Week-Long Courses at The Courtauld, Summer 2025
Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, A View of Paris from the Pont Neuf, 1763, oil on canvas, 46 × 84 cm
(Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 71.PA.26)
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From The Courtauld, with a few of the 20 offerings noted below (there also are 5 online courses available) . . .
Summer School at The Courtauld
The Courtauld, London, June — July 2025 (each class lasts one week)
Each in-person Summer School course is full-time, and while you can take only one course per week, you are able to pursue a particular interest in a period or theme across two or more weeks. The teaching day generally lasts from 10:00 to 16:30, with registration from 9:30 on the first day. Morning or afternoon classroom sessions are complemented by object-focused study in London’s museums, galleries, printrooms, churches, and other sites. We benefit greatly from The Courtauld Gallery. It features as a teaching resource in many of our courses, and is the venue for post-graduate talks introducing aspects of our collections and for our Summer School party. The fee for all Summer School on-campus courses is £645 (each online course is £395).
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#6 Harvey Shepherd | Rococo to Revolution: French Art and its Geographical Contexts, 1700–1789
In-person, 23–27 June 2025
This course will examine the ever-changing roles of French art during the turbulent eighteenth century, from the later years and death of Louis XIV to the Revolution of 1789. Students will consider the role that French art played in forming identities and tastes across the world; from shaping desirable aristocratic luxury to envisaging radical futures.
French art and taste of the eighteenth century will be encountered through a series of ever-widening geographical contexts. The opening classes will examine the political and economic centres of France, looking at the Château de Versailles, as well as the artistic culture of Paris and its society during the Enlightenment and the early years of the French Revolution. Alongside the court and the capital, we will consider France’s periphery and its neighbours, examining interactions with cities like Lyon and Marseille, and both peacetime connections and wartime rivalries with European states such as Great Britain, The Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire. Lastly, the course considers the wider global contexts of French art as it was both collected and sent abroad, examining the colonial and imperial interactions of France in an increasingly connected world, from the court of Qing China to Senegal, India, and the Caribbean.
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#7 Nicola Moorby | Travelling Light: Turner, Constable, and the Shape of British Art
In-person, 23–27 June 2025
This course will explore a fascinating aspect of British art history, the parallel careers of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. Between them, these giants of landscape painting revolutionised the status of their genre, transforming the depiction of place through empirical experience and emotive response.
However, their approaches were very different. Turner roamed throughout Britain and the Continent in search of inspirational scenery, combining observation of nature with literary and historical references. By contrast, Constable nurtured his vision at home, rooting himself in the familiar and the everyday. As well as comparing differences and similarities within their works, we shall examine the wider cultural contexts pertinent to their careers: the reproductive print market, the nineteenth-century experience of travel, and particularly the role of the Royal Academy in London, the arena where their robust professional rivalry was played out. We shall also look closely at the artists’ materials and techniques, particularly their innovations with oil paint, watercolour and their use of sketchbooks. The course culminates with a discussion of their respective artistic legacies and their changing reputations through the twentieth century and beyond.
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#13 Kyle Leyden | Constructing the Heart of Empire: London’s Public Architecture
In-person, 30 June – 4 July 2025 (the course is booked, but there is a waiting list)
Architecture is the art form whose presence, symbolic message and socio-political legacy cannot be avoided. The construction of great buildings is an undertaking imbued with significant symbolic and political currency which continues to have an unavoidable resonance with those who continue to interact with these spaces today.
Through an overview of key historical moments and an examination of several major architectural projects, this course will present London as a city in which architecture was consciously deployed as a potent device through which the changing essential values of, and core political vision for, the British Empire were communicated to Londoners, the wider British population and to foreign observers. It will also consider current debates about how post-imperial societies can and ought to deal with the highly contested legacies of these prominent urban spaces.
Engaging with diverse issues and concepts, the course gives students an opportunity to gain a solid understanding of the social and artistic history of London and its critical role as a stage for the theatre of Empire. It features visits to major public buildings and royal palaces and includes spaces that are otherwise inaccessible to the general public including the Royal Apartments of the Palace of Westminster, and the spectacular interiors of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
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#17 Giulia Martina Weston | Beyond Artemisia: Italian Women Artists in the Long 17th Century
In-person, 7–11 July 2025
Over the last decade a conspicuous number of monographic exhibitions has been devoted to Italian women artists of the early modern period, paving the way for notable scholarly findings, chief rediscoveries and newly emerged research avenues. Focusing on the careers and production of a selected group of artists, this course will unveil the most significant discoveries gathered so far, aiming to engage its attendees in a rich exchange on the roles played by these extraordinary women in their society as well as consider what lesson can be drawn today from their experiences.
