Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
series of Card Players . The works in room 6 are all by artists who took part in the first
Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1874, and include Renoir 's La Loge , a Monet
still-life, and a view of Lordship Lane by Pissarro from his days in exile in London.
Also on display are a small-scale version of Manet 's bold Déjeuner sur l'herbe , and his
atmospheric A Bar at the Folies-Bergère , a nostalgic celebration of the artist's love affair
with Montmartre, painted two years before his death. In room 7, Gauguin 's Breton
peasants Haymaking contrasts with his later Tahitian works, including the sinister
Nevermore . And there are works by Van Gogh including his Self-Portrait with Bandaged
Ear , painted shortly after his remorseful self-mutilation, following his attempted attack
on his flatmate Gauguin. Look out, too, for Picasso 's Child with a Dove , from 1901,
which heralded his “Blue Period”.
Second floor: twentieth-century works
he second floor is used primarily to display the Courtauld's twentieth-century works,
which bring a wonderful splash of colour and a hint of modernism to the galleries.
There isn't the space to exhibit the entire collection, so it's impossible to say for definite
which paintings will be on show at any one time. Room 8 is home to paintings,
sketches and sculptures by Edgar Degas , while in room 9, you hit the bright primary
colours of the Courtauld's superb collection of Fauvist paintings, by the likes of Derain,
Vlaminck, Braque, Dufy and Matisse, which spill over into room 10. You'll also find
Yellow Irises , a rare early Picasso from 1901, and one of Modigliani 's celebrated nudes.
The Courtauld owns a selection of works by Roger Fry , who helped organize the first
Impressionist exhibitions in Britain, and went on to found the Omega Workshops in
1913 with Duncan Grant. Fry also bequeathed his private collection to the Courtauld,
including several paintings by Grant, his wife Vanessa Bell and Fry himself. There's a
room devoted to British artists from the 1930s like Ben Nicolson, Barbara Hepworth
and Ivon Hitchens, and at least one room with works by the likes of Kokoschka,
Jawlensky, Kirchner, Delaunay and Léger, and an outstanding array of works by
Kandinsky , the Russian-born artist who was 30 when he finally decided to become a
painter and move to Munich. He's best known for his pioneering abstract paintings,
such as Improvisation on Mahogany from 1910, where the subject matter begins to
disintegrate in the blocks of colour.
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King's College
Strand • T 020 7848 2343, W kcl.ac.uk • ! Temple or Covent Garden
Adjacent to Somerset House, the ugly concrete facade of King's College (part of the
University of London) conceals Robert Smirke's much older buildings, which date
from its foundation in 1829. Rather than entering the college itself, stroll down
Surrey Street and turn right down Surrey Steps, which are in the middle of the old
Norfolk Hotel , whose terracotta facade is worth admiring. This should bring you out at
one of the most unusual sights in King's College: the “Roman” Bath , a 15ft-long tub
(actually dating from Tudor times at the earliest) with a natural spring that produces
2000 gallons a day. It was used in Victorian times as a cold bath (Dickens himself
used it and David Copperfield “had many a cold plunge” here). The bath is visible
through a window (daily 9am-dusk; T 020 7641 5264), but you can only get a closer
look by appointment.
St Mary-le-Strand
Strand • Tues-Thurs 11am-4pm, Sun 10am-1pm • Free • T 020 7836 3126, W stmarylestrand.org, • ! Temple or Covent Garden
St Mary-le-Strand , completed in 1724 in Baroque style and topped by a delicately
tiered tower , was the first public building of James Gibbs, who went on to design St
Martin-in-the-Fields. Nowadays, the church sits ignominiously amid the tra c
hurtling westwards down the Strand, though even in the eighteenth century,
parishioners complained of the noise from the roads, and it's incredible that recitals
 
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