The Gateway to British Art Prize is a program offered by the Yale Center for British Art in partnership with CT State Community College Gateway (formerly Gateway Community College) that encourages students across academic disciplines to select one artwork from the museum's collection and to write about it in a thoughtful, persuasive way. Their essays offer fresh interpretations and deeply personal perspectives on familiar works.
First place: Kaylee Latta
Latta draws from her childhood experiences to interpret George Romney's painting Anne Wilson and Her Daughter, Sybill (between 1776 and 1777).
George Romney, Anne Wilson and Her Daughter, Sybill, detail, between 1776 and 1777, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Second place: Aryana Jones-Davis
Jones-Davis delights in the floral details and lavish brushwork of Frederic Leighton's portrait Ellinor Guthrie (née Stirling) (1865).
Frederic Leighton, Ellinor Guthrie (née Stirling), detail, 1865, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Runner-up: Wing Ching Ivy Lo
For recent immigrant Lo, Joseph Mallord William Turner's Dort or Dordrecht: The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed (1818) conveys the feeling of hope.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Dort or Dordrecht: The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed, detail, 1818, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Runner-up: Camila Caffarena
Caffarena imagines where she might place herself within the captivating landscape of Joseph Mallord William Turner's Harlech Castle, from Tygwyn Ferry, Summer's Evening Twilight (1799).
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Harlech Castle, from Tygwyn Ferry, Summer's Evening Twilight, 1799, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Return to the Gateway to British Art Prize page.