The National Gallery is collaborating with Birkbeck, University of London, on ‘Transcriptions: Writing’, a new project in which MA Creative Writing students are invited to produce a short fiction response to a painting of their choice in the Gallery’s collection.

Before making their selection, the students come to the Gallery for a talk exploring ideas relevant to the writing process: how painters describe personality and create atmosphere and tension, and how landscape is used to convey character and mood.