Courses

Our first study day will examine the life and work of German Renaissance painter and printmaker, Albrecht Durer. He lived in the early 16th century, at a time of great cultural and religious change in Europe.  We will consider Durer's dealings with Martin Luther and the impace that reformist ideas had on his art. This study day is designed to complement an exhibition on Durer's travels that will run at the National Gallery in London until the end of February 2022

Though born in England, the painter Tom Roberts, spent most of his adult life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Australia. He helped to introduce and popularise impressionism in Australia and was very influential, thanks to his establishemt of art colonies in Victoria and New South Wales. in this lecture we will trace Roberts' career from his early influences in England, the influences that his travels in Spain had upon his art and his subsequent success as a painter of narratives that explored Australian themes.

This lecture will focus on the maverick English painter Stanley Spencer.  We will see how his paintings reflected his experiences and idiosyncratic beliefs and the love he had for Cookham in Berkshire where he lived for many years.  An entire lecture will be devoted to Spencer's paintings in the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere.

The fashionable expatriate American painter, John Singer Sargent, is today's subject.  A prolific artist, he produced hundreds of portraits over the course of his career and we will examine some in detail including the infamous Portrait of Madame X. Singer Sargent was widely travelled and we will also consider some of the numerous watercolours that he painted inspired by his travels in America, the Middle East and the Tyrol.

Kauffmann, known to her closest friends as Miss Angel, enjoyed a highly successful international career as a painter with an international reputation in the second half of the 18th century.  A Swiss by birth, Kauffman was based for many years in London where she produced dozens of paintings and was at the centre of the art world, becoming a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768.  This study day will trace Kauffmann's life beginning with her early collaboration and travel across Europe with her father and will explore her ability as a painter and designer as well as her adept self-promotion.

The subject of this study day is French painter, Eugene Delacroix, who enjoyed a long and successfull career and was regarded in his day as the leader of the French Romantics. He visited England in his mid-20s and a few years later painted Liberty guiding the People, the canvas for which he is best known.  His disenchantment with France led Delacroix to travel to North Africa where the landscape and the peoples hald great satisfaction for the artist.  We will study how Delacoix's travels influenced his paintings and also how his investigation into colour inspired a younger generation of painters.