Yale Center For British Art Museum Experience

Amanda and I visited the Yale Center for British Art last week, and I'd have to say it was a great experience in which we enjoyed everything they had to offer. "Yale Center for British Art 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‚ life‚ and thought from the Elizabethan period onward. The Center’s collection of approximately 1,900 paintings and 100 sculptures vividly narrates the story of British art, life, and culture since the end of the Middle Ages. Particularly strong in the period from the birth of William Hogarth (1697) to the death of J. M. W. Turner (1851), the collection reflects the tastes and interests of its founder, the late Paul Mellon.
Among the artists best represented are William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, George Stubbs, Joseph Wright of Derby, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner. The Center’s collection ranges from a late-fifteenth-century Nottingham alabaster to paintings and sculpture by such twentieth-century artists as Stanley Spencer, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, and, most recently, Rachel Whiteread and Damien Hirst.
The story of British art is by no means confined to artists born in the British Isles. Major figures from continental Europe and America painted for British patrons or spent periods of their careers in Britain. The Center offers a year-round schedule of exhibitions and educational programs‚ including films‚ concerts‚ lectures‚ tours‚ and special events. It also provides numerous opportunities for scholarly research‚ such as residential fellowships. "(The YCBA Website).
Here are some paintings that were my favorite of the museums collection:


"A Phaeton with a Pair of Cream Ponies in the Charge of a Stable-Lad"- George Stubbs, 1724-1806
Wax and resin on oak panel, ca 1780-85.
"Light, equipped with good wrought-iron suspension, and very fast, the "crane-neck" or "highflyer" phaeton was a stylish type of two-seat carriage popular among ladies, especially. The mythological name was borrowed from Phaeton, son of Zeus, who hurdled across the heavens in his chariot. The introspective mood of the stable-lad is beautifully offset by the playfulness of the dog at his feet." (YCBA). I love the environment portrayed around this scene. The color scheme used is very calming and easy on the eyes.


"The Sense of Hearing"-Philip Mercier, 1689-1760. Oil on Canvas, Ca. 1744-47
"The scores on the harpsichord are marked "Hendel Operas" and "Geminiani's Sonates. In the 1740s, both Georg Friedrich Handel and the Italian violinist and composer Francesco Geminiani were living in London. As a foreign artist striving for success in the British art world, Mercier may well have chosen these musical names t make the point that if other foreigners in Britain could take the lead in music, why should not well-connected foreign painters, such as he, take the lead in art?" (YCBA). The group of ladies are presumably performing a Geminiani trio sonata. I like how each lady is playing a different instrument, a bassist, flutist, violinist, and cellist. Everyone connected together musically. Beautiful scene portrayed.


"Mary Little, Later Lady Carr"- Thomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788. Oil on cava, CA. 1763
"This portrait was probably commissioned to mark the wedding of Mary Little to the successful London mercer of Ludgate Hill Robert Carr, who in 1777 was granted the form of hereditary knighthood known as a "baronetcy." Gainsborough, whose father was a weaver and whose sisters were milliners, revels in the description of his sitter's sacque or robe a la francaise, a fashionable style of cress with sumptuous panels sewn into the shoulders that, descending, formed a kind of train. The feathery rendering of the various fabrics and textures-especially the expensive, glossy, pink silk taffeta, which was known as "lute-string" or lustring- was especially appropriate since the sitters new husband was a fabric merchant, highly dependent in his business dealing upon the deman for new silks, lace, and other profitable trends in Georgian fashion." (YCBA). I just love the beautiful pink dress she is wearing. The way the linen is painted is with extrordinary flowing detail. You can practically know what the rendered cloth feels like just by staring into its composition.


"The Brown Family"- Francis Wheatley, 1747-1801. Oil on canvas, CA. 1778
"Francis Wheatley's distinctive style of painting the human figure, at once doll-like and realistically expressive, is on display in this portrait. He structured the portrait around a moment of suspended action, in which Mary Browne, the matriarch, catches a fish. Her son George leans over and delicately unhooks the prize. One of the younger girls, distracted from her father's drawing, toddles toward the lake. The decorous middle-clas leisure of the Browne family is contrasted with the thatched cottage in the distance. This humble dwelling suggests picturesque rural poverty, a subject that would occupy much of Wheatly's focus later in his career." (YCBA). I love how the sky and lake are beautifully rendered descending off into the background of the scene.


"The Education of Achilles"- James Barry, 1741-1806. Oil on Canvas, CA, 1772
"Beside a veiled herm inscribed in Greek with enigmatic message:"all things:one and in one," the wise and leared centaur Chiron initiates Achilles into the mysterious art ( represented by the lyre). Mathematics (the Euclidean diagram traced on the ground) and war ( the spear and shield). He points to the spear, and the shadow of his hand points to the greek inscription and Achilles, an omen of the young warrior's death in battle."(YCBA). This painting is very mysterious in nature. The setting is in the gloomy woods. You ask a lot of questions when looking at this painting. The centaur is dominating with crucial knowledge.


