The British Galleries

On March 2, 2020, the newly installed Annie Laurie Aitken Galleries and Josephine Mercy Heathcote Gallery opened to the public, with 11,000 square feet devoted to British decorative arts, design, and sculpture created between 1500 and 1900. The reimagined suite of ten galleries (including three remarkable eighteenth-century historic interiors) provides a fresh perspective on the period, focusing on its bold, entrepreneurial spirit and complex history.

The new narrative of the galleries offers a chronological exploration of the intense commercial drive among artists, manufacturers, and retailers that shaped British design over the course of 400 years. During this period, global trade and the growth of the British Empire fueled innovation, exploitation, and industry. Works on view illuminate the emergence of a new middle class—ready consumers for luxury goods—which inspired an age of exceptional creativity and invention during a time of harsh colonialism.

The British Galleries reopened with almost 700 works of art on display, including a wide array of furniture, ceramics, silver, tapestries, and other textiles from the Tudor, Stuart, Georgian, and Victorian eras, ranging in style from Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and neo-Gothic. The reopening revealed a large number of new acquisitions, particularly works from the nineteenth century that were purchased with this project in mind. This is the first complete renovation of the galleries since they were established (Josephine Mercy Heathcote Gallery in 1986, Annie Laurie Aitken Galleries in 1989). A prominent new entrance provides direct access from the Medieval Galleries, creating a seamless transition from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance.