Samuel Courtauld

Samuel Courtauld (* 1876 ; † 1947 ) was an English industrialist, art collector and patron .

The Courtauld family had made fortunes in textile mills for generations before Samuel Courtauld IV (the fourth bearer in the family) joined the company in 1908 and was quickly promoted to director. He held this position from 1921 to 1946. In the twenties, the Courtaulds company , a manufacturer of viscose fibers ( artificial silk ), achieved significant capital gains. In 1926 Courtauld's only daughter, Sydney Elizabeth, married the conservative politician Rab Butler , who later held the offices of Minister of the Interior, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Keeper of the Lord Seal, Minister of Education and Minister of Labor. His country estate Gatcombe Park is now inhabited by Princess Anne , the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II .

In 1917 Courtauld saw the exhibition of impressionist paintings by collector Sir Hugh Lane at the Tate Gallery . In London, this painting was only sparsely represented in public collections, which was due to the concept of museums at the time. The Tate Gallery only collected British art and the National Gallery only collected pictures from deceased artists. In the 1920s, Samuel Courtauld built an impressive collection of Impressionist and Late Impressionist art . He succeeded in purchasing masterpieces such as Édouard Manet's Bar in the Folies-Bergère , Vincent van Gogh's self-portrait with a bandaged ear , Paul Cézanne's Montagne Sainte-Victoire and Pierre-Auguste Renoir's La Loge . After the death of his wife Elisabeth (1931), he founded the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 1932 , a college for art historians. After donating a number of works of art to the Courtauld Institute as early as the 1930s, after his death he bequeathed the majority of his collection to this institution together with his home in London's posh Portsman Square.

In 1923 Courtauld donated £ 50,000 to the Courtauld Fund, which the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery would use to purchase French modern art.

In 1933, Courtauld provided the financial means to bring Aby Warburg's private library from Hamburg to London. The library was given "forever" to the University of London in 1944 and continues to exist there as the Warburg Institute .