“Goya to Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection” exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London

Earlier this year, I went to the Courtauld Gallery to see a special exhibition of the masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection (of Winterthur, near Zurich). 

It was a wonderful show - full of exciting paintings which had never been seen in England before.

Oskar Reinhart was born from a wealthy Winterthur family who ran a leading international trading company. More interested in art than business, he began collecting seriously in 1919. He eventually had to step back from the firm to devote himself fully to building his collection. This included impressionists and Renaissance works. He built a gallery which he then bequeathed to the Swiss Confederation, which opened to the public in 1970.

Rating: 4/5 ★★★★☆

✲✲✲

Still Life with Three Salmon Steaks by Francisco de Goya

Wow. Breathtaking. 

This painting was part of a group of twelve still lifes painted by Francisco de Goya.

Painted during the Peninsular War - within the Napoleonic Wars - against Napoleon’s France.  According to the gallery:

Still life must have seemed a neutral subject matter at a time of censorship and political upheaval. However, the raw realism of these salmon steaks, isolated from any context, their flesh rendered in blood red, suggests the brutality of war. 

✲✲✲

Man with Delusions of Military Rank by Théodore Géricault

A powerful and rueful painting.

This man is suffering from a mental illness.

Théodore Géricault was a painter of French Romanticism. This painting was created as part of a series of portraits (which were never exhibited during his lifetime) of patients in an asylum, around 1822.

It’s a touching and empathetic painting - his small cap, hospital tag, v. gaunt cheeks, and an anxious & distressed look.

✲

Laura Cumming, in her review “The week in art: Goya to Impressionism; Linder: Danger Came Smiling – review” (Guardian, Feb 2025), wrote an eloquent encomium about this painting which I enjoyed reading:

There are not many portraits you wait all your adult life to see, but so it is with A Man Suffering from Delusions of Military Rank, painted by Théodore Géricault some time after The Raft of the Medusa in 1819. This shattering image of a man with no name is in Britain for the first time, loaned by a small Swiss museum a dozen miles outside Zurich.

To see it with your own eyes is to have a sense of who this man might really be, whether the title seems right, and why Géricault painted him in the first place: all of them unresolved mysteries.

The man is gaunt and elderly and sunk in anxiety, or suspicion. He looks away from us towards some other world. He is dressed – or dressed up, perhaps by somebody else? – in white shirt, black gilet and cloth sash over one shoulder. Around his neck hangs what looks to modern eyes like a dog tag, numbered 121, and on his head is a tattered hat with red piping and tassel. Perhaps it is the hat of Napoleon’s military police, hence the delusions of rank. Or perhaps the tag gives the number of his hospital ward.

But all the historic interpretations of this painting – that this is a study of monomania, painted for a Parisian doctor specialising in madness – fall away when you stand before the actual portrait. Géricault has sat with this man in Paris, heard him breathe or even speak, watched his gaze slide away into the distance. Who knows where or for how long he has been confined. The portrait is so empathetic and dignified, but so loose in its excitable rapidity, that Géricault’s own state of mind becomes part of the picture’s content. It is anything but a diagnostic illustration.

One of a fabled series of 10 “insane” portraits, scattered after Géricault’s premature death at 32, it disappeared for years, eventually bought by the Swiss art collector Oskar Reinhart (1885-1965) in the 1920s. It has been hanging in his pristine white villa in Winterthur ever since. The private collection of this Hanseatic merchant became a public museum in the 1950s, and now a tranche of its greatest masterpieces has arrived in the once-private collection of his merchant contemporary Samuel Courtauld in London. Goya to Impressionism is a jewel of an exhibition.

✲✲✲

The Wave by Gustave Courbet

A powerful seascape by the French Realist painter Gustave Courbet.

I’m always so delighted to see an artist paint the foamy white bubbles on the crash bursting of a wave, or at its collapsing peaks.

They’re a force of nature which the artist seizes and then pours onto his canvas for our delectation. See also: The Wave by Gauguin (right). 

This painting was - for its time - quite radical. Important for his stylistic (thick and expressive) brushwork - textured surface created by thickly applied paint via a palette knife. This would be influential.

Fellow blogger Debra (“She who seeks”) recently posted about Hokusai. This painting also traces its inspiration to those magnificent Japanese woodblock prints of the 19th century. 

✲✲✲

The Hammock (Le Rêve) by Gustave Courbet

A feeling of carefree escapism?

Being one with nature. This was early among Courbet’s ouvre.