"Vesuvius from Posillipo"- Joseph Wright Of Derby, 1734-1797. Oil on Panel, CA. 1788
This painting is described in the artist's account book as "A picture of a distance View of Vesuvius from the shore of Posillipo. "Wright first visited Naples years earlier, in 17774-75, and made the bulk of his sketches of Vesuvius then. Eventually he produced in England about twenty-seven paintings in which he captured those remarkable effects of light, color, and atmosphere. The view is taken from the cape of Posillipo, looking west across the Bay of Naples." (YCBA). The city seems to be obscured by the high bluff of pink and blue. This painting immediately caught my eye due to the pastels used to create the atmosphere. Your eye is brought straight into the skyscape. I love the pink sunsetting sky and the bright moon beaming above the gleaming sea.


"Inverary Pier, Loch Shira: Morning" - J. M. W. Turner. Oil on Canvas, CA. 1845
"This is one of the roughed-out beginnings of paintings that Turner kept in his studio and worked up to a higher degree of detail, is and when he decided to exhibit them. Inverary Pier belongs ti a group of nine views that were based on Turner's much earlier set of mezzotint engravings, the Liber Studiorum (1804-19). Inverary stands on the western shore of Loch Shira in the Scottish Highlands. The view is looking east toward the morning sun."(YCBA) I love how the style of this painting is not exactly a clear view, rather a foggy window look into the open environment. The pastel colors used, make this painting soft and airy in nature. There are no line anywhere on the canvas, everything is painted so smoothly blending into one another.


"Sandown Bay, From Near Shanklin Chine, Isle of Wright" - John Glover, 1767-1849. Oil on Canvas, CA. 1827
"John Glover, who was a major figure in the Regency art world, traveled on horseback throughout Britain in search of picturesque views. The Isle of Wright had been explored from the 1790s by , among others, J. M. W. Turner and Glover's friends, the watercolorists George Barrett and Peter de Wint. Portrayed in this painting, the rugged cliff-top, a vntage point for ramblers; the empty drop to the beach; the impressive effects in the lowering sky; and the puny insignificance of the human activity below it- all con-form to the general pattern of sublime- romantic view painting." (YCBA). I am a big fan of the focal point of this painting, being the huge open stormy-cloud sky. I love the texture of the stormy dark clouds, fluffy in composition. They're stretching across the sky covering the setting sun, but the sun still seems to slightly peek through beneath and beyond, causing a beautiful sunset colored sky.


"The Deluge"- John Martin, 1789-1854. Oil on canvas, 1834.
"According to the Book of Genesis, mankind showed some wickedness in the generations after Adam that God repented of the whole of Creation and sent down a huge flood, destroying almost every living thing on earth. Martin attempts to capture the divine violence at its most destructive, when all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heaven were opened." The only people to be spared were the righteous Noah and his family, whom God instructed to build an ark. Martin makes this symbol of hope and redemption barely visible, resting on one of the highest rocky ledges near the ominous conjunction of sun, moon, and blood-red comet." (YCBA). I love the red glowing sky portrayed in this paining. It really brings highlight to the intensely rendered violent waves of the sea. Everything is swallowed up in a big whirl of crashing waves. The story behind this is very evident in one glance.


"The Sense of Sight"- Philip Mercier, 1689-1760. Oil on Canvas, CA. 1744-47
"Echoing most closely the composition of "The Sense of Hearing", this scene of three young women and a boy sitting with their tutor beside a parapet in the open air, employs optical accessories to stand for the sense of sight. The gentleman examines with his magnifying glass a map of part of the east coast of spain and the islands of Mallorca and Menorca, perhaps explaining to the girl seated beside him their geographical and political significance to Britain. Over his shoulder, the other two girls peer through a telescope (left) and tilt a small mirror (right), while the boy in the foreground bows his head and refrains from looking at anything." (YCBA). This painting symbolizes the importance of the sense of sight. Everyone in the painting contributes to the symbolization by viewing something different in a intriguing way, causing wonder and provoking thought. The composition is cool and easy on the eyes.


"Gulliver Addressing the Houyhnhnms"- Sawrey Gilpin, 1733-1807. Oil on Canvas, 1769
"Sawrey Gilipin took his equestrian subject from the great satire Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift. In Book IV, Gulliver describes the civilized country of the "Houyhnhnms", who are horses endowed with reason, culture, and institutions of civil government. By its cleanliness, goodness, and gentleness, the land of the Houyhnhnms- their name obviously alludes to the whinnying of horses- provided Swift a convenient contrast with that of the brutish and all too recognizable "beasts in human shape," whom he called "Yahoos." The Houyhnhnms were wary of he Yahoos, treating them as servants, but the Yahoos disgusted Gulliver. This Swift encouraged his readers to form an equally harsh judgement of the morals and behavior of their own species." (YCBA). I like the setting of this painted scene. It's over all painted in a gloomy way with dark colours, but enlightening at the same time. I love how the white horse stands out in the scene, and how he is butting heads with the other brown horse, in a humanistic way.

Here are some other beautiful paintings that grabbed my atention: