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April 13, 2007|Volume 35, Number 25


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This painting by George Stubbs, "Pumpkin with a Stable-lad," is the first British painting bought by Paul Mellon. It is featured in the exhibit "Paul Mellon's Legacy."



Exhibit celebrates centennial
of Yale benefactor Paul Mellon

Renowned philanthropist Paul Mellon (1907-1999) was 29 years old when he bought his first British painting, "Pumpkin with a Stable-lad," by George Stubbs, in 1936.

Mellon went on to amass the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom -- one big enough to fill a museum. Thirty years after his first purchase, Mellon decided that he would, in fact, build a museum to house those works and that it would be located at Yale, where he earned a B.A. in 1929.

Now, 30 years after that museum opened its doors, the Yale Center for British Art is paying tribute to its founder and benefactor with an exhibition titled "Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art," which will be on view April 18-July 29.

The exhibition is part of an international celebration of the centennial of the birth of Mellon, who died in 1999. It also demonstrates his unparalleled collecting activity in the field of British art and honors his vision in creating an institution in North America that serves both as a public museum and as a research center within one of the world's most renowned universities.

The collection that Mellon donated to Yale included works both by underappreciated artists such as Stubbs (one of his favorite artists), Arthur Devis and Joseph Wright of Derby and by well-known artists such as William Hogarth, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. London art dealer Geoffrey Agnew once said of Mellon's acquisitions, "It took an American collector to make the English look at their own paintings."

In addition to giving his art collection to Yale, Mellon also provided funds for a building to house the objects and an endowment to support the institution and ensure that public admission would always be free. Mellon once wrote that he hoped the museum and its contents "would attract undergraduate students, advanced scholars, struggling as well as established artists, and lovers of English art in general -- not only for scholastic purposes but for pure enjoyment."

"Pumpkin with a Stable-lad" will be among 250 works from the center's Paul Mellon Collection that will be on view in the Yale exhibition. Some of the featured works are not often seen by the public, including signficant drawings and watercolors by Hogarth, Turner, Thomas Rowlandson and William Blake, as well as rare books, manuscripts, maps and atlases. In addition, important paintings and sculptures from the Paul Mellon Collection will be highlighted throughout the galleries of the center's landmark building, designed by Louis Kahn.

In fact, the centennial celebration will be the first time since the center's opening in 1977 that the entire building has been devoted to the display of the Paul Mellon Collection.

Duncan Robinson, former director of the Yale Center for British Art and current director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, will mark the opening of the exhibition with a talk titled "Paul Mellon: The Galloping Anglophile" on Tuesday, April 17. In addition, Jules Prown, the Paul Mellon Professor Emeritus of the History of Art and founding director of the Yale museum, will speak on "Light and Truth: Louis Kahn's Center for British Art" on Wednesday, May 2; and William S. Reese, president of the William Reese Company antiquarian book firm, will discuss "Paul Mellon as a Book Collector" on Wednesday, May 9. All the talks will take place at 5:30 p.m., and are free and open to the public.

A biographical film titled "Paul Mellon in His Own Words," created by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will be shown at the center from May 25 through the end of July. (See the Calendar of Events at www.yale.edu/calendar for screening dates and times.) The film draws on archival footage of the Mellon family, interviews, speeches and a variety of writings in which Mellon describes his passions, pursuits and such interests as family, art collecting, horses and racing. In addition, the Yale Center for British Art will present an eight-part film series honoring Mellon's love of horse racing during New Haven's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, June 9-23. (Details to be announced.)

"Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art" was co-organized by the Yale Center for British Art and the Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibition was curated by Brian Allen, director of studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London; John Baskett, friend and art adviser to Mellon; and MaryAnne Stevens, acting secretary and senior curator, Royal Academy of London, in collaboration with the Yale museum's curatorial staff. The project has been supported by the Mellon Financial Corporation, with additional funding by Mr. and Mrs. Bart T. Tiernan '68 LL.B. In addition, Christie's is hosting related events in New York and London.

Following the exhibition's premiere at Yale, approximately 150 masterpieces from "Paul Mellon's Legacy," including some of the center's most prized paintings, will travel to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where they will be on view Oct. 20-Jan. 27, 2008.

An exhibition catalogue, co-published by the Yale Center for British Art and the Royal Academy of Arts in association with Yale University Press, will accompany the exhibition.


Other centennial celebrations

The Yale exhibition and related activities are at the hub of an international celebration of the Paul Mellon Centennial. Exhibitions and programs are also planned at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond; the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia; the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; Tate Britain, Lowell Libson Ltd. and Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox in London; the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge; the Bodleian Library at Oxford University; and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Yale Center for British Art, located at 1080 Chapel St., is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. The museum is accessible to individuals using wheelchairs. For further information, call the center at (203) 432-2800 or visit the website at www.yale.edu/ycba.


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Campus Notes


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