Art History with Modern Languages

Art history with modern languages is a combination that gives you both visual and linguistic access to cultures across time and space. Art history trains you to look carefully at paintings, sculptures, buildings, and objects, to understand them in their historical and social contexts, and to engage with the theoretical debates that shape how the discipline is practised. Modern languages give you direct access to the cultural materials and scholarly traditions of other language communities, extending your range as a student of visual culture considerably.

At the University of Essex, this four-year full-time programme allows you to study the history and theory of art combined with French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, with language options available at post-A level or for beginners, depending on your prior experience. The programme includes the chance to spend a year abroad studying at one of the university's partner institutions, including the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, which is an extraordinary opportunity for a student of art history. Language study deepens your engagement with the primary sources and secondary literature of the cultures you study, and the year abroad develops the kind of sustained international immersion that significantly accelerates linguistic and cultural fluency.

The typical entry tariff is 120 UCAS points. Graduates from art history with modern languages programmes go on to careers in museums, galleries, auction houses, publishing, journalism, arts administration, heritage, cultural organisations, and the civil service. The combination of visual and linguistic competence is particularly valued in international cultural institutions and organisations with European or broader international scope.

Further study at postgraduate level in art history, curating, or languages is a natural route for those pursuing scholarly careers.