Join one of our art collections volunteers for the Short Talks Programme, a fortnightly series of 5-10 minutes talks on one painting in the Picture Gallery.

These talks take place at 2pm on alternate Wednesdays.

Short Talk dates for autumn 2019 are: 2 Oct, 16 Oct, 30 Oct, 13 Nov, 27 Nov, 11 Dec.

Royal Holloway’s historic Picture Gallery houses one of the first art collections in Britain intended for a women’s College - bought by an octogenarian philanthropist who made his money selling patent medicines around the world. Join Assistant Curator Imogen Tedbury to explore the hidden histories of Thomas Holloway’s picture collection.

Picture Gallery, 12pm-12.45pm. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome. The Picture Gallery will be open 10am-3pm.

In museums across the world, artworks by women are being brought out from store for conspicuous display. Exhibitions are focusing on artists like Artemisia Gentileschi, Clara Peeters, Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun and Berthe Morisot. But is this recognition of female artists here to stay? Pamela Gerrish Nunn’s workshop explores how reputations are made, how cultural value is determined and how we can help make room for women in the 21st-century art museum.

Founders' East 139, 2pm-3.30pm. Spaces limited, book on Eventbrite.

On Thursday 17 October, Royal Holloway Art Collections host the second day of a two-day conference co-organised with the Watts Gallery, who host the first day on Wednesday 16 October. This interdisciplinary day of talks and discussion will explore new perspectives on the intersection between Orientalism and visual culture across the nineteenth century.

More information can be found here. Booking is via Eventbrite.

Inventive, ribald and often cruel, satirical prints were a vivid aspect of British visual culture in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Join Art Collections Cataloguer, Alison Wright, in our art store for an introduction to the disorderly world of two leading satirical artists, James Gillray (1756-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827). Meet in the LG floor foyer of the library.

Art store, LG floor, Davison building, 12pm-12.45pm. Spaces limited, book on Eventbrite.

Royal Holloway’s historic Picture Gallery houses one of the first art collections in Britain intended for a women’s College - bought by an octogenarian philanthropist who made his money selling patent medicines around the world. Join Assistant Curator Imogen Tedbury to explore the hidden histories of Thomas Holloway’s picture collection.

Picture Gallery, 1pm-1.45pm. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome. Please wait for the speaker outside the Picture Gallery (Victorian corridor entrance). Note there is teaching on Tuesdays and the Picture Gallery will not otherwise be open.

The Centre for Victorian Studies and Royal Holloway Art Collections are pleased to welcome Jan Marsh, curator of the National Portrait Gallery’s Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition (17 October 2019 – 26 January 2020). This talk will explore the overlooked contribution of women in the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Picture Gallery, 6pm-8pm. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome.

In the nineteenth century, British artists and art collectors looked back to the golden age of Dutch landscape painting, represented by seventeenth-century artists such as Ruysdael and Hobbema. Join Assistant Curator, Imogen Tedbury, to explore Victorian tastes for Dutch art in the Thomas Holloway Collection.

Picture Gallery, 1pm-1.45pm. 

Free entry, no need to book, all welcome. Please wait for the speaker outside the Picture Gallery (Victorian corridor entrance). Note there is teaching on Tuesdays and the Picture Gallery will not otherwise be open.

Stereoscopy was the Virtual Reality of the Victorian era. Rebecca Sharpe and Denis Pellerin, from Dr Brian May’s London Stereoscopic Company, lead a workshop to show how it is possible to take stunning and life-like 3-D pictures (including portraits) with a simple smartphone.

Picture Gallery, 3pm-4.30pm. Spaces limited, book on Eventbrite.

2019 marks the 200^th birthday of William Powell Frith, artist of Royal Holloway Picture Gallery’s beloved Railway Station (1862). Photo historian Denis Pellerin takes us on a journey back in time when photographers were inspired by Frith and other artists to re-stage popular artworks for the Stereoscope. Come and see how Stereoscopy became a unique – and relatively inexpensive – way of getting art into the middle class parlour.

Picture Gallery, 6pm-8pm. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome.

Victorian landscape paintings provide an insight into contemporary attitudes to rural country life, fantasies of place and changing politics of the countryside. Join cultural geographer Eleanor Cooper (MA 2019) to explore how landscape paintings in the Picture Gallery fulfil and challenge Victorian experiences and expectations of place. The Picture Gallery will be open 10am-3pm.

Picture Gallery, 12pm-12.45pm. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome.

Inventive, ribald and often cruel, satirical prints were a vivid aspect of British visual culture in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Join Art Collections Cataloguer, Alison Wright, in our art store for an introduction to the disorderly world of two leading satirical artists, James Gillray (1756-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827). Meet in the LG floor foyer of the library.

Art store, LG floor, Davison building, 12pm-12.45pm. Spaces limited, book on Eventbrite.

In the nineteenth century, British artists and art collectors looked back to the golden age of Dutch landscape painting, represented by seventeenth-century artists such as Ruysdael and Hobbema. Join Assistant Curator, Imogen Tedbury, to explore Victorian tastes for Dutch art in the Thomas Holloway Collection. The Picture Gallery will be open 10am-3pm.

Picture Gallery, 12pm-12.45pm. Free entry, no need to book, all welcome.

We welcome visitors to the Picture Gallery outside our open days, subject to access. If you are an individual, small group or visiting scholar, please contact the art collection team at artcollections@rhul.ac.uk. For tours, contact the Royal Holloway events team at events@rhul.ac.uk.