Exhibitions 2
The Courtauld Institute Galleries at Somerset House
Could do better
Giles Auty
The presentation of art is an odd and often contentious business. Earlier this year a great fuss was made about the important and largely successful rehang of the Tate. Now we learn that the National Gallery, too, is going to shuffle its pack and put all the cards therein into chronolo- gical order. Scholars and artists usually have something to say about any interfer- ence with the status quo. A well-known artist has told me he needs to know the exact whereabouts of a number of key paintings so he can dash in to get a quick, weekly boost from this or that masterpiece. All change upsets his finely tuned system, so he strongly opposes it.
Generally, the manner in which most modern museums are hung indicates a didactic intention. The lessons may be implied rather than stated and are often subtle enough to slip beneath the guard of the unaware. 'I had no idea so-and-so was such an important artist until I saw his work hanging in the gallery next to the one where Matisses and Picassos are kept.' My advice is to keep thinking about the art rather than the place where it's hung.
From 12 June, the Courtauld Institute and its collections were rehoused in the Strand block of Somerset House which had been unoccupied previously since 1972. The building was one of the original Georgian homes of the Royal Academy which added its particular pomp to the various bureaucracies once resident there.
Indeed, some may find the present reloca- tion of the Courtauld Institute and its galleries uncomfortably close to the chillier intellectual ambience of the offices of the Inland Revenue, located to one side. The Courtauld Institute, as most know, exists for the study of the history of art and of such technologies as restoration and dating of works by scientific means. The family of that name were the original benefactors but Samuel Courtauld's pioneering collec- tion of Impressionist and Post- Impressionist works forms only a part of the art in the institute's new, spacious home. Count Antoine Seilern, Lord Lee of Fareham, Sir Robert Witt, Thomas Gam- bier Parry, Roger Fry, Sir Anthony Blunt and Lillian Browse are among others whose collections have been donated to the Courtauld Institute, which is now part of the University of London. The joint collec- tions are housed in two suites totalling 11 galleries divided between two floors.
It is the manner in which works are divided and the hanging and decoration of individual galleries which may invite most comment. For example, Gallery V, which is home to many important Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, is painted in hues associated more customarily with sugared almonds. The compromise neces- sary between the needs of a late 18th- century interior and those of late 19th- century art may have been difficult to judge. One is more sympathetic over the existence of the problem than over its attempted solution. Elsewhere, in the col- lections of 15th-, 16th- and 17th-century art, a hue labelled as green bice in the first watercolour box I owned is all-pervasive. The word bice does not appear even in the complete Oxford English Dictionary and I wonder whether the spelling should not be tise'? Whatever its etymology, I remain unconvinced about the colour but was still not distracted unduly thereby in my great enjoyment of the art of the first four galleries: a wonderful Botticelli, two mag- nificent marriage chests decorated by Zanobi di Domecino, sumptuous works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Tiepolo and a host of others. On the afternoon of my visit the combination of outdoor heat and the de- gree of indoor humidity demanded by conservationists made for a climate more 'The Family of Jan Brueghel the Elder', by Rubens, on view at Somerset House ideal for the growing of orchids than the enjoyment of paintings, yet I was barely deterred.
Galleries V and VI expose familiar Impressionist and Post-Impressionist treats such as Manet's 'A Bar at the Folies- Bergere', while Gallery VII shows excel- lent silver made by 18th-century members of the Courtauld family, - sterling Huguenots to a man. But from the huge space of Gallery VIII onwards the going gets tougher. An awful Utrillo, a pair of uncharacteristically dismal Bonnards and the most unsympathetically framed Monet I have seen — of Antibes — contribute minor irritations to a certain losing both of the way and of any convincing rationale. I am reminded a little of those student essays, known even to the tutors at the Courtauld, one imagines, which begin so promisingly with taut reasoning and consi- dered prose. But as student energy sub- sides and social engagements press, loss of attention and logic begin a runaway ro- mance . . . your ending has let you down again, Araminta, you have it in you to do better than this.
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