Ranging from the pioneering examples set by Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana to the versatile output of Artemisia Gentileschi and Giovanna Garzoni, our enquiry will look at specific geographical areas (such as the Bologna of Elisabetta Sirani and Ginevra Cantofoli) and consider a wealth of artistic media, from minute artworks on parchment to Plautilla Bricci’s grand architectural designs. Visits to the National Gallery and The Courtauld Print Room will allow us to gain first-hand knowledge of this exquisite group of artists, and to consider their legacy in dialogue with the predominant art-historical canon.
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#23 Sheila McTighe | Re-Imagining the Everyday: Genre Paintings and Prints in 16th- to 18th-Century Europe
In-person, 14–18 July 2025
The secular subject matter we now call ‘genre’ imagery grew steadily in popularity through the early modern period across Europe. From depictions of peasants at work or play to the erotic intrigues of the aristocracy, genre imagery explores the full range of human behaviours, sometimes imagined, and sometimes rooted firmly in real life. We shall investigate this subject matter and the artistic practices of naturalism or realism with which it was often allied in works by artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sofonisba Anguissola, Caravaggio, Jacques Callot, Diego Velazquez, Georges de La Tour, Judith Leyster, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Antoine Watteau, and Jean-Siméon Chardin.
In contemporary writings about art, genre painting was often decried as unworthy of an ambitious artist. However, primary sources show that such art was highly sought after, whether by elite patrons commissioning paintings or by ‘middling’ people buying images made for the marketplace. Printed images were a constant source of new subjects drawn from modern life, while prints reproducing paintings further expanded the range of genre art and reached a wide audience. Among other, we shall discuss what the functions of everyday imagery might have been for such a diverse body of people. Classroom sessions will be complemented by visits to London’s rich collections of paintings and prints.
In Memoriam | David Bindman (1940–2025)
Posted recently (3 June) by the Paul Mellon Centre:
David Bindman (1940–2025)
by Sarah Victoria Turner
We are saddened to hear that David Bindman (1940–2025) Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at University College London and Fellow of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University, has passed away after a short illness.
David has been an immensely influential figure in British art over the last sixty years, writing on Blake (the subject of his first published article in 1966), Hogarth, Roubiliac, the French Revolution and caricature, and race and representation. His book Blake as an Artist (1977) endures as a key text, while his Hogarth for the World in Art series (1981) remains a standard introduction to the artist. His publications for the Paul Mellon Centre (PMC) include Karl Friedrich Schinkel ‘The English Journey’ (with Gottfried Reimann, 1993) and the multiple-award-winning Roubiliac and the Eighteenth-Century Monument (with Malcolm Baker, 1995). He was a founding figure in the multi-volume project Image of the Black in Western Art (2006 to date) and co-editor of thirteen volumes in the series. . .
Keep reading here»
Call for Papers | Posterity and Fortunes of 17th- and 18th- C. Artists
From Le blog de l’ApAhAu::
Create and After? / Créer et après?
Posterity and Critical Fortunes of 17th- and 18th- Century European Artists
Postérité et fortune critique des artistes européens des XVIIᵉ et XVIIIᵉ siècles
Salle Vasari, Galerie Colbert, 2 rue Vivienne, Paris, 7–8 November 2025
Proposals due by 28 June 2025
According to Antoine Schnapper, one of the tasks of the art historian is to “go against the tide of neglect and oblivion.” Art history has been built on a selection of works and events deemed worthy of remembrance. Conversely, artists, artefacts, and other objects deemed unworthy of an era, a trend, or a discourse have been neglected or obscured. The notions of ‘critical fortune’, ‘posterity’ and ‘reception’ highlight this dynamic. The artists of the 17th and 18th centuries who enjoy lasting recognition escape oblivion, while others, less valued, disappear from the narrative. These contrasting fates are rooted in a variety of factors: changing aesthetic sensibilities, the material nature of the works, historical upheavals, and their visibility in museum collections.
