After the launch of our alumni Art History Network in July, we are delighted to invite Somervillians to join us for a private tour of the newly hung Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery. The event will begin at 3pm on Wednesday 15 October.
There are only 13 places available for this event so please make sure you have your place by booking early.
Our visit will focus on a selection of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century Italian and northern European works in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, which reopened this May following an £85 million makeover. We will consider the profound impact that Netherlandish artists had on their Italian contemporaries and how materials and techniques used by artists from different geographical areas can influence the appearance of a painting over time. Consideration will also be given to issues of display, and we can discuss whether the rehang promotes a better understanding of the nature of artistic exchange during this period.
Our guide, Dr. Susie L. Green, is a specialist in European art of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. She was Head of Art History at the New College of the Humanities (now Northeastern University London) and has taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art for many years. Her most recent book, An Introduction to the Making of Western Art: Materiality, Preservation and Change, was published by Routledge in March 2024.
We plan that the Network will arrange visits and talks through the year, open to all Somervillians. These will sometimes, as this one, be during the week and in London (or Oxford). But it’s our aim to visit galleries throughout the UK, and to hold events at weekends as well as weekdays.
If you have a particular interest in Art History, and you’d like to be put in touch with the Co-ordinator of the Network, Liz McDougall (English, 1972), or you have suggestions for speakers, exhibitions or galleries to visit, then please email Jackie Watson (jacqueline.watson@some.ox.ac.uk).
As places are very limited for this event, we ask Somervillians only to book. If you would like to bring a guest, if space allows, please email jacqueline.watson@some.ox.ac.uk.
If you would like to attend this event, but need financial help to do so, please contact jacqueline.watson@some.ox.ac.uk to find out about the Senior Members’ Fund.