Samuel Courtauld (7 May 1876 – 1 December 1947) was an English industrialist who is best remembered as an art collector. He founded

The Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist col ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1932 and, after a series of gifts during the 1930s, bequeathed his collection to the institute on his death. By the early 20th century, the Courtauld family business had become a major international company, having successfully developed and marketed

rayon Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. It is also called viscose. Many types and grades of viscose ...

, an artificial fibre and inexpensive

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

substitute. Samuel Courtauld took charge of the firm from 1908 as director and as chairman from 1921 to 1946.

Personal life

Courtauld was the son of

Sydney Courtauld Sydney Courtauld Justice of the Peace, JP (1840–1899) was a Crêpe_(textile), Crêpe and Silk manufacturer, and part of the Courtauld family empire in Great Britain Personal life He was born on 10 March 1840 in Bocking, Essex, Bocking, Braintr ...

(1840–1899) and Sarah Lucy Sharpe (1844–1906), and the great-nephew of textile magnate Samuel Courtauld. He was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

. After he finished school he visited Germany and France and studied textile technology to prepare to work in the family business. In 1901, he became director of one of the factories (in Halstead,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

), then in 1908 the CEO of all plants of the company. He became interested in art after seeing the Hugh Lane collection on exhibition at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in 1917. However, his career as a collector started in 1922 following an exhibition of French art at the

Burlington Fine Arts Club The Burlington Fine Arts Club (established 1866; dissolved 1952) was a London gentlemen's club based at 17 Savile Row. The club had its roots in the informal Fine Arts Club, a gathering of amateur art enthusiasts, founded by John Charles Robi ...

. Courtauld was one of the first British collectors to display interest in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

and Post-Impressionist paintings. During the 1920s, he assembled an extensive collection including masterpieces by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

('' Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear'' and ''Peach Blossom in the Crau'' previously owned by

Anna Boch Anna Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936) was a Belgium, Belgian Painting, painter, born in La Louvière, Saint-Vaast, Hainaut (province), Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery ...

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bor ...

('' A Bar at the Folies-Bergère''),

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

('' Montagne Sainte-Victoire'') and

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that " ...

('' La Loge''). The core elements of his collection were acquired between 1926 and 1930, though his passion dwindled somewhat following the death of his wife Elizabeth (known as Lil) in 1931. Samuel founded The Courtauld Institute of Art with Viscount Lee of Fareham and

Sir Robert Witt Sir Robert Clermont Witt (16 January 1872 – 26 March 1952) was a British art historian, who, along with Samuel Courtauld and Lord Lee of Fareham, was a co-founder of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Witt was born in Camberwell, s ...

in 1930. Courtauld provided the bulk of the finances for the founding of The Courtauld Institute of Art. His wealth came from the textile business, but on both sides of his family there were connections with the arts and traditions of patronage going back several generations. Courtauld loved pictures and wrote poems about them. On the advice of

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developm ...

and others he bought French Impressionists and Cézannes and took out a lease on the best

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...

house in London,

Home House Home House is a Georgian town house at 20 Portman Square, London. James Wyatt was appointed to design it by Elizabeth, Countess of Home in 1776, but by 1777 he had been dismissed and replaced by Robert Adam. Elizabeth left the completed h ...

, 20 Portman Square, in which to display them - a novel and stunning combination. His example was emulated by his younger brother Stephen, who converted the medieval ruins of Eltham Palace into an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

mansion. Samuel Courtauld was the real

Maecenas Gaius Cilnius Maecenas ( – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian (who later reigned as emperor Augustus). He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the re ...

of the trio, and when his wife died in 1931, he made over the house in Portman Square, together with the pictures, for the use of the new institute until such time as permanent accommodation could be found for them. In the event the Portman Square house was to be the institute's home for almost sixty years. Courtauld also created a £50,000 acquisition fund for the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

and

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in London, helping lay the foundations of national collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. The grave of Samuel Courtauld in Margate Cemetery

The grave of Samuel Courtauld in Margate Cemetery

Family

Samuel Courtauld married Elizabeth Theresa Frances Kelsey on 20 June 1901. The children from this marriage included Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld (1902–1954), who married the politician

Rab Butler Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary ...

and was the mother of

Richard C. Butler Sir Richard Clive Butler (12 January 1929 – 28 January 2012) was a British farmer and merchant banker, President of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales. Early life One of the sons of the Conservative politician Rab Butler, by his mar ...

and Adam Butler.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...

'', vol. 3 (2003), p. 4044 Samuel's younger brother,

Stephen Courtauld Sir Stephen Lewis Courtauld (27 February 1883 – 9 October 1967) was an English philanthropist associated with geographical exploration, the restoration of Eltham Palace in south-east London, and cultural and education causes, both in the UK a ...

, was also an arts patron and is remembered for his work on restoring

Eltham Palace Eltham Palace is a large house at Eltham ( ) in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The house consists of the medieval great hall of a former royal residence, to which an Art Deco extension was added in the 19 ...

Augustine Courtauld Augustine Courtauld (26 August 1904 – 3 March 1959), often called August Courtauld, was a yachtsman and British Arctic explorer, best known for serving as the solo meteorologist of a winter observation post, ''Icecap Station'', located in the i ...

(1904–1959), Samuel's cousin, was an

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, noted for his pioneering observations of the climate of the

ice cap In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets. Description Ice caps are not constrained by topographical featu ...

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is ...

References and sources

;References ;Sources * ;Further reading * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Courtauld, Samuel 1876 births 1947 deaths English art collectors English philanthropists Impressionism People associated with the Courtauld Institute of Art English businesspeople British textile industry businesspeople

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...

People educated at Rugby School English people of French descent