thanks to the donation-in-payment system put in
place by the Arts Council
England.
The
Yale Center for British Art
at Yale University in downtown New
Haven, Connecticut, houses the largest and most comprehensive collection
of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection of paintings,
sculpture, drawings, prints, rare books, and manuscripts reflects the
development of British art and culture from the Elizabethan period onward.
The Center was established by a gift from Paul Mellon (Yale
College
Class of 1929) 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, and opened to the public on April 19, 1977. The exterior is made of
matte
steel and reflective glass; the interior is made of travertine marble,
white oak, and Belgian linen. Kahn succeeded in creating intimate galleries
where one can view objects in diffused natural light. He wanted to allow in as
much daylight as possible, with artificial illumination used only on dark days
or in the evening. The building’s design, materials, and sky-lit rooms combine
to provide an environment for the works of art that is simple and dignified.
The Center is affiliated with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in
British Art in London, which awards grants and fellowships, publishes
academic titles, and sponsors Yale’s first credit-granting undergraduate study
abroad program, Yale-in-London.
The collection consists of nearly 2,000 paintings and 200 sculptures,
with an emphasis on the period between William Hogarth's birth (1697) to J.
M. W. Turner's death (1851). Other artists
represented include Thomas
Gainsborough, George
Stubbs, Joseph
Wright, John
Constable, Joshua
173
Reynolds, Thomas Lawrence, Robert Polhill Bevan, Stanley Spencer, Barbara
Hepworth, and Ben Nicholson.
The collection also has works by artists from Europe and North America who
lived and worked in Britain. These include Hans Holbein, 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 group portraits,
known as "conversation pieces", including those by Hogarth, Gainsborough,
Zoffany and Arthur Devis; landscape paintings by Gainsborough,
Richard
Wilson, Constable, Richard Parkes Boningtonand 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.
The collection of 20,000 drawings and watercolors and 31,000 prints features
British sporting art and figure drawings. It includes works by Hogarth, Paul
Sandby, 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 comprises 35,000
volumes, including maps, atlases, sporting books, and archival material of
British
artists.
It
also
has
some
1,300
leaves originating in
illustrated incunabula. The collection also includes a complete set of William
Morris’s Kelmscott Press publications as well as a growing collection of
contemporary artists’ books. The core of the collection of illustrated books is
the material amassed by Major J. R. Abbey‚ one of the first collectors of
British
color-plate books, and includes more than 2‚000 volumes describing
British life‚ customs‚ scenery‚ and travel during the period 1770–1860. The
Center’s collection also contains a significant number of early maps and
atlases.
The four-floor Center offers a year-round schedule of exhibitions and
educational programs, including films, concerts, lectures, tours, symposia, and
family programs. It also provides numerous opportunities for scholarly
research, including residential fellowships. Academic resources of the Center
include the reference library (40,000 volumes) and photo archive,
conservation laboratories, and a study room for
examining works on paper
from the collection.
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.
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