The Gallery

With help from Annual Fund donations we are able to ensure the conservation and safeguarding of our prestigious collection of masterpieces at The Courtauld Gallery. Our collection spans from the early Renaissance through to the 20th Century and contains world-famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.

Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883), A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882, Copyright: © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Taking our Collection on Tour

We are committed to continuing the “Art for All” vision of our founder, Samuel Courtauld, by widening access to our art collections. Annual Fund support helps to facilitate the loan of more of our artworks to other institutions, so that our collection can be enjoyed by diverse audiences.  Recent loans have included:

• Cézanne, Man with a Pipe, to the National Portrait Gallery.
• Bellini, The Nativity, to the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
• Modigliani, Female Nude, to Tate Modern.
• Boudin, Deauville, to The Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston.
• Michelangelo, The Dream (Il Sogno), to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
• Murillo, Saint Francis Embracing the Crucified Christ to the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla.

Conservation

Our conservation experts protect not only our own highly fragile collection, but also artworks from other collections and institutions. Our conservation work has a global impact. The Department of Conservation of Wall Painting continues to have an impressive record of research and conservation practice throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, in Georgia, Jordan, India, Bhutan and the Himalayan region and in China.  The Department of Conservation and Technology also has a long standing collaboration in oil painting conservation with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) in Mumbai, India. 

Other projects currently being undertaken by the Conservation & Technology department include:

• Conservation of a set of family portraits by Cornelis Ketel and dendrochronological study of the panels by the world’s leading expert in the field.
• A major interdisciplinary research project, supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch to restore The Courtauld Gallery’s magnificent altarpiece by Sandro Botticelli, The Holy Trinity with Saints John the Baptist, Mary Magdalen, Tobias and Raphael (1491-94.)
• Workshops on multispectral imaging.

Our unique conservation courses, taught by some of the world’s leading experts, ensure that generations of Courtauld alumni go on to use their expertise in conservation projects all over the world.