2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Founded in 1994, THE COURSE offers art history lectures, opera and literature courses, guided museum visits and London walks.
This course will examine the changing face of the portrait from the 6th century to the present. It will look at how and why its meaning and function have mutated and why artists are still drawn to this medium despite the advent of photography. It will also explore whether a portrait has to convey an accurate likeness and how artists went about trying to convey “character”.
JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY: Portraiture, Men & Art in the Age of the Lunar Society
The English painter Joseph Wright of Derby used portraiture to depict a new industrial age. He was the one artist who would document this extraordinary era and together with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Nathaniel Dance and those who were on the periphery of this club (Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks) we will examine the lives, achievements, interests and connections of those who attended the Lunar Society or were associated with it (James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley and Richard Arkwright).