- Thursday, 17 October 2024
- Thursday, 24 October 2024
- Thursday, 31 October 2024
About
To coincide with our exhibition ‘Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers’, this course will focus on the last two years of Van Gogh’s life in Provence. Throughout the three-week course, we will consider how the inspirational light of the south of France shaped nature and informed Van Gogh’s paintings, while he lived and worked across locations such as Arles and Saint-Rémy.
Led by Joanna Conybeare and Carlo Corsato, we will ‘visit’ different locations in Provence through Van Gogh’s paintings. Each week, we will explore Provence through different themes and aspects of Van Gogh’s creative practice, from composition, to drawing, to colour. This course gives time to explore and enjoy Van Gogh’s paintings through close looking and analysis, while also considering the art historical, environmental, artistic, and literary context of these paintings.
You'll gain a better understanding of Van Gogh’s creative practice and his visual language by learning tools to interact with his dynamic and visceral works. We will encourage you to find a personal way to connect with Van Gogh and his art through a deeper understanding of his practice and visual language.
Week 1: Composition and cropping
In week one, we examine Van Gogh’s time in Provence, where he proclaimed he found ‘his Japan’. We will consider Van Gogh’s dynamic compositions, the radical cropping in his pictures and how he played with flattening, perspective, and raising the horizon line to capture Provence’s landscape. Focus works such as ‘Sower at Sunset’, will serve as the starting point to explore how Van Gogh’s practices are in dialogue with aspects of traditional Japanese printmaking
Week 2: Painting as drawing
While Van Gogh is known for his vibrant pictures, he is also a singular draftsman and illustrator, whose dynamic mark-making is part of why his works in paint are so distinctive and widely recognised. In week two of the course, we will consider Van Gogh’s use of line and texture in both his paintings and drawings. Additionally, we will explore how his work’s graphic qualities are in the tradition of the drawing and the printmaking of his Dutch predecessors, such as Jacob van Ruisdael and Rembrandt.
Week 3: Colour and light
The third week of the course will consider Van Gogh’s use of colour and light in his paintings. Building on our exploration of composition and drawing in the previous weeks, we will seek to understand Van Gogh’s radical and distinctive use of colour, starting with his signature blue and yellow, and moving beyond. We will also look at the light and landscape of Provence, and consider the impact that the south of France’s strong and singular light had on colour that Van Gogh reacted to and captured in his paintings.
Your Tutors
Dr Carlo Corsato is a Gallery Educator and curator at the National Gallery. Experienced in adult education, he teaches at Morley College and has lectured at the Courtauld Institute and University of St Andrews. He is passionate about history, digital technologies and audience engagement. His publications include ‘Lives of Titian’ and ‘Lives of Tintoretto’.
Joanna Conybeare is an artist and Gallery Educator who has worked in Primary and Secondary schools in London and the south coast as a teacher and subject lead for Art and Design. In her own artistic practice, she uses clay, porcelain and terracotta to explore the figure, enjoying the immediacy of the material that enables her to ‘draw’ three-dimensionally.
Watch again
Can't make Thursday afternoons but don't want to miss out? No problem, you can watch again.
Sessions are recorded and made available to you for one week.
A video of the week's lecture will be uploaded and available for you to watch via your National Gallery account by Monday. Just be sure to watch it by the following Monday lunchtime as it will be taken down in the afternoon.
Format
Each session lasts for 2 hours and includes a lecture delivered by the course lecturers followed by a short break and further discussion.
Time will be allowed for questions and discussion via Q&A.
Handouts will be available via your National Gallery account the day before the session.
Booking Information
This is an online ticketed course hosted on Zoom. Please book a ticket to access the course. Only one ticket can be booked per account.
You will be emailed an E-ticket with instructions on how to access the course via your National Gallery account. All course information including your Zoom link, weekly handouts, and recordings will be available here.
Your link will be valid for the duration of the course.
Booking after the course has started
You are welcome to join the course at any point during its three-week run. However, please note that you will only be able to see the recording from the previous session, as these are taken offline after one week.
The blinding light: Van Gogh in Provence
- Thursday, 17 October 2024
- Thursday, 24 October 2024
- Thursday, 31 October 2024
Enrol
Standard: £45
Concessions: £42.75
Please book a ticket to access the event. You will receive an E-ticket with instructions on how to access your online events, films and resources via your National Gallery account.
Please note, only one ticket can be booked per account. Bookings close ten minutes before the event.
Concessions are for full-time students, jobseekers, and disabled adults.