Celebrating British Art

“Concerning Englishness ... Reynolds’s is the world of social convention and intellectual discipline, Hogarth’s is the noise and bustle of London low life and high life, Blake’s is a dim druidical Albion. As for Constable his England is the countryside ...”

This course will look afresh at aspects of British Art, its characteristic close observation of life and nature, the development of new genres and techniques and the challenges faced by British artists from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

10.30am
The English Renaissance Miniature: Politics, Propaganda and Courtly Love
Dr Richard Williams, Birkbeck College

12.00noon
“The fairest persons at Court” or “Some Maids of Honour”: Peter Lely’s Windsor Beauties
Catharine MacLeod, Curator of Seventeenth-Century Portraits, National Portrait Gallery

1.00pm
Lunch

2.00pm
Hogarth and Modernity
William Vaughan, Professor Emeritus, Birkbeck College

Tuesday November 13, 2007

10.30am
The Most Difficult Job in the World: Portrait Painting in the Late Eighteenth Century
Hugh Belsay

12.00noon
George Stubbs and Sporting Art
Martin Postle, Assistant Director, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

1.00pm
Lunch

2.30pm
Visit to the exhibitions on Rowlandson at Lowell Libson Ltd and “A Passion for British Art 1700 – 1850: Paul Mellon’s Legacy” at the Royal Academy of Arts

Tuesday 20 November 2007

10.30am
The Art of John Everett Millais
Dr. Alison Smith, Tate Britain and Curator of the Millais exhibition

12.00noon
Constable and Claude: Italianate Themes in English Landscape
Timothy Wilcox

1.00pm
Lunch

2.30pm
Visit to the exhibition “Millais” at Tate Britain

Tuesday 27 November 2007

10.30am
JMW Turner: A World in Watercolour
Dr. David Brown, Curator of 18th and 19th Century British Art, Tate Britain

12.00noon
From Beach to Ballet to Big Top: How Laura Knight Became Famous
Timothy Wilcox

1.00pm
Lunch

2.00pm
British Art and America
William Vaughan, Professor Emeritus, Birkbeck College

The cost of the full course is £232. The cost of the morning lectures only (lunch not included) is £132. The lectures will take place at The Medical Society of London,
Lettsom House, 11 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, London W1. Each day will begin at 10.30am and finish at about 3.30 pm.

To apply, please contact us.