Collections Overview
The Yale Center for British Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The museum's collections of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, rare books, and manuscripts present the story of British art and culture, and its global contexts, from the fifteenth century to today. Together with the Reference Library and Archives, the collections are an exceptional resource for anyone interested in British art and its histories.
Paul Mellon, Founder
Located in a building designed by architect Louis I. Kahn, the Yale Center for British Art’s collections were the gift of Paul Mellon (1907–1999), a graduate of Yale College (Class of 1929). The particular strength in the collection in the art and books of the long eighteenth century reflect the taste and enthusiasms of Paul Mellon.
The YCBA's Collections
- 2,000 paintings and 250 sculptures from the late medieval to the contemporary
- 20,000 drawings and watercolors, and 35,000 prints giving a comprehensive history of British graphic art
- Over 3,000 photographs in a growing collection from the birth of photography to contemporary practice
- 35,000 rare books and manuscripts from the fifteenth century to the present, including the J. R. Abbey collection of “color-plate” books, sporting material, early maps and atlases, incunables, private press and contemporary artists’ books, and manuscripts covering British artists of all periods
- More than 40,000 reference volumes and a photo archive supporting research in British art and related fields
- 3,000 cubic feet in analog records and 8TB of born-digital records documenting the history of the Yale Center for British Art and its programs, and the personal papers of associated individuals
Britain in the World: A Display of the Collections
In 2016 the third phase of a multiyear building conservation project was completed, allowing visitors to experience a renewed masterpiece of modern architecture by Louis I. Kahn and a reimagined installation of the Yale Center for British Art's collections. Nearly four hundred works, largely the gift of the institution’s founder, Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), and augmented by other gifts, loans, and purchases, are on display in the restored galleries on the fourth and second floor.
The Long Gallery
The Long Gallery was transformed into a teaching and study gallery as originally envisioned by Jules Prown, the YCBA's founding director. Finishes were revived similarly to those found in the main galleries, circulation adjacent to public areas on the fourth floor was improved, and pogo walls, which had previously subdivided the space, were removed, allowing for an unobstructed view of the 140 ft.-long space housing the collection in a floor-to-ceiling salon-style hang.
Preview the Long Gallery guide here.
New light on a portrait of Elihu Yale, his family, and an enslaved child
A curatorial team at the Yale Center for British Art was formed to work on a problematic eighteenth-century group portrait that depicts Yale University’s early benefactor Elihu Yale and an enslaved child of African descent. The goal of this ongoing research project, instigated by Paul Mellon Director Courtney J. Martin, is to make transparent the history of the painting in the museum’s collection and the multiple ways in which it has been explored in the past.