Leeds Art Fund

The Anglo-French School of painting was the most important and exciting artistic movement in the years after the Napoleonic Wars, and its influence can be traced in Impressionism and beyond, yet it has been largely ignored by later art historians in both Britain and France. Not only do they like to divide their field into tidy nationalistic compartments, but this was a matter of politics and literature as well as art, and thus could become an embarrassment as times changed. In essence though it was a movement that was driven by friendships between English and French artists working together. Richard Parkes Bonington (Nottingham born but raised in France) and Eugène Delacroix were at its heart, but they had many companions including the Fielding brothers from Sowerby Bridge.

Huon Mallalieu is the well-known writer on fine and decorative art, including the standard Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists. He has been sale room correspondent for Country Life for many years, and is great-grandson of James Walker Oxley, a major pre-war benefactor to the Art Galleries.

Tickets available in advance or on the door. To reserve places please use the downloadable booking form.