Yale Center for British Art
Encyclopedia
The Yale Center for British Art is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut
at Yale University
which houses the most comprehensive collection of British Art
outside the United Kingdom
. It concentrates on work from the Elizabethan period onward.
The Center was established by a gift from Paul Mellon
of his British art collection to Yale
in 1966, together with an endowment for operations of the Center, and funds for a building to house the works of art. The building was designed by Louis I. Kahn and constructed at the corner of York and Chapel Streets in New Haven, across the street from one of Kahn's earliest buildings, the Yale University Art Gallery
, built in 1953. The Yale Center for British Art was completed, after Kahn's death, in 1974. The exterior is made of matte steel and reflective glass; the interior is of travertine marble, white oak, and Belgian linen.
The Center is affiliated with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
in London
, which sponsors the "Yale-in-London" undergraduate study abroad program, publishes academic titles, and awards grants and fellowships.
's birth (1697) to J. M. W. Turner
's death (1851). Other artists represented include Thomas Gainsborough
, George Stubbs
, Joseph Wright
, John Constable
, Joshua Reynolds
, Thomas Lawrence
, Robert Polhill Bevan, Stanley Spencer
, Barbara Hepworth
, and Ben Nicholson
.
The collection also has works by artists from continental Europe and America who painted for British patrons or otherwise pursued their careers in Britain. These include Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck
, Canaletto
, Johann Zoffany
, John Singleton Copley
, Benjamin West
, and James McNeill Whistler
.
Some areas of emphasis of the collection are small portrait
s, known as "conversation piece
s", including those by Hogarth, Gainsborough, Zoffany and Arthur Devis
; landscape paintings by Gainsborough, Richard Wilson, Constable, Richard Parkes Bonington
and Turner; and British sporting and animal paintings, featuring George Stubbs, John Wootton
, Benjamin Marshall
, and Alfred Munnings
. Other genres include marine paintings, represented by Samuel Scott and Charles Brooking; London cityscapes; travel art from India, scenes of Shakespearean plays, and portraits of actors.
Sculptors represented include Louis-Francois Roubiliac
, Joseph Nollekens
, Francis Chantrey, Jacob Epstein
, and Henry Moore
.
In recent years, emphasis has been placed on the acquisition of works by the so-called Young British Artists
, including In and Out of Love, an important early piece by Damien Hirst
.
The collection of 20,000 drawings and watercolors and 30,000 prints features British sporting art and figure drawings. It includes works by Hogarth, Paul Sandby
, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake
, John Constable, Samuel Palmer
, Richard Parkes Bonington, John Ruskin
, J. M. W. Turner, Walter Sickert
, Duncan Grant
, Paul Nash
, Edward Burra
, Stanley Spencer
, Augustus John
, Gwen John
, and the Pre-Raphaelites.
The Center's collection of rare books and manuscripts has about 30,000 volumes, including maps, atlases, sporting books, and archival material of British artists. It also has some 1,300 leaves originating in illustrated incunabula.
The five-floor Center also houses a reference library, a photo archive, a paper conservation laboratory, a painting conservation laboratory, and a study room. It sponsors such activities as films, lectures, concerts, tours, and other special events.
The Center is open to the public free of charge six days a week, and is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums
program.
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
which houses the most comprehensive collection of British Art
British art
British art could refer to:* Art of the United Kingdom - post 1707* English art* Irish art* Scottish art* Welsh art...
outside the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It concentrates on work from the Elizabethan period onward.
The Center was established by a gift from Paul Mellon
Paul Mellon
Paul Mellon KBE was an American philanthropist, thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder. He is one of only five people ever designated an "Exemplar of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame...
of his British art collection to Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1966, together with an endowment for operations of the Center, and funds for a building to house the works of art. The building was designed by Louis I. Kahn and constructed at the corner of York and Chapel Streets in New Haven, across the street from one of Kahn's earliest buildings, the Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
, built in 1953. The Yale Center for British Art was completed, after Kahn's death, in 1974. The exterior is made of matte steel and reflective glass; the interior is of travertine marble, white oak, and Belgian linen.
The Center is affiliated with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art is a scholarly centre in London devoted to the study of British Art. It was founded in 1970 and opened to the public in 1977, and is endowed by a gift from Paul Mellon. Since 1996, it has been situated at 16 Bedford Square in a Grade I listed building...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, which sponsors the "Yale-in-London" undergraduate study abroad program, publishes academic titles, and awards grants and fellowships.
Collection
The collection consists of nearly 2,000 paintings and 100 sculptures, with an emphasis, reflecting Mellon's interest, in the interval between William HogarthWilliam Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
's birth (1697) to J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
's death (1851). Other artists represented include Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
, George Stubbs
George Stubbs
George Stubbs was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses.-Biography:Stubbs was born in Liverpool, the son of a currier and leather merchant. Information on his life up to age thirty-five is sparse, relying almost entirely on notes made by fellow artist Ozias Humphry towards the...
, Joseph Wright
Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright , styled Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution"....
, John Constable
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
, Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
, Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Lawrence (painter)
Sir Thomas Lawrence RA FRS was a leading English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy.Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his...
