Upcoming: A Visual Puzzle at the Yale Center for British Art
Seeing Double: Portraits, Copies, and Exhibitions in 1820s London
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 24 June — 19 September 2010
John Scarlett Davis, "Interior of the British Institution Gallery" detail 1829 (YCBA)
In 1829, the young artist John Scarlett Davis sought to make a splash on the London art scene with his painting, Interior of the British Institution. An image of an art exhibition, the painting is also an elaborate visual puzzle. Seeing Double: Portraits, Copies and Exhibitions in 1820s London invites viewers to decode this puzzle and in the process explore the relationship between display and replication in early nineteenth-century Britain. Davis’s painting has long been recognized as a valuable record of an early nineteenth-century exhibition venue, representing in miniature works by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, among others. What has less often been recognized is that the figures who chat amiably or stoop to examine canvases are themselves replicas of paintings: Davis copied the figures from pre-existing portraits, notably by Sir Thomas Lawrence. By examining this practice, the exhibition reveals hitherto unknown connections between works in the Center’s collection. Seeing Double has been organized by the Yale Center for British Art and curated by Catherine Roach, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of the History of Art, Cornell University. The organizing curator at the Center is Cassandra Albinson, Associate Curator of Paintings and Sculpture.
Summer Seascapes
28 May — 18 October, 2009
“An Allegory of Empire,” — Benjamin Genocchio, New York Times (26 June 2009)
Samuel Atkins (fl. 1787-1808), "H.M.S. Bounty Setting Sail," pen, ink and watercolor painting (New Haven: YCBA)
A small exhibition of marine paintings and watercolors from the Dutch ‘Golden Age’ and by noted British artists — including scenes of famous naval battles, warships, privateers and historical vessels — is featured in a summer exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art.
Seascapes: Marine Paintings and Watercolors from the U Collection includes works attesting to Great Britain’s maritime capabilities, interest in scientific exploration and imperial expansion. On view through October 18, the exhibition features approximately 20 works from a recent major gift to the Yale Center for British Art that span the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and attest to the visual and cultural significance of the sea in Britain and the Netherlands. The center is the only venue for the exhibition. (more…)
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