This lecture examines the life and times of Oscar Wilde from his Irish roots to his days as a student at Oxford and his meteoric rise to the heights of celebrity. We travel with him to the United States and examine his starring role within the artistic & theatrical worlds of late 19th century London. We visit his home in bohemian Chelsea and some of his favourite West End haunts. Finally, we learn how ‘tired of being in the heights, he plunged into the depths’ and became famous for being INfamous...

Simon Whitehouse is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique and voice teacher and award winning London Blue Badge guide. He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery guiding both public and private tours. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature.
Simon’s specialisms and passions are theatre, literature, fashion and art history but whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it.

Photo of Oscar Wilde 1882 by Napoleon Sarony,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The audience is taken on a journey beginning in Outer Mongolia in the 5th century BC and follows the 11th century migrations from Turkmenistan, the cradle of weaving, into the Caucasus, Persia and Afghanistan. They will be introduced to the nomadic tribes of these countries and their woven rugs, carpets and dowry bags, with particular emphasis on those of the 19th century and earlier. These tribal weavings illustrate the skill of the women who produced exquisite works of woven art, using vegetable colours and age-old designs whilst living and travelling in primitive conditions and hostile landscapes.
The lecture explains how these rugs were made, the materials used and makes comparisons between natural and chemical dyes. The lecture will illustrate how, around 1900, nomadic tribal weaving began a swift decline, under the demands of commercialism, with the use of mechanical designs and chemical colours. By the 1930’s it had virtually ceased to exist in its spontaneous form.

Brian MacDonald has been a dealer and consultant in antique oriental rugs and carpets since 1979 after his return from Iran. He is the author of ‘Tribal Rugs – Treasures of the Black Tent’ which was originally published in October 1997 and updated in 2016. Brian is one of few western dealers to have lived and worked among tribal groups in remote areas of Iran and Afghanistan during the 1970s and then again, after the Iranian Revolution, in the 1990s. In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for his work amongst the Persian tribes. He has lectured for The Arts Society since 1986.

Photo courtesy of Brian MacDonald

It is possible to read the passage of time, of movements, cultures and peoples in the architecture and art forms evident in many of our older English country churches. This lecture takes us from the pre-Christian era, through the arrival of the Romans and onwards to the sixteenth century and the epoch changing Tudors. Simple indicators are given how to identify churches with Roman and Saxon origins. The great flowering of Romanesque and gothic architecture that followed the invasion of the Normans in the eleventh century are explained with illustrated examples. Onwards into the high Middle Ages and the tumultuous upheavals of the Reformation we can see the architectural and structural evidence of a period of great change. It is this period that has shaped and formed many of our English Country churches and leaves a legacy that can be deciphered in stone, wood and glass to this day.

Nicholas Henderson is a graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge and trained for the Anglican ministry at Ripon Hall, Oxford. Inspired by a period working on the staff of Coventry Cathedral he has gained a wide experience of international matters. He was formerly Bishop-elect for the Diocese of Lake Malawi in Central Africa (2005-2009) and undertook his doctorate on Lay Anglican Ecclesiology with the University of Wales, Lampeter. He lectures regularly and currently works as a parish priest in West London.

St Michael & All Angels Church, Lambourn dating from 1180
Photo by Robin Webster
CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Recently there has been a proliferation of contemporary art on display in Britain’s stately homes and parklands.  Focussing on works exhibited in the 21st century at notable estates such as Blenheim Palace, Chatsworth House and Houghton Hall, this lecture explores the fascinating dialogue between landscape, architecture and the vibrant art of today. Ai Weiwei, James Turrell and Antony Gormley are among the artist she looks at. 

Anna Moszynska is a London-based lecturer and writer specialising in contemporary art. During the 1990s, she oversaw the development of the first British Master’s Degree in the subject at Sotheby’s Institute. Anna also taught at institutions including The City Lit, the Royal Academy and Tate London, as well as lecturing in cities ranging from Dubai to New York. She currently teaches at academic institutions in London and Paris and runs her own courses. Her books include Abstract Art (1990, enlarged ed. 2020) and Sculpture Now (2013), both published by Thames & Hudson. Anna enjoys introducing art to audiences in a lively and approachable way to make modern and contemporary art both accessible and interesting.

Henry Moore Exhibition at Houghton Hall, Norfolk 2019
Photo courtesy Houghton Hall

Ancient Egyptians loved nothing more than to feast and celebrate at every opportunity. This lecture will explore the depiction in Egyptian art of their celebrations, from elaborate temple festivals to banquets with family and friends.

