Adam Elsheimer, The Flight into Egypt, 1609. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Julian Bell, artist, writer and tutor at the Royal Drawing School, introduces Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610), a young artist from Frankfurt who frequented the same streets of Rome stalked by Caravaggio. Brooding on the existential anxieties we also hear expressed in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Elsheimer created intense and mysterious compositions on tiny copper panels. His art – later to become something of a cult secret – prompted others to rethink what 'the light of nature' might mean.
Small as they were, Elsheimer’s pictorial inventions touched the imaginations not only of his friend Peter Paul Rubens, but of painters as unalike as Rembrandt and Claude Lorrain. Both in his life – cut short at the age of thirty-two – and in his art, Elsheimer is a precursor by two centuries to Romantics such as Caspar David Friedrich.
In this talk Julian Bell brings us face to face with this elusive and original artist, the secrets and complexities of his imagery, and invites us to think in the directions his thoughts were heading.
Natural Light: The Art of Adam Elsheimer and the Dawn of Modern Science by Julian Bell is published by Thames & Hudson (May 2023). Ticket holders will receive a code for 30% off the retail price of the book via their website. UK orders only.
Proceeds from our ticket sales benefit museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations and projects.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for one month afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.