Pen to Brush: British Drawings and Watercolours

The Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery
19 Nov 2021 – 27 Feb 2022

Pen to Brush, the opening display in the dedicated Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery, features highlights from The Courtauld’s remarkable collection of British drawings and watercolours.

They range from one of the earliest and smallest works in the collection, a pen and ink drawing by Isaac Oliver measuring just 47 x 59 mm (around 1565-1617), to Henry Moore’s powerful wartime Shelter Drawing (1942).

Works from the ‘golden age’ of British watercolour include examples by J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and Edward Dayes’ panoramic view of Somerset House from the Thames. A highlight is little-known abstract drawing, Vorticist Composition with Figures, Black and White (1915), by Helen Saunders, one of only two female members of the early 20th-century avant-garde Vorticist group.

This display is included in the admission ticket to The Courtauld Gallery.