A focus on British art
Nestled in a small enclave on the Arthur M. Sackler Museum’s fourth floor is an intimate art display that subtly illuminates both present and past. The prints and engravings by several British artists from the early 19th century invite viewers into a mysterious world of mythology, mayhem, and malaise, while conveying both classical and contemporary themes. The collection is part of the museum’s teaching-gallery installations that link selected objects to an undergraduate course in Harvard’s Department of History of Art and Architecture. The exhibit is connected to the class “The Past and the Present: British Art of the 19th Century,” taught by David Bindman, the 2010 Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard. He is also the emeritus professor of the history of art at University College London. The Harvard Art Museums’ robust collection of British works is considered one of...