Foreigners in London (William Dobson ‘The most excellent painter that England hath yet bred’)

Established in 1994, THE COURSE offers exciting and innovative lectures in the History of Art, Literature, Music and Opera.

In “Foreigners in London”, Leslie Primo will discuss why the aristocracy preferred foreign painters to native-born English ones? Why did foreigners come in the first place? What was their motivation and what was the impact of foreigners on English art and art practice? This course will trace foreign artists from the Tudors to the Neo-Classical looking at their origins and how they came to work in England.

WILLIAM DOBSON (1611-1646) ‘The most excellent painter that England hath yet bred’

The culmination of all of these foreign influences will be explored in the work of a London born painter – William Dobson.  Artists such as van Dyck, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese were never far from his style along with his interest in the Classical world.