Re-opening of the Courtauld Institute 1

At the top of the stairs...

Cecily Brown (born 1969)

Unmoored From Her Reflection

2021

Oil paint on canvas

Cecily Brown made this work for the curved panel at the top of this historical staircase.

When the building opened to the public in 1780, the panel contained a painting of the goddess Minerva and the Muses of art and learning by the Royal Academician Giovanni Batista Cipriani - long since lost. Brown's painting is the first to be displayed here in two centuries.

This backdrop, as well as The Courtauld's collection, sets the perfect stage for Brown, an artist who enjoys twisting the codes and canons of the past. In a realm of predominantly male artists gazing at the female nude, she decided to make the male body her central theme.

Brown's work envelopes the viewer in a dreamscape of painting, pushing back and forth between abstraction and figuration. Allusions to artworks she particularly admires float to the surface. For example, the figure of a bather to the right of the central figure group, which relates to Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (displayed in the adjacent room).

Brown's work invites us to reimagine paintings from earlier times. The past and present flow into one another and onto the broad sweep of her curved canvas.

Unmoored From Her Reflection was unveiled to mark the reopening of the Courtauld Gallery in November 2021 and will be on display for two years.

Impressionism: introduction

The Birth of Impressionism, 1860-1880

Despite its widespread popularity today, Impressionism was originally viewed as radical and unconventional. Impressionism was born in Paris in the late 1860s and early 1870s, when a group of artists came together to promote a new way of painting.

Breaking with academic convention, they took inspiration from contemporary life and everyday landscapes, often working outdoors. Their paintings depicted the modern city and new places of leisure for the growing middle classes, including theatres, cafés and the seaside. Their loose painting style was equally revolutionary: brushstrokes remained visible as they sought to convey the sensation of light.

At their first exhibition in 1874, a critic dismissed a work by Claude Monet as sketchy, giving only the impression of things and not an accurate likeness.

The artists embraced the criticism and organised seven more 'Impressionist' exhibitions over the next decade.

About the building Visitors to the Royal Academy's annual Summer Exhibition came through this ante-room (lobby). The Greek text above the door translates roughly as 'Let no Stranger to the Muses Enter'. In other words, entry was reserved for visitors who appreciated art. The Academy's ideal visitor was an intellectually curious man of taste.

The exhibitions, however, drew large crowds and, while not inclusive by today's standards, provided access to art to a varied audience.

The first room: Impressionism and some Post Impressionism

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

L'Étang des Sours, Osny

(The Sisters' Pond, Osny)

Around 1875

Oil paint on canvas

Paul Cézanne painted this view of a pond in a woodland clearing while visiting fellow artist Camille Pissarro in Osny, a village north of Paris.

Unusually for Cézanne, he applied the dense layers of paint with a palette knife, a tool traditionally used to mix colours.

The colour is spread diagonally, creating a dynamic patchwork.

The broad shaft of light filtering through the trees draw our attention from the shadowed foreground to the opposite bank.

Édouard Manet (1832-1883)

Study for 'Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe'

(Luncheon on the Grass)

Around 1863

Oll paint on canvas

This work was made in preparation for one of the most famous paintings of the 19th century.

In 1863, Édouard Manet scandalised the art world with his large, finished version of this composition (now in the Orsay museum, Paris).

It was shocking for its life-size depiction of two nearly naked women alongside fully dressed men in contemporary clothes. Although Manet initially drew inspiration from Renaissance nudes, he rejected the veil of mythology and painted unidealised female figures, one of whom confronts the viewer with her direct gaze.

As in most sketches, some areas are loosely defined, others more fully painted.