, Robert Polhill Bevan, Stanley Spencer
Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer was an English painter. Much of his work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land but in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent most of his life...
, Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism, and with such contemporaries as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo she helped to develop modern art in Britain.-Life and work:Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield,...
, and Ben Nicholson
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder "Ben" Nicholson, OM was a British painter of abstract compositions , landscape and still-life.-Background and Training:...
.
The collection also has works by artists from continental Europe and America who painted for British patrons or otherwise pursued their careers in Britain. These include Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
, Canaletto
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...
, Johann Zoffany
Johann Zoffany
Johan Zoffany, Zoffani or Zauffelij was a German neoclassical painter, active mainly in England...
, John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts, and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects...
, Benjamin West
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
, and James McNeill Whistler
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
.
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s, known as "conversation piece
Conversation piece
Conversation piece is a term for an informal group portrait, especially those painted in Britain in the 18th century, beginning in the 1720s. They are distinguished by their portrayal of the group apparently engaged in genteel conversation or some activity, very often outdoors...
s", including those by Hogarth, Gainsborough, Zoffany and Arthur Devis
Arthur Devis (1712-1787)
Arthur Devis was an English portrait painter, particularly known for the type of portrait now called a conversation piece.Arthur Devis was born in the city of Preston, Lancashire, the eldest son of Anthony Devis...
; landscape paintings by Gainsborough, Richard Wilson, Constable, Richard Parkes Bonington
Richard Parkes Bonington
Richard Parkes Bonington was an English Romantic landscape painter. One of the most influential British artists of his time, the facility of his style was inspired by the old masters, yet was entirely modern in its application.-Life and work:Richard Parkes Bonington was born in the town of Arnold,...
and Turner; and British sporting and animal paintings, featuring George Stubbs, John Wootton
John Wootton
John Wootton was an English painter of sporting subjects, battle scenes and landscapes, and illustrator.-Life:Born in Snitterfield, Warwickshire , he is best remembered as a pioneer in the painting of sporting subjects – together with Peter Tillemans and James Seymour – and was considered the...
, Benjamin Marshall
Benjamin Marshall
Benjamin Marshall was an English sporting and animal painter. He was a follower of George Stubbs and studied under Lemuel Abbott for a short period of time. After 1792, he began painting animals, settling at Newmarket in 1812 near the racetrack. He returned to London in 1825 and died in 1835....
, and Alfred Munnings
Alfred Munnings
Sir Alfred James Munnings KCVO, PRA was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism...
. Other genres include marine paintings, represented by Samuel Scott and Charles Brooking; London cityscapes; travel art from India, scenes of Shakespearean plays, and portraits of actors.
Sculptors represented include Louis-Francois Roubiliac
Louis-François Roubiliac
Louis-François Roubiliac was a French sculptor who worked in England, one of the four most prominent sculptors in London working in the rococo style, "probably the most accomplished sculptor ever to work in England", according to Margaret Whinney.-Works:Roubiliac was largely employed for portrait...
, Joseph Nollekens
Joseph Nollekens
Joseph Nollekens was a sculptor from London generally considered to be the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century. He was also a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768.-Life:...
, Francis Chantrey, Jacob Epstein
Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...
, and Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
.
In recent years, emphasis has been placed on the acquisition of works by the so-called Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
, including In and Out of Love, an important early piece by Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
.
The collection of 20,000 drawings and watercolors and 30,000 prints features British sporting art and figure drawings. It includes works by Hogarth, Paul Sandby
Paul Sandby
Paul Sandby was an English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older brother Thomas, became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768.-Life and work:...
, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, John Constable, Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and produced visionary pastoral paintings.-Early life:...
, Richard Parkes Bonington, John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
, J. M. W. Turner, Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
, Duncan Grant
Duncan Grant
Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...
, Paul Nash
Paul Nash (artist)
Paul Nash was a British landscape painter, surrealist and war artist, as well as a book-illustrator, writer and designer of applied art. He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.-Early life:...
, Edward Burra
Edward Burra
Edward Burra was an English painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, best known for his depictions of the urban underworld, black culture and the Harlem scene of the 1930s....
, Stanley Spencer
Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer was an English painter. Much of his work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land but in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent most of his life...
, Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
, Gwen John
Gwen John
Gwendolen Mary John was a Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. She is noted for her still lifes and for her portraits, especially of anonymous female sitters...
, and the Pre-Raphaelites.
The Center's collection of rare books and manuscripts has about 30,000 volumes, including maps, atlases, sporting books, and archival material of British artists. It also has some 1,300 leaves originating in illustrated incunabula.
The five-floor Center also houses a reference library, a photo archive, a paper conservation laboratory, a painting conservation laboratory, and a study room. It sponsors such activities as films, lectures, concerts, tours, and other special events.
The Center is open to the public free of charge six days a week, and is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums
North American Reciprocal Museums
The North American Reciprocal Museums program is a consortium of museums in the United States, Canada, Bermuda, El Salvador and Mexico which offers benefits to museum membership holders in more than 530 institutions...
program.