Location: London, United Kingdom
Photographs: 250,000
Website | Online catalogue
The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art is an educational charity committed to promoting original, world-class research into the history of British art and architecture of all periods. We collaborate closely with the Yale Center for British Art, and are part of Yale University
The Centre, based in Bedford Square, London, is a thriving hub of research. It offers a supportive, professional environment for scholarly work, providing rich library and archival resources to curators, art-trade professionals, independent art historians, academics, researchers and students.
Photo Archive
The Photographic Archive comprises mounted reference images in two collections: The Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive and The Tate Photographic Archive. The collections cover British painting and drawing from approximately 1500 to 2000 and are particularly strong on the work of 18th century artists. Both collections have been catalogued by artist.
Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive
The Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive was founded in 1964, the aim being to document British art, and develop both a reference resource and a photographic service for scholars. The current size of the photographic archive is estimated to be about 185,000 reference photographs with about 30,000 negatives. The overall focus of the subject matter remains in the 18th century with particularly strong holdings for key artists such as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Constable and Ramsay.
A collection of approximately 150,000 reference photographs of British paintings, decorative painting, sculpture, drawings and prints covering the period 1500-1900 with some files into the twentieth Century. The images were collected by staff from a variety of sources including, in particular, in-house photography undertaken by the Centre in relation to a wide variety of activities; the Courtauld photographic survey and sales catalogues. Images have been mounted on card and include provenance information. The majority of the images are black and white. The collection contains the following sequences:
Artists A-Z ; Unidentified Artists; Sculptors A-Z ;Sculpture by location; Decorative painting; Sketchbooks, Albums of drawings, rare books & collections of prints and drawings; Paul Mellon Collection of Paintings; Paul Mellon Collection of Prints and Drawings; Sculpture in the Caribbean;
Active collecting of images for the Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive ended in December 2013.
Tate Photographic Archive
A collection of approximately 35,000 reference photographs of British paintings, drawings and prints covering the period 1500 to the twentieth century. The reference resource was created, compiled and used by curators working at Tate and acquired by the Paul Mellon Centre in 2009. The collection comprises a single sequence of ca. 350 boxes arranged alphabetically by artist. Material concerning some of the major artists (including Turner, for example) was not transferred at the time of acquisition.