Every year the William MB Berger Prize for British Art Historyis awarded to a scholarly publication that demonstrates outstanding achievement in the field of British Art History. Awarded jointly by The British Art Journal and the Berger Collection Educational Trust, the Berger prize is recognized as the most prestigious award in its field. This year the nominations for the long list include titles from publishers in England, Scotland and America. We are proud to announce that of the 29 finalists for the 2008 award, 12 are titles published by the Yale University Press.

David Solkin’s Painting out of the Ordinary and Elizabeth Prettejohn’s Art for Art’s Sake are listed among the titles of merit, both of which were published in conjunction with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, an educational charity set up to promote and support the study of British history, art and architecture. Our ongoing partnership with the Mellon Centre has resulted in many successful and award-winning books, including the winning title of the 2007 Berger Prize, Moving Rooms: The Trade in Architectural Salvages by John Harris. The short list for the 2008 Berger Prize will be announced in the coming weeks.

Yale titles named to the long list for the Berger Prize:

George Stubbs, Painter by Judy Egerton. Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

The Railway: Art in the Age of Steam by Ian Kennedy and Julian Treuherz. Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool / The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City / Yale University Press.

Slavery, Sugar and the Culture of Refinement by Kay Dian Kriz. Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting by Elizabeth Prettejohn. Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool by Elizabeth E Barker and Alex Kidson. Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Press.

Politics, Transgression and Representation by Julia Marciari Alexander and Catharine Macleod. Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Thomas Hope Regency Designer by David Watkin and Philip Hewat-Jaboor, ed. Yale University Press for The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture.

Curiosity and Enlightenment Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century by Arthur MacGregor. Yale University Press.

Pompeo Batoni: Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome by Edgar Peter Bowron and Peter Björn Kerber. Yale University Press in association with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty:Tapestries at the Tudor Court by Thomas P Campbell. Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

A Fragile Modernism: Whistler and His Impressionist Followers by Anna Gruetzner Robins. Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Painting out of the Ordinary: Modernity and the Art of Everyday Life in Early Nineteenth-Century England by David Solkin. Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.