Before Impressionism: Sketch and Finish in 19th century Landscape
Lecture on Monday 2nd March 2026 at 2:15PM
Lecturer: Kathy McLauchlan
Venue: Larruperz Centre
Art history is replete with myths. Among them is the idea that outdoor painting – or painting en plein air – was invented by the young Impressionists during the 1860s and 1870s.
This lecture considers artists who were painting outside from the motif well before that point. John Constable, Camille Corot, Charles Daubigny and Frederic Edwin Church are just some of the artists who led the way during the early and middle years of the 19th century, laying the groundwork for the later achievements of Impressionist painters like Renoir and Monet.
This lecture considers the motivations for artists to paint en plein air, the emergence of an international vogue for naturalist landscape, as well as the techniques and materials used in outdoor painting.
Kathy McLauchlan is a lecturer specialising in 19th-century art history, currently a course director at the Victoria & Albert Museum, organising courses and study days on the history of art and design.
She teaches at several institutions, including Art Pursuits, and is a graduate of Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute, with a PhD on French 19th-century painters in Rome.