The Courtauld presents a new display of masterpieces from The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

BGUK_3250114 - New display, ‘The Barber in London: Highlights from a Remarkable Collection’, opens 23 May 2025. Including works by Bellini, Rubens, Gainsborough, Turner, Rossetti, Whistler, Degas and Monet. Exceptional paintings from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, go on show at The Courtauld Gallery for an extended display, opening 23 May 2025. A selection of 18 masterpieces ranging from the Renaissance to the 20th century, including works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Turner, Degas, and Monet, will be exhibited at The Courtauld Gallery while the Barber undergoes major building improvements. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts was founded as a university gallery in 1932, the same year as The Courtauld Institute of Art and its collection. Both were intended to encourage the study and public appreciation of art. Today, the Barber and The Courtauld Gallery are home to two of the finest collections of European art in the country. The Barber was founded by Hattie, Lady Barber (1869-1933) in memory of her husband, Sir Henry Barber (1860-1927), a wealthy Birmingham property developer and lawyer. Lady Barber did not possess a significant collection of art. Instead, she created an endowment that allowed its Directors to acquire works that were, in her words, ‘of exceptional and outstanding merit’. For more than 70 years, this founding vision has shaped a carefully selected collection of major works that represent key developments in the history of Western art. Artworks photographed: - Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun 'Portrait of Countess Golovine' (circa 1800 ) - Joseph Mallord William Turner 'The Sun Setting through Vapour' (circa 1809 ) - Dante Gabriel Rossetti 'The Blue Bower' ( 1865 ) - Frans Hals 'Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull' ( circa 1612 ) - James Abbott McNeill 'Symphony in White No. III' ( circa 1865-67 ) - Edgar Degas 'Jockeys before the Race' ( circa 1878-79 ) - Claude Monet 'The Church at Varengeville' ( 1882 ) - Henri de Toulose-Lautrec 'A Woman seated in a Garden' ( circa 1890 ) - Max Pechstein 'Still Life in Grey' ( 1913 )