Nigel Ip

I really like the Courtauld’s new acquisitions, currently on display in their drawings gallery.

Among them is the gallery’s first entry of works by Mary Cassatt, a major gap in their world-famous Impressionist collection. Plugging this fatal hole are two prints by Cassatt, one of which is a proof impression of The Parrot. The other is Quietude, of which this impression bears the traces of previous states. These are fine starters for the collection and I just hope they can one day acquire her gorgeous pastels and coloured prints.

The late Deanna Petherbridge is represented by a powerful spiralling drawing in the company of gridded works from Linda Karshan and Susan Schwalb. Nearby, Grayson Perry hangs with Frank Bowling, and Maliheh Afnan joins Georg Baselitz.

One fabulous wall is dominated by superb Victorian watercolours from the likes of Helen Allingham, William Henry Hunt, and Robert Hills. But amateur artists are also included like a set of landscapes from Elizabeth Frances Batty.

The earliest work is a beautiful reunion of two halves of a battle scene by Giovanni Battista Foggini. When Sir Robert Witt owned them, they were already in two halves, and he bequeathed the left-hand side to the Courtauld in 1952. The right-hand drawing went through the art market and reappeared in 2018, where the Courtauld acquired it. It’s a story that doesn’t happen often enough.

Finally, a rare portrait of Paul Gauguin by his contemporary Archibald Standish Hartrick shares a double-sided display with an unassuming Gauguin drawing of a man, representing a case study in how the artist transferred motifs from different sheets using transfer drawing.

What is immediately noticeable is the increased representation of female artists in the Courtauld collection, a trend that shows no sign of stopping and will only strengthen the gallery’s foundational pillars.

From the Baroque to Today: New Acquisitions of Works on Paper runs from 23 February to 27 May 2024 in the Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery, Courtauld Gallery, London, https://courtauld.ac.uk/