Lucia Gahlin is an Egyptologist who has worked in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but these days mostly lectures. Former Honorary Research Associate at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, and Lecturer in Egyptology at several UK universities. Works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London. Leads tours to Egypt. Former Director of Bloomsbury Summer School at UCL, Chair of the Friends of the Petrie Museum, and Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society.

Detail from a fresco from the tomb of Nebamun. Thebes. 14th century BC
In the collection of the British Museum
anonymous, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From cathedrals to churches, cottages to coastlines, we are never very far from a place that John Piper painted, wrote about or was commissioned to depict. A man of many parts - painter, designer, stained glass artist, photographer and writer on the arts – Piper was one of the most versatile British artists of the 20th century.

Alexandra Epps is an Official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Guildhall Art Gallery. Qualified Guide to the City of London, offering lectures and walks about many aspects of the arts for societies, corporations and private individuals. Member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association. Co-author of the book Lord Mayor's Portraits 1983-2014 (2015). Alexandra’s background is in design having practised as a graphic designer running her own design consultancy for many years. BA Saint Martins School of Art, MA London College of Printing.
Alexandra has given us several outstanding lectures, most recently about John Singer Sargent.

Detail of stained glass window by John Piper, St Peter's Church, Firle
Poliphilo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ballet may be one of the most accessible and striking art forms but it has its baffling side.  This lecture is set in the context of The Royal Ballet’s history, performing tradition, and events shared with dancers, choreographers and ballet masters.
You canread more about the Royal Ballet here.

Sarah Lenton has spent most of her working life in the theatre, principally at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and English National Opera.  She writes programme articles, websites, lectures on the repertory and does live opera broadcasts and podcasts for the BBC Radio Three and Four. She has written and directed many shows, including more than 20 shows for the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre and for Glyndebourne Touring Opera. She is also a cartoonist. Sarah last talked to us in December 2021 when her topic was "Christmas at Covent Garden"

Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb in The Nutcracker.
© Foteini Christofilopoulou, courtesy the Royal Opera House

Before the British arrived in India, the Indian subcontinent was ruled by the Mughal Emperors. The stunning buildings and gardens they constructed from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century have left an indelible stamp on India’s architectural and cultural landscape. Mughal architecture fused elements from Islamic, Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural traditions, and gave rise to some of the most beautiful and iconic buildings in the world.

Dr John Stevens is a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and an Accredited Lecturer for The Arts Society. His PhD in History is from University College London. He teaches British Imperial history, Indian history and Bengali language, and is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh. He publishes widely in the fields of British and Indian history.
His biography of the Indian guru Keshab Chandra Sen – Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet - was published by Hurst and Oxford University Press in 2018. He appears regularly in the Indian media, and was a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore.

Taj Mahal, Agra, India, south face.
© Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons

Michelangelo was grumpy, dirty, ugly and tight-fisted but produced sculpture paintings and architecture of startling beauty and originality. 

This lecture sets out to examine some of his drawings, poetry, and several of his finished and unfinished works with the aim of all but summoning the great man to the room.

Dan Evans is an educationalist with a passion for all things Italian. Dan is a Housemaster and Teacher at Cheltenham College, a full boarding and co-educational independent school established in 1841 and was formerly Head of History of Art at Wycombe Abbey School. He has been lecturing since 2001, and spent 9 years working as a senior lecturer, tutor and tour guide for Art History Abroad. In 2008 he was voted the British winner of the World Guide of the Year Awards. Alongside his lectures and special interest days Dan also leads educational study trips for groups of friends to a range of destinations in Italy.

Portrait of Michelangelo, by Daniele da Volterra, c. 1545
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This lecture will follow our AGM which starts at 10:20

When Edvard Munch created The Scream in 1893, he was responding to an intense emotional experience. Today, we would call it a panic attack. Crippling and anxious making, this primal cry was also a rallying call: for Munch and for the wider world of art. It gave birth to a movement known as expressionism, showing life not at it is (realism) or as it might be perceived in a fleeting moment (impressionism), but as it is experienced within the unembellished core of our being. Explosive and emotive, the aftershocks of Munch’s vision were felt across the world: in art and music, literature, dance and film.

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. Gavin last visited us in June 2023 when he gave a lecture about Mahler and Klimt which we rated as outstanding. You can read more about Gavin here.

