Pyle and the Pre-Raphaelites

Delaware Art Museum

Sep 5, 2026  -  Jan 24, 2027

Pyle and the Pre-Raphaelites brings together two of the Museum’s signature collections: the founding collection of work by American illustrator Howard Pyle and Samuel Bancroft’s collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art. There has long been speculation on whether there was a relationship between Pyle and Bancroft, and whether the artist influenced the collector’s interests or vice versa. Beyond knowing that the men were relatives by marriage, little was known about the extent to which they were connected. New research reveals the men were far more intertwined than previously recognized and that Pyle was inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites before Bancroft began acquiring their work in 1890.

This exhibition will highlight Pyle’s illustrations for stories set in the Medieval and Early Renaissance eras, including Arthurian tales of the Knights of the Round Table. These will be displayed alongside works by Pre-Raphaelite artists and their followers, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and William Morris. These groupings will articulate the extent to which Pyle was inspired by Pre-Raphaelite compositions he encountered in his early career as well as in Bancroft’s collection. Additionally, this show will demonstrate how the artist’s exposure to original works of Pre-Raphaelite art shaped the birth and flourishing of American illustration.

Pyle and the Pre-Raphaelites is curated by Katherine Feldkamp, Curatorial Associate.

IMAGES

Until Her Death created by British Pre-Raphaelite artist Frederick Sandys in 1862. [

Details

Artist: Frederick Sandys (1829–1904)
Date: 1862
Medium: Wood engraving / pen and ink

Study for the Woodblock for the Moxon Tennyson of Lancelot and the Lady of Shalott, created by Dante Gabriel Rossetti between 1856 and 1857. 

Water Willow,  1871 oil painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Cupid's Hunting Fields, a low-relief painting created around 1880–1882 by the British Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. [1, 2]

Artwork Details

Artist: Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–1898)
Date: 1880–1881 / 1882
Medium: Oil and gold paint on gesso relief on a mahogany panel
Location: Housed at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington,

A Damsel bringeth aid unto Sir Ewaine created by American illustrator Howard Pyle in 1907

So for a Heart-beat She Saw Him, an oil painting created in 1905 by the American illustrator and artist Howard Pyle

"Katharine Le Bayard from Howard Pyle" dated 1908 (with initials K.P. in the bottom right corner, likely by Howard Pyle or his sister and frequent collaborator Katharine Pyle

Howard Pyle titled A great, ugly, poisonous snake crept out of a hole in the wall, created for the story "[The Three Fortunes]" published in Harper's Young People. [1, 2]

Artwork Details

Artist: Howard Pyle (1853–1911)
Medium: Ink on illustration board
Date: June 26, 1888

"Away they rode with clashing hoofs and ringing armor" by the American artist and author Howard Pyle, created in 1888 for his historical novel Otto of the Silver

Headpiece for Love and Death
Artist: Howard Pyle (American, 1853–1911)
Medium: Ink on illustration board
Date: 1897
Original Publication: Created for "Love and Death" in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (March 1897)
Location of Original: Delaware Art Museum