The Courtauld Gallery () is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London. It houses the collection of the Samuel Courtauld Trust and operates as an integral part of the Courtauld Institute of Art.

The Courtauld 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. The collection contains some 530 paintings and over 26,000 drawings and prints. and reopened on 19 November 2021.

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The director designate of the Courtauld Institute of Art is Professor Mark Hallett.

History

thumb|Pugin's Exhibition Room, Somerset House, showing a room which is now part of the Courtauld Gallery

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

The art collection at the Courtauld was begun by Samuel Courtauld, who in the same year presented an extensive collection of paintings, mainly French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. He made further gifts later in the 1930s and a bequest in 1948.

thumb|[[A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) by Édouard Manet]]

His collection included Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère and a version of the Déjeuner 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 Cézanne. Other paintings include Vincent van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Peach Blossoms in the Crau, Gauguin's Nevermore and Te Rerioa, and important works by Seurat, Henri "le Douanier" Rousseau, Toulouse-Lautrec and Modigliani.

Further bequests were added after the Second World War, most notably the collection of Old Master paintings assembled by Lord Lee, a founder of the institute. This included Cranach's Adam and Eve and a sketch in oils by Peter Paul Rubens for what is arguably his masterpiece, the Deposition altarpiece in Antwerp Cathedral.

Sir Robert Witt, also a founder of the Courtauld Institute, was an outstanding benefactor and bequeathed his important collection of Old Master and British drawings in 1952. His bequest included 20,000 prints and more than 3000 drawings. His son, Sir John Witt, later gave more English watercolours and drawings to the Gallery.

In 1958, Pamela Diamand, the daughter of Roger Fry the art critic and founder of the Omega Workshops, donated his collection of 20th-century art including works by Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.

In 1966, Mark Gambier-Parry, son of Major Ernest Gambier-Parry, bequeathed the diverse collection of art formed by his grandfather, Thomas Gambier Parry, which ranged from Early Italian Renaissance painting to majolica, medieval enamel and ivory carvings, and other types of art (see section below).

Dr William Wycliffe Spooner (1882–1967) and his wife Mercie added to the Gallery's collection of English watercolours in 1967 with a bequest of works by John Constable, John Sell Cotman, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Girtin, Samuel Palmer, Thomas Rowlandson, Paul Sandby, Francis Towne, J. M. W. Turner, Peter De Wint and others.

Highlights of the collection

Paintings

thumb|[[Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, by Vincent van Gogh; oil on canvas; Arles, January 1889]]

thumb|The Customs Post, c. 1890; by [[Henri Rousseau]]

thumb|Portrait of Don Francisco de Saavedra, by [[Francisco Goya]]

Dutch School

  • Vincent van Gogh – 3 paintings;

Early Netherlandish

  • Robert Campin (or Master of Flemalle), the Seilern Triptych
  • Quentin Matsys – 2 paintings;

English School

  • William Beechey – 2 paintings;
  • Thomas Gainsborough – 2 paintings;
  • Peter Lely – 3 paintings;

Flemish School

  • Anthony van Dyck – 5 paintings;
  • Pieter Bruegel the Elder – 2 paintings, many drawings;
  • Peter Paul Rubens – 29 paintings;
  • David Teniers the Younger – 10 paintings;

French School

  • Paul Cézanne – 12 paintings;
  • Edgar Degas – 6 paintings;
  • Paul Gauguin – 3 paintings;
  • Claude Lorrain – 1 painting;
  • Édouard Manet – 4 paintings;
  • Claude Monet – 3 paintings;
  • Camille Pissarro – 4 paintings;
  • Alfred Sisley – 2 paintings;
  • Georges-Pierre Seurat – 9 paintings;
  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir – 4 paintings;
  • Chaïm Soutine – 1 painting;
  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – 2 paintings;
  • Henri Rousseau – 1 painting;

German School

  • Lucas Cranach the Elder – 1 painting;

Italian School

  • Fra Angelico – 4 paintings;
  • Giovanni Bellini – 1 painting;
  • Sandro Botticelli – 1 painting;
  • Bernardo Daddi – 2 paintings;
  • Lorenzo Lotto – 2 paintings;
  • Lorenzo Monaco – 2 paintings;
  • Pietro Perugino – 1 painting;
  • Pesellino – a diptych
  • Parmigianino – 2 paintings;
  • Giovanni Battista Tiepolo – 12 paintings;
  • Tintoretto – 2 paintings;

Spanish School

  • Francisco Goya – 1 painting;

Gambier-Parry Collection

thumb|right|[[Lorenzo Monaco, Coronation of the Virgin, 1388–1390]]

Thomas Gambier Parry (1816–1888) was a keen and versatile collector for most of his adult life. Many of his purchases were made on trips to the continent, especially Italy, but he also bought from dealers and auctions in England, and sometimes sold items.

His most important collections were of late medieval and Early Renaissance paintings, small sculpted reliefs, ivories, and maiolica, but he also had a significant early collection of Islamic metalwork, and a variety of other types of objects, for example Hispano-Moresque ware, glass and three small post-Byzantine wooden crosses from Mount Athos elaborately carved with miniature scenes.

The Courtauld Gallery website shows images and descriptions of 324 objects from the 1966 bequest, which included the bulk of the collection. The digitised photographs are available through the Courtauld’s online photographic collections database.

In September 2023 the Courtauld Gallery launched its collection online for the first time, providing public access to more than 33,000 objects ranging from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, including paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculpture. The database forms part of a broader programme of digital access to the Institute’s photographic and art collections and can be explored through the Courtauld Gallery’s online collections platform.

Subsequent digitisation projects have extended this initiative: by 2025 the Courtauld had completed the digitisation of the Witt Photographic Collection, making more than two million images of Western art spanning the thirteenth century to the present freely available online.

Two other websites <code>courtauldprints.com</code>

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