About

Art History Online 10 Week Course with MonLife Heritage Museums

This broad ranging and absorbing course needs no background in art history, just a desire to look harder at art and understand its developments more clearly. From the frivolous Rococo to the intense Neo-classical, the riches of British landscape to the drama of the Romantic, explore the work of 18th century painters and architects as they took art in new directions through this fascinating period.

Course Length - 10 weeks of one hour evening lectures (one week off for half term)
Course Dates - Monday 25th September - Monday 4th December (no class Monday 30th October)
Time - 7pm - 8pm
Medium - Online via Zoom (with recordings available afterwards)
Course fee - £50

NB there will also be the opportunity to access a recording of one of the live lectures, which will usually be available for a week following, so you should not have to miss any

The century opens with the pretty and delightful Rococo, with its scenes of elegant court life and its sophisticated architecture a reaction to the over-the-top Baroque style of the century before. The Rococo became so frivolous that critics demanded art moved on to something more serious – which it did, with the revival of interest in all things classical, driven especially by the excavations of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Artists such as Jacques-Louis David and Benjamin West created drama and pathos with their huge paintings of classical mythology and contemporary history, and Classicism even influenced portraitists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds. 

British artists including Gainsborough, Wilson and the young Turner led the way in European art by elevating landscape painting to new heights. As the course takes us into the closing decades of the century, it shows how the expression of emotion in the cultural phenomenon of Romanticism influenced art with paintings by Géricault, Gros and Goya adding excitement and spectacle as art moved into a new century.