According to wikipedia, it was “submitted to the Salon of 1845 at the Louvre in Paris, but rejected by the authorities.”

✲✲✲

Marguerite de Conflans Wearing Hood by Édouard Manet

Just wonderful.

Manet’s loose impressionistic brushwork crates a canvass “texture” to her delicate garments and accentuates her thoughtful and engaging gaze. The dark background really illuminates her presence alongside those diaphanous fabrics. 

It’s a beautiful portrait.

✲✲✲

Self-portrait by Paul Cézanne

I’ve never seen Paul Cezanne as a younger man. He painted this when he was only 27. Claude Monet bought it.

Aged 41.

He seems measured, deliberate & composed - and yet perhaps a little anxiety in his hand raised to his cheek? 

It’s also a bit of a dark painting and the overall effect is a bit inscrutable?

✲✲✲

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza by Honoré Daumier

From Miguel de Cervantes.

Bold colours, loose brushstrokes, and almost abstractions.

It’s a funny painting - I’ll have to think about it more.

✲✲✲

The Little Reader (La Petite Liseuse) by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

Excellent - it’s that feeling of quiet inner peace.

Camille Corot was the teacher of Berthe Morisot. I think this is an interesting connection. 

Here he paints a woman entranced by a novel.

The posture, the face, and the environment all suggest a sense of serenity. 

Moreover, she feels so contemporary. Unlike the Rococo, she isn’t dancing, or posing alluringly, or doing anything at all. In fact, she doesn’t seem to care or notice the viewer - which perhaps invites the viewer to contemplate their relationship with the female object?

✲✲✲

Confidences by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Again, we see Renoir’s masterful use of light which adds to fleeting sense of the impressionist interaction. 

And, for me, once again ... a certain want in the visage. 

✲✲✲

Portrait of Victor Chocquet by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Lovely painting.

It’s nice to see Renoir paint a man. Victor Chocquet was a French art collector (wiki).

There is something irresistible about Chocquet’s gaze, and a certain charm & delicacy to his personality.

I like the open shirt, the feeling of an easiness about him and perhaps he’s a little bit of a thinker.

The light flowery background is a nice touch.

✲✲✲

The Milliner by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Beautiful brushstrokes forming her blouse. A lovely painting.

A working lady engrossed, confident, careful, against a light-greeny floral backdrop of swirling petals. 

I love those small & loose wisps of hair at the nape of her neck.

✲✲✲

Barges on the Canal Saint-Martin by Alfred Sisley

Great.

Sisley is an underrated impressionist.

Once again, fabulous waves rippling the water capturing the overcast atmosphere of the surface of the water which contrasts with the graded wooden finish of the barges.

And the sky’s calmful clouds are a beautiful contrast to the energy of the water.

✲✲✲

The Break-up of the Ice (La Débâcle) by Claude Monet

Another wow.

Monet’s mind-blowing watery effect.

The unripplied surface, a soft palette of colours across every surface, and those white brushstrokes of ice on the surface.

I feel I need to put on a jumper looking at this !

✲✲✲

Blue Roofs of Rouen by Paul Gauguin

Another wow.

The palette saturation is wonderful - azurean sky, then green hills, blue roofs, and red-browny fields.

This painting doesn’t like like a Gauguin yet. 

And yet, even so, his use of negative space in the foreground adds, I think, an allegorical tone to the work. Once again, Gauguin uses humans in a large & overbearing field which, to me, evokes a feeling of gloom, pity and/or despondency. For example, see Harvest: Le Pouldu by Paul Gauguin:

Harvest: Le Pouldu by Gauguin.

✲✲✲

Château Noir by Paul Cézanne

Cezanne is a difficult painter.

He does something beautiful - but why? 

Is it the limited form, the limited colours, the limited use of perspective, the melding of objects near and far ?

Not sure, but it does work. And brilliantly - sometimes he’s paintings are absolutely engrossing.

✲✲✲

Still Life with a Curtain, Jug and Fruit by Paul Cézanne

Another one of Cezanne’s enduring themes.

It’s obvious why he’s described as the father of modernism. It’s his intellectual challenging of art in producing something that doesn’t cohere - but has an immersive stunning effect.

✲✲✲

The Sickward of the Hospital at Arles by Vincent van Gogh

This is new to me.

And I had already seen so much of Van Gogh recently.

Poor Van Gogh. This is a window into his world - having spent weeks recovering from a mental breakdown. 

People huddled by the heater, a heavy atmosphere, solemn and lonely.

