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After the Impressionist group stopped exhibiting in 1886, two artists who had shown work with fellow Impressionists, both left Paris and to pursue highly individual visions for making art. Paul Cézanne returned to his native Provence, to paint the landscapes, people and objects on his family estate in seclusion. His paintings almost defy the possibility of looking at them because they appear to oscillate without a traditional finish and focus. Why did these paintings have such a large influence on the Cubists and younger artists? Picasso described Cézanne as 'father of us all', recognising how his emphasis on the formal nature of painting nudged making pictures away from realism toward a newfound sensory experience. Paul Gauguin by contrast was restless, looking for a place to develop his expressive and subjective paintings that began to depart from the obligation to observe in favour of conveying intuition and emotion. Moving from an artist's colony in Brittany to Van Gogh's 'studio of the south', Gauguin finally travelled to French Polynesia in the naive quest to find a 'primitive' society that remained authentic and honest where he could inspiration and a principal subject. This lecture compares two of the most influential artists of the 19th century and illustrates how they prepared the ground for modern painting.

Joshua White is an enthusiastic and experienced art historian and speaker who specialises in 19th and 20th century European and American art, international contemporary art, photography, design and architecture. T

He taught for 20 years at the college of Christie's auction house. He is also a former BBC journalist, Joshua is also a founder and presenter of The Art Channel, an online project documenting and interpreting art exhibitions and artworks in museums and commercial galleries. 

Joshua has worked as the Director of Hamiltons Gallery between 2018 and 2020 specialising in 20th Century photography. At Hamiltons, he exhibited and represented Don Mccullin and the estates of Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts. 

Elsewhere, he has lectured at numerous institutions, galleries and colleges around the world and has led cultural tours abroad to visit Berlin, the Venice Art Biennale and the Documenta in Kassel, Germany. In the UK, he has led groups to visit Bristol, Cambridge, Chichester, Liverpool and Oxford. In 2026, Joshua will be leading tours abroad for Kirker Cultural Tours and ACE Cultural Tours.

On television and radio, Joshua has been a contributor to Channel 5’s ‘Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr’, BBC Radio 4’s ‘Behind The Scenes’ and BBC Radio 3’s ‘Turning Picasso' and as a writer, Joshua has written several exhibition catalogues.

Please note this is a change to our published programme.