Poetry in Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelite Art of Marie Spartali Stillman Exhibit at Delaware Art Museum (US)

Delaware Art Museum exhibit entry room

I will be attending the only U.S. museum exhibit for one of the most forgotten and possibly still unknown female artists of the nineteenth-century, Marie Spartali Stillman (1844–1927). Some museum exhibit details:  Poetry in Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelite Art of Marie Spartali Stillman runs from November 7,2015 - January 31,2016,Delaware Art Museum, located in Wilmington, Delaware. It is about two anda half hours outside of New York City by public transportation. Just to give you an idea of the location.  

 Marie Stillman (nee Spartali) by unknown photographer, snapshot print, circa 1921, NPG

Marie Spartali Stillman (1844–1927) was one of a small number of professional female artists working in the second half of the 19th century. She was an important presence in the Victorian art world of her time and closely affiliated with members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Poetry in Beauty, the first retrospective of Spartali Stillman’s work, will showcase approximately 50 works by the artist. Spartali Stillman’s style reflects her British Pre-Raphaelite training as well as the influence of Renaissance art, derived from the many years she lived and worked in Italy. Works from public and private collections in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, many of which have not been exhibited since Spartali Stillman’s lifetime, will also be on view.

 Marie Stillman (nee Spartali) by unknown photographer, snapshot print, undated, NPG

Poetry in Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelite Art of Marie Spartali Stillman is co-curated by Margaretta Frederick, Chief Curator and Annette Woolard-Provine Curator of the Delaware Art Museum’s Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art, and Pre-Raphaelite scholar Jan Marsh. The Delaware Art Museum is the only United States venue for this landmark exhibition. It will travel, in reduced format, to the Watts Gallery, Compton, Guildford, England, where it will be on view March 1 – June 5, 2016. (Delaware Art Museum)

 

If you would like to learn about the life of Marie Spartali Stillman then I highly recommend the book above, 'A Pre-Raphaelite Marriage' by David B. Elliott.  Also, you can read one of my earlier articles, Marie Spartali Stillman

SOME OF MARIE'S BEAUTIFUL PAINTINGS

Kelmscott Manor: Feeding Doves in Kitchen Yard,1904. Marie Spartali Stillman (1844–1927). Watercolor and gouache on paper, 13 1/2 × 20 1/2 inches. Society of Antiquaries of London (Kelmscott Manor).

 The Pilgrim Folk, 1914. Marie Spartali Stillman (1844 1927). Watercolor and gouache on paper, 22 3/8 x 27 11/16 inches. Delaware Art Museum

 Love's Messenger, 1885. Marie Spartali Stillman (1844 1927). Watercolor, tempera, and gold paint on paper mounted on wood, 32 x 26 inches. Delaware Art Museum

 Beatrice, 1896. Marie Spartali Stillman (1844 1927). Watercolor and gouache on paper, 22 11/16 x 17 inches. Delaware Art Museum

 For a direct link to the exhibit itself, Delaware Art Museum

UPCOMING DELAWARE ART MUSEUM LECTURE:  I will be attending this event which strangely enough takes place on my birthday, January 21, 2016 and is Julia Margaret Cameron themed:  The Image of a Woman Artist: Julia Margaret Cameron’s Photographs of Marie Spartali Stillman, 6:30-7:30pm. 

In the 1860s, Marie Spartali Stillman was a popular model for Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other Pre-Raphaelite painters. When Spartali posed for photographer Julia Margaret Cameron in 1868, she was just beginning to receive public recognition as a painter in her own right. Joanne Lukitsh, Massachusetts College of Art and Design Professor of the History of Art, will examine Cameron’s photographs of Spartali as a young female artist of the Victorian period.

Portrait of Marie Spartali by Julia Margaret Cameron, Albumen Print, 1870, Swann Galleries, New York.