Visit the galleries this Women’s History Month to view some of the many women artists in the DelArt collections. Follow our suggested tour of 10 favorites, below.
Step into the Pre-Raphaelite galleries. Around the corner in gallery 3, look for a painting by Alice Boyd alongside exquisite jewelry by Arts and Crafts-era designer Phoebe Anna Traquair. In fact, this whole case is devoted to women artists working against the odds in the Victorian era.
Cross the hall and imagine you’re jumping across the pond, into American art gallery 5. Here you’ll find Lila Cabot Perry’s self-portrait. Friend of Mary Cassatt and Claude Monet, Perry led a successful painting career and helped introduce Impressionism in America.
Further on the main floor, Violet Oakley’s actual-sized designs for stained glass windows are highlights of the American Illustration gallery. Oakley’s work is surrounded by that of fellow female Golden Age illustrators.
Over in special exhibition gallery 9, explore the abstract paintings and sculpture of Anna Bogatin Ott, featured in the just-opened solo exhibition, Our Red Planet.
Take the stairs up to gallery 15, and pause in front of Isabel Bishop’s captivating painting, Dante and Virgil in Times Square. Next door, take in the modern art of Loïs Mailou Jones and Beulah Woodard, whose art was influenced by the art of Haiti and Africa.
End your tour in contemporary art gallery 17, where you’ll find the work of women artists still creating today, including Elizabeth Osborne and Angela Fraleigh.
We’re actively collecting more women artists in all areas of the Museum, and we’re working on new exhibitions of women artists planned for 2024 and beyond. Celebrate women artists with us at the Delaware Art Museum this March, and year-round.
Left to right: St. Columba’s Farewell to the White Horse, 1868. Alice Boyd (British painter and draftsman, 1825–1897). Oil on board, 13 7/8 × 19 7/8 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Acquisition Fund, 2011. Pendant: The Song, 1904. Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852–1936). Polychrome enamel and silver foil on copper set in gold, 2 1/8 × 1 7/8 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. H. W. Janson, 1976.
Left to right: Self-Portrait, 1897. Lilla Cabot Perry (1848–1933). Oil on canvas, 38 7/8 × 28 1/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 2016. Hamlet, commissioned 1903. Violet Oakley (1874–1961). Oil on canvas, 75 1/4 x 43 1/2 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of the Violet Oakley Memorial Foundation, 1983. © Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Mars_15L2B, 2021 2022. Anna Bogatin Ott (born 1970). Archival pigment print on aluminum, 12 × 12 inches. Courtesy of the artist. © Anna Bogatin Ott.
Dante and Virgil in Union Square, 1932. Isabel Bishop (1902–1988). Oil on canvas, 27 × 51 3/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of the Friends of Art, 1971. © The Estate of Isabel Bishop. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.
Left to right: Parade de Paysans (Peasants on Parade), 1961. Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998). Oil on canvas, 39 1/4 × 19 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Acquisition Fund, 2018. © Estate of Loïs Mailou Jones. Mask, c. 1935. Beulah Ecton Woodard (1895–1955). Hammered and welded sheet metal with a copper patina, 20 × 12 × 3 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Acquisition Fund, 2017. © Artist or Artist’s Estate. Black Doorway I, 1966. Elizabeth Osborne (born 1936). Oil on canvas with objects, 40 × 49 3/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Louisa du Pont Copeland Memorial Fund and partial gift from Locks Gallery, 2016. © Elizabeth Osborne.