Yale Center for British Art Visit #1

Yale Center For British Art

            Again I am going to the museum with Dave; together we walked in the misty overcast streets to the Center for British Art. Upon entering the atrium, I was surprised by how large and barren the room was. The ceiling went up several stories but nothing was on the walls the only things to be seen were two statures. After we lingered at the two statues for a bit, we ascended the stairs to the fourth floor.

            “The Yale Center for British Art is a public art museum and research institute for the study of British art and culture. Presented to Yale University by Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), the Center houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom” (http://britishart.yale.edu/about-us). “Paul Mellon (1907–1999) was one of the greatest art collectors and philanthropists of the twentieth century. Born in Pittsburgh, he was the only son of the financier, industrialist, and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon, and his English wife, Nora McMullen. His childhood summers were spent in the English countryside visiting his mother’s family, where his lifelong love of British culture began” (http://britishart.yale.edu/about-us/paul-mellon-founder). “The Yale Center for British Art was designed by the internationally acclaimed American architect Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974). Located across the street from his first major commission, the Yale University Art Gallery (opened in 1953), the Center was Kahn’s final work and was completed after his death. It was the first museum in the United States to incorporate retail shops in its design” (http://britishart.yale.edu/architecture).

 

On the whole I wasn’t overly impressed, I found that most of the paintings were portraits, but don’t get me wrong they were of masterful quality, but I just found them very plain and uninspiring. There were a few paintings that just jumped out at me, they were mostly the paintings of harbors, or landscapes, to me they were dramatic, filled with movement, and had beautiful color pallets.

 

The picture that I feel in love with was called, “Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames – Morning after a Stormy Night”. This painting caught my eye because of its moody atmosphere, and after I continued to look at it I liked it more and more. My favorite part of this painting is the larger tower, I love how the lighting hits the ruined remains of the tower and the detail of the crumbling foundations. The subtle color in the rock of the walls adds the perfect amount of aging. The high light and shadows are placed masterfully on the tower and around the entire piece. This painting was done by John Constable, he did this painting in 1829 oil on canvas, this painting is of ‘the ruins of Hadleigh Castle that stands on the northern shore of the mouth of the Thames. Constable had made drawings there in 1814, remarking in a letter that he was “always delighted with the melancholy grandeur of a sea shore.” He was later moved to paint the view on a grand scale by his grief over the death in 1828 of his wife, Maria. He was desolate and depressed for the rest of his life, a ruin of a man, he called himself” (plaque neck to painting). John Constable lived during 1776-1837.

            John Constable’s painting fit into the movement of Romanticism. “Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1840. Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education and the natural sciences. Its effect on politics was considerable, and complex; while for much of the peak Romantic period it was associated with liberalism and radicalism, in the long term its effect on the growth of nationalism was probably more significant”, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism). The movement to fallow Romanticism was Transcendentalism. “Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest to the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School. Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both man and nature. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions - particularly organized religion and political parties - ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. They had faith that man is at his best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed”, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentalism).

            So at the end of the day I left pleased, over all I found many of the work to be uninspired, but yet many of them were wonderful pieces of art. When we left there were many pieces that I found inspiring and flared my imagination to life.