Smaller art galleries paint bright picture as visitors rise

SMALLER art galleries in London have recorded a dramatic increase in visitors.

Figures released today show the Courtauld Institute enjoyed a record 56 per cent rise over 12 months.

The gallery, in Somerset House, drew nearly 168,000 visitors, up from 108,000. This included 84,000 to Cézanne - the best-attended exhibition in its history.

The annual numbers were released as the Courtauld Institute joined forces with the Wallace Collection and Dulwich Picture Gallery to promote their new programmes. The Wallace Collection recorded a 25 per cent growth to 346,347 and the Dulwich gallery a rise from 141,000 to 150,000.

Ernst Vegelin, director of the Courtauld - which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, said: "It is a real expression of the success of the programme and having a focused, research-led approach."

Two of its shows next year will stem from works it owns. One will take two painted chests, or cassoni, made for a wedding in 1471, as its starting point. They are the most important surviving examples of Renaissance furniture. Another will use 100 rarely-seen design drawings by Roger Fry, founder of the Omega Workshops - an experimental design collective with members of the Bloomsbury group. They will be shown with some of the objects produced.

Wallace Collection programmes will include new paintings by Damien Hirst next October. It will be preceded by a show on treasures of the Black Death - two hoards of jewellery, silver vessels and coins concealed by Jews in Europe and then lost for centuries.

Hirst said: "I've chosen to show my new paintings here because I love the fact that it is a family collection."

The Dulwich Picture Gallery will present the reunion of parts of an altarpiece by Paolo Veronese. It is also borrowing drawings from the Art Gallery of Ontario and examining the work of Walter Sickert, best known for his Camden paintings, in Venice.