The Scream by Edvard Munch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A larger than life character, Augustus John was the archetypal bohemian artist. Wild, promiscuous and an early new age traveller he became the top portrait painter of his generation. Whilst still a student at the Slade, Augustus John suffered a severe accident when he hit his head on a rock diving into the sea. This seemed to bring about a radical change of character and he became known for his mood swings, womanizing and artistic talent. An early encounter with Irish tinkers led to a life long fascination with Romany culture and way of life. In 1903 John fell hopelessly in love with Dorothy McNeill, an obsession that was to last sixty years and as he was already married, a ménage à trois was formed. This lecture tells the fascinating story of John’s unusual lifestyle and his loves that made him the artist he was.  

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes is an experienced guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and lectures at various art societies and institutions. She has a special interest in British and European art of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Having gained an MA in film and television practice, Jennifer had a long-standing career spanning twenty years as a television producer/director making documentaries and factual programmes for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. She was also a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck, University of London and a senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society.

Augustus John by George Charles Beresford,1902
National Portrait Gallery
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Western Art from ‘Down Under’ is often overlooked and neglected, but there is a large amount of talented and inventive painters who rose to prominence in the post-World War 2 era.
Painters like Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd from the ‘Heidi School’ working in a naïve and expressive style, John Brack’s figurative paintings give a social critic of Australian post-war culture, John Olsen’s celebratory abstract expressions of the landscape, Brett Whiteley’s personal vision of his life in Sydney, Fred William’s landscapes and Jeffery Smart’s surreal depictions of urban life are all essential in our understanding and appreciating the modern art of Australia and its place in the history of Western Art.

Paul Chapman is an Art Historian and a National Gallery trained guide with many years of experience working in education. As a freelance Paul delivers courses and lectures for a wide range of educational organisations and is a fully accredited Arts Society Lecturer. Paul has also given talks and tours for art associations/societies and is a visiting lecturer at the Art History and Politics departments at Marlborough College.
Paul has a long standing commitment, in conjunction with the N.G as a tour guide at the Longford Castle art collection.

Inland Australia by Sidney Nolan 1950 courtesy of WikiArt

This talk brings together archaeology, volcanology, literary evidence, and art, to examine what happened to these two towns when famously destroyed on the same day in AD 79 by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Following a degree in Classics from Oxford University, James Renshaw has taught Classics at secondary school level since 1998, and currently teaches at Godolphin and Latymer in London; here he runs the school’s Ancient World Breakfast Club, which has an ethos similar to that of The Arts Society.
Since 1998, he has published a number of textbooks related to the classical world, including In Search of the Greeks and In Search of the Romans. In addition to his school teaching, he has also lectured for the V&A Academy, most recently on their Classical World and its Afterlife and Classicism from the Ancients to the Renaissance courses.

The Last Day of Pompeii (c. 1830–1833)
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
by Karl Bryullov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

William Bankes was a 19th century collector of ancient Egyptian artefacts and Spanish paintings intended for his ancestral home in Dorset, Kingston Lacy.  However, following a moment of madness, he fled into exile in Italy yet continued to collect for a house he no longer lived in, nor owned.  The house has been restored by the National Trust.  Can Bankes himself, be restored in this talk?

Anne Sebba is a biographer, historian and author of eleven books, who lectures to a variety of audiences in the US and UK. A former Reuters foreign correspondent, Anne is now a broadcaster who has presented documentaries for Radio 3 and Radio 4 and regularly appears on television talking about her books, mostly biographies including Jennie Churchill, William Bankes, Laura Ashley and Wallis Simpson. Her latest book is Ethel Rosenberg A Cold War Tragedy (published 2021).

Portrait of William John Bankes (1786–1855)
English politician, explorer and Egyptologist
by George Hayter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

2023 saw the centenary of the birth of Maria Callas, one of the greatest singers of the 20th Century.
Her distinctive voice is one of the most instantly recognisable in the operatic catalogue, and the high profile she enjoyed as one of the world's most glamorous women made her an icon of the 20th Century.
But behind the facade of fame and glamour lies the tragic story of a woman who was adored by countless fans, but who never found true love and happiness for herself, and like one of the tragic heroines she played, died abandoned and alone aged just 53.
 
