Courtauld Gallery
A jewel box inside Somerset House: small enough to see in 60–90 minutes, rich enough to change how you look at painting. The Courtauld’s top-floor Impressionism rooms put you nose-to-canvas with Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne and Seurat; lower floors pair medieval to 18th-century highlights with smart, uncluttered displays. Labels are crisp, benches plentiful, and the 2021 refurbishment means light and sightlines do the heavy lifting. Go for a focused hit of masterpieces without big-museum fatigue.
Opening Hours
What's not to miss inside?
Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)
A puzzle of mirrors and modern lifeThe barmaid Suzon meets your eye while a misbehaving mirror bends space behind her—Parisian spectacle distilled.
📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor
Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889)
After the crisis, painting as self-repairThick, directional strokes pull the face into focus against a Japanese print—discipline holding chaos at bay.
📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor
Degas, Two Dancers on a Stage
Movement studied like engineeringDegas freezes rehearsal into geometry—fans, tutus and stage flats make a clockwork of bodies.
📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor
Cézanne Still Lifes
Apples that rewire paintingTilted tabletops and shifting viewpoints show Cézanne trading camera-truth for structure and weight.
📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor
Medieval to 18th-Century Suite
Earlier art, newly luminousAfter the 2021 refit, gilded panels and Enlightenment portraits read clean and bright—perfect palate-cleansers between modern hits.
📍 Lower floors, enfilade rooms
Inspire your Friends
- Samuel Courtauld made his fortune in rayon (artificial silk) and spent it like a patron from the Renaissance—seeding one of the UK’s greatest Impressionist collections in a single decade.
- In Manet’s ‘Bar’, the Bass ale triangle is an early product logo cameo; the mirror’s ‘wrong’ reflection still fuels scholarly debates on perspective and intent.
- Seurat’s ‘Young Woman Powdering Herself’ at the Courtauld hides a tiny painted self-portrait in a mirror—added, then later covered during revisions.
- The gallery’s ‘Courtauld Connects’ makeover (completed 2021) re-opened long-closed rooms in Somerset House and re-hung the collection to emphasise sightlines and natural light.
