Sony World Photography Awards returns to Somerset House from 19 April to 6 May 2024, and we are delighted to offer SWPA ticket holders 20% off standard adult tickets to The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads at The Courtauld Gallery between 19 April and 6 May. You can also visit our world-famous collection and enjoy our iconic Impressionist masterpieces, such as Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. *This ticket offer entitles SWPA ticket holders to redeem 20% off one standard adult ticket to The Gr ..read more

Samuel Courtauld was a man of many talents. As chairman of Courtaulds Ltd he was an important industrialist and government advisor, and as a philanthropist and art collector he helped to establish the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1932, as well as contributing to the collections at the National Gallery. He began the art collection at The Courtauld Gallery, now home to one of the world’s great art collections, including iconic Impressionist masterpieces. Read on to find out more about the character of this fascinating and influential man. Despite his wealth, he considered himself a bit o ..read more

Who were the Impressionists? How did they work, and what made them different? We now know all about Monet, Cézanne, Pissarro, and many more, and how their approach to art changed art history. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the First Impressionist Exhibition, held in Paris in April 1874, read on to find out some things you may not know about the Impressionist movement. The term was originally an insult The group of artists we now know as the Impressionists came together to show their work in Paris in 1874, after having been rejected from the annual state-sponsored exhibition where art ..read more

In this new film, hear artist Frank Auerbach reflect on his life and artistic practice. During his early years as a young artist in post-war London, Auerbach produced one of his most remarkable bodies of work: a series of large-scale portrait heads made in charcoal. Auerbach spent months on each drawing, working and reworking them during numerous sessions with his sitters. The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads at The Courtauld Gallery is the first time these extraordinary post-war drawings, made in the 1950s and early 1960s, have been brought together as a compre ..read more

We are delighted to report the appointment of alumnus Dr. Nicholas Cullinan OBE (BA 2002, MA 2003, PhD 2010) as the new Director of The British Museum. Nicholas Cullinan is an art historian, curator and current Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, a position he has held since 2015. He completed his BA, MA and PhD at The Courtauld and his PhD thesis, The Archaeology of Knowledge: Excavating Arte Povera, was supervised by Professor Sarah Wilson. During his student days Nicholas worked as a visitor services assistant at the National Portrait Gallery, little knowing that he would la ..read more

We are delighted that Reworking Manet, a live project brief for state school students aged 14-18,  has been nominated for a London Higher Award for London creative arts initiative of the year. Developed by The Courtauld’s learning team in collaboration with a group of young people and Turner Prize-winning artist and Courtauld alumnus Jeremy Deller, the project began as a pilot project in 2021/22, encouraging students from all subjects to research, interrogate and respond creatively in any media to Édouard Manet’s famous painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) in The Courtau ..read more

The Courtauld’s much-loved Book Sale returns on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 March 2024 after a 4-year hiatus. The Courtauld Student’s Union will open its doors once again to sell thousands of books on art and architecture at bargain prices.  The sale will be a two-day event at our Vernon Square campus. Monday 25 March, 10:00 – 12:00  The 2024 sale opens with a preview for Courtauld Friends and Patrons, Students, Staff, and Alumni. Monday 25 March,12:00 – 17:00 and Tuesday 26 March,12:00 – 19:00 Public Book Sale open. A vast number of interesting tomes have been donated, including some ..read more

We are delighted to announce two new appointments as part of The Courtauld’s ongoing strategy to expand our curatorial and academic expertise. Beginning in May, Dr Elena Crippa will join the institution as its first Curator of Contemporary Art: Exhibitions and Projects and Professor Lynda Nead FBA will become a new Visiting Professor, starting in the autumn.     The positions will enhance The Courtauld’s resources and ambitions as an internationally renowned centre for the teaching, research and curation of art. Elena Crippa’s role will focus on the development and delivery of ..read more

Courtauld Institute of Art scholars have contributed to a series of newly commissioned films on The Procession (2022) by British sculptor and contemporary visual artist Hew Locke, which are now available to view online. The Procession was a large-scale installation displayed in Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries from 22 March 2022 – 22 January 2023. It invited visitors to ‘reflect on the cycles of history, and the ebb and flow of cultures, people and finance and power.’ Each of the 10 films approaches The Procession from a different perspective and focuses on a distinctive topic or theme. Contri ..read more

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024, explore some of the remarkable works by women artists acquired since 2018 when the Gallery closed for a major renovation. Since its founding in 1932, The Courtauld’s collection has continued to grow through gifts, bequests and purchases, chiefly of drawings and prints. Our latest Drawings Gallery display, From the Baroque to Today: New Acquisitions of Works on Paper, presents a selection of works spanning the late 17th to the early 21st centuries. It shows artists working across a wide range of techniques, media and subject matter, and features wor ..read more