Yale Center for British Art
Louis Kahn's last building, housing the largest collection of British art outside the UK.
The centre was founded on the gift made to Yale in 1966 by the collector and philanthropist Paul Mellon, who presented some 1,800 paintings, 7,000 drawings and 20,000 rare books and prints together with the funds for a building and an endowment. Louis Kahn was commissioned in 1969 and worked on the design until his death in 1974; the building was finished by his associates Pellecchia and Meyers and opened in April 1977. It was Kahn's last work, standing opposite his earlier Yale University Art Gallery extension.
Kahn placed shops along the Chapel Street frontage and wrapped the galleries in a grid of concrete frames infilled with matt steel panels and glass. Inside, two skylit courts of travertine, white oak and natural linen rise through the building, with coffered concrete ceilings fitted with domed diffusers that filter daylight. The collection covers British art from the Elizabethan period to the present, with strong groups of Turner, Constable, Hogarth, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Stubbs and Blake. Admission is free.
Highlights
- Louis Kahn's final building, opened in 1977 after his death
- Two skylit courts in travertine, white oak and linen
- Daylight-diffusing coffered concrete ceilings
- Turner, Constable, Hogarth, Stubbs and Blake in depth
