National Gallery Courses: The forensic eye
How can we know who painted a painting? Learn to read the clues with Dr Chantal-Brotherton Ratcliffe
Monday, 10 May 2021
Monday, 17 May 2021
Monday, 24 May 2021
3.30 - 5.30 pm BST
Available online only
Tickets: Standard £39, Concessions £36
Frans Hals, Portrait of a Woman with a Fan, about 1640, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London.
Recognising that a painting is by one artist rather than another can be like identifying the handwriting of someone we know well. We may know it instantly and with certainty, but it’s hard to describe what exactly is so distinctive about it.
On this three-part course, Old Masters expert Dr Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe will open our eyes to the kinds of details that can tell us who a painting is by, giving us an introduction into observing more fully and seeing more analytically.
We will learn to notice and decode the clues that paintings offer as to where, when and by whom they were made. The forensic eye is the eye that can notice and interpret these exciting clues, enabling a much richer enjoyment of paintings.