Samuel Courtauld

Samuel Courtauld (1876–1947) was Chairman of the family textiles firm and an active patron of the arts, serving as a trustee on the boards of both the National and Tate Galleries.

In 1924 Courtauld established a trust fund of £50,000 to acquire examples of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Known as the Courtauld Fund, its acquisitions were insightful and included works by Manet, Renoir, Seurat, Degas and Van Gogh.

Initially displayed at the Tate, the paintings were transferred to the National Gallery during the 1950s and 1960s once they were no longer regarded as modern.

Selected works

Hillside in Provence

Paul Cezanne

The wall of angular, jutting rock formations in this painting may represent a quarry, with the cuttings revealing geological strata. While the hillside is somewhere in Cezanne’s native Provence, the specific location has not been conclusively identified.Stylistically, the painting relates to scen...

Room 43

Self Portrait

Paul Cezanne

Paul Cezanne was about 40 years old when he painted this self portrait in Paris around 1880–1. He was now middle-aged with a family to support, and the intensity of his earlier self portraits has here given way to a more distant and reflective presence. Although relatively small, the portrait has...

Room 44

Sunflowers

Vincent van Gogh

This is one of five versions of Sunflowers on display in museums and galleries across the world. Van Gogh made the paintings to decorate his house in Arles in readiness for a visit from his friend and fellow artist, Paul Gauguin.‘The sunflower is mine’, Van Gogh once declared, and it is clear tha...

Room 6

Corner of a Café-Concert

Edouard Manet

In August 1877 Manet began work on a large picture of the Brasserie de Reichshoffen, where he was fascinated by the skill of the waitresses. While working on the picture, he radically altered his plans and cut it in two, completing each half separately. This snapshot view of the cafe is the right...

On display elsewhere