Courtauld Gallery
- Art lovers
- Families with children
What Visitors Say
One of the most impressive small galleries you will find anywhere, hosting some of the best of the impressionists, including Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, and Van Gough. The rooms used to where the Royal Academy was based and are still laid out in that style.
Beautiful space and wonderful exploration of impressionist art. Can easily visit with a spare hour or two in central London. Both times I've been the special exhibition was a nice add on.
A little gem of a London museum. Great collection, particularly of Impressionist art, which is easy to work through over 1-2 hours. Can see all items without feeling drained, unlike many larger museums. Free entry if you have a National Art Pass. And the store is gorgeous
We visited this gallery by chance – there were no tickets for a temporary exhibition, so we decided to see the permanent collection. And it was a happy coincidence. The gallery contains a very good, comprehensive collection from medieval art to the 20th century. It's well organized –you travel in time changing floors – and it is on a human scale, meaning you can see it in its entirety without getting overloaded. My favorite works here include: the tiny Virgin and Child attributed to Benozzo Gonzoli (15th century), the incredibly subtle Virgin and Child by Quinten Massys (early 16th century), Landscape with Flight into Egypt by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (16th century), and several paintings by Cézanne, Manet, and Renoir. It's truly a place to visit. We wondered how we hadn't come across it sooner. I highly recommend it.
Visiting the Courtauld Gallery was an unforgettable experience. Although it isn’t the largest gallery in the city, the quality of the collection is astounding, featuring some of the most iconic works in art history. A personal highlight was encountering one of my favourite pieces ever: Claude Monet’s Bouquet of Flowers. The vibrancy of the colours and the softness of Monet’s brushwork are truly breathtaking up close! I spent a while just staring at this one piece specifically. The building itself is a work of art, with its elegant architecture and painted ceilings which some may accidentally overlook. It’s a lovely surprise that adds to the charm of the gallery :)
Highlights
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
Opening Hours
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.
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