Our lecturer, Christopher Newlands, is a retired Anglican priest.  As well as being an accredited Arts Society Lecturer,  he is also a guest lecturer on cruise ships where his lectures relate to the destinations in the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Maria Callas in 1958
CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1924 an exhibition in London of Canadian landscapes moved the critic C. Lewis Hind to celebrate them as ‘the most vital group of paintings produced since the war - indeed, this century’. These landscapes of Canada’s northern lakes and rugged backwoods, painted in a boldly Post-Impressionist style, had been produced over the previous decade by a collective of Toronto-based painters known as the ‘Group of Seven’, whose aim was to forge a national school of landscape painting. This illustrated lecture introduces the painters - including their talismanic colleague Tom Thomson, who died in 1917 - and examines how they stormed the conservative bastions of Canadian art to establish themselves on the international stage as practitioners of a distinctive avant-garde.   

Ross King is the author of books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he has won both the Governor General’s Award in Canada and the BookSense Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the United States. Born and raised in Canada, he has lived in England since 1992. He has lectured widely in both North America and Europe, and given lectures and guided tours in Florence, Rome, Milan, Paris and Giverny.

April in Algonquin Park by Tom Thomson 1917,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Our speaker has been a writer and director of historic pantomimes throughout England for over 30 years. He has researched its origins and evolution, from the commedia d’ell arte roots, to its first British representation in Georgian England, to the Victorian spectaculars, music hall & variety additions and ultimately into the modern age. Learn about the origins of slapstick and how Britain became the crucible of the pantomime form, independently from the rest of the world. Find-out exactly why pantomime is so popular, what makes it so successful and how it remains such a joyful celebration of all that is quintessentially British.

Tony Lidington has been a showman, researcher and teacher for over 35 years: he has run theatre venues, companies, festivals and events for and with a wide range of diverse communities. He specialises in historical popular entertainment forms and their application to contemporary contexts and in 2017, he was awarded a doctorate by Exeter University for his research into itinerant British performance forms and where he is now a part-time lecturer. He regularly broadcasts for both radio and television, but he is perhaps best known by families throughout the country, as ‘Uncle Tacko!’ – ringmaster of his extraordinary flea circus and the founder of ‘The Pierrotters’, Britain’s last professional seaside pierrot troupe.

Opening Scene of Dick Whittington
Image courtesy of Tony Lidington

When social historian Tessa Boase told the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds she wanted to write their early story, they refused to let her visit their archives. To a former investigative journalist, this was a challenge she could not resist . . .
This lecture shines a light on the intriguing story of women’s love affair with plumage – and of the brave eco feminists who fought back on behalf of the birds. Moving from a polite Victorian tea party to an egret hunt in a Florida swamp; from a suffragette ‘monster rally’ to a milliner’s dusty workshop, you’ll be taken back in time to a world where every woman, of every class wore a hat.

Tessa Boase is a freelance journalist, author of three books of social history, lecturer and campaigner with an interest in uncovering the stories of invisible women from the 19th and early 20th-centuries – revealing how they drove industry, propped up society and influenced politics.
Since uncovering the feminist origins of the RSPB, Tessa has been campaigning for public recognition of its female founders with plaques, portraits and a statue.

The Woman behind the Gun by Gordon Ross
 Illustration shows a woman, possibly Coco Chanel
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1882 Gertrude Jekyll wrote a short but seminal article in The Garden in which she urged the readers to “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”.  As an accomplished watercolour artist, Miss Jekyll was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt that in gardens these principles “had been greatly neglected”.  This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border, but it also looks at the ways in which a border is different from a painting.  However, it goes further than this and looks at how contemporary work of the likes of Turner, Monet, Rothko, Jackson Pollack evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

Timothy Walker gave us an online lecture about the Oxford Botanic Garden in June 2021. He writes:
"From 1988 to 2014 I was the Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.  Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Gardens are often thought of a place where science and art meet on equal terms and my lectures often investigate this relationship.  Since 2014 I have been a college lecturer and tutor in Botany and Plant Conservation at Somerville College Oxford."

Gertrude Jekyll's Long border at Manor House, Upton Grey, Hampshire
Aquilineyes (talk)aquilineyes, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Medici were, in many ways, an unattractive family.  Ruthless in pursuit of profit for their Florentine bank, they were greedy for success, merciless to those who opposed their ambition, and vicious in their own internal squabbles.

And yet without them we wouldn’t have Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’, the Fra Angelico frescoes in San Marco, Donatello’s ‘David’ or the majestic Michelangelo sculptures in the Medici chapel. This lecture looks into the turbulent history of this extraordinary family - the triumphs, the intrigues and plots. Their perpetual desire to glorify their name in works of art resulted in some of the greatest achievements of the Italian Renaissance.

