Talk with Juliet Heslewood, art historian and author on Van Gogh and post-Impressionism.

The first Impressionist exhibition was in 1874 and caused disruption in the Parisian art world. By the end of the century artists had explored its innovations, liberating them from the conventions of the past. Their dramatic changes, achieved out of the movement, would have wide-spread repercussions, establishing Paris as the centre of the modern European stage.

In her second talk about the Post-Impressionists, Juliet will examine how exposure to the work of the Impressionists transformed Van Gogh’s style but did not lead him away from a subjective interpretation of his subject matter.

Van Gogh believed paintings ‘have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul’. His dark, early work of an impoverished society reflected a low key in his own life. Later ‘Expressionists’ such as Munch and the Blue Rider group admired his vision and created art that deliberately intended to reveal emotion.

£8