The Wednesday Lecture - 3 October 2018

Speaker: Dr Alison Smith, Chief Curator, National Portrait Gallery, London

Constantine Leventis Auditorium, 19.30

RSVP by Tuesday 2 October 2018: 22668838 / info@leventisgallery.org

Doors close at 19.40. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment. The lecture will be delivered in English. Entrance: Free

Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) began his career as a Pre-Raphaelite and became one of the most influential European Symbolists of the fin d’siècle. The themes of sexuality, languor, longing and questing that underpin his vision won him international fame and recognition during his lifetime. Widely regarded as one of the great British artists, Burne-Jones worked across a range of media - including painting, drawing, stained-glass and tapestry – creating works of ethereal beauty, each distinguished by exquisite drawing and glorious colour. His epic sequences of images, such as the Perseus Series and Briar Rose, are among the most ambitious of all nineteenth-century artistic projects. In this lecture, Alison Smith, curator of a major new exhibition on Burne-Jones at Tate Britain, provides an overview of his life and art with reference to many of the works included in the show.

Dr Alison Smith is Chief Curator at the National Portrait Gallery London and formerly Lead Curator, Nineteenth-Century British Art at Tate Britain.

Image caption: Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898), The Golden Stairs, 1880, oil paint on canvas © Tate, London