A woman is reading in a room filled with paintings. Her husband, standing next to the fire in the hearth, uses a magnifying glass to inspect a sculpture. i Philip Alexius de László, Interior with Viscount and Viscountess Lee of Fareham, 1925, The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) © The Courtauld

Evening Study at The Courtauld

Online

Short Courses offer an extensive evening study programme for all those who find it difficult to make time for art history during the working day, consisting of

  • Our long-established evening lecture series Showcasing Art History
  • Online Autumn courses running over 5 weeks
  • Our new intensive Evening Study Winter online courses

    •  

    Please find general information and responses to frequently asked questions about our programmes here.

    Making Sense of Abstraction: Roots, Context and Meaning

    Dr Emily Christensen

    5 pre-recorded lectures with 5 live Zoom seminars over 5 weeks from Wednesday 13 September to Wednesday 11 October 2023, with an optional visit on Saturday 14 October 2023
    £195 or £245 with visit

    In spite of its perceived complexity and elitism, abstraction became one of the most dominant expressions of modern art. Ranging across early European manifestations in the work of artists like Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian, to later permutations by American Abstract Expressionists and artists like Ibrahim El-Salahi, this course explores the nature, origins, meanings and reception of this fascinating mode of visual expression.

    Course delivery
    Find out more
    Many different, colourful abstract shapes floating against a black and white background. i Wassily Kandinsky, Roter Fleck II, 1921, oil on canvas, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich

    Making Sense of
    Ideas on Art:

    A Course in Art Theory, c.1800-c. 2000

    Dr Matthias Vollmer

    5 pre-recorded lectures with 5 live Zoom seminars over 5 weeks from Wednesday 4 October to Wednesday 1 November 2023
    £195

    An in-depth look at some of the influential thinkers who have shaped art history, including Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Heinrich Wölfflin, Charles Sanders Pierce, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Ernst Gombrich, David Freedberg, T.J. Clark, and Svetlana Alpers.

    Course delivery
    Find out more
    A man with his back towards the viewer gazes out at a foggy mountain landscape i Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, c.1817, oil on canvas, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg. Image: Wikimedia Commons

    Women Artists in France, 1770-1914

    Evening Study Winter online 2023/24

    Dr Lois Oliver

    10 pre-recorded lectures with 5 live Zoom seminars over 5 weeks from Wednesday 1 November to Wednesday 29 November 2023, with an optional visit on Saturday 18 November 2023
    £395 or £445 with visit

    An opportunity to explore the achievements, professional obstacles and societal contexts of a range of extraordinary individuals, from Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard in the eighteenth century, to nineteenth-century painters Rosa Bonheur, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt and Suzanne Valadon in the early twentieth century.

    Course delivery
    Find out more
    Self-portrait of a woman in a straw hat, holding a palette and paintbrushes. i Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portait in a Straw Hat, after 1782, oil on canvas, The National Gallery, London. Image: Wikimedia Commons

    Cultural Heritage in Conflict: The Legacy of Looted Art

    Evening Study Winter online 2023/24

    Alice Farren-Bradley

    10 pre-recorded lectures with 5 live Zoom seminars over 5 weeks from Wednesday 10 January to Wednesday 7 February 2024
    £395

    Based on significant case studies from the ancient world to the modern day, this course explores the ideological motivations behind the targeting of cultural heritage as a weapon of war, charts the evolution of military cultural property protection, and considers the longstanding relationship between the plunder, collection and trade of cultural artefacts.

    Course delivery
    Find out more
    Four men look through paintings stacked in a cave. i General Dwight D. Eisenhower Inspects Art Treasures Looted by the Germans, 1945, photograph, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. Image: Wikimedia Commons

    Holbein at the Court of Henry VIII

    Evening Study Winter online 2023/24

    Dr Richard Williams

    10 pre-recorded lectures with 5 live Zoom seminars over 5 weeks from Wednesday 10 January to Wednesday 7 February 2024, with an optional visit on Saturday 10 February 2024
    N.B. Evening seminars for this course exceptionally take place at 19:00 [London time]
    £395

    This course examines the early career and cultural contexts of the pioneering German artist who redefined the image of kingship for Henry VIII and brilliantly captured the preeminent personalities of the volatile Tudor court.

    Course delivery
    Find out more
    A portrait showing the profile of Edward VI, who wears a hat with a feather and a fur trimmed coat. i Workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger, Edward VI When Duke of Cornwall, c.1545 and reworked 1547 or later, oil and gold on oak, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Image: metmuseum.org

    NEW The Long Road to Success: Giulio Romano between Rome and Mantua

    Evening Study Winter online 2023/24

    Dr Barbara Furlotti

    5 pre-recorded lectures with 5 live Zoom seminars over 5 weeks from Thursday 11 January to Thursday 8 February 2024
    £195

    This investigation of the life and career of the fascinating Giulio Romano yields important insights into artistic life in Renaissance Italy and explores the fundamental topics of training, workshop practice, the building of a reputation and the complexity of relations with contemporary patrons.

    Course delivery
    Find out more
    Giulio Romano holds and gestures towards an architectural plan. i Titian, Portrait of Giulio Romano, c.1536-38, oil on canvas, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino. Image: Wikimedia Commons

    Citations