As its chief contribution to Yale’s tercentennial celebrations, the Center brought together about seventy masterpieces of British painting from both public and private collections across the United States. The selection offered a fresh and beautiful account of the history of painting in Britain from the sixteenth century to the present. It included some of the familiar landmarks of British art, along with works of superlative quality that are little known since previous exhibitions and publications on the subject have drawn largely on British collections.
Among the highlights was a group of works from the magnificent British holdings of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. The exhibition traced the history of Anglophile collecting in the States, and the inclusion of painting from the Center’s own collection highlighted the originality and importance of Paul Mellon in this context.
Venues
Yale Center for British Art: September 27–December 30, 2001
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens:
February 3–May 5, 2002
View works from the collection included in this exhibition here.