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First and last chance to see £100m art gift to the nation
Valentine Low, Evening Standard7 Jul 2008
An unprecedented opportunity to see one of the most important donations of paintings ever made to the UK begins tomorrow.
For the first - and probably last - time, all 18 paintings bequeathed by philanthropist Sir Simon Sainsbury will go on public display together before each artwork in the £100million collection is dispersed to its eventual home.
The paintings include two works by Monet, two Bonnards and three by Lucian Freud as well as works by Degas, Francis Bacon, Gauguin and Gainsborough.
Sir Simon, a member of the supermarket dynasty, was one of the country's most private but generous art benefactors. Along with his brothers John and Tim, he funded the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing. He died in September 2006, leaving five paintings to the National and 13 to the Tate.
The paintings, which will be on show at Tate Britain until October, include Lucian Freud's portrait of his first wife with a kitten, his image of a youth smoking a cigarette and a portrait of the artist's mother - the first in the Tate collection.
Other highlights are Monet's Snow Scene At Argenteuil, the largest and most atmospheric of some 18 snow scenes the artist painted in the town during the winter of 1874-75. Water-Lilies, Setting Sun depicts a corner of Monet's water garden at Giverny.
Gainsborough's Portrait Of Mr And Mrs Carter, one of the artist's earliest works, and After The Bath by Edgar Degas, which is among the most colourful and visually complex of his late female nudes, will also be on display.
Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery said: "The paintings which Simon Sainsbury has bequeathed to the National Gallery will make a huge difference to our Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries. He will be remembered as one of our greatest benefactors."
Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, said: "Simon Sainsbury was one of the UK's most private but generous philanthropists, giving his wealth, time and experience to numerous and varied causes, especially in the cultural sector. This is one of the most important gifts in the history of the Tate."
