Modernism: The Bauhaus 1919-1933
In the wake of the Great War, the Bauhaus strove to create a design ethos for a brave new socialist world. Design needed to reflect the demands of modern industrial society rather than hark back to outmoded historical styles. The … More details …
Tite Street – Whistler, Wilde and Sargent
When Oscar Wilde saw Ellen Terry step out of a carriage in Tite Street dressed as Lady Macbeth (she was sitting for John Singer Sargent), he called it a street “full of wonderful possibilities.” Whistler, who lived just down the … More details …
Pools, Piers and Pleasure: Architecture at the Seaside
This day school explores the distinctive architectural heritage of Britain’s seaside resorts. Starting in the Georgian era, it will cover the evolving range of building types that provided first for health tourists, then for pleasure seekers. Cast iron was the … More details …
Art and architecture along the Silk Road
This course will take us on a journey in the footsteps of the merchants who travelled the Silk Road, studying some of the sites they would have seen in the first millenium when mercantile activity was at its height. We … More details …
The English Country House, 1600 – 1918
This survey will adopt a chronological approach as we study the changing architectural design and role that the country house played in English culture. Our first session will feature Jacobean properties such as Chastleton House; our second session will examine … More details …
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Four
This course is now fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list in case of any cancellations. Charles Rennie Mackintosh is now lauded as Scotland’s greatest modern architect but sadly his potential … More details …
From Power to Prodigy House: the country house in Tudor England
This study day will survey the development of the country house in Tudor England. We will begin with discussion of “power houses” including Sutton Place and Hampton Court, with consideration of their architectural features as well as their internal fixtures. … More details …
From the Bayeux Tapestry to the Wilton Diptych
After a brief survey of the period from the eleventh century to the fifteenth, we will focus firstly on the Bayeux Tapestry – “one of the most enchanting pieces of narrative art in existence” ( Talbot Rice). It is a … More details …
Venice: history, art & architecture
A little history of Venice through its art and architecture. This study day begins with a survey of Venetian history from its beginnings to the present day. We will then move on to examine Venetian painting from the 1300s to … More details …
The Architecture of the Country House
No other country has such a variety of country houses, from the Tudor splendour of Montacute to the Baroque grandeur of Blenheim Palace. But their design can often be baffling. Why have such large houses so many interconnected rooms and … More details …
Fascist art and architecture in Europe: exponents and opponents
A study day that will weave together the story of Fascist art and architecture in Italy, Germany and Spain in the first half of the 20th century. We will examine examples of architecture, sculpture, poster art and paintings and will … More details …
Six Spanish Cities: their history, art & architecture
The six cities covered in this course are: Córdoba, Santiago de Compostela, Granada, Seville, Madrid and Barcelona. Using a variety of images, we will begin with a potted history of Spain. This will be followed by a survey of the … More details …
History of Architecture in Britain – Medieval to Neoclassical
This Study Day will examine the development of architecture in England during a period of great change. The gothic style of the medieval period was beginning to be superseded by Renaissance ideas, which although not fully understood at the time … More details …
Coming in from the cold – more on church interiors
During the Looking at Old Churches Day School held a few years ago, there simply wasn’t time to explore interiors in any depth. In this little course we aim to put things right and shall turn our attention to Monuments, … More details …
Three Great Cathedrals
It is probably fair to say that the Medieval Cathedrals are the ultimate expression of British Architecture. A product of unshakable Christian faith, they represented for many the concept of the Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth as described in the Book … More details …