Category: Art

Our History of Art session on Friday 06 October 2023 covered the history of the Royal Academy, and the work of its first President, the artist Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA, FRS, FRSA. We started with the story of how the Royal Academy had got started, largely at the instigation of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir…

On 15 September 2023, our review of Art Galleries in London continued with a look at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London. This connected well with the previous talk on the Soane Museum as Sir John Soane had been the architect for the Dulwich Picture Gallery (as well as many other buildings including the…

On Friday 01 September, our Art History course, led by Jennifer Mills, resumed with a look at the works of art collected by Sir John Soane, and exhibited in his home in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Jennifer started with a brief update on her trip across Europe, which had included the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua with…

Our visits to the Wallace Collection concluded with the last guided tour to the collection on Wednesday 14 June 2023, with our guide Jennifer underlining the points made during a series of lectures given in early 2023 to Kenton and District u3a. The enormous collection could be overwhelming, but Jennifer’s short tour concentrated on the…

On Monday 12 June 2023, a group of members of the Kenton & District u3a were treated to a guided tour of the Wallace Collection in Central London. The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named…

This week’s talk by Jennifer on the Golden Age of Dutch Art saw the 12-week programme come to an end. The talk began with some more ‘interiors’ that were left over from the previous week, including an intriguing interior painted in 1988 by Paula Rego and entitled “The Family”. The member introducing this painting told…

This week’s talk by Jennifer on the Golden Age of Dutch Art concentrated on a selection of works brought to the session by the members of the u3a. The only constraint was that the painting should show an interior scene. There was no constraint of country, style or period, and that led to a very…

This week’s talk by Jennifer on the Golden Age of Dutch Art concentrated on the development of Still Life or “Stilleven” paintings. We started with a quick recap of where we had got to in our 12 week programme, and a brief announcement of what remains to be covered – including pictures from the audience…

Our course on Dutch Art from the Golden Age continued with an examination of the influence the Italian Artists of the 17th Century had on the artists working in the Netherlands. Perhaps the clearest influence to the beginner’s eye is the use of Chiaroscuro (literally light-dark) – a technique exploited in Italy by Caravaggio. Jennifer,…

This week’s talk by Jennifer on the Golden Age of Dutch Art concentrated on the development of Group Portraits, the depiction of Merriness in bars, in places of work and in the home. Many of the portraits led to involvement and discussion, including the famous individuals pictured, like Pickled Herring, the Lute Player, the Merry…