Courtauld Gallery

#51

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.

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Opening Hours

Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00

Monday: 10:00 – 18:00

Tuesday: 10:00 – 18:00

Wednesday: 10:00 – 18:00

Thursday: 10:00 – 18:00

Friday: 10:00 – 18:00

Saturday: 10:00 – 18:00

What's not to miss inside?

Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)

A puzzle of mirrors and modern life

The barmaid Suzon meets your eye while a misbehaving mirror bends space behind her—Parisian spectacle distilled.

Step left, then right: watch how the bottle labels align and the trapeze-artist’s boots hover in the top left.

📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor

Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889)

After the crisis, painting as self-repair

Thick, directional strokes pull the face into focus against a Japanese print—discipline holding chaos at bay.

Look for brush-ridges along the coat; they beat in a different rhythm to the calm hat and face.

📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor

Degas, Two Dancers on a Stage

Movement studied like engineering

Degas freezes rehearsal into geometry—fans, tutus and stage flats make a clockwork of bodies.

Squint to see big shapes first; then move in on the pastel scumbles at the tutu’s edge.

📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor

Cézanne Still Lifes

Apples that rewire painting

Tilted tabletops and shifting viewpoints show Cézanne trading camera-truth for structure and weight.

Find a table edge that ‘can’t’ be true; that’s the point—form over optics.

📍 Impressionism rooms, upper floor

Medieval to 18th-Century Suite

Earlier art, newly luminous

After the 2021 refit, gilded panels and Enlightenment portraits read clean and bright—perfect palate-cleansers between modern hits.

Alternate long looks with ‘blink’ glances; gold leaf rewards both.

📍 Lower floors, enfilade rooms

🤓 Fun Facts

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.