Manet lavished particular attention on the trunk of the tree on the left and the black jacket of the reclining male figure. The sketch was probably painted as an aid during the creation of the large canvas, which took over a year to complete

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

Lordship Lane Station, Dulwich

1871

Oil paint on canvas

Painted from a footbridge spanning the railroad tracks, this view shows a train leaving a recently built station in south London. Camille Pissarro fled Paris with his family in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and remained in London for over a year, painting the city and its outlying areas. Although the landscape depicted here was being transformed from open countryside to built-up suburbs, it is strangely devoid of people. Pissarro originally included a man on the grassy slope on the right but later painted him out.

Eugène Boudin (1824-1898)

Deauville

1893

Oil paint on canvas

A native of Normandy, Eugène Boudin made his name depicting fashionable Parisian visitors at its seaside resorts. Later in his career, he turned to painting open landscapes with fewer people. The figures in this scene - beachgoers and local fishermen with their horse-drawn cart - are captured with quick strokes of paint. The main subject is the sky and the effect of light on the billowing clouds. Boudin's commitment to painting outdoors influenced Claude Monet, whose works can be seen in the next room. Samuel Courtauld bequest, 1948

Courtauld Insight

"Working in the open air, Boudin rendered a moment in time, clouds moving across a beautiful blue sky, reflections in shallow puddles and ladies' skirts blowing in the breeze. These details appealed to people in Preston, who chose this painting for an exhibition at the Harris (part of The Courtauld's National Partners programme) because it reminded them of holidays at the beach!

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Dancer Looking at the Sole

of her Right Foot

Bronze cast by A.A. Hébrard Foundry, Paris, around 1919-20, from a wax model made around 1895-1900 In his sculptures of dancers, Edgar Degas sought to capture the body in motion or in strenuous ballet postures. His models were often young and impoverished ballerinas at the Paris Opéra. A regular model of his, known only as Pauline, described the strain of this pose, which she held repeatedly over many sessions.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Two Dancers on a Stage

1874

Oil paint on canvas

Edgar Degas was fascinated by ballet, producing over a thousand works on the subject. While this work appears to depict a performance, the presence of a third ballerina at rest indicates it may in fact be a dress rehearsal, to which Degas was often granted access.

The painting's side view is unconventional. It is as if we are observing from a box at the edge of the stage. The lines on the floor, which may represent tracks for sliding scenery, emphasise Degas's dynamic composition while evoking the staging of ballet.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Woman at a Window

1871

Oil paint on paper, pasted on linen This scene of a woman profiled against a bright window seems serene. However, the English artist Walter Sickert, who knew Degas and owned this work, recounts it was painted during the siege of Paris by the Prussian army. The starving model was paid with a hunk of raw meat that Sickert claimed she immediately devoured. Degas often experimented with technique. Here, he used paint drained of its oil for a matte effect. Although the painting appears unfinished, Degas considered it complete and signed it.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Dancer, Ready to Dance,

Right Foot Forward

Bronze cast by A.A. Hébrard Foundry, Paris, around 1919-20. trom a wax model made around 1895 Approximately 150 clay and wax sculptures mostly of dancers and horses, were discovered in Edgar Degas's studio after his death. His family had a number of these cast in bronze. Private and experimental works, the originals were often strengthened with ordinary items such as cork or matches. were a bit of wire sticks out of the dancer's right hand.

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

Portrait of a Woman

Around 1872-75

Oil paint on canvas

Her hands clasped over her knee, this woman seems to have just turned her head to gaze at the viewer. Her informal pose and dress, as well as her resemblance to the artist, suggest that she may be Berthe Morisot's sister, Edma. Both Morisot sisters studied art privately, as women were not admitted to France's state-run art schools until 1897. Only Berthe pursued art as a career. A key member of the Impressionist circle, she was the sole woman to participate in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

La Loge (The Theatre Box)

1874

Oil paint on canvas

Unveiled at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, this painting is considered one of the defining works of the period, combining fluid brushwork with a subject taken from contemporary life.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir created a painting about looking, without providing a clear narrative for what we see. The fashionable modern couple sitting in a theatre box was a new subject for fine art. Reviewers were surprised by the contrast between the woman looking towards us and her companion training his opera glasses on other members of the audience. Some critics also claimed the woman in her striking outfit was a victim of fashion and vanity. Renoir staged the scene in his studio; his brother Edmond and the professional model Nini Lopez posed as the couple.