✲✲✲

The Clowness Cha-U-Kao by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Toulouse-Lautrec doesn’t do much for me, I don’t think.

Cha-U-Kao was a popular entertainer of 1890s’ Paris and a recurring subject of his.

✲✲✲

At the Café by Édouard Manet

Exhilarating to see this.

Manet’s brushwork is fascinating - the richness, the loose strokes etc... I always love poring over the details of his paintings.

And his subject is focused on the everyday and it’s fascinating. A recurring theme is Parisian bars - e.g. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère: 

I had already seen the twin to this painting at the National Gallery. It was a delight to see the other half at the Courtauld before it went to the National Gallery.

✲✲✲

Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso

Hmm ... not sure how I feel about a painting.

This was recently in the news, according to artnet:

Beneath the melancholy hues of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso, conservators have uncovered a long-hidden secret—an earlier painting of a mysterious woman, concealed for over a century ... Painted in 1901, when Picasso was only 19, this artwork marks one of the earliest pieces from his renowned Blue Period—a phase that lasted until roughly 1904 and was characterized by a monochromatic palette dominated by cool cerulean tones. It depicts Picasso’s friend and fellow Spanish artist Mateau Fernández de Soto.

✲✲✲

Le Pilon du Roi (The King’s Peak) by Paul Cézanne

Wow .... I give up now.

Cezanne has won me over.

I could just walk into this painting.

“Do collecting families have any responsibility to share iconic works of art with the broader public?”

I think so.

I think it’s wrong for great masterpieces to be hoarded.

✲✲✲

Article relates to the missing “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” by Vincent van Gogh. 

From “The Search for van Gogh’s Lost Masterpiece” (NYT):

Do collecting families have any responsibility to share iconic works of art with the broader public?

The question has grown more relevant as it becomes clearer that most museums can no longer outbid billionaire collectors for the greatest works of art. Few paintings make that point plainer than Dr. Gachet’s portrait, a piece long on public display that has now vanished into someone’s private home or a climate-controlled warehouse.

For many in the art world, such a work is not just a creative expression, but part of a trade that survives because of the interest and deep pockets of collectors who may, or may not, choose to share their work.

“People are allowed to own things privately,” said Michael Findlay, who was involved as a specialist for Christie’s in the 1990 auction sale of the Gachet. “Does it belong to everybody? No, it does not.”

But the loss is palpable to people like Cynthia Saltzman, the author of the 1998 book “Portrait of Dr. Gachet.”

She regularly viewed the painting at the Met. She had expected, even after it was sold privately, that the picture would surface here and there, at an exhibition or an auction.

“Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” at the National Gallery - Pt 3

Note: My write-up of the NG’s major Van Gogh exhibition will be over 3 parts: see Part 1 and Part 2.

---

Sunflowers - 1888 (London)

Incredible.  So uplifting and cheerful .

Photos doesn’t do this painting justice. It was part of a series of on a beautiful everyday subject that Van Gogh found alluring.

It looks like a simple painting (and it is) - but there is a life-force and meaning behind it - which I think is why people are drawn to it.

I believe this particular one was painted for Gauguin? (who really admired it). They reflect a warmth in Van Gogh’s yearning for companionship in Arles, which he called “the Japan of the South.” It feels happy.

Van Gogh sculpted these sunflowers out of paint. They protrude off the canvas and the petals are in different stages of wilt and decay.

The texture of the seeds is just magical.

I’m fascinated by the smidgen of reflective white.

Why emblazon the vaze with his forename: emphatic pride?

Beautiful long dash-like brushstrokes for petals.

Heavy thick seeds of various colours spiralling within the flowers.

“Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” at the National Gallery - Pt 2

Note: My write-up of the NG’s major Van Gogh exhibition will be over 3 parts: see Part 1 and Part 3.

---

Room 3 — “The Yellow House: An Artist’s Home”

The third theme of the exhibition concerns his time in Arles.

Arles was a tiny little town in Van Gogh’s day. Literally, a few houses and a railway line. The yellow house (below) was rented by van Gogh in early 1888. By September, he had bold plans to turn it into a modest “artist’s home” and commune for his artist friends from Paris. He used his major paintings as decoration for the house.

✲✲✲

Starry Night Over the Rhône - 1888

Awesome.

Quite possibly, my favorite painting of his. 

That’s the constellation of Ursa Major over the River Rhone at Arles.

The canvas overwhelms the senses with its immersive beautiful serene atmosphere.

