Courtauld Institute Galleries - Softcover

Courtauld Institute Galleries

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Italian Art Books
(Houston, TX, U.S.A.)

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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. The holdings of the Courtauld Institute Galleries were assembled by some ten discerning collectors who have donated them to the University of London over the years since 1931, when the Courtauld Institute was founded. The foundation collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters, the largest in Britain, was formed by the Institute's namesake, Samuel Courtauld, but subsequent benefactions, greatest among them Count Antoine Seilern's as recently as 1978, have included many important Old Masters. The Courtauld Institute Galleries' holdings now comprise over 500 paintings, 6,000 drawings and more than 26,000 prints, as well as high-quality examples of Italian Renaissance decorative art, Islamic metalwork and Turkish pottery. The range of the collections encompasses medieval ivories and enamels; a choice assembly of Italian Trecento and Renaissance art; outstanding Flemish and Netherlandish masterpieces, among them an important early work by the Master of Flémalle and a very strong representation of Rubens's paintings and drawings; important oil-sketches by Tiepolo; all the major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masters, from Manet to Gauguin; also an interesting twentieth-century collection which includes works by living artists. This book marks a new phase in the Galleries' history, following their removal to magnificent new premises in Somerset House on the Strand. Built by William Chambers (1723-96), Somerset House is one of the most important Neoclassical buildings in Britain, set in a splendid position overlooking the Thames. Appropriately, the Galleries occupy the Fine Rooms in the North Block that were intended to house the then newly founded Royal Academy of Arts and two other societies, the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. Seller Inventory # ABE-1703886199149

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