LONDON, ENGLAND.-The Royal Academy of Arts will be celebrating the centenary of the birth of Paul Mellon, one of the great collectors of British Art, with an exhibition of major works from the Paul Mellon Foundation. Paul Mellon (1907 – 1999) redefined the importance of British art. He founded the Yale Center for British Art, now home to the largest collection of British Art outside Britain, and established the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London. This exhibition will present over 100 works borrowed from the Yale Center for British Art, comprising works on paper, paintings, books and manuscripts, by such artists as Reynolds, Stubbs, Gainsborough, Constable, Turner and Reynolds. This will be an unparalleled opportunity to experience some of the finest works of British art.

Paul Mellon was born in 1907, into one of the most powerful banking families in the US that shared, with fellow Pittsburgh families, Carnegie and Frick, a commitment to public philanthropy. He enrolled at Yale University in 1929, continuing his studies at the University of Cambridge. Mellon’s interest in British culture ranged from hunting, horse breeding and racing to the collection of art and books and to the curation of the most significant private collection of British Art to be made during the 20th century. He bequeathed the majority of this collection to Yale in 1966 to establish the Yale Center for British Art, complementing it with the establishment in 1970 of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London. On his death in 1999 he left important bequests to major British institutions, one of which was the Royal Academy. The exhibition will be on view 20 October 2007 – 27 January 2008.