
Yale University Art Gallery
In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art.
While the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) undergoes renovations, the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) has volunteered to host a selection of their paintings in an exhibition entitled ââIn a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art.â The showââârunning now through Dec. 3âââhouses over 50 paintings, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, that attempt to capture the scope and breadth of British life at the time through a series of intimate glances into another countryâs art and culture. ââIn a New Lightâ offers a glimpse into British painting with little explanation and few qualifiers, allowing viewers to simply view the artwork and draw their own conclusions.

Yale Center for British Art
Ellinor Guthrie (neé Stirling) by Frederic Leighton.
As viewers enter the gallery, they are met face first by Frederic Leightonâs portrait of Ellinor Guthrie (neĂ© Stirling). She seems to confront viewers as she welcomes them in: turning from a table of flowers, her body posture suggests she has been caught unawares, but her eyes hold a knowing acceptance bordering on sorrow. The dark color palette of Leightonâs oils lend an air of melancholy to the figure, who at the time of painting donned black garb in mourning for her late father.
At the same time, the flowers on the table, and the floral theme carried through in the details of the chair behind Mrs. Guthrie implies a new life beginning, perhaps referring to the recent birth of her fifth daughter. Behind her, background figures swirl, suggesting inner turmoil. Ellinor Guthrie the painting captures the plight of women in the 1800s, defined by their relationships to others: wife, mother, daughter. She accepts viewers into her space, invites them into her privacy, in the way that only art can do.

Yale Center for British Art
LâEnfant du RĂ©giment by Sir John Everett Millais.
Passing on from the wisdom of age to innocence of youth, Sir John Everett Millaisâ painting LâEnfant du RĂ©giment portrays a little girl during the Napoleonic wars. She lies asleep, feet bare and one armed bandaged, upon the tomb of a knight. The image contrasts the childâs naive sweetness with the horrors of the war around her, pairing the rosy flush of her cheeks with the stark white tomb. In the upper left corner, the battle rages on. But in the soldierâs coat covering the girl as a blanket lies a suggestion of hope: someone is watching over her. Surrounded by despair and violence, perhaps this child can come ââthrough the jaws of death / back from the mouth of hell,â as Tennyson wrote in ââThe Charge of the Light Brigade,â which occurred around the same time as Millaisâ painting.

Yale Center for British Art
Reapers by George Stubbs.
The first two rooms of the exhibit contain portraits and tableaus, which, like LâEnfant du RĂ©giment, capture humanity at its most personal. George Stubbsâ painting Reapers concerns itself with another aspect of daily life: good old-fashioned work. The oval peephole of the canvas creates the illusion that the viewer is peering in at the scene, like looking through a window. A man sits on a horse, two men scythe down wheat, another man and a woman collect it into bundles, a dog reclines on the ground. The painting features bright colors and sunny skies, an idealized version of a hard and thankless job. Itâs picturesque, âânature as God intended,â to quote Tom Stoppard. The workers appear neat and orderly, showing no signs of exertion. The painting captures a sense of fairness, as if it were possible to ââreap what you sowâ in the most literal sense.

Yale Center for British Art
Dort or Dordrecht: the Dort Packet Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed by Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Nearly half of the gallery dedicates itself to seascapesâââit would hardly be British art if it didnât. Joseph Mallord William Turnerâs Dort or Dordrecht: the Dort Packet Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed looms high on a wall. Looking at the painting feels like a dewy morning, full of lark song and possibility. The great ship possesses a certain majesty, reclining in the glassy water as rowboats go out to meet it. A close look reveals minutely detailed faces within the vessel, alight with high spirits and fresh air. In the background swarms a cluster of ships, creating a frozen moment of serenity before the hubbub of the day sets in.

Yale Center for British Art
Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne: Morning by Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Some of Turnerâs more abstract seascapes also feature in the exhibition. The unfinished Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne: Morning provides a study in color, using shades to create shapes rather than to fill them in. The cool blues of the horizon contrast with the reds and oranges of the cresting hills, creating an image almost like a heat signature. The landscape appears muted, as if seen through mist, but almost glowing with warmth. Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne: Morning captures the same sense of peace as Turnerâs clearer work, using soft, broad strokes rather than sharp, precise touches. It is an abstraction only in the sense that it captures the perspective of the viewerâs own fallible eye, obscured by mist and hazy in the morning light.

Yale Center for British Art
Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames â Morning after a Stormy Night by John Constable.
John Constableâs Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the ThamesâââMorning after a Stormy Night continues the theme of a break in a storm. A lone traveler and his dog approach castle ruins that look like a tree rent by a stroke of lightning, while in the background a man herds cows and ships hover on the horizon. The painting explores a general feeling of survival, and of clearing up after a mess. Great Britain is an island nation, therefore storms and the sea compose a significant portion of daily life. The exhibit does not have to tell the viewer this; itâs apparent in the artwork, which speaks for itself.
âIn a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Artâ feels like stepping into another personâs house. The Yale University Art Gallery doesnât try to transform the show into one of its own, but rather leans into the feeling of borrowing a glance through a window into a different personâs life. It informs without preaching, sharing beauty without feeling the need to comment on it. From intimate portraits to sea and landscapes that are in themselves portraits of resilience and experience, the exhibition shows British art for what it is, and invites viewers to draw their own opinions.
âIn a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Artâ runs at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., through Dec. 3.