It began with a family
The Delaneys
Rev. Samuel Delaney, known as Brother Delaney, was a circuit riding preacher for the Methodist Episcopal churches in Knoxville and Jefferson City. He married Delia Johnson Delaney, a gifted seamstress and quilt maker on April 9, 1885 and the two settled in Knoxville and reared their children at 815 East Vine Avenue. They had ten children: Carabelle, Sterling, Samuel Emery, Percy, Clifford Henry, Ougust Mae, Marion, Beauford, Joseph, and Naomi. Only four children will survive adulthood, Sterling, Samuel Emery, Beauford and Joseph.
LAST REMAINING ANCESTRAL HOME
DELANEY MUSEUM AT BECK
While the Delaney childhood home at 815 Vine Avenue no longer exits due to Urban Renewal, the elder brother, Samuel Emery a Beck founding member, purchased this house that would become the last Delaney family home in Knoxville. The restoration of this historic home will preserve an extraordinary piece of Knoxville history as the future Delaney Museum at Beck.
The Artists
Forever a Shining Light
Beauford Delaney
Knoxville-born artist Beauford Delaney is considered to be among the greatest abstract painters of the 20th century. The artist’s lifelong friend James Baldwin described Delaney’s compositions as a “metamorphosis into freedom” fueled by a painted light that “held the power to illuminate, even to redeem and reconcile and heal.”
A Galloping spirit
Joseph Delaney
The younger brother of Beauford, Joseph Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and was raised in a household governed by his father, a Methodist minister. In 1930, he decided to become a professional artist like his older brother and moved to New York City, where he studied at the Art Students League with Thomas Hart Benton and anatomist George Bridgeman.
