Take what you need from this course which explores Picasso’s expressive late landscapes, presenting ideas about how the dynamic sense of movement in these works developed. We will look at early influences, including the movement found in Van Gogh’s work, and the similarities in subject and motion observed in the paintings of the eighteenth-century artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

The course also proposes that the shift in Picasso’s late work towards more dynamic brushwork can be understood through the influence of the emotionally charged, gestural paint handling seen in the landscapes of Chaïm Soutine (1893–1943). Although not a friend of Picasso, Soutine was greatly respected by him, evidenced by Picasso’s attendance at Soutine’s funeral in Paris in 1943.

Course Structure

Day 1 - Analyse of one or more paintings of your choice, which may include landscapes by Fragonard, Soutine, or Picasso.

Day 2 - Working from photographs of landscapes, you will experiment by merging your own ideas with selected ideas from Day 1, producing preparatory studies that explore colour, movement, and technique.

Day 3 - Using the studies developed on Day 2, you will create a larger-scale Expressionist landscape painting of your own.