The history of European art has its origins in the writing of artists’ biographies, from Vasari to Félibien to Dezallier d’Argenville. It is based not only on the objective appreciation of works, but also on the judgements made by artists, the public, critics, historians, and the art market, which can alter or reinforce an artist’s position. Since the end of the 19th century and the birth of art history as a discipline, historians such as Henry Jouin (1878; 1888; 1890), Jules Guiffrey (1877), Pierre Marcel (1914; 1924), and Jean Locquin (1912; 1933) have set out to fill these gaps by shedding light on the mechanisms that led to certain artists being forgotten. However, these early studies, which were often based on specific cases, did not provide an overall analysis of the oblivion or marginalisation of artists. Since the 1960s, many artists of the 17th and 18th centuries have been rediscovered or reassessed thanks to monographs accompanied by catalogues raisonnés. New methodologies and easier access to sources have enriched this research, thanks to digital technologies that bring to light previously unpublished information on artists’ careers and their influences. The rise of social history and gender studies has made it possible to place artists in broader contexts, and the study of materials and techniques offers new perspectives on artistic creation. These tools have considerably renewed the approach to monographs, providing a more nuanced reading of artists’ careers. However, the traditional monograph, even when accompanied by a catalogue raisonné, is not always sufficient to provide a comprehensive overview of the critical fortunes of artists.
While there are still many forgotten or neglected artists, the wealth of publications in recent decades provides fertile material for new general reflections, fleshed out by new approaches to the discipline, such as studies. This colloquium therefore proposes to question the notion of posterity, reception, and critical fortune, not only from the point of view of the artist, but also from that of the amateur, cultural institutions, and the public in the 17th and 18th centuries. It will look at the factors and mechanisms that contributed to the rise or fall of certain artists. It is therefore intended to be a reflection on the test that all artists must overcome: time. What role have critics, academies, Salons, the public, and cultural institutions played in this dynamic? What influence have the art market and collectors had on the recognition of artists? In addition, this symposium will look at the challenges faced by art historians when faced with material gaps: how do we deal with an artist or a work for which sources are rare or absent?
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The first theme of this colloquium will focus on the notion of posterity. In his Salon of 1765, Diderot stated: “The artist, in his studio, must feel around him the gaze of a severe and incorruptible posterity.” In so doing, he emphasised the need for artists not to work ‘for their own century’, but to create a future legacy. Taken from the Latin posteritas, posterity refers to the time that comes after, the future. As early as the 17th century, Furetière’s dictionary bears witness to this conception that it is the artist’s responsibility to look after his posterity. It was up to him to ensure that he would be remembered. Many artists in the 17th and 18th centuries directed their careers in this direction. This focus of the symposium will therefore seek to explore the means put in place by artists to ensure their posterity. How did artists’ personal strategies—whether in terms of constructing their image or managing their relations with patrons, critics or institutions—influence their posterity ? In addition, we would like to encourage papers on the material resources that certain artists have deployed to guarantee the longevity of their works. This includes, for example, a certain technical mastery to ensure the longevity and transmission of their works.
Preferred topics
• The use of writing in the construction of posterity : analysis of artists’ memory strategies
• Analysis of the use of prints to promote and disseminate a work of art
• Building a legacy: transmission within families and artists’ studios
• Absence, indifference and refusal of posterity
• The impact of the materiality of works of art on posterity: ephemeral creations, time-tested techniques, etc.
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The second theme of the colloquium will be reception. This term refers to the way in which a work or an artist is perceived and appreciated by the public, who are the main players here. Reception is subjective, sensitive and dependent on the tastes of an era, as well as the social and political influences of the time. By ensuring that his work is well received during his lifetime, the artist takes a step towards success and immortality. Tastes evolve regularly, and works are constantly re-evaluated in the light of one artist’s, one audience’s and one era’s view of another. Criteria differ according to time and place and can therefore be received differently by each century and each new generation. Sometimes it is the works themselves that fall victim to this process, particularly when restoration work alters the original appearance of the objects. This constant questioning of taste can be damaging for some artists, but beneficial for others. The aim is to study how these contexts have influenced artistic criticism and the fortunes of artists. How have political and social events altered the criteria by which works are judged? How does the material state of a work affect its reception?
Preferred topics
• The use and role of the written work in the reception of artists and their works : press articles, critical reviews of the Salons, Academy lectures, treatises, etc.
