A very warm welcome to Armchair Art History. I’m Kate Dunton and I’m an art historian with almost thirty years’ experience teaching in art museums and universities here in the UK. I’m a passionate believer that art is best approached in a natural and intuitive way as part of everyday life. Whether you’re a beginner or an old hand, I can’t wait to meet you.
These four-week mini courses are for anyone who would like to deepen their appreciation of Western art in a relaxed and friendly way without compromising on quality. We’ll focus on a stunning new masterpiece each week, really honing our eye and taking time to build a deep relationship with the artworks. By the end of each course, you’ll have everything you need to approach that artist confidently. Moreover, you’ll have picked up a whole range of techniques for getting to know any artwork, on your own or with others.
ÉDOUARD MANET
Wed 4 Mar
Wed 11 Mar
Wed 18 Mar
Wed 25 Mar
LEONORA CARRINGTON
Wed 3 June
Wed 10 June
Wed 17 June
Wed 24 June
Ready to dig a bit deeper? These fully blended courses offer a mix of live sessions with online materials to explore in your own time. Together, we’ll explore some of the most fascinating times and places in art history, without losing the friendly and relaxed feel of the Armchair Art History approach. The aim is to provide as much stretch as you need, but with no expectations or requirements. As always – you choose.
MODULE 1 – MATISSE AND FAUVISM
5 weeks online.
AUTUMN 2026
Discover how and why Matisse rejected his traditional art training, leading a new young generation of avant-garde artists towards an explosive use of colour that baffled the critics and almost ended his career.
Maximum participants: 30
Early booking recommended.
£85.00
MODULE 2 – PICASSO AND CUBISM
5 weeks online.
SPRING 2027
Continue your journey to Bohemian Paris around the turn of the twentieth century. We’ll follow in the footsteps of Picasso as he overturns five centuries of western artistic tradition, and opens the way for generations of future modernists.
Maximum participants: 30
Early booking recommended.
£85.00
5 weeks online.
Next dates TBC
Discover the heady, sometimes murky, but always creatively thrilling world of post-war Bohemian London, where artists, actors, and jazz musicians rub shoulders with the London underworld, and the very British boundaries of sex and class are thoroughly challenged.
£85.00
Discovering Kees Van Dongen’s portrait of Modjesko, the drag soprano, takes me on a fascinating journey into the red-light districts of Paris and Rotterdam around the turn of the twentieth-century where freedom is everything and nothing is quite as it seems.
