Art History courses online and in London
Looking to build your confidence in discussing and interpreting art? Or are you interested in taking your established knowledge of art in new directions? Then come and join City Lit’s Art History learning community!
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.
Choosing the right class for you
Our courses are open to all. Our students come from all backgrounds and learning experiences, from the absolute beginner to those refining their knowledge and understanding. We aim to give you the confidence to engage meaningfully with art, whatever level you are working from. Our students use our courses for personal fulfilment as well as professional and educational development. Many of our students go on to advanced degree and certificate programmes and many are able to use their knowledge in art making and gallery work.
Learn from expert tutors
At City Lit we are proud of the expertise of our tutors who are all professional art historians working actively in museums, galleries, research and writing, universities and auction houses. As experts in the field, they are able to provide you with the support and guidance you need to develop your art historical knowledge. As teachers they provide student-focused education, helping students achieve their art historical goals, both the personal and the professional.
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- Textiles at the V&A: 1650 to the presentCourse start date: Sat 22 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresThis session takes place in the V&A’s remarkable collection. You will see a wide range of woven, printed, painted and embroidered cloth from around the globe and explore the roles these have played in the world’s material culture from about 1650 to the present.Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £31.00 Concession £25.00 - 19th century fashion: colour, design and revolution
Course start date: Sat 29 Mar 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the relationship between nineteenth-century society, from the Napoleonic era to the suffrage movement, and men’s and women’s fashions which witnessed constant change, restrictions, extremes and the start of the dress reform movement.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Tuesday talks: Donald Rodney and the BLK Art GroupCourse start date: Tue 1 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayAn introduction to the BLK Art Group, an artistic and cultural movement begun in 1980s Wolverhampton that inspired a generation of British artists. Get to know some of its major artists (Claudette Johnson, Keith Piper, Sonia Boyce and Donald Rodney) and how they created a new art histories for Britain and beyond. This talk corresponds to a major exhibition of Donald Rodney’s work at the Whitechapel Gallery, on until 4th of May, 2025.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £8.00 Concession £7.00 - Lunchtime lecture: Lee Miller's surrealist eyeCourse start date: Wed 2 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayExplore the photography of Lee Miller, emphasising its relationship to the surrealist movement. Understand why Miller was affiliated with the movement and how it impacted her art and photojournalism.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £7.00 - 20th century fashion: from Chanel to McQueen Course start date: Sat 5 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the ever-changing statement of identity that was twentieth-century fashion through the study of key designers and significant social and political events that shaped the clothes we wore.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Study day: Turner & Romanticism Course start date: Sun 27 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore Romanticism as an international movement, focusing on Turner as its key example, considering issues such as social change, biography, material experimentation and artistic and theoretic interests. Includes visit to the National Gallery.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Women in art: 1900-1960 Course start date: Tue 29 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresOn this course we shall explore and examine the considerable, and significant, contributions of women painters and sculptors to the avant-garde art world during the first half of the 20th century. - Homes, houses and art in Europe: 1900-1960Course start date: Tue 29 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberKnock on the door of artists’ houses and studios from 1900-1960 to experience exciting and visually dazzling spaces created over the course of their careers. At a time when artists were beginning to forge their own brave new visual worlds, this course considers what the homes might tell us about the artists and how they wanted their homes to be seen. This is the second part of a series on Homes and Houses; it can also be taken without having done the previous course.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Hell, Heaven and Purgatory in the Middle AgesCourse start date: Tue 29 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberWhy were images to do with the afterlife so prevalent in the Middle Ages? Come, face your eternal destinies and look at images such as the Last Judgement, skeletons, filthy flesh, worms, ghosts and Hell mouths.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Art history taster Course start date: Mon 7 Apr 2025 (and 10 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayCurious about art history? Join us for this taster session where we explore different ways into visual art and its histories from the ancient to the contemporary.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £10.00 - Art of the Northern Renaissance Course start date: Tue 29 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresDiscover the exquisite art of the Northern Renaissance through the work of its most innovative artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Rogier van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck, Grünewald, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. - The art and culture of the VictoriansCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julie BarlowDiscover the fascinating world of the Victorians and their legacy, exploring fine art, design, architecture, and literature through gallery visits. - Art and imagination: from the Enlightenment to the Victorian ageCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberStudy the art of the period from c.1750-1880 considering Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites. We look at ‘romantic’ landscape, the modern moral subject and the depiction of women. Explore the art of women artists who struggled to survive as artists in the tightly controlled world of the art academy where the woman was encouraged to be muse and model rather than creator and thinker.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Renaissance art at the National GalleryCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberThis course explores the Making, the Locating and the Viewing of Renaissance paintings in the collection of the National Gallery. This course takes place at the National Gallery.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Private portraits: painted miniatures in early modern Europe Course start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresPortrait miniatures are some of the most exquisite and beguiling likenesses ever produced. Their tiny scale and painstaking creation give them an intricacy, intimacy and sense of intrigue. These often reflect the circumstances in which they were gifted to their new owners by the person commissioning them, and both the images and their wider contexts repay our close study on this course.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00
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