National Gallery opens bookings for online ‘Story of Painting’ taster lecture on ‘The Wilton Diptych’

The National Gallery in London is inviting bookings for a free online taster lecture for its new ‘The Story of Painting’ course, with the first session set for 3 September 2026 at 5pm BST. The lecture will focus on ‘The Wilton Diptych’, one of the Gallery’s most celebrated paintings, and is led by lecturer Richard Stemp. The session is billed as an introduction to the themes, methods and ideas that will shape the wider course.

According to the Gallery’s course information, ‘The Story of Painting’ is a flexible online programme drawn directly from the National Gallery’s collection. It is designed for both beginners and experienced art-lovers, and uses expert-led teaching, close looking and discussion to guide participants through more than 1,000 years of art. The course is structured thematically and traces the development of painting in the Western European tradition from medieval devotion to contemporary art.

The taster lecture is built around ‘The Wilton Diptych’, a work whose authorship, exact date and original patron remain undocumented in surviving records. The Gallery’s description says Stemp will use the painting as a case study to show how art historians examine details within a work to uncover clues about meaning, patronage and purpose. The session is also described as an opportunity to see how such evidence can help narrow the date of the diptych’s creation to within a few years.

The National Gallery presents the course as part of a broader learning offer that combines its collection with specialist teaching. Course participants are promised access to recordings of lectures after each session, along with the chance to engage with a community of learners and to put questions directly to tutors. The taster lecture sits alongside a sequence of modules that continue the same framework across later periods and themes.

The course’s first module after the taster is ‘The Sacred made visible: Art, belief and patronage in the Middle Ages’, also led by Richard Stemp. The Gallery says this five-week module will explore how painting emerged as a tool of faith, storytelling and persuasion, using some of the National Gallery’s earliest masterpieces to examine religious ideas, artistic innovations and the individuals who shaped medieval Europe. The programme is offered online and is free to book.

Additional modules already listed for the same course include ‘The Renaissance revolution: Faces, faith and display’, ‘Art and ambition: Power and patronage in early modern Europe’, ‘Drama and devotion: Authority and splendour in Counter-Reformation Europe’, ‘Painting and society in the protestant north’, ‘Art in the age of reason and revolution’, ‘The making of modernism: Culture, commerce and the avant-garde’ and ‘Breaking the rules: Modernism to the contemporary world’. The Gallery also notes that the taster lecture is suitable for participants aged 18 and over, and that only one ticket can be booked per account.