Information > Exhibitions

The Lewis Walpole Library draws from its own collection of prints, drawings and paintings to mount several rotating exhibitions in Farmington each year. The exhibitions are free and open to the public during gallery hours: Wednesdays, 2-4 p.m. These exhibitions may also be viewed during tours of the Library. Please call 860-677-2140 for more information.

The Library has also exhibited materials in New Haven over the years. Most recently, dozens of items from the collection were included in the exhibition "Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill," organized by the Lewis Walpole Library, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition was on view October 15, 2009 - January 3, 2010, at the Yale Center for British Art before moving to London to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Current Exhibition

Works of Genius: Amateur Artists in Walpole’s Circle

The Library's current exhibition in Farmington, curated by Cynthia Roman

September 28, 2009 - March 19, 2010

Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
Lord Massereene, 1765
Pen and ink, 4 15/16 x 2 5/8 in.
765.00.00.81dr+

An influential writer, collector and historian of art, Horace Walpole (1717-1797) was also a great champion of art produced by persons who were ‘not artists’—perhaps best translated today as non-professional or amateur artists.

Works by amateur artists were a vital part of Walpole’s collection and were hung prominently and in great number at his famous house Strawberry Hill. This exhibition presents work on paper by Walpole and members of his closest circle, including Henry William Bunbury, John Chute, Richard Bentley, Lady Diana Beauclerk, Lady Hamilton, and Mary Berry.

Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill

at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
March 6 - July 4, 2010

For information on the exhibition click here

John Carter (1748-1817)
View from the Hall at Strawberry Hill, 1788
Watercolor
Folio 49 3582 fol. 24

Recent Exhibitions

"French Liberty. British Slavery. British Responses to the French Revolution" (April 17 - August 28, 2009)
http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/information/exhibitions french revolution/

"Portraits of Painters: Drawings by George Vertue and Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England" (September 2008-February 2009)
http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/information/exhibitions vertue/

"Recent Acquisitions 2003-2007: Selected Books, Manuscripts, & Works on Paper " (November-April 2008)
http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/information/exhibitions recent acqs/

"Antiquaries and Connoisseurs in Eighteenth-Century Satiric Prints "
(October 7, 2004 - May 11, 2005)

"Painted and Printed Color in Eighteenth-Century Satire"
(May 12 - October 6, 2004)

"Matrimony and Metaphor"
(October 29, 2003 - May 12, 2004)

"Preposterous Headdresses and Feathered Ladies"
(May 8 - October 29, 2003)
http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/exhibitions/hair/

Other Selected Past Exhibitions

"The Train to the Eighteenth Century"
(Fall 2002), Farmington

"Treasure House in Farmington: The Lewis Walpole Library"
(October 15, 1999 through January 9, 2000), Yale Center for British Art

"The Bewigged Bard: Horace Walpole's Shakespeare"
Exhibition from the Lewis Walpole Library Collection for the Bicentenary of Walpole's Death
(August through October 1997)
Sterling Memorial Library, New Haven

"Among the Whores and Thieves": William Hogarth and The Beggar's Opera
February 1 - April 6, 1997, Yale Center for British Art
Jointly presented by the Yale Center for British Art and the Lewis Walpole Library