The Courtauld Institute Galleries [antikvár]

The Courtauld Institute Galleries house somé ten constituent named collections, of which the most famous are the foundation collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and drawings, and the 'Princes Gate' collection, bequeathed by Count Antoine Seilern as recently as 1978. This superb benefaction rivals in splendour the Sámuel Courtauld collection. The Galleries' holdings comprise over 500 paintings, óooo drawings, and upwards of 26,000 prints, as well as high-quality examples of Italian Renaissance decorative art, Islamic metalwork, Turkish pottery, and a few pieces of sculpture. The rangé of the collections encompasses twelfth-century Limoges enamels, and medieval ivories; a choice assembly of fourteenth-, fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian art; outstanding Flemish and Netherlandish masterpieces, among them a very strong representation of Rubens paintings and drawings; important oil-sketches by Tiepolo; and, of course, all the major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters, with an interesting twentieth-century section which includes works by living artists. The several collections, each förmed by men and women of taste, discernment and knowledge, complement each other to a remarkable degree. This book celebrates their generosity to an institute which, barely óo years old, is about to embark on a significant new phase in its history following its removal to Somerset House. The Courtauld Institute of Art, of which the Courtauld Institute Galleries are an integrál part, came into being in 1931 as a result of priváté munificence and enlight-ened encouragement by senior members of the University of London at that time. The idea of creating a Senate institute for the teaching of the history of art at under-graduate and postgraduate levels came from Viscount Lee of Fareham (1868-1947), who in 1928 persuaded the then Vice-Chancellor (Sir Gregory Foster) and his profes-sorial colleagues to establish a sub-committee which would report on the academic viability of such a scheme. Lord Lee, who had been a distinguished soldier, diplomát, politician and, eventually, Privy Counsellor, whose wife was American, had been much impressed by the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University. In 1927 he con-fided to his wife his wish to see a comparable institute established in London, where art collections of the highest quality were closely linked with an academic institution devoted to art history. He had collected all his life and he and Lady Lee had given their country house, Chequers, with its collection, to the nation in 1917 for the use of the Prime Minister of the day to entertain visiting dignitaries (the gift became effective in lanuary 1921). Almost immediately, he had begun to form a second collection which he subsequently bequeathed to the Courtauld Institute. By July 1929, the academic bases for the Institute had been agreed, but as yet no endowment found. In the depths of the Depression, this might have seemed a forlorn hope, but Lee approached Sámuel Courtauld (1876-1947), chairman of the multi-national rayon (artificial silk) manufacturers Courtaulds Ltd, and a passionate, dis-cerning collector of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings since 1922. Courtauld was immediately receptive, and promised substantial financial help (L100,000) with an idea that would fulfil his own desire to spread a knowledge of art more widely. Practical support to both Lee and Courtauld alsó came from Sir Róbert Witt (1872-1952), a lawyer and chairman of the National Art-Collections Fund, who was to bequeath his incomparable photographic archive (of paintings) and collection of