Britain’s Lost Pre-Impressionist: The Rediscovery of John Louis Petit (1801–1868)

This member lecture is available as both an in person and a recording only event. The recording will be made available to ALL attendees on the Monday following the event and will be available for 4 weeks.

John Louis Petit (1801–1868) was nationally recognised in his lifetime as both a leading architectural thinker and an imaginative artist, yet after his death his work disappeared from view. Around 15,000 drawings and watercolours were left in family hands and largely forgotten until they re-emerged late in the twentieth century.

Recent research has begun to reveal the scale and originality of Petit’s achievement. Travelling extensively throughout Britain and Europe, he painted landscapes, churches, industrial scenes and townscapes directly from nature in a rapid and atmospheric style that anticipated the later Impressionists. At the same time his writings on architecture challenged the dominant Gothic Revival, argued for originality suited to modern society, and recognised the architectural power of new industrial structures.

This lecture introduces Petit’s life, art and ideas; it explores the significance of Petit’s work, how he challenges long standing narratives of Victorian architecture and art, and asks whether he should now be recognised as one of the most original contributors to both disciplines from that age.