 | According to this detail of the 17th-century map, there is an easy route to China from within the Virginia region. |
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the Yale Center for British Art has purchased three major art works in honor of its founder, Paul Mellon '29.
The new acquisitions are an early 17th-century map of North America, Paul Sandby's 1794 watercolor "Whatman's Turkey Mill in Kent" and a full-length family portrait by Thomas Hudson called "The Thistlethwayte Family."
The works represent the center's major collections -- Rare Books and Manuscripts, Prints and Drawings, and Paintings and Sculpture -- and also reflect the late Paul Mellon's own personal collecting interests.
The newly acquired map depicts all of North America and shows an immense body of water just beyond the Appalachians. It was probably drawn sometime in the late 1630s in London by a member of the Thames School of chartmakers, according to curators, and was likely prepared in conjunction with a proposal to establish a permanent colony in "Carolana" -- the name used in England for the region south of Virginia prior to 1663. The map helped promote the idea that a successful colony in "Carolana" would have access to ports on the western sea (called here "The South Sea") and thus to trade with China and the Far East.
The new acquisition is one of a number of unique maps in the collections of the Yale Center for British Art. The center also has the earliest surviving manuscript map showing Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation, which is believed to date from 1587 and to have belonged to Queen Elizabeth. This map, drawn in watercolor on parchment, was part of Mellon's original collection and came to the center when it first opened.
The center's collection also includes a map detailing the southeastern part of North America -- likely the earliest detailed map of the southern frontier. It was given to the center by Alexander Vietor, the former curator of the Map Collection at Yale, in honor of Mellon. Mellon wrote Vietor saying that news of the gift "gladdened my heart and made me glow with gratitude and enthusiasm!"
"Turkey Mill in Kent" by Paul Sandby
In 1794, the papermaker James Whatman the Younger commissioned Paul Sandby, the royal academician and one of Britain's foremost watercolor painters, to record his home and his celebrated paper mill in Kent. Sandby painted his portrait of the house and mill in opaque watercolors, or gouache, on a large sheet of "Whatman" paper. The "Whatman" watermark is visible in the upper left corner of the sheet.
An important document on the rise of industry in the British countryside, Sandby's painting also is an example of the intertwined developments of papermaking and of the art of painting in watercolor, according to curators.
The Turkey Court paper mill on the River Len near Maidstone, Kent, was acquired by James Whatman the Elder through marriage in 1740. Under his management, the mill became the largest in the country, and Whatman paper gained an international reputation. Shortly before his death in 1759, the elder Whatman devised a new form of paper mould that produced a sheet of paper unmarked by the laid and chain lines of traditional paper moulds. This "woven" paper played an important role in the development of watercolor painting in Britain and continued to be refined by his son and successor.
In 1782, the younger Whatman purchased the house and estate of Vinter above the mill, rebuilding the house. Following a paralyzing stroke in 1790, Whatman sold the mill in 1794, the year in which Sandby painted his view. The Whatman family stayed in Vinter, and the mill, under new ownership, continued to produce Whatman paper. Many masterpieces of Romantic watercolor painting of the early 19th century are on paper bearing the watermark "J. Whatman/Turkey Mill."
Sandby's painting of Vinter and Turkey Mill will be the focus of an exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art in 2005. The exhibition will examine the place of the painting within the work of Sandby, who has been known since his death as "the father of modern landscape painting in water-colors."
"The Thistlethwayte Family" by Thomas Hudson
Thomas Hudson's full-length portrait depicts Alexander Thistlethwayte, his wife Sarah and their two daughters, Catharine and Anne.
The son of a Hampshire gentleman, Thistlethwayte attended Wadham College at Oxford University and went on to become a member of Parliament for Hampshire from 1754 until 1761. He was deputy council lieutenant for Hampshire in 1762.
The Thistlethwayte portrait likely hung in the family's home in Southwick Place, Hampshire, according to curators, and may have been commissioned to celebrate Catharine's future marriage to Thomas Milbourne.
Hudson's painting is an addition to the center's collection of family and group portraits, commonly called "conversation pieces." However, unlike many other conversation pieces, Hudson's painting is life-size. Considered one of the artist's masterpieces, the portrait fuses the formal traditions of "Grand Manner" portraiture, as set out by Van Dyck in the 17th century, with the more informal, intimate portrait that became popular in England in the 18th century.
"The Thistlethwayte Family" is a particularly appropriate acquisition in celebration of the center's 25th anniversary for many reasons, according to curators. Foremost among these is stylistic evidence indicating that Joseph Wright of Derby -- one of Mellon's most beloved artists -- had a hand in painting the flower basket and some of the draperies in the painting while he was an apprentice in Hudson's studio.
T H I S
British Art Center acquisitions
honor its founding 25 years ago
Manuscript map of North America
'Turkey Mill in Kent'
'The Thistlethwayte Family'
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YSN researcher to head state's VA Department
International festival returns June 12-28
Edelson named director of Yale Cancer Center
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Pierre Hohenberg named to Eugene Higgins chair in physics
Dieter Söll is designated as Henry Ford II Professor in MB&B
Alumnus donates first novel by an African-American slave
Reunion events to explore world's public health crises
British Art Center acquisitions honor its founding 25 years ago
'Behold, the Sea Itself' showcases center's collection of marine art
Graduate/Professional International Study Grants
YCIAS offers Summer Institutes for educators
Corrections
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