As van Gogh explained:

“And it does me good to do what’s difficult. That doesn’t stop me having a tremendous need for, shall I say the word — for religion — so I go outside at night to paint the stars, and I always dream a painting like that, with a group of lively figures of the pals.”

 The vivid colours illuminating the painting.

“Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” at the National Gallery - Pt 1

Note: My write-up of the NG’s major Van Gogh exhibition will be over 3 parts: see Part 2 and Part 3.

---

This show is a once-a-century blockbuster. 

It contains 60 (!!!) of Van Gogh’s most famous pictures. There have been loans from around the world — from Athens to Mexico City! And, some, very special paintings from private collections (which we may never see again).

Everything in the exhibition was painted in the 2 short years that he spent in the South of France, in both Arles and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. It attempts to challenge our misconceptions of Van Gogh. By curating the show thematically (i.e. “garden” or “decoration”), his works can be seen in a fresher perspective. The gallery doesn’t want us to fall into the trap of seeing Van Gogh in the cliche chart of: ... Hope on arrival to set up an artists colony... Disintegrating relationship with Gauguin... Severing off ear... Going mad... Lunatic asylum... Suicide... 

Instead, themes pervade the entire gamut of Van Gogh’s time in the South of France — both Arles and Saint-Rémy. As such, he was interested in the recurring ideas & themes ... a consistency.

My overall thoughts:

• Amazing capacity as a colourist, and the way he arranges compositions.
• Love the incredible atmospheric scenes rendered & their “life-force” (part 2).
• The expressive brushstrokes in his use of colour in portraitures — not descriptive, but quite expressive and symbolic.

✲✲✲

Room 1 — Introduction (1888)

In Feb 1888, Van Gogh went to live and work in the South of France.

This room instances van Gogh’s enduring love for parks and nature, and his symbolic portraits of “The Poet” and “The Lover” (betokening the exhibition’s title).

The Poet, The Portrait of Eugène Boch - 1888

Love it.

This guy — Mr. Boch — was actually an artist. But, van Gogh thought he was the “ideal” poet.

Apparently, he thought his narrow face reminded him of the poet Dante.

The blue sky was intended to convey the impression of a man who “dreams great dreams.”

Close up of Van Gogh’s distinct signature eyes.

Colours harmonious and intense... reaching towards some “inner self” being painted?

The interior’s mirror.

✲✲✲

The Lover, Portrait of Lieutenant Milliet - 1888

A stately & striking picture. This is “The Lover” ...

It seems Milliet was known to Van Gogh as the epitome of success — a military man and “conquering” with the women.

Van Gogh depicts the Lieutenant in a dashing uniform, a distant serious aspect, a bold and elegantly bristling moustache, an overall dignified appearance.

The dark green background creates a dramatic surface to further highlight his aspect.

Beautiful.

✲✲✲

The Poet’s Garden (Public Garden in Arles) - 1888

Very exciting new blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition

The National Gallery is celebrating its 200 year anniversary this year.

They have organised a “once in a century” Van Gogh celebration for his major works from across the world!!

I saw the exhibition guide the other day at the shop — but dare not open it and spoil the excitement. 😆

Will post a deep-dive after I’ve visited!!

Vincent van Gogh’s death — “The sadness will last forever”

Today is the 133th anniversary of the day Vincent van Gogh committed suicide.

In the year 1890, a few days after painting “Wheatfield With Crows” (above), Vincent van Gogh decides to go walking into that same field. Behind a haystack, he decides to shoots himself in the chest. Incredibly, van Gogh manages to struggle to return to his room at a nearby inn ... telling no-one of what he had done. 

Only when the innkeeper discovers Van Gogh’s condition, he calls for Dr Gachet — Vincent’s physician and friend (see Van Gogh’s Portrait). Dr Gachet realises the extremity of Van Gogh’s condition and sends word to Vincent’s brother, Theo. Theo arrives the very next afternoon, and rushes to Vincent’s bedside. Vincent lived for two days after the gunshot wound. His brother Theo was able to talk with him. It’s worth noting that both Theo and Gachet believed he shot himself. 

“The sadness will last forever,” Vincent tells his brother as death nears.

Vincent finally dies at 1.30am on 29th July 1890.

In retrospect, I think we can feel the ominous desperation of Van Gogh’s mind in his “Wheatfield With Crows”. The crows flying up from the sombre field due to the reverberating gunshot of a pistol?

We can probably never truly understand the depths of his depression.

If only he knew, how much his paintings were to be loved and admired by so many people.