Composition and effects of different types of varnish, with its visual effects, and how it can make a painting unreadable when it contains accumulated dirt.
Géricault
Views of and from rolling chalk hills in the south-east of England, including Samuel Palmer, Richard Burchett, Barbara Bodichon, and the Pre-Raphaelite John Brett.
A legend of a young Cossack who has an affair with a married countess in the Polish royal court, and is strapped to the back of a wild horse to ride to his death.
The origin of werewolves, early psychiatry, colourful Venice, a coast of foreboding, a brilliant plein air nocturne, London’s best paintings, visual truth, and more.
Equestrian paintings of those who followed George Stubbs: Théodore Géricault, James Ward, Horace Vernet, Eugène Delacroix, and Edgar Degas.
The horse in chivalry, carrying Mazeppa or Haidamak insurgent, in the circus, racing riderless through Rome, and in Vernet’s studio.
Gambling as a sure road to Hell, with Bosch, Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour, Hogarth, Géricault, Courbet, Rossetti, and others.
Declining health, tuberculosis and riding accidents, but he still painted the Epsom Derby, Mazappa, and ten portraits of those with psychiatric illness.
The Raft of the Medusa shown at the Salon, then the following year in London, and again in Dublin. The start of his search for a successor theme.
A selection of his early paintings, and an account of the year he spent preparing and painting his masterwork, the Raft of the Medusa.
The Eclectic Light Company 