Stories of Art 1800-1900

Event information

• Type: Courses: Course
• Date: 10 June - 15 July 2026
• Tickets: From £85.50
• Location: Online
• Official page: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/stories-of-art-1800-1900-summer-2026

Details

About

Join Dr Amy Mechowski on a six-week journey through one of the most transformative periods in history and in art.

From industrialisation and empire to revolution, reform and the rise of modern cities, artists confronted a rapidly changing world that challenged inherited traditions and redefined the purpose of art itself.

As steam trains reshaped landscapes and political upheaval redrew borders, painters responded with new subjects, new techniques and new ways of seeing. This course traces the century’s shifting concerns around modernity, class, gender, and identity, and shows how they reshaped artistic practice and the emerging art market.

Focusing on artists including John Constable, Eugène Delacroix, John Everett Millais, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot and Vincent van Gogh, we’ll examine how painting evolved from Romanticism and Realism to Impressionism and beyond.

Enriched by guest lectures from leading scholars including Dr Jenny Graham and Susanna Avery-Quash, this course reveals how 19th-century art both reflected and contested the forces that created the modern world – inviting you to see the century, and the Gallery’s collection, anew.

Suitable for participants aged 18 or over.