The Delaware Art Museum is one of the most impressive, full-service arts institutions in America. And it’s location on the edge of Wilmington’s picturesque Rockford and Brandywine Parks is something any museum in the country would covet. The problem is…the Museum lives in the shadow of 1) the largest museum of American decorative arts in the world as well as 2) America’s premier horticultural center and public garden, not to mention 3) the world’s largest colonial tall ship and 4) the biggest collection of operating Stanley Steamer motorcars on earth – all within a 20 minute drive in the Brandywine Valley!
The Delaware Art Museum has everything a major art museum should have – a couple of unique collections that are world class in both quantity and quality; a well-defined collection focus – great American art from the 19th and 20th centuries; several temporary galleries and display areas that feature changing exhibitions of fine art as well as fine craft in a broad variety of media; impressive outdoor sculpture; an extraordinary art library and archives; one of the best museum shops in the area; an onsite café and coffee bar; and an extensive art education program for students of all ages.
Their two unique collections are the American Illustration collection featuring an extraordinary number of works by Howard Pyle, and the Samuel and Mary Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite art.
There have been two preeminent illustrators in American history – at least from the perspective of public popularity - Norman Rockwell and Howard Pyle. But Norman is tucked away in the inaccessible and increasingly commercial hills of Stockbridge Massachusetts while Howard is IN the middle of it all at the Delaware Art Museum IN WilmINgton, Delaware. In addition to creating literally hundreds of illustrations for books and magazines, some of America’s finest artists studied under Pyle, including N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and Frank Schoonover. And Howard’s legendary contemporary, none other than Vincent van Gogh, once confided to his brother that Pyle’s work "...struck me dumb with admiration." Now that’s a compliment that means something!
If you’re like me, you probably thought that the Pre-Raphaelites are just that - “before Raphael.” That would put them somewhere in the early 15th century, right? And probably in Italy since that’s where Raphael lived and painted? Ah, if art were only that simple. The Pre-Raphaelite “Brotherhood” was founded not in the 15th century but in 1848 and not in Italy but in England, by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and later joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner. Nevertheless, there really is a connection to Raphael...sort of. Apparently, they were all rebelling against what they considered to be the mechanistic and “mannered” style of the artists who succeeded Raphael. Why they waited three centuries to start the rebellion is a question for another day. But the bottom line is the Delaware Art Museum has more than 150 works from the Pre-Raphaelites – the largest collection in the world outside of England.
That’s just the tip of the artberg at the Delaware Art Museum. In Part 2, we’ll meet Winslow Homer, Charles Eakins, Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Jacob Lawrence, Dale Chihuly, Deb Appleby, Delaware by Hand, Starbuck’s Coffee and all of the other people, places and things that make the Delaware Art Museum special.
Art is where you find it, and you find it everywhere in the Brandywine Valley!
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