Courtauld Gallery

London has several smaller, independent museums, sometimes built upon the collections of a single individual. One such is the Courtauld Gallery, named for its principal benefactor, Samuel Courtauld, and is now located in Somerset House, on the Strand. Courtauld's collection has been joined by many, many others, and, together with the Courtauld Institute is now one of the world's art and art history powerhouses. Much of the Courtauld's Impressionist collection traveled to Paris while Somerset House was being renovated, to the Louis Vuitton Foundation, where we saw it in 2019. But there were other attractions for us in 2022: a special exhibition of paintings by the early Edvard Munch; the breadth of the general collection; and the Courtauld's other fame, figuring in Fake or Fortune, which we watch when we can, in which the Courtauld occasionally features (Bendor!). And then there's this: the Courtauld occupies the rooms formerly housing the Royal Academy, where its summer exhibitions were held from 1780 to 1837. It's not hard to imagine Turner or Reynolds or Gainsborough, et al., jockeying for space to hang their entries for the annual competition.

Courtyard of Somerset House, on the Strand

It's rare to see an entire set of paintings representing the evolution
of a painter's style; but that's what this exhibition, from Bergen, did;
we'd seen a fair amount of Munch in Oslo, some years back, and 
Vicki is a fan; Morning, 1884, just 20 years old when he painted it,
already leaning toward Impressionism

House in Moonlight, 1893

Melancholy, 1894

Spring Day on Karl Johan [an Oslo boulevard], 1890; Munch

acquired the nickname "Bizarro" for this one (Pizzaro?)

Self-Portrait in the Clinic, 1909; interesting brush work

Bathing Boys, 1909

Child Playing in the Street, 1901

Four Stages of Life, 1902

Evening on Karl Johan, 1892; The Scream would appear a year
later

And now to just a few of the Courtauld's biggies: Manet's A Bar
at the Folies-Bergere

Monet's Antibes

Van Gogh's Peach Trees in Blossom

"Cut myself shaving"

Renoir's La Loge

Botticelli's Trinity with John the Baptist and Mary
Magdaline

A Florentine wedding chest; posted here to show the context
for such biggies as Botticelli's Venus and Mars, etc.

One of Cranach's more than 50 Adam and Eves

Fantastical Peter Breughel, elder, landscape...Flight to Egypt
(they're in there somewhere)

Among several Rubens, this portrait of Jan Breughel
(elder) and family; Pedro-Paulo and Jan collaborated
now and then