This Tuesday, 6th of January, we begin with log-in by 1.55PM latest, please,
and the talk starting at 2PM,sharp!  

This year is the 6th year of these popular, accessible talks.

Time is ticking, but even if you wish to join the first talk live,   there is still time to join, up, just about!

And this year we offer an introduction to one of the most important subjects in European art history, with our course, Masterpieces of French Art.

Our main focus is on French painters and paintings, from the 1300 to 1800s,
but – across 8 weeks- we’ll also look at sculpture, architecture, and other forms like manuscript and book miniature illustrations, tapestry and stained glass.

Every ticket holder automatically receives two (separate) emails every week, one for the live, and another for the recorded version, of all 8 weekly talks.

Overall you will…

• Learn to look at and appreciate art.
• Explore hundreds of beautiful images,
• Learn about the context in which artworks were made, from medieval workshops to 19th century artists studios
• Learn how to “read a painting”, for clues and symbolism. 
• Gain a better understanding of ideas like composition,
• and the importance of patronage.
• Gain a better understanding of historic painting, sculpture and architecture.
• Learn how artistic influence moved from artist to artist, through different “schools” and workshops, between different regions and countries.

All are welcome on this course.

No prior knowledge is required.

Every talk available Live and/or Recorded.

Would you like to join us?

Final reminder:
To be guaranteed to be in time for the first live talk this Tuesday,
people must be subscribed (with their ticket purchase complete)
24 hours before the first talk.
So ticket bought by 2PM, Monday (tomorrow) 5th of January, please.

You can still purchase a “master ticket” for all 8 talks
here.

Or,  if you prefer to sample the first four talks, only
(the first half of the course)
from the medieval period to the 17th century,
you can buy a ticket for Talks 1 to 4 (only)  here.

(If you then decide later you wish to continue the course,
a separate ticket, for Talks 5 to 8 only is also available for sale (here),  and will continue to be available, up to early-mid February)

Below these images, see what you can expect on the course over 8 weeks…

July, and the Palace of Potier, from theTrès Riches Heures du Duc de Berry c1412-1416

Talk 1:
explore the greatest “tapestry” of the “Romanesque” era, and one of the marvels of early-medieval France.
explore the transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture, at which France excelled, above any other country in the world.

Talk 2: 
as we approach the high medieval period, when France was a land of knights and barons, monks, bishops and abbots, of jousts, crusaders and troubadour poetry, we focus on the arts in which medieval France excelled:  stunning illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, stained glass, as well as Gothic sculpture and architecture.

You’ll see how events like the Hundred Years War, with the English and Burgundians, and the cruel execution of Joan of Arc, were depicted in medieval Art, and beyond.

Talk 3:
We turn our focus increasingly more to painting.  This presentation deals with the little-known early French Renaissance.  You will meet a small handful of superb, yet neglected painters from 1400s Provence.
We think you will find it a revelation.

“Coronation of the Virgin,” tempera painting by Enguerrand Charonton, 1453–54; Hospice de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France

We also look at the High- Renaissance in France, and painters, like Jean and François Clouet (père et fils) as we  discuss the portraits and patronage of the French Royal family, and the savagery of the Wars of Religion.

Talk 4:
deals with the great French artists of the 17th century -when French arts and culture became preeminent in Europe, with painters like Simon Vouet, Nicholas Poussin, Claude of Lorraine, and George de la Tour setting new trends in religious, mythological and landscape painting admired, and emulated, all over Europe.

Talk 5: 
covers the 18th century, with the frivolity of Fragonard and Watteau;
the French experience and art of the Grand Tour tradition,
as it was experienced by French artists in Italy and elsewhere.
We conclude talk 5 by looking at the seismic impact of the French Revolution. In France it begat Neo-Classicism, and the revolutionary fervour of J.L. David.

Talks 6, through 7 and 8
Your last three talks all cover other, very different and diverse aspects of French art throughout the 19th century. By now, Paris had taken over from Rome, and had become the world’s de facto “Capital of Art”.

Among other questions, we will explore how Napoleon Bonaparte
and then the Académie and the Salon
affected French and European Art.

Explore the superlative portrait paintings, the charged exoticism of Ingres
and the turbulent painters of the Romantic school,
like Géricault and Delacroix.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Odalisque, Enslaved Woman, and Eunuch, 1839-1840.
Oil on canvas,  Harvard Art Museum.

See how France reacted to becoming an industrial powerhouse,
and the centre of a global colonial empire,
as well as the growth of cities and technologies like mass-circulation newspapers and photography would change art forever.

The final talk (Talk 8)
explores French Impressionism. We will take as our main example Claude Monet, the life-long, plein-air painter, who famously recorded the play of ever-changing light on waterlilies, on haystacks and cathedrals.

Overall, our aim across all eight talks:
is not to cover every angle or every major artist or movement; but rather to give you a toolkit to help you look at, appraise, appreciate and think about art.
A toolkit you can use for the rest of your life.

Once again, you can purchase a “master ticket” for all 8 talks
here

Or, if you prefer to sample the first four talks first,
(the first half of the course)
from the medieval period to the 17th century,
then you can buy a ticket for Talks 1 to 4,
here

Over 40 people have already signed up, with a dozen more expected to before 2PM tomorrow, to be in time for the first live talk on Tuesday.
Don’t miss it.

About the speaker:

Arran Henderson studied Art History at Oxford Brooks, and later at the University of Rhode Island, Central Saint Martin’s London,  the National College of Art and Design, and Trinity College Dublin.

He has written on various aspects of art, art history and material culture for a wide range of publications including The Irish Art Review; and taught Art History at A-Level and has led over 100 acclaimed private tours in museums like the Hugh Lane and the National Gallery of Ireland.

Arran has recently starting bringing groups on art excursions abroad, with the inaugural overseas art trip exploring Venice in October-November of 2025.

This is the 6th year of the annual winter art talks

Header image, above: 
Ingres’ studio in Rome, 1818 by Jean Alaux,  from the Ingres Museum in Montauban

Images below: Rouen Cathedral,  Grey Weather,  by Claude Monet , 1894, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen; 2- Arran Henderson leading an in-person art tour, at the National Gallery of Ireland