The Courtauld Collection: A Vision for Impressionism - Exhibition and accompanying catalogue
- Submitting institution
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Courtauld Institute of Art
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 37
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- February
- Year of first exhibition
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The output The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for Impressionism is a curatorial project consisting of an exhibition (Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 20 February – 17 June 2019) and a catalogue.
The portfolio has two components:
1) The catalogue, Serres, ed. The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for Impressionism (The Courtauld/Paul Holberton Publishing, 2019). Serres wrote the main essay (8,500 words) and 5 catalogue entries (4,000 words).
2) A dossier illustrating: examples of preparatory archival and technical research, installation views, additional outputs and scholarly reception.
The disappearance of Samuel Courtauld’s papers and his self-effacing nature have prevented a full understanding of his role as one of the most important collectors and philanthropists of the 20th century. This project aimed to widen the scope of research, shedding light on Courtauld’s collecting approach and show how his support for Impressionism changed public taste in Great Britain. The research also highlighted the hitherto overlooked role played by his wife, Elizabeth.
The exhibition was devised by Serres and co-curated with Suzanne Pagé and Angéline Scherf (Fondation Louis Vuitton). It included all the Impressionist works donated by Samuel Courtauld to The Courtauld, which he co-founded. Serres borrowed 15 additional works, bequeathed by Courtauld to family and friends and now dispersed, from public and private collections worldwide, allowing visitors to have a comprehensive overview of his collection. A documentary section and film on Samuel and Elizabeth Courtauld conveyed their personal engagement with the collection and how philanthropy was a central part of their lives.
The catalogue is the most complete resource to date on Courtauld. Serres commissioned essays from French and English scholars working on related topics, including Courtauld’s principal art dealer, the history of Impressionism in Britain and the market for Georges Seurat’s paintings in the 1920s. The catalogue also conveys new research on the paintings themselves.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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