American Art, 1757–1960
With works by masters such as Raphaelle Peale, Edward Hopper, and Loïs Mailou Jones, the Delaware Art Museum’s collection of American art spans more than 200 years.
The DelArt galleries feature excellent examples of art from Delaware and the Brandywine Valley, including paintings by Edward Loper and Andrew Wyeth. Almost all the paintings in our gallery of 19th-century portraiture were produced within 50 miles of the Museum, and local landscapes are on view throughout the galleries.
Many of the artists in the Museum collection are known for pushing boundaries and exploring realism. John Sloan and The Eight, for example, rejected modes of painting that featured elegant interiors and elite subjects. Instead, Sloan and some of his associates portrayed everyday life in New York. Although this made their work unpopular with many critics and collectors in the early 1900s, The Eight became famous for their rebellious personas and their realist pictures. Thanks to the generosity of his widow, Helen Farr Sloan, the Museum has more than 2,500 of Sloan’s works, as well as his extensive archives, making DelArt a hub for the study of his work.
Some other artists in the American art collection include: Raphaelle Peale, Bass Otis, Thomas Sully, Benjamin West, Robert Street, Frederic Church, Severin Roesen, Russell Smith, Robert Duncanson, John Rogers, F.O.C. Darley, Robert Weir, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Charles Bird King, Edward Moran, Thomas Moran, Alvan Fisher, Thomas Doughty, Asher B. Durand, George Inness, Jefferson David Chalfant, Thomas Dewing, Kenyon Cox, Edwin Blashfield, Thomas Anshutz, Charles Grafly, Clawson Hammitt, Henry Lea Tatnall, John Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, Elihu Vedder, Franklin Dullin Briscoe, Lilla Cabot Perry, Richard Langtry Partington, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Mary Lizzie Macomber, Violet Oakley, Frank B. A. Linton, John Kensett, William Merritt Chase, Lydia Field Emmet, Thomas Eakins, Robert Shaw, Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Maurice Prendergast, George Bellows, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Charles Demuth, Reginald Marsh, Charles Burchfield, Paul Cadmus, Peggy Bacon, Isabel Bishop, Reuben Nakian, Robert Neal, Malvin Gray Johnson, Hughie Lee-Smith, Marguerite Zorach, William Zorach, Walter Pach, Walt Kuhn, Abraham Walkowitz, Abraham S. Baylinson, John Graham, Leonard Nelson, Beauford Delaney, Aaron Douglas, Alexander Archipenko, Beulah Woodard, John Rhoden, Hans Hofmann, Edward Steichen, James A. Porter, Giorgio Cavallon, Norman Lewis, and Robert Motherwell.
Collection Highlights
The Old Violin, 1888, Jefferson David Chalfant (1856–1931), Oil on canvas on board, 40 x 28 1/4 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Louisa du Pont Copeland Memorial Fund, 1940.
Rosamond the Fair, 1915. Mary Lizzie Macomber (1861–1916). Oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Acquisition Fund, 2003.
Trout Fishing, "The Screecher," Lake Rossignol, Nova Scotia, 1919, George Luks (1867–1933), Oil on canvas, 25 1/4 x 30 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Alfred E. Bissell, 1963.
South American Landscape, 1873, Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), Oil on canvas, 31 x 48 1/2 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of the Friends of Art, 1964.
Absalom Jones, 1810, Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825), Oil on paper mounted to board, 30 x 25 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Absalom Jones School, 1971.
Spring Rain, 1912, John Sloan (1871–1951), Oil on canvas, 20 1/4 × 26 1/4 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of John Sloan Memorial Foundation, 1986, © Delaware Art Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 1911, John Sloan (1871–1951), Charcoal, ink, and gouache on board, sheet: 18 7/16 × 14 11/16 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1991, © Delaware Art Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Metropolitan Crowd, 1946, Norman Lewis (1909–1979), Oil on canvas, 17 1/8 × 39 5/8 inches, Delaware Art Museum, Louisa du Pont Copeland Memorial Fund and partial gift of Ouida B. Lewis in memory of Harvey W. Singleton, 1994, © Estate of Norman W. Lewis; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY.
Elfreth's Alley, 1948. Edward Loper Sr. (1916–2011). Oil on canvas, 29 5/8 × 24 5/8 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, 2017. © Estate of Edward Loper Sr.
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
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Take home a piece of Museum magic with this stunning reproduction of John Sloan’s famous painting. 24” x 36”, $15.00
This catalog accompanied the Museum’s hit 2017 exhibition. 155 pp., $50.00
Revisit the Museum’s survey of the Lopers’ artwork with this companion catalog. 75 pp., $33.00
