Art, Ideas & Theory
Art History Courses Online & In London
Looking to advance your art historical knowledge into academic practice? Or, maybe you would like to explore art through broader concepts like feminism or aesthetics? Art theory allows us to think about art thematically, across time and place. Join us for one of our classes online, in the classroom or in galleries, out and about in London.
Online, classroom-based and gallery-based art history courses
Many of our courses are also offered online, giving you the freedom to study from anywhere you need to be. We also offer our classes in-person at our Central London location and at many galleries and museums in and around London. Use the Location filters on this page to choose your preferred delivery method. See our guide to online learning for more information about our live online courses.
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.
19 courses available
Ancient China/modern fantasiesExplore the material culture of imperial China and its influence on modern and contemporary visual cultures.
Keeley Street
Tue 3 Nov 2026Meitao QuFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £23.00 Concession £19.00- Friday lates: Art and alchemy – from the ancient to todayDelve into a magical world of hidden secrets and bizarre symbolism as we distil the heady mix that is art and alchemy; from early manuscripts and renaissance paintings, to the surrealists and contemporary art.
Online
Fri 13 Nov 2026Christopher CollierFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - Van Eyck and the Pre-RaphaelitesExplore the work of Van Eyck in relation to Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelites more generally; consider how this 15th century painter influenced artists some 300 years later.
Online
Tue 24 Nov 2026Emma Rose BarberFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £23.00 Concession £19.00 - Friday lates: Virtue and vice: representing gender in early modern Italy
Why are virtues such as Justice, Liberty, Charity and Fortitude almost always depicted as women? This session explores the history of personified virtues in Italian art, examining how moral ideals were visualised as female figures and what these images reveal about gender, symbolism and artistic tradition.
Online
Fri 27 Nov 2026Elisa StafferiniFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - Adoring the Christ Child in art: images of the very generous MagiThe images of the Adoration of the Magi will be taken from medieval illuminated manuscripts, as well as panel paintings done for churches and chapels and fresco cycles. Artists covered include Italian artists such as Duccio, Giotto, Botticelli, Fra Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Gentile da Fabriano, and northern Renaissance artists including Gossaert and Breughel.
Online
Thu 3 Dec 2026Emma Rose BarberFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £23.00 Concession £19.00 - Ways into advanced art history: historiography
Develop a greater understanding of art history, how to analyse the cultural meaning of an artwork by going in-depth with the ideas of prominent art historians. This course looks at the history of art history - the history of interpretation with the aim of introducing different art historical methods. Please note: this course is academically focussed.
Keeley Street
Tue 19 Jan 2027Sarah JaffrayFull fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Friday lates: Art and mapsMaps have a long and fascinating history, yet it was really the 20th Century that saw them come alive as an artistic medium, as artists turned to them to explore their place in a disoriented world. Discover the many ways artists have worked with maps, from Surrealism through to Digital Media.
Online
Fri 29 Jan 2027Christopher CollierFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - Women of the art world: Renaissance and Baroque eras
Learn how women in early modern Italy defied societal constraints to shape art and culture. Explore how female patrons, collectors and artists challenged gender norms, influenced the portrayal of women in visual art and developed new artistic identities. Discover how their contributions helped foster proto-feminist perspectives and redefined women’s roles in the art world.
Keeley Street
Wed 24 Feb 2027Elisa StafferiniFull fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Friday lates: Magical modernism – modern art and the occultDiscover Modern Art’s secret history: a mysterious melting-pot of mystic auras, magical colour theories, trances, alchemy and the spirit-physics of the 4th-dimension, hiding beneath the familiar stories of science, reason and industry.
Online
Fri 26 Feb 2027Christopher CollierFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - Friday Lates: the art of zinesUnderground passions and radical imagery have defined so-called fanzines for over 80 years. From the earliest examples to today, we explore their content, technique and the relation of DIY culture to wider artistic practices.
Online
Fri 19 Mar 2027Christopher CollierFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - Ways into advanced art history: museums, research and critique
Develop a greater understanding of art history and how to analyse the cultural context of an artwork. This course is meant to develop institutional critique of museums while also learning how to research within their collections. The purpose is to cultivate your personal practice of art history through small, guided research and writing projects. Please be advised, this course is academically focused.
Keeley Street
Tue 20 Apr 2027Sarah JaffrayFull fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Art and critical theory: vision and gazeExplore the role of critical theory within the field of art history, and learn new ways of thinking about art by focusing on the topics of vision and gaze.
Online
Wed 21 Apr 2027Irina ChkhaidzeFull fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - Friday lates: psychogeography: the art of getting lostFrom pub crawls to punk rock, via comic books, action painting and Hegelian philosophy; hear the unlikely tale of the Situationists: international artist-revolutionaries who tried to change the world itself into a work of art.
Online
Fri 23 Apr 2027Christopher CollierFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - Study Day: Monet and Hokusai, rethinking the landscape
Study landscape through the two great masters who transformed the genre: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Claude Monet (1840-1926). We will study their work to open up a greater appreciation for landscape as a subject that stretches across cultures and time.
Keeley Street
Sun 9 May 2027Sarah JaffrayFull fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00 - Friday lates: Poster art – print, pop and propagandaGet a snapshot of the eye-catching and colourful world of poster art, from Belle Époque decadence to Avant-Garde dynamism; from Art Nouveau to Atelier Populaire, and the everyday glamour of Pop.
Online
Fri 14 May 2027Christopher CollierFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00
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