Courtauld Insight

'The stripes of the woman's dress - a startling contrast of black and white - define her body and draw all eyes to her. They create a rhythmic effect, guiding our gaze across her body to the flowers on her chest and her heavily made-up face. The attire of her male companion uses the same combination of black and white, but to a very different and less conspicuous effect.'

About the Great Room

The Great Room was the dramatic backdrop to the Royal Academy's annual Summer Exhibition. Visitors were awed by the grandeur or its proportions and by the quantity or paintings on its walls.

The Summer Exhibition, held yearly since 1769, has always shown contemporary British art. In 1780, its first ear at Somerset House, more than 60,000 people attended and over 200 artists exhibited. Until the late 19th century, the overwhelming majority or exhibitors were met.

This was the first purpose-built exhibition space in the United Kingdom and the first top-lit public gallery in Europe. It was also where senior Academicians delivered their popular lectures on art to the public. The large windows and roof rest on concealed beams, allowing the central space to remain completely open. At the time, it was celebrated as the largest unsupported span in London. The ceiling was painted to mimic the Sky.

A moulding known as the Line' encircled the room at door-frame height. Artists competed fiercely to have their paintings prominently displayed on the Line Having outgrown its premises, the Royal Academy left Somerset House in 1837. The Great Room was then used by a variety of institutions and government departments. Paintings returned to its walls in 1989 with the arrival of the Courtauld.

Room 10

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism,1880-1900

This room presents one of the finest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works in the world These movements changed the course of art. The display comprises paintings by all of the major artists, from Claude Monet to Vincent van Gogh, and includes some of their greatest achievements Impressionists such as Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir created new ways of painting modern life and landscape conveying the immediate experience of light and atmosphere. Embracing the liberating character or Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painters such as Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat went further; their bold brushwork and expressive use o colour were a major influence on artists throughout the 20th century.

This collection was assembled by the textile industrialist Samuel Courtauld 18/6-194/ with the encouragement of his wife, Elizabeth Courtauld (1875-1931), herself a passionate supporter or classical music. The couple started collecting in the 1920s, at a time when the artistic establishment in the United Kingdom was hostile towards modern French art.

The Courtauld's championing or Impressionism and Post-Impressionism forever changed public taste. In 1932, after his wife's death. Samuel co-founded The Courtauld Institute of Art as a teaching institution and gallery, ensuring that their extraordinary collection would be widely enjoyed.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Avant et après (Before and after)

1903

Bound manuscript, including drawings and prints This important manuscript by Paul Gauguin was written on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas and completed only two months before he died. It was recently given to The Courtauld and is presented here for the first time.

The manuscript's title refers to his life before and after moving to Polynesia. The text reveals important insights into his life, while vivid anecdotes expose his often provocative opinions about art and literature.

Gauguin challenges the hypocrisy and morality of his time and exposes the misdeeds of the colonial and church authorities in French Polynesia. He fails, however, to recognise his own racial stereotyping and misogyny.

The text is interspersed with Gauguin's drawings and prints. Many revisit compositions that occupied his imagination throughout the decade he spent in Tahiti and the Marquesas. They reveal the profound influence of Polynesian culture on his art.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Portrait of Mette Gauguin

1877

Marble

This bust of Mette, Paul Gauguin's Danish wife, is one of only two marble sculptures he ever made. The other is of their son Emil. Both were created early on in Gauguin's artistic career. The finely ruffled collar and gap between collar and neck demonstrate a level of technique surprising in someone with no formal sculptural training. He was likely helped by a professional sculptor, Jules-Ernest Bouillot, his landlord at the time. It is quiet and somewhat conventional compared with his later three-dimensional work, especially the roughly carved and expressive wood sculptures inspired by his time in Tahiti.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Portrait of Ambrose Vollard

1908

Oil paint on canvas

At the beginning of the 20th century, Ambroise Vollard was one of the leading advocates for modern art. He became Pierre-Auguste Renoir's main art dealer after 1900. In this flattering portrait, Renoir depicts the shrewd businessman as a thoughtful connoisseur.

