The Courtauld Gallery’s collection launches online

The Courtauld Gallery’s collection, which comprises over 33,000 objects ranging from the Middle Ages to the 21^st century and includes paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculptures, among others, is available to explore in its entirety online for free for the first time thanks to a new digital platform:  https://gallerycollections.courtauld.ac.uk/

The new platform features high-definition images of the works of art in the collection, the vast majority of which have not been accessible online before. Most of the images will be available to download for non-commercial use. As a result of a major ongoing cataloguing project, some 5000 drawings will be accompanied by extensive information on provenance, exhibition history and other areas. With this new platform, The Courtauld also joins the growing community making use of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) – https://iiif.io/

The Courtauld Gallery is home to one of the UK’s greatest art collections, including world-renowned Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces such as Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889), and the most significant collection of works by Paul Cézanne in the UK.

Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen, Head of The Courtauld Gallery, said: “This new platform will make The Courtauld Gallery’s collection of masterpieces accessible like never before, enabling audiences globally to discover and enjoy the collection, as well as greatly enhancing the ways in which researchers, students, and art lovers can learn about our works of art. In addition to our exhibitions and public programmes, digital and cataloguing projects such as this are essential to The Courtauld’s mission to make great art accessible to everyone.”

The launch of the Courtauld Gallery collection online is part of a wider, ongoing programme to make the various collections at The Courtauld Institute of Art accessible to all. It follows the recent completion of a major five-year project to make the images in The Courtauld’s internationally renowned photographic libraries available online for free. For that project, The Courtauld worked with 14,000 volunteers to digitise over one million images from The Conway Library as part of the biggest public inclusion project in The Courtauld’s history: photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/

The Courtauld Gallery’s new collection online platform has been provided by System Simulation Ltd https://www.ssl.co.uk

This project has been supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the International Music and Art Foundation.

Thanks to National Lottery Players.