Term 1
Overview
(this illustrated lecture will take place at 1 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DJ)
An introduction to each collection, focusing on their origins and curatorial policies.
The Courtauld Gallery
Sited in what was the 18th century home of the Royal Academy, the Courtauld is a collection of collections. These include Thomas Gambier Parry’s (1816-88) gallery - with a polyptych altarpiece by Bernardo Daddi, a set of predella panels; Samuel Courtauld’s (1876-1947) wonderful Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings such as Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear by Vincent Van Gogh, A Bar at the Folies- Bergère by Edouard Manet, and La Loge by Pierre-Auguste Renoir; and Viscount Lee of Fareham’s (1868-1947) Renaissance paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Botticelli.
Leighton House
Set on the edge of Holland Park, the recently renovated Leighton house is a key 19th century building, formerly the home and studio of Victorian artist, Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). Its Arab Hall is one of the highlights, displaying Leighton’s collection of over a thousand Islamic tiles. The house offers a great opportunity to see where Leighton painted many of his masterpieces.
The Guildhall Art Gallery
The City of London began collecting artworks in the 17th century and since the Second World War the Guildhall collection has concentrated on London subjects. The gallery shows 250 works of art at a time (of its 4,000) with a programme of temporary exhibitions. Highlights include Millais’ The Woodsmans Daughter 1851; Rossetti’s La Ghirlandata, 1871-4; Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral 1829-31; John Singleton Copley’s epic Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782, 1783-1791; and London’s only Roman amphitheatre uncovered by archaeologists in 1988.
Term 2
The John Soane Museum
Architect John Soane designed his remarkable house at Lincoln’s Inn Fields not only as somewhere to live but as a place to display his collection of antiquities and works of art. A museum packed full of surprises, its highlights include: Roman, medieval and Renaissance antiquities; 17th and 18th century sculpture - including work by John Flaxman; casts; an Oriental collection; timepieces; and paintings by Canaletto and Hogarth.
The Imperial War Museum
Founded in 1917 to document the war, the museum’s moving art collection is a record of Britain’s official War Artists Schemes across two World Wars through to the present day. Curated as a series of temporary displays, artists in the collection include: Percy Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash, CRW Nevinson, John Singer Sargent, Stanley Spencer, Sir William Orpen, John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore, Laura Knight, Stanley Spencer, John Keane and Peter Howson.
Estorick Collection
Opened in 1989 in a listed Georgian building in Islington, this collection is the vision of one man: Eric Estorick (1913-93) and his passion for Italian art. With a core of Futurist works by key artists such as Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni, as well as figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s (including Giorgio Morandi), this museum also has a temporary exhibition to explore.
Term 3
The Dulwich Picture Gallery
Billed as “England’s first public art gallery”, the John Soane-designed museum offers an excellent introduction to the 17th century and the Baroque. Originally destined as a Royal Collection for Poland, the 350 works on display include paintings by Van Dyck, Murillo, Poussin, Watteau, Gainsborough, Rubens, Tiepolo, Canaletto and the world’s most stolen painting’ by Rembrandt.
The Geffrye Museum
The Geffrye Museum, located in Shoreditch, has a collection of textiles, furniture, paintings and decorative arts from the seventeenth century to the present. Arranged chronologically as a series of eleven period living-rooms, the museum enables the visitor to see these artworks in the context of English middle-class lives. Its reconstructed period gardens are also a feature.
Fenton House
Set in pretty gardens, Hampstead’s 17th century Fenton House has a collection based on Victorian collector and benefactor George Salting (1835-1909) and added to by his niece. Highlights include a collection of paintings by Sir William Nicholson on loan from the Bacon family, who commissioned them; blue-and-white Chinese porcelain, almost all from the Kangxi period (1662-1722); exquisite small needlework pictures; and the Benton Fletcher Collection of harpsichords, clavichords, virginals, spinets and pianos, all kept in playing order.