We are delighted to welcome Douglas Skeggs back to Hungerford. He read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and since 1980 has given more than 7000 lectures to Universities, colleges and art societies. He has written and presented TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on Whistler. He has exhibited his own paintings here and in Switzerland and has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 languages.

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli c.1485
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From the mountains of Jiangxi province in far-off China, down river, over lake and mountain, and finally across oceans, 98 % of the Chinese porcelain on display in European museums, stately homes, palaces and personal collections, are testimony to an epic journey and of monumental human endeavour. Luxury for the rich created in the effort of millions. Each year in the 1600s and 1700s millions of pieces - services, vases and ornamental wares - were shipped and portered over the mountain border into Guangdong province, passing through the aptly-named ‘Gate of Heroes’. I take you on that actual journey, the same journey we filmed in my 2011 BBC film Treasures of Chinese Porcelain. You will never again pass a piece of Chinese porcelain in any Western collection without calling to mind the heroic effort involved, or without evoking the landscapes embedded in that journey.

Born in Copenhagen, Lars Tharp studied Archaeology at Cambridge and joined Sotheby’s where, as a director and auctioneer (1977-1993), he specialised in Chinese and European ceramics. Today his consultancy devises and curates exhibitions, advises on the acquisition, care and disposal of ceramics and other fields. Many of Lars’s most popular talks concern the vast universe of clay and ceramics as well as the world and works of William Hogarth.

Lars Tharp

David Niven's remarkable career explored, with an examination of his enduring place in public affection. Rising from studio extra to Hollywood leading man, although Niven remained characteristically modest about his abilities they were in fact considerable, as this lecture demonstrates. Particular attention is paid to his military roles, and insights are offered into the huge range of his wartime activities. From his personification of an ideal young subaltern in The Way Ahead, to the reality of being a Lt.-Colonel on Eisenhower’s staff, there was much more to this unique actor than a moustache and a smile.  

Richard Burnip took a BA Hons in English Language and Literature from the University of Manchester, followed by an acting diploma at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama. He combines acting, writing and lecturing. He has lectured in many venues including the National Army Museum and the Museum of London, and is currently presenting a variety of virtual lectures online.
Richard has contributed to, among others, The Journal of Popular Film and Television, The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and the P G Wodehouse journal Wooster Sauce. A specialist in voice work, he has narrated numerous documentaries and 150 audiobooks.

David Niven in the 1948 film Enchantment
Courtesy of Employee(s) of Samuel Goldwyn Productions
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bath is famous as England's most beautiful Georgian city, a vision of sweeping crescents and neat squares in golden stone, framed by wooded hills. But this was a medieval and ancient city, too. So what were its origins- how did it burst out of the old walls to develop into its elegant final form; which ideas fell by the wayside, and what do the major individual buildings have to tell us when we look at them closely?

Dr Jonathan Foyle is not an 'establishment' academic, but uses the original research he has gained over a 25-year practical career in the world of historic buildings and applied arts to inform architectural conservation projects, broadcasts, books, articles, and talks for groups including the Arts Society. A former Curator at Hampton Court, and Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain for eight years, he has authored seven volumes on great cathedrals and castles, and is best known for presenting series such as BBC2's Broadcast Award-winning Climbing Great Buildings and contributing to series like Channel 4's Time Team and currently Channel 5's Secrets of the Palaces. His talks combine humour with personal insights to offer in-depth and fresh analyses of architecture, furnishings, sculpture, paintings and their all-important symbolism, through which we can better understand them

The Roman Baths (Thermae) of Bath
Photo by David Iliff. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Best known for his outlandish appearances dressed as his feminine alter ego, Claire, Grayson Perry is now a core part of the art establishment, a Turner Prize winner, Royal Academician, popular broadcaster and colourful character. He’s possibly one of the world’s best-known contemporary artists. His works of ceramics, textiles, tapestries and prints are highly sought after. Often controversial, he tackles difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty way and holds a mirror up to society. This talk will examine Grayson Perry’s work, his exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, and the unique character inside the flamboyant frocks.

Ian Swankie is a Londoner with a passion for art and architecture. He is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives tours at each venue. He is also a qualified and active freelance London guide and leads regular tours for various corporations and organisations. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his hometown of Richmond in West London, and he gives talks on a variety of subjects. He is an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society, and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City Livery Companies.

