2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Established in 1994, The Course offers innovative and exciting lectures in Art History, Literature, Music and Opera.
In this series on German Art, we will go from medieval to modern Germany through artists who would come to be a major influence not just on Northern art but also on the Italian Renaissance and ultimately European art. It will begin in the 1460s and demonstrate the interconnectivity of German artists through their itinerancy, their ingenuity, and rigorous work ethic. Each of the weekly lectures will take a look at an individual artist and in so doing take us from the medieval wood carvings of Tilman Riemenschneider, to the Renaissance art of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger, to the Baroque art of Adam Elsheimer; from Neo-Classicism to Romanticism and finally to German art of the 19th century with its impact on French Impressionism.
Adolph Menzel (1815 – 1905)
In this final lecture, we move into the late 19th century with the life and work of Adolph Menzel, a leading German artist. Born in 1815, he was first active as a printmaker, and then a draftsman, before eventually turning to oil painting after the age of 30. Nevertheless, he went on to have a prolific career. His technical virtuosity and skill at capturing the effects of real life with an almost photographic accuracy would pre-empt the work of the French Impressionism by 30 years. He would ultimately visit Paris and meet Edgar Degas, and become known as the unparalleled chronicler of Berlin life.