• The influence of taste on the reception of artists according to the context of space and time
• Lack of interest in an artist, a factor in the destruction of works
• The disappearance of works, a factor in the oblivion of artists
• Consequences of the emergence of the concept of genius in the 18th century on the reception of artists and their works
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The final theme of this symposium will be the notion of critical fortune. This methodical examination of an artist’s reception reflects not only the aesthetic and intellectual judgements made about their work, but also the evolution of their reputation and influence in art history. Critical fortune thus acts as a selective memory, determining which artists are preserved in history and which others sink into oblivion. It influences not only the individual trajectories of artists, but also our understanding of the evolution of styles and aesthetic debates over time. In this sense, critical fortune becomes an essential filter in the writing of art history, structured by the choices of what is valued and what is omitted. Favourable critical fortune can propel an artist to the rank of ‘master’, while unfavourable fortune can condemn him or her to indifference. However, such fortunes are often unstable, subject to fluctuations in trends, social contexts and power dynamics in the art world. This focus will explore transformations in the perception of artists : how were certain artists revalued in the 19th and 20th centuries? What are the reasons for these critical revisions, and how have these reassessments altered their place in art history ? In this way, writing the critical fortune will renew the discourse on an artist for generations to come.
Preferred topics
• The role played by monographs in building the critical fortunes of artists past and present.
• The importance of the vocabulary used to describe artists: ‘master’, ‘small’, ‘great’, ‘minor artist’, ‘major artist’, etc.
• The influence of museums (museography, exhibitions, etc.), universities (conferences, seminars, publications, etc.), the art market and the press.
• New methodologies: what contribution can they make to the writing of critical fortune ?
• Regimes of historicity: the influence of the socio-historical context on the writing of art history and on heritage issues.
Presentations will last twenty minutes and will take the form of individual and collective case studies, focusing, among other things, on the themes listed in the call for papers. Proposals (600–700 words) must be submitted, along with a short biography, to fortunecritique@gmail.com by 28 June 2025. A publication will be considered after the conference.
Organizing Committee
• Élisa Bérard, PhD candidate in Art History, Sorbonne University, Centre André-Chastel
• Romane Delsinne, PhD candidate in Art History, Sorbonne University, Centre André-Chastel
• Enzo Menuge, PhD candidate in Art History, Sorbonne University, CNRS, Centre André-Chastel
Scientific Committee
• Christine Gouzi, Professor of Modern Art History, Sorbonne University, Centre André-Chastel
• Étienne Jollet, Professor of Modern Art History, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
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b i b l i o g r a p h y
BARBILLON, Claire, CHEVILLOT Catherine, MARTIN, François-René, Histoire de l’art du XIXe siècle, 1848–1914 : bilans et perspectives, actes du colloque École du Louvre-musée d’Orsay, 13–15 septembre 2007, Paris, École du Louvre, 2012.
BARTHES Roland, « La mort de l’auteur », In : Manteia, n°5, 4e trimestre, 1968, p. 12–17.
BONFAIT Olivier, « Réception et diffusion. Orientations de la recherche sur les artistes de la période moderne », In: Histoire de l’art, n°35–36, 1996, p. 101–114.
BONFAIT Olivier, « Conclusion : une génération La Fosse ? Nouveaux lieux et paradigmes de la peinture en France autour de 1700 », In : Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles [en ligne], 15, 2018.
BRISAC Anne-Laure (dir.), Perspective : la monographie d’artiste. 4/2006, [revue], Paris, Armand Colin – La revue de l’INHA, 2007.
BOURDIEU Pierre, « L’illusion biographique », In : Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, n°66–67, 1987, p. 95–104.
CHASTAGNOL, Karen, « Charles de La Fosse et la peinture d’histoire autour de 1700 », In : Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles [en ligne], 15, 2018.
DIDEROT Denist, Salons, vol. 1 (1759–1761–1763), texte établi et présenté par J. Seznec et J. Adhémar, 2nde édition, Londres, Oxford Clarendon Press, [1957] 1975.
DIMIER Louis, Histoire de la peinture française du retour de Vouet à la mort de Le Brun, Paris et Bruxelles, 2 vol., 1926–1927.
DOSSE François, Le Pari biographique. Écrire une vie, Paris, La Découverte, 2005.
