Cecily Brown: Introducing our new contemporary commission

The Courtauld Gallery will reopen in November 2021 following the most significant modernisation project in its history, providing a transformed home for one of the UK’s greatest art collections.

A new large-scale painting by the renowned contemporary artist Cecily Brown will be unveiled as part of the reopening displays. The work has been specially commissioned for the curved wall at the top of The Courtauld’s historical staircase and will reflect Cecily Brown’s deep interest in the paintings in the Gallery’s collection. The commission revisits the early history of the building. In the eighteenth century, a painting by Giovanni Battista Cipriani occupied this same location when this part of Somerset House was home to the Royal Academy of Arts. The commission has been supported by The Garcia Family Foundation.