Love, courtship and marriage have always been a source of inspiration to authors and artists alike. One of the most famous portraits in the National Gallery is Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1434), which is an enigmatic painting despite following many marital conventions. Yet depictions have a much longer history. Already in Ancient Egyptian and Etruscan art people chose to have themselves immortalised as loving couples, also on their tombs. Double or pendant portraits were later commissioned in large numbers from artists such as Holbein, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velázquez and Gainsborough. Yet other artists present a more ironic or even cynical attitude. After all, love and marriage are not always a bed of roses!.

About the Lecturer

Sophie Oosterwijk was born in Gouda (Netherlands) and studied English at Leiden and Medieval Studies at York before obtaining two doctorates in Art History (Leicester) and English Literature (Leiden). She taught Art History at the universities of Leicester, Manchester and St Andrews, and still lectures for the University of Cambridge, TAS and other organisations. She returned to the Netherlands in 2011 where she now lives and works as a freelance lecturer, researcher, editor and translator. Sophie is also Vice President of the Church Monuments Society and has published widely.