is now the Chase Center on the Riverfront. The 2008 financial crisis devastated the museum's finances: its endowment dropped from $33 million to $21 million, forcing the sale of $30 million worth of art to repay loans and bolster the endowment, a move that brought sanctions from the Association of Art Museum Directors.

The Delaware Art Museum's collections are predominantly drawn from late 19th- and early 20th-century American illustration and from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The basis of the collections rests on the works of Howard Pyle and his pupils, including N.C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, and Stanley Arthurs. Since the 1970s, the museum has broadened its holdings to include modern and contemporary artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Robert Motherwell, George Segal, and Jim Dine. Helen Farr Sloan, wife of artist John French Sloan, began donations in 1961 that eventually totalled 5,000 objects, making the museum one of the most comprehensive repositories of Sloan's work. The collection encompasses 19th-century American art, American illustration, and significant holdings in modern and contemporary directions.

The Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Pre-Raphaelite Collection stands as the museum's international treasure, featuring works by Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burn consultations reveal Burne-Jones, Julia Margaret Cameron, Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Albert Joseph Moore, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Frederick Sandys, Elizabeth Siddal, Simeon Solomon, Marie Spartali Stillman, and George Frederic Watts. Specific Pre-Raphaelite works include The Council Chamber by Burne-Jones, La bella mano by Rossetti, and The Waterfall by Millais. The French Wikipedia also notes Trouvée by Rossetti, Marie-Madeleine by Sandys, Lady Lilith by Rossetti, Veronica Veronese by Rossetti, and Mnemosyne by Rossetti.

In American illustration, the museum holds Pyle's The Mermaid, Marooned, and Néron tenant une lyre en or avec Rome en flammes, along with works by his students including Maxfield Parrish and Frank Schoonover. Other significant illustrators represented include Charles Dana Gibson, Elizabeth Shippen Green, John Held Jr., J.C. Leyendecker, and Thomas Nast.

The John French Sloan holdings include Wet Night, Washington Square, and Spring Rain. Nineteenth-century American art features Jefferson David Chalfant, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Dewing, Winslow Homer, George Inness, Raphaelle Peale, Severin Roesen, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and John Henry Twachtman. The modern collection extends to Edward Hopper, including Summertime from 1943, Isabel Bishop, Charles Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth, and Norman Lewis, with postwar additions by Robert Motherwell and Louise Nevelson.

The museum's original building, the Delaware Art Center, opened in June 1938 on land donated by the Bancroft estate. Designed by Victorine and Samuel Homsey with G. Morris Whiteside II as associate architect, it was expanded in 1956 with the H. Fletcher Brown wing adding studios and training facilities. A 1970 renovation introduced climate control, and a 1987 expansion effectively doubled the museum's size. The 2005 renovation and expansion, led by architect Ann M. Beha, renovated the original building and added three new exhibition wings. The museum grounds include a 9-acre Sculpture Park. Additional facilities encompass the Helen Farr Sloan Library and Archives, studio art classes, a children's learning area, a cafe, and a museum store.

The Delaware Art Museum is located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware. It operates as a private nonprofit institution, having evolved from the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts through the Delaware Art Center to its present name in 1972. The museum maintains an active exhibition program with several changing exhibitions annually, addressing diverse themes from marketing posters to design, from John Sloan retrospectives to African American artists and Delaware art. Its present role combines permanent collection display with educational programming rooted in the Wilmington Academy of Fine Arts legacy, studio classes, and public engagement through its library, archives, and Sculpture Park.