The Collection: Paintings

20th Century

 

The Courtauld Gallery is the only museum in Britain with such an outstanding display of paintings by the French Fauves (or Wild Beasts), including important works by Matisse, Derain and Dufy. This is complemented by German Expressionist paintings with an extensive collection of Kandinsky’s works. A significant group of works by Kokoschka includes his enormous ceiling painting The Prometheus Triptych. 

The gallery houses paintings by leading artists of the Bloomsbury Group, Vanessa Bell (sister of Virginia Woolf), Duncan Grant and Roger Fry, together with avant-garde decorative arts produced by them at their Omega Workshops. The collection of modern British art extends well into the 20th century with works by Nicholson, Sutherland and Hitchens among others.

Selected 20th century paintings from the collection:

• Painting 1937 by Ben Nicholson