The course will trace the rise of landscape painting in Britain from its lowly reputation at the beginning of the 18th century through the achievements of the 19th and early 20th centuries to the work of landscape artists today. We will consider the social and cultural aspects of painting landscape at different times, and the various factors leading artists to choose landscape as a subject through which to criticise the past, celebrate the present and suggest possibilities for the future.
There will be discussion of technical aspects of landscape painting, and how approaches to the idea of the painted landscape brought artists out of the studio to study the facts of nature at close quarters, then took them back indoors again to create abstracted visions based on memories and drawings. We will also look at the work of today's Land Artists who use the landscape itself as their paints, brushes and canvas.
This course is aimed at adults and features discussion of artwork with adult themes. Owing to the nature of the material covered, this course may not be suitable for under 18s.
Course programme
Friday 1 April 2016
Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms.
19:00 Dinner
20:30 The last branch of uninteresting subjects? Discovering a Landscape Art
22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion
Saturday 2 April 2016
07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Every glance a glance for study: Constable, Turner and the Landscape Sublime
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Nature in all humbleness of heart: Pre-Raphaelite landscapes
12:30 Free
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Fieldtrip to the Fitzwilliam Museum
16:30 Tea with informal discussion relating to Field Trip and matters arising
17:00 Free
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Landscape and the things behind: War and peace and painted landscape
21:30 Terrace bar open for informal discussion
Sunday 3 April 2016
07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Penetrating vision: into the new millennium
10:30 Coffee
11:00 O, who can ever gaze his fill? 250 years of land, landscape and art
12:30 Free
12:45 Lunch
The course will disperse after lunch.
