AN AFTERNOON IN ...

The Courtauld Gallery

Next Friday sees the reopening of London's Courtauld Gallery after a year-long programme of Lottery-funded restoration. The refurbishment has concentrated on the fine and great rooms in the north wing of Somerset House, arguably some of the finest 18th century interiors in London, and should now provide a fitting showcase for one of the world's greatest collections of Impressionist and Post Impressionist painting. That's not all though. The Courtauld is also home to some less familiar but very fine earlier works and a new Renaissance Gallery should make the most of its Flemish and Italian pictures, as well as allowing the display of a previously unseen collection of Maiolica.

, Somerset House, The Strand, London WC2 (0171- 873 2589) from 30 Oct RI