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Languages & Culture
Art Appreciation: Portraits through the Ages
Early booking is a membership perk for WEA members, where courses are available exclusively before becoming available for everyone else.
Course details
Course code
Q00017297Course date
Start: 30/11/24
End: 30/11/24
Number of classes
1 sessionsTutor
Guest SpeakerFee range
Free to £25.20
How you'll learn
Venue
Reading International Solidarity Centre35-39 London Street
Reading
RG1 4PS
Level of study
Availability
This course is for early booking only.
Course overview
The portrait has flourished as an art form from the ancient world to the present day and this innovative course will explore its continuing popularity. We shall study not only the painted face and figure but a variety of formats and formulae, from statuary to pendant medals and miniatures, and study artists as diverse as Holbein, Titian, Gainsborough, Singer Sargent and Francis Bacon. We include a reflection on the place of the photograph in this history of portraiture: was this new invention to prove a help or a hindrance to the creation of the modern portrait? This is a course for everyone who enjoys looking at paintings and no previous reading is required
This course is for early booking only.
Course description
Portraits have taken many different forms over the past centuries: idealistic, realistic, humorous, flattering, even ugly! They have been created in various sizes from the miniature to the larger than life size, and in a variety of materials like stone, marble, oils, water colours, pastels, photographs and even fruit! We begin by reflecting on why the portrait has remained such a popular subject over time, and then consider a wide variety of works from the ancient world to the 20C, from artists such as Van Eyck, Holbein and Brueghel, to Gainsborough and Angelica Kauffman, and from Ingres and Singer Sargent, to Van Gogh, and Lucien Freud, not forgetting Cecil Beaton. So come and enjoy this feast of art, to gain a deeper insight into how artists developed and employed new techniques and materials to tempt their wealthy patrons while also creating some fascinating views of the lives of the poorer classes. In particular, the development of photography seemed to sound the death knell for the painted portrait, but in fact gave the artists a new sense of freedom in how their subjects could be portrayed.
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