Vollard is represented examining the statuette of a kneeling female nude by the contemporary sculptor Aristide Maillol. Such depictions of learned collectors belong to a long tradition stretching back to the Renaissance.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

The Haystacks

1889

Oil paint on canvas

In the 1880s, Paul Gauguin made several extended trips to Brittany in western France, attracted by the region's remoteness and distinctive culture. This haymaking scene, captured during his third stay, is typical of the radically simplified approach he took to painting at this time. Forms are rendered as flat patches of vibrant colour, while three-dimensional relationships and perspectives are deliberately ignored. Gauguin reduces the peasant women raking hay to the basic shapes of their black-and-white regional dress, presenting their actions as a timeless ritual.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

After the Bath - Woman Drying Herself

Around 1895-1900

Charcoal and pastel on two sheets of tracing paper Her body awkwardly contorted in the act of towelling herself after a bath, the naked woman in this vibrant pastel seems to be caught unawares in a private moment. Such intimate scenes increasingly occupied Edgar Degas in the later decades of his career.

As is typical of his pastels, the medium is applied in distinct layers, with little blending, over a charcoal underdrawing. This method, unique to Degas, creates marvellous drifts of colour and unusual linear rhythms, blurring the boundary between drawing and painting.

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)

Nude

Around 1916

Oil paint on canvas

This striking nude is one of several painted by Amedeo Modigliani between 1916 and 1917. Beyond the reclining figure's apparent gracefulness and tranquillity, the painting still retains some of its original provocation.

Like Paul Gauguin, whose work he admired, Modigliani incorporated stylistic elements taken from cultures outside Europe. The woman's elongated head echoes the Egyptian, African and Oceanic sculptures he had studied at the ethnographic museum in Paris. This approach challenged the Western tradition of ideal beauty. The model's flushed face, scratched out strands of hair and the raw brushwork also went against convention by heightening her sensuality. The depiction of pubic hair was shocking at the time. Police even closed a 1917 exhibition of Modigliani's nudes at a commercial gallery in Paris on the grounds of indecency.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec(1864-1901)

In a Private Dining Room (At the Rat Mort)

Around 1899

Oil paint on canvas

The Rat Mort ('Dead Rat') was a Parisian café- restaurant in the Montmartre district, frequented by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in his final years. The woman in fancy dress is thought to be the cocotte (high-class prostitute) Lucy Jourdain. Her laughing mouth and unfocused eyes, aglow in the artificial light, suggest the effects of the champagne in front of her. The streaky brushwork, together with the palette of bold reds and greens and the hallucinatory effect of the lamplight, create a vivid sense of the seedy glamour of Montmartre's nightlife.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec(1864-1901)

Jane Avril in the Entrance

to the Moulin Rouge

Around 1892

Oil paint and pastel on board

Jane Avril was a star dancer at the Parisian cabaret Le Moulin Rouge (The Red Windmill). She knew Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who designed the venue's well-known posters. He painted Avril on numerous occasions but this work stands out for its subdued quality. She is not on stage but arriving at the cabaret, bundled in a fur-collared coat. A carriage is visible in the background. The painting's unusual narrow format accentuates Avril's long face and gaunt figure.

Courtauld Insight

'After a traumatic childhood - spent partly in a psychiatric hospital - the dancer Jeanne Beaudon found fame as "Jane Avril". Her act was perhaps inspired by her childhood disorder, Sydenham's chorea, which involves sudden and irregular movements of the limbs and face.'

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