This installation sheds light on the surprising and complicated history of British art, bringing into focus the people and cultures that produced these artworks. From the sixteenth century to the present, Britain has attracted artists from all over the world, with their outputs as diverse as their origins. Many artists traveled or migrated to India, the Caribbean, and beyond. Individual and family portraits uncover the systems of class, gender, and race that undergirded societies around the globe and privileged the wealthy and influential. Other works depict landscapes, seascapes, manor houses, and cathedrals, often offering a record of industrialization of an agrarian world. Allegorical, historical, and religious subjects further enrich our understanding of the expansive culture of a changing nation.
Many highlights from the Paul Mellon Collection including Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames—Morning after a Stormy Night by John Constable, Lion and Lioness by George Stubbs, and The Island of Barbados, attributed to Isaac Sailmaker, find new resonance with several recent acquisitions—such as Emma Soyer’s Young Mariner and Dog, Thomas Beach’s Four Servants of Ston Easton Estate, and Albert Huie’s Benjamin Dorrell. This display reflects not only the individual creators of these objects, but also the societies that shaped them.
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Visitors in the Long Gallery, Yale Center for British Art, photo by Richard Caspole
