Details

ONLINE ART HISTORY COURSE
“More than Muses: Women in 18th and 19th c. British Art”

Course Description:

In 1768, 36 artists and architects founded the Royal Academy to promote and teach art. Two women, Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffman, were among the founding group. Moser was primarily known for flower paintings – at mural size — and Kauffman was a portraitist and history painter. While the Academy flourished, it also met with resistance and the pre-Raphaelites were the most vocal rebels. Among them was Lizzie Siddal. Despite her position as Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s muse and model, Siddal was also an artist and poet, which is often overlooked. Jane Morris, always described as the wife, model and muse of William Morris, was a highly skilled embroiderer who changed the way we look at art and interior design.

In this three-part class we’ll examine the various roles and influences women had in 18th and 19th century British art, and the lasting impact of their lives on contemporary British art.

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings, syllabus and readings.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE ART HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings:
Information will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

Complete syllabus will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE COURSE HAS ENDED.

Schedule

LECTURE 1 – Models and Artists at the Royal Academy

-Friday, March 28

In 1766, Angelica Kauffman arrived in London to great acclaim. She was already known for her prowess in painting, and would add a new twist to history painting by focusing on the women as the heroines. In this class we will explore the ways in which Angelica Kauffman was influenced by earlier women artists and championed new female painters.

LECTURE 2 – The Arts and Crafts Movement: Jane Morris and Elizabeth Burden

-Friday, April 4

Jane Morris and her husband William Morris were integral to the arts and crafts movement. While Jane is commonly described as William’s and Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s muse, she was also a skilled artist and embroiderer. Her sister Elizabeth Burden was also an embroiderer. In this class we’ll examine how the “women’s work” of needlework has been alternately valued and undervalued in the art world.

LECTURE 3 – The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood: Lizzie Siddall, Rebecca Solomon, Marie Spartali Stillman

-Friday, April 11

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were known ( in part) for their romanticized images of the women they called their muses. Yet the women in the paintings were also painters and poets. Christina Rossetti, Lizzie Siddall, Rebecca Solomon and Marie Spartali Stillman were active in creating new imagery and direction in 19th c. art. In this class we will discover how the “muses” discovered new ways of being.

Lecturer

Dr. Meghan Callahan has lived and worked in London since 2006. Like Rocky, she earned her Master’s degree in Art History from Syracuse University as a Florence Fellow. She has a Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University. Meghan is the Director of Ithaca College London, where she teaches a history course called Underground London.

She worked on the reinstallation of the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then with the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf. Meghan has published various articles and essays on the 16th-century mystic nun Sister Domenica da Paradiso, miraculous paintings in Renaissance Florence, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.