French Taste in Victorian England: The Collection of Yolande Lyne-Stephens

Abstract

Yolande Lyne-Stephens was an important collector of art in nineteenth-century Britain but she has entirely disappeared from public memory. In 1895 a grand sale at Christie’s attracted many connoisseurs of the time and raised the colossal sum of £227,778. Today, pictures featured in that sale hang on the walls of major cultural institutions, such as the National Gallery in London and New York’s Metropolitan Museum. However, until just before the end of her life, Yolande intended to bequeath her works of art to the nation’s museums, so that they would remain as a collection under the Lyne-Stephens name. Her change of plan resulted in her fading into obscurity, and she therefore failed to feature in most books dedicated to nineteenth-century collectors.