Yale University Art Gallery

The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the gallery emphasizes early Italian Renaissance painting, African sculpture, and modern art. It is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. History 19th century The gallery was founded in 1832 when patriot artist John Trumbull donated over 100 paintings of the American Revolution to Yale College and designed the original picture gallery. This gallery housed a collection of paintings by John Trumbull , including Battle of Bunker Hill , Death of Montgomery before Quebec , Surrender of Lord Cornwallis , and Declaration of Independence . This building on the university's Old Campus was razed in 1901. Street Hall, designed by Peter Bonnett Wight , was opened as the Yale School of the Fine Arts in 1866. Collection The encyclopedic collections of the gallery number more than 300,000 objects ranging in date from ancient times to the present day. The permanent collection includes: African Art : more than 1,000 objects in wood, metal, ivory, and ceramic American Decorative Arts : approximately 18,000 objects in silver, glass, wood, porcelain, and textile with an emphasis on the colonial and early federal periods American Paintings and Sculpture : more than 2,500 paintings, 500 sculptures, and 300 miniatures from before the mid-twentieth century including paintings by Benjamin West , John Singleton Copley , Albert Bierstadt.