The past few months have been exceedingly busy for our art history programme. In addition to planning the 2025/2026 year with our already established tutors, we have hired eight new tutors to our course offerings. We’d like to introduce you to some of our new cohort and the exciting short courses they have designed with us for this summer term.
First up is Caroline Levisse. Caroline is an art historian who trained in Paris and Copenhagen, completing her PhD in art history in 2013. She is now based in London where she has been teaching art history for ten years for a range of lifelong learning providers. Her field of expertise is 19th and 20th century Western Art, with focus on the Nordic region.
Caroline’s course Edvard Munch: Beyond the Scream will showcase her knowledge of Scandinavian modern art and may be of interest to learners who have visited the recent exhibition of Munch portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
We also welcome Elisa Stafferini who is an art historian specialising in Renaissance and early modern Italian art (c. 1300-1800). Elisa has recently completed her PhD at the Warburg Institute with a thesis entitled Women in Arms: Female Warriors in Italian Art, 1500–1700. She holds a BA and an MA from La Sapienza Università di Roma. Her research interests encompass early modern visual culture, iconography and iconology, gender and politics in art, and the relationship between word and image.
Elisa will be running a course on Women artists of the Italian Renaissance: Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. History has made them lesser known than their male counterparts (like Michelangelo), but in the 16th and 17th centuries Anguissola and Fontana were revered by their peers. This short course examines the specific situation of women artists in the Italian Renaissance by exploring the distinctive art and career trajectories of these influential women artists.
Our next new tutor is Xinrui Zhang who has completed her PhD in History of Art at the University of York. Xinrui specialises in art, landscape architecture and environmental activism in China from a global perspective, with a focus on the contemporary period. She holds an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld and a BA in History of Art (Asia, Africa and Europe) from SOAS. Xinrui has taught art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, SOAS and York. And, before starting her PhD, she worked as a curator in London.
Xinrui has designed a session on the art of Chinese gardens: nature and philosophy. This course will go through the social and cultural purposes of gardens in historic China before linking it to contemporary artists use art to mitigate climate pollution. It will provide a fascinating foundation for those interested learning more about the relationship between art and nature in China, past and present.
We then have Sophie Rhodes. Sophie holds an MA in History of Art from Birkbeck, University of London, and completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge and the National Portrait Gallery, where she researched the seventeenth-century artist Peter Oliver. She has taught history of art survey courses at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh. Sophie’s interests and research lie in early modern British art, with a particular focus on watercolour and portrait miniature painting.
Sophie has designed the course Art in England transformed: the court of Charles I. She has published on the collecting of portraits miniatures at the court of Charles I and has an interest in transnationalism and immigration to early modern Britain. Her short course will introduce the artists, craftsmen, agents and connoisseurs who shaped Charles I’s art collections. Students will learn how and why Charles procured some of the most significant works of art of the Northern and Italian Renaissance and how his patronage of foreign artists and craftsmen had a lasting, transformative impact on British art.
There is Carlo Corsato who joins us as an experienced and engaging tutor with over 15 years of experience in adult education. Carlo works across the Curatorial and Learning departments at the National Gallery and teaches on cultural tours for Martin Randall Travel. He is a specialist in early-modern art and history, particularly in Italy and Flanders, and has lectured at Morley College and the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Buckingham. He was a visiting scholar at the Dutch Institute in Florence and at St John’s College, Cambridge. His research has been published in international scholarly journals and exhibition catalogues, and he has edited several academic books.
Carlo has designed a short course on a fellow Venetian, Tiepolo: virtuoso of the Venetian Rococo. The session will take a deep-dive into Tiepolo, looking beyond the simplified version of him as being a decorative painter to the elite. Students will learn how Tiepolo developed his skills from the late 16th century master Paolo Veronese and how he entertained his clients with spatial effects and elegant beauty. You’ll gain a bit of insight into the complexities of 18th century Venice and its art world.
And finally, Bryony Bartlett-Rawlings who gained her MA and PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she specialised in early print culture. She has worked as Assistant Curator of Paintings and Drawings and Assistant Curator of Engraved Ornament at the V&A, Print Room Assistant at the Courtauld Institute and the Image Researcher for the revised edition of Taste and the Antique. She has lectured at the V&A, Courtauld Institute, and University of Buckingham, and published extensively on the graphic arts. Her co-edited volume of essays Placing Prints was published in 2025.
Bryony has designed an introduction to Master Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt: Experiment and Expression. This course will provide insight into drawing techniques and how they are linked to an artist’s exploration of ideas, their personal expression and skill development. Bryony’s curatorial expertise will guide learners through the unique immediacy of drawing and how it provides a valuable connection to an artist, allowing their thought process to be viewed.
We’re thrilled to have such talented art historians/tutors as part of our already outstanding art history cohort. We hope you’re able to join one of their courses during this short course summer showcase and look for their courses in the next academic year as we have exciting things planned with them.
Study Art History at City Lit
Our exceptional range of courses, both introductory and in-depth, are designed for all learning levels. Our programme approaches art history from a variety of perspectives including social and cultural context, art theory and philosophy, curation and collecting, general art appreciation and so much more.
