Monday, June 1, 6 – 8pm
Felix Mendelssohn’s handwritten and illustrated score for Schilflied (detail), 1845. Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Public Domain.
$90; members $81
(2-hour workshop)
About the Class
The history of landscape painting includes countless moments of dialogue with the world of music. In this workshop held in the Barnes galleries, we will explore some of those dialogues, examining how landscape painters responded to specific pieces of music and to composers more generally. We’ll also think about how a work of instrumental music can be “about” natural landscape and landscape painting. Case studies will include Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and illustrated music manuscripts, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, the phenomenon of tone poems, and the intermedia exchanges of Jean Sibelius, one of the composers most associated with the evocation of landscape.
Capacity: 60
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Barnes classes will:
- Sharpen your observational and critical thinking skills.
- Improve your ability to communicate about art.
- Deepen your appreciation for cultures and histories outside your own.
About the Series
Our Sound and Color series revisits Dr. Barnes’s original vision of pairing music with visual art, drawing inspiration from his historical lectures and curated playlists. Using the Main Gallery as both a classroom and a concert hall, each sensory-rich workshop explores how visual and aural elements interact to shape perception, evoke emotions, and create meaning.
Instructor
William L. Coleman
Coleman is a historian of music and landscape painting and the director of the Wyeth Study Center at the Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. His scholarship on musical-artistic exchanges has appeared in the journal Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide and The Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture. He holds a master’s in music from Oxford and a doctorate in art history from UC Berkeley.
What Our Students Say
“The instructor is a gifted individual who is able to [engage] with all different kinds of learners and motivate us to want to learn more, see more, and experience more. I would highly recommend any course by this instructor.” —Collection Concentration: Medieval Modern with Kaelin Jewell
“Martha Lucy knows how to balance her lecture with fact, excellent painting selections, and inclusion of the students.” —The Art and Life of Toulouse-Lautrec with Martha Lucy
“The best class to understand the elements of art. The instructor’s expertise and warmth, along with the excellent discussions with my classmates, made it a truly wonderful experience.” —The Elements of Art with William Perthes
“This class offered rich insight into Picasso and his contemporaries—the gallery scene, turn-of-the-century politics, Catalan culture, along with Picasso’s approach to composition and contemporary European culture. It was so informative.” —Picasso in Focus: New Discoveries at the Barnes with Christine Romano and Naina Saligram
“Caterina loves the material she presents and infuses all her classes—of which I have taken many—with that infectious enthusiasm.” —Rendez-vous au Café: Café Culture in 19th-Century Art with Caterina Pierre
Go Further
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Discovering Daumier’s The Ribalds
This immersive workshop is an opportunity to study and discuss an individual work in the Barnes galleries. Instructor: William Perthes
The Traditions of Art
Trace art’s evolution from ancient to modern times while immersed in the Barnes collection galleries. Instructor: Kaelin Jewell