Inside, Outside – The World of the Artist (Nicholas Hilliard)

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

In INSIDE, OUTSIDE, The World of the Art, Nicole Mezey will look at how creativity reflects the personal and professional experience of the artist. This series focuses on a different artist each week, looking first at the life behind their creations – the mental asylum in which Richard Dadd produced some of his greatest works, the pressure of eight children on the output of Frans Hals – before moving on to explore their work and the way it reflects that experience.

Nicholas Hilliard (c.1547 – 1619), A Romantic Englishman

Nicholas Hilliard was miniaturist to Queen Elizabeth, but he had trained, like most artists before him, in the profession of his father, a goldsmith, and was, in turn, to pass his knowledge on to his son. Traditional in many ways, he nonetheless was innovative not only in his painting but also in his practice – driven to open a shop by the notorious penny-pinching of the monarch, he made the new art available beyond the court to the merchant classes.