Yale Center for British Art

05/31/2026

As artists travel, their style tends to wander, too.

The Australian-Scottish painter Edward Atkinson Hornel is the creator of the painting pictured here, “The Balcony, Yokohama, 1894,” currently on view in our collection.

Between 1893 and 1894, Hornel spent a year in Japan with his friend and artistic colleague George Henry, whose painting “Blowing Dandelions” is also in our collection. Hornel painted “The Balcony” during the tour, and it shares its simplified forms, vivid colors, and dense compositions with much of the Japanese art from the era.

Pictured:

Edward Atkinson Hornel, The Balcony, Yokohama, 1894, oil on canvas laid down on panel. Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Isabel S. Kurtz in memory of her father, Charles M. Kurtz

05/28/2026

“Finding Our Paths” is now on view in the Schwarzman Center!

Each year, “The View from Here: Accessing Art Through Photography” brings together a group of New Haven students and a Yale School of Art MFA student to explore the medium of photography through mentorship, technical practice, and engagement with the YCBA’s collection. This year’s View from Here students, a talented group of 9 young artists, and their mentor Inkpa Mani Lara-Ruiz have finished up their study together, which ran from fall 2025 to winter 2026.
The artists’ work is now on display in the show “Finding Our Paths.” Inspired by “desire paths,” the informal routes formed when people move through space on their own terms, students created photos that visually chart their daily lives, histories, and communities.

“Finding Our Paths” is on view in our High Street windows and in the Schwarzman Center until December 18, 2026.

Photos by Michael Ipsen ©Yale Center for British Art

05/27/2026

160 Years Ago ✨

This stunning watercolor dated “May 1866” came from the English painter Elijah Walker’s extensive travels in the Alps. Walker, an avid painter of mountain scenes, reveled in the atmospheric effects of alpine air and frequently juxtaposed misty, brightly hued sunsets with harsh, rugged rock faces, as he does here. As the light bounces off the snow, this peak, captured somewhere in northern Italy, seems to shimmer.

Pictured:
____________
Elijah Walton, Sasso di Pelmo as seen from St. Luzia, Tyrol, 1866, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on very thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

05/23/2026

Summer is here!

Whether you’re soaking up the unofficial start of summer outdoors (weather permitting!) or rushing to get your last few emails in before the long weekend, you can enjoy a beach vacation through art.

This painting from 1896, “Ebbing Tide” by James Whitlaw Hamilton, is one of our many beach scenes. Hamilton was a member of the influential Glasgow School, a group of artists and designers who invented their own unique flavor of the internationally booming Art Nouveau style. Through their achievement in painting and design, Hamilton and his colleagues brought a more whimsical, organic, colorful, and decorative flavor to design that reverberated beyond the streets of Glasgow. Here, Hamilton breathes life into his simple, tidal scene with candied-pastel colors, free-and-easy brushstrokes, and a highly textured application of paint.

The YCBA will be open on Saturday (10 am - 5 pm) and Sunday (11 am - 5 pm) and closed on Monday. Make the most of your long weekend and come visit us.

Featured:
James Whitelaw Hamilton, Ebbing Tide, ca. 1896, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Isabel S. Kurtz in memory of her father, Charles M. Kurtz
Beach Sounds c/o Quick Sounds Library (Public domain)
Animation by Samantha Kopkowski c/o YCBA

05/20/2026

We’re thrilled to celebrate the publication of our 300th provenance entry in our online collections database. Provenance is the history of an artwork’s ownership, and in some cases, untangling the many hands a painting like this passes through before it reaches us can​ be as tricky as getting a dog to sit for a portrait!

We would not have reached this milestone had it not been for the hard work of Pilar Forrest, YCBA Postgraduate Research Associate, in collaboration with Dr. Edward Town, Associate Curator, and Emmanuelle Delmas-Glass, Head of Collections Information Access. Pilar's dedication to a dizzying amount of detail-oriented research has made it possible for us to trace the often-obscure ownership histories of this and many other works.

This painting marks our 300th entry—up from 100 just a year ago!—and notably, it’s one of the oldest pictures in our collection. Painted by an unknown artist in 1562, this portrait offers a dignified depiction of Katherine Knollys (née Carey), Lady Knollys. The sitter was Anne Boleyn’s niece and a first cousin to Queen Elizabeth I. Her companion, an unnamed pet, represents one of the first depictions of a pet in British art.

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:182

_________
Pictured:

unknown artist, Katherine Knollys (née Carey), Lady Knollys, 1562, Oil on panel, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1974.3.22

05/18/2026

Congratulations to the Yale University Class of 2026! We hope your years in New Haven brought you moments of wonder and inspiration, whether in a classroom, a gallery, or somewhere unexpected. Wishing you all the very best from all of us at the YCBA!

_________
Pictured: John Constable, "Cloud Study," 1822, oil on paper laid on panel. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

05/14/2026

What does tea have to do with the American Revolution?

Last week at the YCBA, Thinking Through Tea: Art, Resistance, and Global Entanglements in the Age of American Independence brought together scholars and curators to explore how objects—tea, sugar, textiles, silver, and furnishings—shaped everyday experiences of allegiance, resistance, and identity in the age of American independence.

From a live tea ceremony to gallery discussions and roundtables, the symposium reframed the Revolution not just as a political event, but as something lived through daily practices and global exchanges.

These conversations also asked how museums today interpret—and sometimes obscure—these complex histories.

Thank you to all of our speakers, and to our collaborators, the Lunder Institute for American Art.

Learn more: https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/thinking-through-tea

Image ©Yale Center for British Art. Photo: Michael Ipsen

Colby College Museum of Art

05/14/2026

This Saturday, May 14, at 10:30 am, the YCBA invites early learners and their families for an engaging 30-minute storytime in our galleries, featuring books that highlight themes and ideas in our exhibitions. The program is recommended for ages 3 to 5 years old, but all are welcome!

Join us for readings of “In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden” and “The Frog Wore Red Suspenders” by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Petra Mathers, and “Big is Big (and Little, Little)” by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Bob Barner. This selection of stories was inspired by works of art in our exhibition “Going Modern.” We look forward to sharing these stories with you!

https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/story-time-3

Pictured:
__________
Jacques-Laurent Agasse, 1767–1849, Lord Rivers’s Stud Farm, Stratfield Saye, 1807, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.740.

05/13/2026

Oh Shakespeare, “Is there anyone better?”

Cassie's rousing monologue from "Antony and Cleopatra" might have been a surprising pull on this week's episode of "Euphoria," but if you know a bit about the Bard, then you know his work can be just as exciting as HBO’s high-stakes, high-fashion drama. In fact, Sydney Sweeny's rendition of the monologue from act 5, scene 2 (as Cassie Howard, as Cleopatra), may foreshadow her character's fate. In the snippet, Cleopatra refuses the indignities of capture following Antony's defeat, not unlike Cassie's defiant turn against Nate's increasingly problematic debt.

This vibrant sketch of Shakespeare's Cleopatra comes from our Edgar Hockley collection. Hockley was a wood engraver by trade, and he didn't have a clear tie to show business, but he left behind many vivid renderings of costumes, sets, and characters from the stage. It's unknown if Hockley himself, or an assistant, actually produced these pictures, but they reflect an interest in vibrant colors, sharp details, and elaborate outfits — more common ground with "Euphoria"!

The Hockley collection is held in the YCBA Archives, and available in the YCBA Study Room. Visit our website to learn more.

Pictured:
--------------
Antony and Cleopatra: drawing of Cleopatra standing in front of her throne (detail), circa 1886-1897.

05/10/2026