The Courtauld is one of my favourite London galleries but familiarity can breed ennui. I went again yesterday knowing what to expect but I was in for a surprise.
There are usually some small exhibitions that change one of which is The Barber in London. Might it be something to do with the barber in Seville? It is eighteen of the finest pictures from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham; founded in the same year as the Courtauld (1932) by Lady Barber, who stipulated that the collection should be of the same standard as the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection. That’s a big ask but she got what she wanted; seven centuries of art from Botticelli to Auerbach.
“The formation of the collection began in 1936 under the discerning eye of Thomas Bodkin, director of the Barber Institute from 1935 to 1952. Bodkin was buying at a time of economic crisis in the art market , which allowed him to secure important works by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Monet, despite international competition for such masterpieces . Today the collection includes around 180 paintings and continues to grow through significant acquisitions.” (Courtauld Institute)
Should you be at Edgbaston and there is no play it is takes just thirty minutes to walk to the Barber but as it’s along the A38 it might be better to take a taxi. You will not be disappointed, I suppose, as I have not been, but you will be disappointed if you visit before it re-opens next year. To digress, as a bonus it is housed in an Art Deco masterpiece.
These are a few of the pictures I saw yesterday. And so to lunch: chicken soup with spätzle, devilled lamb kidneys and lemon and blueberry sorbets.
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I wonder what is left in Birmingham. Charleston in E Sussex (5* if you haven’t been) has a rather fine post impressionist exhibition from the Barber. They also have managed to borrow from Kings the Cezanne bought in Paris by Keynes who left it in the hedgerow on the road so he didn’t have to carry it up the muddy farm track. He did send one of the Bloomsbury boys down to rescue it.