Connoisseurship at the RA

Dr Luke Uglow gave a lecture on a short course 'Connoisseurship: who painted what, when and how to tell', organised by art historian and dealer Dr Bendor Grosvenor, presenter of BBC Four’s 'Britain's Lost Masterpieces'.

The course was an intensive weekend-long course focusing on connoisseurship – the art of authenticating and dating paintings, relevant for lovers of the arts, collectors and art world professionals.

The focus of the course was practical, aimed at getting up close to – and even beneath – masterpieces by great artists. Through hands-on experience with renowned specialists, participants learned how to assess the quality and status of a painting; is it an original, a copy, or even an outright fake? They discussed how to assess a painting’s condition, and the extent to which later interventions can either hide a painting’s true quality, or flatter it.

The theory and history of connoisseurship was also be explored, along with the latest scientific techniques for assessing attribution.

Additionally, Dr Uglow's new article on the Connoisseurship of Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle will be appearing in the December issue of Predella: Journal of Visual Arts.