Courtauld Gallery, London
Is there an ulterior motive to this drearily grand exhibition of paintings borrowed from a Swiss collection? Could it be to show how vastly superior the Courtauld’s own works are?

The bland title of this show reads a bit like a confession, in terms of how little it has to say. Goya to Impressionism – so? Why do we need to see the troubled Spanish painter of war and witchcraft juxtaposed with soft scenes by Renoir and Sisley? No reason, except they all belong to a collection whose home in Winterthur, Switzerland, is closed for renovation, meaning the Courtauld can borrow them as a job lot. The trouble is that the Oskar Reinhart Collection is too similar to the Courtauld’s own to be an overly exciting proposition.

Both hoards were gathered in the early-20th century by wealthy private collectors with a penchant for French art of the late 1800s, yet by and large Samuel Courtauld got the best stuff. Reinhart’s Manets are minor compared with the dazzling masterpieces owned by the Courtauld. This is also true of Renoir. The Courtauld owns La Loge, Renoir’s scintillating early painting of modern love, but Reinhart’s row of soppy, second-rate Renoirs live down to every stereotype of this big impressionist softy.