The Courtauld Institute of Art, commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist colleges for the study of the history of art in the world and is widely known for the disproportionate number of directors of major museums drawn from its small body of alumni.

The art collection is known particularly for its French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and is housed in The Courtauld Gallery. The Courtauld is based in Somerset House, in the Strand in London. In 2019, The Courtauld’s teaching and research activities temporarily relocated to Vernon Square, London, while its Somerset House site undergoes a major regeneration project.

The Courtauld has two photographic libraries which started as the private collections of two benefactors: the Conway Library, covering architecture, architectural drawings, sculpture and illuminated manuscripts, named after the Lord Conway of Allington and the Witt Library, after Sir Robert Witt, covering paintings, drawings and engravings and containing over two million reproductions of works by over 70,000 artists. In 2009, it was decided that the Witt Library would not continue to add new material to the collection, and in 2017 a mass digitisation project which will make both Witt and Conway items available online commenced as part of Courtauld Connects.

The book library is one of the UK’s largest holdings of art history books, periodicals and exhibition catalogues. There is a slide library which also covers films, and an IT suite. An online image collection provides access to more than 40,000 images, including paintings and drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, and over 35,000 photographs of architecture and sculpture from the Conway Library.[22] Two other websites and sell high resolution digital files to scholars, publishers and broadcasters, and photographic prints to a wide public audience.