FEBVRE Lucien, « Penser l’histoire de l’art », In : Annales, économies, sociétés, civilisations, n°5/1, janvier-mars 1950, p. 134–136.
FEBVRE Lucien, « Résurrection d’un peintre : à propos de Georges de La Tour », In : Annales. Économies, sociétés, civilisations, t. 5, 1950, n°1, p. 129–134 ; rééd. Par Brigitte Mazon dans Lucien Febvre. Vivre l’histoire, Paris, R. Lafont/A. Colin, coll. « Bouquins », 2009, p. 260–265.
GOUZI Christine, « L’histoire de l’art selon Antoine Schnapper », in Commentaire, Numéro 129 (1), 2010, p. 151–158.
GOUZI Christine, « Préface », In : Antoine Schnapper, Jean Jouvenet 1644–1717 et la peinture d’histoire à Paris, Paris, Arthena, [1974] 2010.
GOUZI Christine, « L’histoire dans les règles de l’art : la monographie », In : actes du colloque Artistes, collections et musées : hommage à Antoine Schnapper, Paris, INHA, 2009, Paris, Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2016.
GOUZI Christine, « Préface », In : Nicolas-Guy Brenet. 1728–1792, Paris, ARTHENA, 2023.
JOLLET Etienne, « La temporalité dans les arts visuels : l’exemple des Temps modernes », in Revue de l’art, N° 178(4), 2012, p. 49–64.
JOUIN Henry, Charles Le Brun et les Arts sous Louis XIV, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1889.
LOCQUIN Jean, La peinture d’Histoire en France de 1747 à 1785, Paris, 1912 (rééd. 1978).
MARCEL Pierre, La Peinture Française au début du XVIIIᵉ siècle. 1690–1721, Paris, Ancienne maison Quantin, 1906.
PASSINI, Michela, L’oeil et l’archive : une histoire de l’histoire de l’art, Paris, La Découverte, 2017.
RIS (de) CLÉMENT, Les Amateurs d’autrefois, Paris, E. Plon & Cie, 1877.
ROSENBERG, Pierre, « Roberto Longhi et le XVIIᵉ siècle français », In : De Raphaël à la Révolution, les relations artistiques entre l’Italie et la France, Paris, Skira, 2005, p. 27–36 (1ère éd. dans G. Previtali [dir.], L’Arte di scrivere sull’arte. Roberto Longhi nella cultura del nostro tempo, Roma, Editori riuniti, 1982).
SCHNAPPER Antoine, « Les tâches de l’historien de l’art. », In : Contrepoint, n°2, 1973, p. 161–172.
SHAFTESBURY, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, réédité par Lawrence E. Klein, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [1711], 2000.
THUILLIER Jacques, CHÂTELET, Albert, La peinture française. De Le Nain à Fragonard, Genève, Skira, 1964.
THUILLIER Jacques, La peinture française au XVIIe siècle, vol. 2., Genève, Skira, 1992.
VAISSE Pierre, « Du rôle de la réception dans l’histoire de l’art », in Histoire de l’art, n°35-36, 1996, p. 3–8.
WARESQUIEL (de) Emmanuel, Il nous fallait des mythes : La Révolution et ses imaginaires de 1789 à nos jours, Paris, Tallandier, 2024.
WOOD, Christopher, A History of Art History, Princeton, University Press, 2019.
e x h i b i t i o n s
• Dunkerque, Lille, Valenciennes, 1980 : La Peinture française aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Dunkerque, musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1980, Dunkerque, musée des Beaux-Arts, 1980 (dir. Jacques Kuhnmünche et Hervé Oursel).
• Ottawa, 1976 : Le siècle de Louis XV : peinture française de 1710 à 1774, Ottawa, musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada, 19 mars – 2 mai 1976, Ottawa, Galerie nationale du Canada, 1976 (dir. Pierre Rosenberg).
• Sceaux, 2013 : 1704, Le Salon, les Arts et le Roi, Sceaux, domaine départemental, musée de l’Île-de-France, 22 mars – 30 juin 2013, Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 2013 (dir. Dominique Brême et Frédérique Lanoë).
• Tours, Toulouse, 2000 : Les Peintres du roi, 1648–1783, Tours, musée des Beaux-Arts, 18 mars – 18 juin 2000 ; Toulouse, musée des Augustins, 30 juin – 2 octobre 2000, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 2000.
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