Upcoming exhibitions offer new perspectives on the Pre-Raphaelites

Simeon Solomon: Queer and Jewish in Victorian London

March 13 – June 27, 2027

Simeon Solomon: Queer and Jewish in Victorian London is the first comprehensive U.S. museum exhibition on the British artist Simeon Solomon (1840–1905), the only Jewish artist associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. Solomon used his art to explore his faith, as well as same-sex passion, receiving critical acclaim for his Judaic subjects and exhibiting at prestigious venues throughout England. Following arrests for homosexual crimes in 1873, Solomon was rejected by the art establishment. He lived precariously for his three remaining decades, yet his artistic output remained prolific. His achievements were overshadowed by homophobia and antisemitism, his name subsequently erased from art history.

The exhibition brings together more than 180 works by Solomon—including oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints—from private and public international collections, featuring Jewish, classical, and same-sex and queer subjects. Highlights include Judaic works such as The Mother of Moses (1860), Solomon’s first major success, and A Young Musician Employed in the Temple Service During the Feast of Tabernacles (Hosannah!), (1861); Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene (1864), in which the ancient Greek female poets are depicted as lovers; and The Moon and Sleep (1894), a late work that fuses classical themes with those of queer desire; among many others.

The Delaware Art Museum holds the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art outside of the U.K. and is home to important paintings and drawings by Solomon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais, and others. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition, published by Yale University Press, featuring essays by ten scholars.

Simeon Solomon: Queer and Jewish in Victorian London is organized by Delaware Art Museum and co-curated by Dr. Sophie Lynford, Annette Woolard-Provine Curator of the Bancroft Pre-Raphaelite Collection, Delaware Art Museum; and Dr. Roberto C. Ferrari, Curator of Art Properties, Columbia University, and founder of the Simeon Solomon Research Archive.

Elizabeth Colomba: More than a Muse

February 20 – July 5, 2027

Complementing the Simeon Solomon exhibition, More than a Muse features fifteen paintings and drawings by contemporary artist Elizabeth Colomba (b. 1976, France) that respond to a question that has long preoccupied the artist: who were the women who inspired works of art celebrated as masterpieces? Unnamed and subordinated to the legacies of the men who painted them, these women were not simply muses—they were people. Colomba’s work features women including Jeanne Duval, Margaret Garner, Olga Brown, and Fanny Eaton—who modeled for Solomon and is featured in works such as The Mother of Moses. More than a Muse is an act of restoration, as Colomba recovers presence, agency, and historical imagination through the language of portraiture. More than a Muse is curated by Dr. Sophie Lynford, Annette Woolard-Provine Curator of the Bancroft Pre-Raphaelite Collection, Delaware Art Museum.

Pre-Raphaelite Powerhouse: The Bancroft Bequest

February 13 – August 8, 2027

How did one of the most important collections of British Pre-Raphaelite art outside the United Kingdom come to Wilmington, Delaware? Pre-Raphaelite Powerhouse: The Bancroft Bequest traces the remarkable history of Samuel Bancroft Jr. (1840–1915), a Wilmington textile manufacturer whose encounter with the art of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1880 ignited a lifelong passion for the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Drawn to the movement’s intense color, literary imagination, symbolic richness, and devotion to “truth to nature,” Bancroft assembled an extraordinary group of artworks by Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Ford Madox Brown, Elizabeth Siddal, and their circle. Pre-Raphaelite Powerhouse brings together fifty masterworks, archival documents, and rarely seen personal material from this circle, which illustrate how private passion became public legacy. The exhibition is curated by Rachael DiEleuterio, Librarian and Archivist, Delaware Art Museum and Dr. Sophie Lynford, Annette Woolard-Provine Curator of the Bancroft Pre-Raphaelite Collection.

About the Delaware Art Museum

The Delaware Art Museum is a nationally recognized regional museum that connects people through art and experience. Founded in 1912 to honor illustrator Howard Pyle, the Museum now houses over 13,000 works, including the largest Pre-Raphaelite collection outside the U.K. and a growing contemporary art collection. Its campus features galleries, a six-acre sculpture garden, labyrinth, and event spaces—creating a dynamic center and vibrant cultural resource, offering exhibitions, classes, and community programs that reflect and engage the diverse Delaware community and beyond. Visit delart.org for the latest exhibitions, programs, and performances or connect with us via social media.

Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware 19806. 302-571-9590. delart.org