Paul Mellon's Legacy : A Passion for British Art

Paul Mellon (1907--1999) was an unparalleled collector of British art. His collection, now at Yale in the museum and study center he founded to house it, rivals those in Britain's national museums and is unquestionably the most comprehensive representation of British art held outside of the United Kingdom. This book and the exhibition that it accompanies celebrate the centenary of his birth. Five introductory essays examine Mellon's extraordinary collecting activity, as well as his role in creating both the Yale Center for British Art and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London as gifts to his alma mater (Yale 1929). A lavishly illustrated catalogue section showcases 148 of the most exquisite and important paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, sculpture, rare books, and manuscript material in the Yale Center's collection, including major works by Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, George Stubbs, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner.

Brian Allen is director of studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. John Baskett is an independent scholar and former art advisor to Paul Mellon. His is author of The Horse in Art (Yale). Jules Prown, Paul Mellon Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, Yale University, was the founding director of the Yale Center for British Art, 1968–76. William Reese is an antiquarian bookseller based in New Haven. Duncan Robinson is director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge University.