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An Art Lovers' Guide

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three cultural city breaks.

Art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three entertaining and revealing cultural city breaks.

Series 1

Amsterdam: An Art Lovers' Guide

BBC Four HD

Janina Ramirez

Alastair Sooke

Kemi Majekodunmi

Ruth Shurman

Richard Bright

Colin Rothbart

An Art Lovers' Guide: Series 1: Episode 1: Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Episode 1

Episode 1: Amsterdam

BBC Four - An Art Lovers' Guide, Series 1, Amsterdam

Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke discover Amsterdam through its art and design.

Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke discover the art and design of Amsterdam - a city that pioneered much of modern life, from multinational trade to how we design our homes.

With sumptuous palaces, exquisite artworks and stunning architecture, every great city offers a dizzying multitude of artistic highlights. In this series, art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take viewers on three cultural city breaks, hunting for off-the-beaten-track artistic treats and finding new ways of enjoying some very famous sights. 

In this opening episode, they head to Amsterdam, a city that pioneered so much of modern life, from multinational trade to the way we design our homes. To find out how, Alastair and Janina take us on a fast-paced tour of the city's cultural hotspots. Picking their way through the crowds queuing to see Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum, they also introduce us to the paintings of Jan Steen, a Dutch legend whose paintings capture the city's freewheeling lifestyle. 

They take us on an entertaining tour of the canals that helped build Amsterdam and explore the city's reputation for tolerance in the oldest surviving Jewish library in the world. Along the way, Alastair and Janina discover how art and culture reflect the liberal attitudes, appetite for global trade and love of home comforts that helped shape the character of this trailblazing city.

An Art Lovers' Guide: Series 1

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three cultural city breaks.

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An Art Lovers' Guide

Series 1

Episode 1: Amsterdam

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