The Courtauld

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A couple look at Édouard Monet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)

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Medieval Pax

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Thomas Gainsborough - Landscape with sheep and cattle on the bank of a stream (around 1780 - 84)

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Detail image of the ornate ceiling in Room 3

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Peter Paul Rubens — Sketch for ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’ (around 1608)

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Room 7 of The Courtauld

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Detail photo of Richard Wilson - A View of the River Dee (Around 1760)

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Looking up at the infamous steep steps to the top of the Courtauld Gallery

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Edgar Degas - Two Dancers on a Stage (1874)

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Looking down the spiral steps from the top

Resist the urge to ride the lift straight to the Great Room — the first purpose-built art exhibition space in the UK — and work your way to the top through the rooms in numerical order. 

There are treasures to be discovered along the way, like a Medieval Pax churchgoers kissed at the end of mass (Image 2, Rm 1). Or Thomas Gainsborough drawings never intended for public display (Image 3, Rm 2).

Since it’s easy to get distracted by religious Renaissance art, be sure to look up at the decorative ceilings (Image 4, Rm 3). These ornate rooms once housed ‘Learned Societies’ where such notable achievements as the 1781 discovery of Uranus was announced. (Insert your own childish joke here.)

By the time you get to Room 6 you’ll begin to appreciate the greatness of the work that awaits. Whatever you know about art, you’ll immediately see why European royalty commissioned Peter Paul Rubens. Even his quickly made “sketch” works (Image 5) make almost everything that’s come before look like child’s play. 

Ruben’s movement, light and sensuality extend into a second room (Image 6, Rm 7) and from this point forward, even lesser known names impress. Like this detail of a work by Richard Wilson (Image 7, Rm 8)

Finally, the infamous steep steps dauntingly appear (Image 8). Catch your breath at the top with an exquisite aperitif of Degas (Image 9, Rm 9) before the main course of Impressionists in the Great Room: Cezanne, Gaugin, Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh and Manet’s swan song masterpiece, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (Image 1, Rm 10).

Alas, the remainder of the top floor was a underwhelming aftertaste when I visited, but there’s one final treat in store. You can take those spiral steps all the way down (Image 10), but be sure to read the ‘About the Staircase’ sign first. It’s one of the many fascinating description cards you’ll find in every room explaining the history and architecture of the building —which some have argued is the grandest work of the collection.

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Visit https://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/ or @courtauld on Instagram

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