Event—Adult Education

Art in the Time of Jane Austen

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The work of author Jane Austen can teach us a lot about the landscape of visual art in late Georgian and Regency Britain.

Pride and Prejudice frontispiece, 1894. Call number: Wing ZP 845 .T383

Class Description

In a time of unprecedented social and cultural changes, the visual arts flourished in late Georgian and Regency Britain. We will explore this dynamic world of art with frequent reference to the life, writing, and concerns of the era’s most famous author, Jane Austen (1775-1817).

The portraiture of Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Lawrence, the prevalence of Classicism counteracted by the Gothic Revival and the first stirrings of Romanticism, and the landscape paintings of Turner and Constable, all attest to the creative brilliance of the age.

Jeffrey Nigro is a Research Associate in the Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium and an Adjunct Lecturer at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Materials List

Required

  • Digital Course Packet

First Reading

  • Please read for the first session: The Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds. John Burnet, ed. London, 1842: Discourse III, pp, 36-51; Discourse IV: pp. 52-72.

Cost and Registration

Five sessions, $257 ($231 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.

To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.

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