The Courtauld Gallery will unveil a major new display this autumn, bringing together works by Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Man Ray, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris as part of a landmark partnership with the Reuben Foundation.
Opening on 18 September 2026, Modern Painting from the Courtauld and Reuben Collections marks the latest chapter in a long-term collaboration launched in 2025 that enables significant works from the Reuben Collection to be shown publicly alongside masterpieces from The Courtauld’s own holdings.
The display will explore the radical transformations that reshaped painting during the first half of the twentieth century, tracing a path from Post-Impressionism through Cubism and Surrealism.
At its core is a rare opportunity to see major works by Picasso, Magritte and Man Ray displayed alongside paintings from The Courtauld’s renowned collection. The exhibition begins with works by Paul Cézanne and Amedeo Modigliani, whose innovations laid the foundations for a new generation of artists determined to reinvent the possibilities of painting.
Among the highlights is Man Ray’s monumental Black Widow (Nativity), painted in New York in 1915 and not exhibited in the UK for more than fifty years. Best known today as a pioneering photographer, Man Ray originally trained as a painter, and the work stands as one of his most ambitious early achievements.
The display will also feature three significant paintings by Pablo Picasso from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Two portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar, neither previously exhibited in Britain, demonstrate Picasso’s continual reinvention of portraiture during a period marked by political upheaval and war. They will be shown alongside Still Life with Basket of Fruits and Flowers (1942), a tense and expressive wartime composition created in occupied Paris.
The Reuben Collection’s substantial holdings of René Magritte will also play a central role. Visitors will encounter some of the Belgian Surrealist’s most celebrated motifs, including works from his iconic The Dominion of Light series and The Intimate Friend, where familiar objects are transformed into enigmatic visual puzzles. Another highlight, La Domaine Arnheim (1949), presents a dreamlike landscape seen through shattered glass, encapsulating the spirit of reinvention that defines modern painting.
The display forms part of a wider partnership between The Courtauld and the Reuben Foundation. In 2025, the Foundation made the largest financial gift in The Courtauld’s history, supporting the development of its future Strand campus, due to open in 2029.
The collaboration extends a tradition of philanthropy that stretches back to the institution’s founder, Samuel Courtauld, whose collecting and generosity established one of the world’s most celebrated collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.
By bringing together masterpieces from both collections, Modern Painting from the Courtauld and Reuben Collections offers visitors a rare opportunity to follow the evolution of modern art through some of its most influential figures, from Cézanne’s fractured landscapes to Magritte’s surreal visions and Picasso’s restless reinventions of form.
Modern Painting from the Courtauld and Reuben Collections, opening 18th September 2026, Courtauld
About
The Courtauld works to advance how we see and understand the visual arts, as an internationally renowned centre for the teaching and research of art history and a major public gallery. Founded by collectors and philanthropists in 1932, the organisation has been at the forefront of the study of art ever since through advanced research and conservation practice, innovative teaching, the renowned collection and inspiring exhibitions of its gallery, and engaging and accessible activities, education and events.
The Courtauld Gallery cares for one of the greatest art collections in the UK, presenting these works to the public at the Courtauld Gallery in central London, as well as through loans and partnerships. The Gallery is most famous for its iconic Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces – such as Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. It showcases these alongside an internationally renowned collection of works from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance through to the present day.
Academically, the Courtauld Institute is the largest community of art historians and conservators in the UK, teaching and conducting research on subjects ranging from creativity in late Antiquity to contemporary digital art forms – with an increasingly global focus. An independent college of the University of London, the Courtauld offers a range of degree programmes from BA to PhD in the History of Art, curating, art and business and the conservation of easel and wall paintings. Its alumni are leaders and innovators in the arts, culture and business worlds, helping to shape the global agenda for the arts and creative industries.
Founded on the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to engage with art, the Courtauld works to increase understanding of the role of art throughout history, across all societies and geographies, and to champion its importance in the present day. This could be through exhibitions offering a chance to look closely at world-famous works; events bringing art history research to new audiences; accessible short courses; digital engagement, innovative school, family, and community programmes; or taking a formal qualification. The Courtauld’s ambition is to transform access to art history education, ensuring as many people as possible can benefit from the tools it offers to better understand the visual world around us.
The Courtauld is an exempt charity and relies on generous philanthropic support to achieve its mission of advancing the understanding of the visual arts of the past and present across the world through advanced research, innovative teaching, inspiring exhibitions, programmes and collections. The collection cared for by the Courtauld Gallery is owned by the Samuel Courtauld Trust.
Formed in 2002, the Reuben Foundation is a UK charitable foundation focused on the advancement of healthcare, education and the community both in the UK and globally.
Recent projects include the Reuben Scholarship Programme, which assists thousands of the most talented students from less advantaged backgrounds with financial support towards university living costs. The Reuben Scholarships Programme runs in partnership with the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Ark Schools. In 2020 the Reuben Foundation made a transformational gift to establish Reuben College at the University of Oxford, marking only the 39th college in the university’s near-1,000-year history and the first new college at the university for 30 years.
In the healthcare space gifts include the creation of the largest centre for paediatric cancer treatment in Europe at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a world-leading treatment and research centre at The Royal Marsden Hospital, and a new maternity ward and neonatal intensive care unit at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital as well as a new young people’s centre designed to provide immediate, specialist and integrated care to young people in mental health crisis.
Further information on the Reuben Foundation can be found at: https://www.reubenfoundation.com/
