12 Facts About Courtauld Gallery

Courtauld Gallery is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London.

Courtauld Gallery collection was formed largely through donations and bequests and includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and other works from medieval to modern times; it is particularly known for its French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings.

Courtauld Gallery Institute was founded in 1932 through the philanthropic efforts of the industrialist and art collector Samuel Courtauld Gallery, the diplomat and collector Lord Lee of Fareham, and the art historian Sir Robert Witt.

Art collection at the Courtauld Gallery was begun by Samuel Courtauld Gallery, who in the same year presented an extensive collection of paintings, mainly French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.

Courtauld Gallery made further gifts later in the 1930s and a bequest in 1948.

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Courtauld Gallery's collection included Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergere and a version of the Dejeuner sur l'Herbe, Renoir's La Loge, landscapes by Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, a ballet scene by Edgar Degas, and a group of eight major works by Cezanne.

Sir Robert Witt, a founder of the Courtauld Gallery Institute, was an outstanding benefactor and bequeathed his important collection of Old Master and British drawings in 1952.

In 1974, a group of thirteen watercolours by Turner was presented in memory of Sir Stephen Courtauld Gallery, who restored Eltham Palace, and the brother of Samuel Courtauld Gallery.

In 1978 the Courtauld Gallery received the Princes Gate Collection of Old Master paintings and drawings formed by Count Antoine Seilern.

Courtauld Gallery closed on 3 September 2018 until 19 November 2021 for a major redevelopment costing £50M.

Courtauld Gallery is part of the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network, launched in 2021 by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.

From 1958 to 1989 the Courtauld Gallery collection was housed in part of the premises of the Warburg Institute in Woburn Square; it was thus separated from the Courtauld Gallery Institute, which was in Home House, Portman Square.