People eager to know more about some of the most famous Victorian artists can do so this winter.
For this month and February there is a chance to join renowned art expert and historian Simon Poë at Bagshaw Museum for a series of three illustrated lectures on artists John Martin, John Atkinson Grimshaw and Harold Gilman.
Paintings by all three artists also form part of a new Perspectives exhibition at Huddersfield Art Gallery.
John Martin (1789-1854) trained in Newcastle as a coach painter, not as an artist, and was never part of ‘the Establishment’.
His brother was a religious maniac who tried to burn down York Minster but his huge, apocalyptic paintings were the nearest the Victorians came to a cinematic ‘block-buster’ experience.
Leeds-born John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-93), the ‘painter of moonlight’, is a local boy made good.
Leeds Art Gallery is the best place to see his pictures and his much-loved night scenes are among the most ‘atmospheric’ paintings of the 19th century.
Harold Gilman (1876-1919) painted scenes and personalities from his own life.
In Tea in the Bedsitter – one of Kirklees’ art treasures – his fiancée and her friend are sitting at the tea table in what is recognisably his flat. There’s a place set and a chair empty waiting for him when he puts down his brushes.
The talks take place at 2pm on Sunday, January 12 (Martin), Sunday, January 26 (Grimshaw) and Sunday, February 9 (Gilman).
Tickets are £3.50 and no booking is required.
For more details call Bagshaw Museum on 01924 326155.
