Courtauld Impressionists: from Manet to Cézanne, Exhibition, National Gallery, London, 17 September 2018-20 January 2019

Despite the name, the 40 works on show encompass both impressionism and post-impressionism. Artists include all the top dogs:  Manet and Cezanne, but also Renoir, Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec.

The exhibition is especially appealing if you want to know the origins of modern art. Much of it can be traced back to the ideas of impressionists and post-impressionists, at work in the late 19th century.

These ideas include bright light and colour, everyday subject matter, and a move away from pinpoint accuracy. They would come together most strikingly in Vincent van Gogh, perhaps the best-loved artist of all time.

The term impressionism was originally an insult. It was coined in 1874, when journalist Louis Leroy mocked the new work Impression, Sunrise by Monet, a painter now most famous for his lilies. Sunrise was on display in Paris, at what would later be called “the Exhibition of the Impressionists”.

The artists behind that exhibition latched onto Leroy’s insult, and made it their own. What followed were hundreds of pictures of harbours, fields, flowers and women in long dresses. They’re some of the most recognisable works ever painted, even if few could put a name to them.

The National Gallery exhibition brings impressionism and post-impressionism together, but there’s no clean divide between the two. Generally it’s agreed that the Paris exhibitioners drifted apart in the 1880s. This opened up the field for new players such as Gauguin and Van Gogh. These artists took impressionistic light and colour, and injected them into scenes of deep emotion and symbolism. Think Starry Night.

Many of the paintings are on loan from the Courtauld Gallery, half a mile down the road in Somerset House which is closed for two years  for renovation.