Autumn 2026: British Art 1886-1945

Members:  £145
Non-members: £180
Concessions: £30 (call the office 020 8340 3343)

In this 10-lecture course we will explore the relationship of British art to that on continental Europe between 1886 and 1945: which ideas and styles crossed the Channel, which did not and why might that have been? Were the key artists of this period following a tradition of ‘British’ art, injecting a much-needed dose of fresh avant garde theories from the continent, or blending these approaches? 

We will be looking at the work and ideas of key artists and artistic networks in Britain the period 1886–1945-1950, including:  

• The legacy of the nineteenth century: The Royal Academy, the problem of ‘bourgeois’ taste’, and the Aesthetic movement’s principle of ‘art for art’s sake’. 

• The New English Art Club and the influence of late nineteenth-century French art 

• Walter Sickert and the Camden Town Group 

• Artists colonies, art schools and the progress of women artists 

• Roger Fry and Post-Impressionism; The Bloomsbury Group,  

• The art of the machine: Futurism, Vorticism and the First World War 

• The impact of war: the print revival, artists as designers, and the ‘Slump’ 

• Constructivism and Abstract art in design, painting and sculpture 

• Surrealism, the Neo Romantics and the power of landscape in the inter-war years 

• The impact of the Second World War 

This lecture series is suitable for all levels. There is no homework. You might wish to purchase a notebook for taking notes as copies of the slides will not be provided (for copyright reasons).
Suggested extra reading and web resources will be sent to you by e-mail each week, following the session.