The Barber in London: Highlights from a Remarkable Collection

A selection of exceptional paintings from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, will go on view at the Courtauld Gallery for an extended display, while the Barber undergoes a major refurbishment project. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts was founded as a university gallery in 1932, the same year as the Courtauld 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. Highlights from the collection at the Barber include important works such as Frans Hals’s Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull (c. 1610-14), Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun’s Portrait of Countess Golovina (1797-1800), Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s The Blue Bower (1865), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Woman in a Garden (1890). In addition, a handful of paintings with strong links to The Courtauld’s own collection will be embedded in the permanent collection displays, among them Joshua Reynolds’s monumental double portrait Maria Marow Gideon and her brother William (1786-87).