‘I’m going to get a beating’ – artist Peter Doig on taking on Cézanne, Renoir, Monet and more

‘This is not a healthy way to make a living’ … Doig, who has been putting in 4am finishes. Photograph: Fergus Carmichael/courtesy the Courtauld

‘It could be a massive failure,” says Peter Doig with a laugh. The 63-year-old painter is worrying about his looming show at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Only very rarely is a living artist deemed worthy of having their works hang alongside the esteemed London gallery’s Cézannes, Gauguins, Manets, Monets and Renoirs.

“I know Frank Auerbach showed his building site paintings there,” adds the Scotland-born artist. True, but that was 13 years ago. Since the Courtauld reopened, after a £57m revamp in late 2021, its temporary exhibition space – named the Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries after the billionaire founder of Bet365 – has exclusively hosted blockbuster shows by dead artists. First Van Gogh, then Edvard Munch and most recently Henry Fuseli. Doig will be the first living artist to exhibit there. No pressure then.