In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30)Art in Focus : Women at Yale (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-04-08 - 2020-08-30)Pre-Raphaelite Sisters (National Portrait Gallery, 2019-10-01 - 2020-01-01)The Black Figure in the European Imaginary (Cornell Fine Arts Museum, 2017-01-20 - 2017-05-15)Figuring Women - The Female in Modern British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-03-28 - 2008-06-08)Black Victorians - Black People in British Art 1800-1900 (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 2006-01-28 - 2006-04-01)Black Victorians - Black People in British Art 1800-1900 (Manchester City Galleries, 2005-10-15 - 2006-01-15)Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 1998-03-07 - 1998-05-17)Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists (Southampton City Art Gallery, 1998-05-30 - 1998-08-02)
Publications:
Alayo Akinkugbe, "Black muses: who are these neglected sitters?", ArtUK, 25 Aug 2020, https://artuk.org/discover/stories/black-muses-who-are-these-neglected-sittersSusan P. Casteras, A Struggle for Fame: Victorian women artists and authors, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1994, p. 52, pl. 5, N6796 C27 1994 (YCBA)Adrienne L. Childs, Imagining Blacks in European art, Fine Art Connoisseur, 14 issue 2, Streamline, Boca Raton, Fla, p. 79, V 2837 (YCBA)Adrienne L. Childs, The Black Figure in the European Imaginary, London; Winter Park, FL, 2017, p. 66, pl. 21, N8232 +C59 2017 Oversize (YCBA)Matthew Hargraves, "Yale Center for British Art joins Art UK", ArtUK, 24 June 2019, https://artuk.org/discover/stories/yale-center-for-british-art-joins-art-ukJan Marsh, Not Simply a Case of Princely Male Genius and Passive Cinerellas, Apollo, 190, London, November 2019, p. 30, N1 A54 (LC) Oversize (YCBA)Jan Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, National Portrait Gallery Publications, London, England, p. 103, N6767.5.P7 M37 2019 (LC) Oversize (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Allen Staley, The New Painting of the 1860s, between the pre-raphaelites and the aesthetic movement , Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 2011, pp. 92-93, 121, fig. 81, ND467 .S72 2011 Oversize (YCBA)Diane Waggoner, The Pre-Raphaelite lens, British photography and painting, 1848-1875 , National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Farnham, Surrey [England], 2009, p. 139, fig. 7, N72 P5 W34 2010 + (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
A painter as well as an art critic, Wells was highly regarded among her peers, even receiving praise from writer John Ruskin, but died young, soon after the birth of her third child. She made this preparatory study of Eaton as the ancient Syrian Queen Zenobia in anticipation of painting a large historical scene. Dressed in a luxurious silk shawl and wearing a glinting pearl earring, Eaton is the picture of regal poise and opulent wealth, though in life she sat for many Pre-Raphaelite artists to supplement her income as a domestic worker. Having migrated from Jamaica to London, she married James Eaton, a horse-cab driver with whom she had ten children. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025