Simon Schama: The Great Gallery Tours

Sir Simon Schama conducts a personal tour of four world class galleries. In each episode, he features 3 or 4 of his favourite works of art – some well known, others less so.

He begins in the Courtauld Gallery in London…a place that has a special significance for him… followed by a virtual trip to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Prado in Madrid and the Whitney in his home town of New York. Here’s a list of the paintings you can enjoy with him.

1. The Courtauld    
Paul Cézanne –  Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine
Edouard Manet – Bar at the Folies-Bergere
Paul Gauguin – Nevermore

2. The Rijksmuseum
Frans Hals – Marriage Portrait (Beatrice van der Laen and Abraham Massa)
Rembrandt van Rijn – The Night Watch
Johannes Vermeer – Woman Reading a Letter
Adriaen Coorte – Still Life with Asparagus

3. The Prado
Pablo Picasso – Guernica
Francisco Goya – The 3rd May 1808
Titian – Charles V at the Battle of Muhlberg
Diego Velasquez – Las Meninas
Francisco Zurbaran – Agnus Dei 

4. The Whitney Museum of American Art
Mark Rothko – Four Darks in Red
Jacob Lawrence – War Series
Edward Hopper – New York Movie and A Woman in the Sun 
Cindy Sherman – Untitled 2008.

Produced by Susan Marling
Broadcast Dates: 13th, 20th, 27th July and 3rd August at 4pm on BBC Radio 4