Arts Society May Lecture : Looking Over the Artist’s Shoulder: The Italian Sketchbooks of J.M.W.Turner

On Monday 20th May 2024 at 2.30pm in Betchworth Village Memorial Hall. Doors open 1.45pm.

Looking Over the Artist’s Shoulder: The Italian Sketchbooks of J.M.W.Turner

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Italy was the country of every artist’s dreams. This lecture recreates a visual tour of Italy in the company of J.M.W. Turner. By studying rarely seen drawings from his travel sketchbooks we will take a privileged look into the world of the artist, following in his footsteps through Venice, Rome, Tivoli and Naples.

Through his most intimate and private sketches we will recapture the excitement and dangers of nineteenth-century tourism, and the British love of Italian culture and history. In addition to on-the-spot sketches documenting where he went and what he saw, we will examine Turner’s artistic response to his Italian experiences, tracing the evolution of his ideas from preparatory studies to finished watercolours and oils.  

 Our lecturer Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London

Join us in Betchworth for these exciting, illustrated lectures. If you are not a member (we are recruiting new members now) do come as a visitor for £8, to the hall. Just pay at the door.

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Location: Betchworth Village Memorial Hall
Contact: See above details