The Art of Working From Home
An illustrated talk on Art History from The Cotswold Grange Hotel, Pitville Circus Road, Cheltenham.
Tuesday 8 March 2022 at 7pm.
Living through the various lockdowns imposed upon us by a rather wavering government, the pandemic has normalised remote work. Work will arguably never be the same again, and for those who can work from home, our daily grind will change significantly. Currently more than half of the global workforce is working remotely, and there is no doubt that we are looking at a prolonged period of hybrid working – from home and office in different proportions.
Since the early Renaissance, artists have sought to capture both the domestic and working environment in equal measures, with depictions of Saints Augustine and Jerome in their respective studies, for example. The solace of solitude suited the religious devotion of late medieval saints, it seems. During the twilight period of his tenure Napoleon Bonaparte spent increasingly more time plotting, writing, and strategizing in his study in the Tuileries Palace, as immortalised by J-L David in 1812 with just an undercurrent of propagandist intentions. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought to capture gender-inequality in the mid-Victorian epoch with impassioned renderings of women enduring domestic solitude. Further, the Impressionist artist Edgar Degas became increasingly preoccupied with interior scenes of ballet dancers being put through their paces by over-zealous instructors. These are just some of the examples that will be discussed in this visual art historical sojourn through an increasingly familiar and poignant phenomenon – the art of working from home.
£12.50 per person
Email: katehewer@hotmail.com to book