Forgotten Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood revolutionized British painting traditions. But many more artists worked in their orbit than are often recognized. Overshadowed by famous peers, artists such as Barbara Bodichon, Marie Spartali Stillman, Alice Boyd, and Frederic Shields experimented with Pre-Raphaelite themes, subjects, and techniques. This exhibition brings together over forty works by such overlooked artists affiliated with the Pre-Raphaelite circle, including art by the American Pre-Raphaelites. Women were crucial to the Pre-Raphaelite movement and their work accounts for more than half of the objects on view. By featuring these lesser-known artists, we seek to recover them from the margins of art history and position them at the center of the Pre-Raphaelite narrative.

White Mayde of Avenel, after 1902. Winifred Sandys (1875–1944). Watercolor on vellum, 8 × 6 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935.

Coastal landscape by moonlight, not dated. Alice Boyd (1825–1897). Watercolor over graphite with scratching out, with gouache and lead white, 10 1/16 × 13 15/16 inches. Delaware Art Museum, F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 2022.

Algiers, Cecilia in Pink, c. 1892-1893. George James Howard (1843–1911). Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper, 14 1/2 × 10 5/8 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Acquisition Fund, 2021.

Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 1856. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827–1891). Watercolor and gouache on paper [with scratching out], 28 × 42 1/2 inches. Delaware Art Museum, F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 2016.

Apple Stem, 1878. Frederic James Shields (1833–1911). Graphite, watercolor and gouache on buff paper, 9 × 7 1/2 in. Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935.

Kelmscott Manor, from the Field, not dated. Marie Spartali Stillman (1844–1927). Watercolor and gouache on paper laid on panel, 7 5/16 × 12 3/16 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift in honor of Dr. Danielle Rice from the Delaware Art Museum Board of Trustees, 2013.

November Landscape, 1883. Henry Farrer (1844–1903). Watercolor on paper, 6 5/8 × 10 7/8 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of David A. Hanks in memory of Elizabeth Dixon Hanks, 2003.

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Organizers & Sponsors

This organization is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.