One pose, one painting: Life drawing
Bronzino's 'An Allegory with Venus and Cupid'
Enrol
| Standard: | £150 |
| Concessions: | £135 |
Please book a ticket to attend this course which will take place in the Roden Centre for Creative Learning.
Tickets include entry to the National Gallery. Please arrive in good time to access the building and find the event.
Bookings close 10 minutes before the event begins.
Concessions are for full-time students, jobseekers, and disabled adults.
This event is open for Members priority booking until Sunday, November 23, 2025.
About
Immerse yourself in the art of sustained observation in this new life drawing series, ‘One pose, one painting: Life drawing’. Each session focuses on a single painting from the National Gallery Collection, paired with a life model in a pose inspired by the work. Our February session focuses on Bronzino’s ‘An Allegory with Venus and Cupid’, one of the artist’s most complex and enigmatic paintings.
Guided by an artist and tutor Adele Wagstaff and working directly from a life model, you’ll spend the day studying and drawing from a long, sustained pose, developing a more finished, considered drawing. Through this slow and attentive practice, you’ll deepen your understanding of form, gesture and anatomy, while exploring how Bronzino captured the human figure.
These sessions are designed for those looking to expand their life drawing practice through close engagement with paintings in the Gallery and time to reflect, refine and observe from history and from life models. Each session stands alone- join one or build your skills across the series.
This course is suitable all levels, from beginners to experienced artists looking to refresh their practice. All materials are provided and you can take your artworks home with you. Handouts with extra resources are also provided. All sessions take place onsite in our state-of-the-art Clore Art Studio in our Roden Centre for Creative Learning.
Your tutor
Adele Wagstaff trained at Newcastle University and the Slade School of Fine Art where she focused on working from the nude in sustained poses. Her practice continues to explore the human figure, anatomy and portraiture through drawing and painting. She has been shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the BP Portrait Award, and her work has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery, Royal West of England Academy, Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Canadian Portrait Academy. Adele is an experienced tutor, who has taught at the Royal Academy, as well as the Slade School of Fine Art, Art Academy London and Pallant House Gallery, and she has written two books: 'Still Life Painting in Oils' (2012) and 'Painting the Nude' (2015), both published by the Crowood Press.