Top: From Essex Tapestry
Bottom: RA Plate
Images courtesy of Ian Swankie

The House of Fabergé’s meteoric success saw a modest jewellery concern transformed into one of the world’s most iconic brands.  By 1900, the firm had gained international recognition, stunning the press and public with its displays at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.  At the dawn of the new century, Fabergé was poised for expansion, choosing Kiev and Odessa as outlets.  We will discuss the beauty and grandeur of Ukraine’s aristocratic estates, jewels of the Crimean Peninsula, that drew the most prominent families seeking respite from Northern winters.

Cynthia Coleman-Sparke is an independent researcher, author and lecturer on Russian pre-Revolutionary works of art, consulting regularly on Fabergé for auction houses. Having periodically grown up on and off in Moscow within a family of Russian art collectors, she was destined for a career in Russian art. Previously, Cynthia ran the Russian Department for Christie’s in New York and worked for Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington DC. This was followed by a restoration project at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, Nicholas II’s last residence. Her book Russian Decorative Arts was published in 2014 by the Antique Collectors’ Club. Cynthia now lives permanently in London.

Image courtesy of Cynthia Coleman-Sparke

It would seem that there has never been fascination in an artist to rival the Dutchman who simply signed his work 'Vincent'. We are all aware of the recent exhibitions and the remarkable prices realised for this humble artist's work. Most of us appreciate the beauty of his efforts but how much to we know about the man himself? This lecture considers exactly why, despite never selling a painting and his committing suicide in poverty, no art historian today denies his genius. There are extraordinary, little known facts to be revealed, while enjoying the remarkable range of his talent. Though seeming so extreme and exceptional, the tragic story of his loveless life is deeply moving and his humanity makes a lasting impression.

As a cultural historian, writer and artist Anthony Russell has travelled much of the world. Lecturing originally to American university students on bespoke tours of Europe, he has lectured for the Arts Society since 2010. He spent six years as a consultant for Luke Hughes advising on the furniture needs of prestigious buildings throughout Britain, including museums, palaces, and cathedrals. At the British Museum, where for many years he ran outreach events and hosted visiting lecturers, he has been described as "Hugh Grant meets the Dalai Lama.” Committed to the 'search for civilisation' and as an advocate of nonviolence, he is the founder of The Chandos; supporting causes that promote understanding and cooperation, is on the committee for Uniting for Peace and a contributor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma. He is author of the book ‘Evolving the Spirit - From Democracy to Peace' commended by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate, as meaning a great deal to her. He was also Founder of the Brockley Festival of Ideas and a Founding Advocate of CIVIL-ISATION. He is currently undertaking research for a new book on civilisation; what it is, whether we have it & how you get it.

Vincent van Gogh Self Portrait 1889
National Gallery of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

For a great many members of The Arts Society, the cartoonist Carl Giles was as much a part of the festive season as the Christmas tree, crackers and the Queen's Speech. So popular were the Giles annuals as Christmas presents that they helped to make him Britain's best loved, most successful and wealthiest cartoonist. The talk looks at Giles's life and work with a particular emphasis on his seasonal cartoons, particularly those featuring Grandma and the Giles family. They include some of his funniest cartoons but, as the art historian William Feaver pointed out, they also demonstrate that he had few equals when it came to representing Britain in Winter.

Barry Venning is an art historian whose interests and teaching range from the art of late medieval Europe to global contemporary art. He has published books, articles and exhibition catalogue essays on Turner, Constable and European landscape painting, but also has an on-going research interest in postcolonial art and British visual satire. He works as a consultant and associate lecturer for the Open University. His media work includes two BBC TV documentaries, radio appearances for BBC local radio and ABC Australia, and a DVD on Turner for the Tate.

Photo of 1964 Giles album cover

From the scandal of the painting of Madame X to the trials, tribulations and triumph of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, discover the rise, the fall and rise again of John Singer Sargent, the leading portrait painter of his age - the age of elegance. Discover an artist who devoted his entire life to the creation of beauty.

Alexandra Epps is an Official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Guildhall Art Gallery. Qualified Guide to the City of London, offering lectures and walks about many aspects of the arts for societies, corporations and private individuals. Member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association. Co-author of the book Lord Mayor's Portraits 1983-2014 (2015). Alexandra’s background is in design having practised as a graphic designer running her own design consultancy for many years. BA Saint Martins School of Art, MA London College of Printing.
Alexandra gave us an outstanding lecture on Peggy Guggenheim in June 2022.

Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw by John Singer Sargent(1893)
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Jane Austen’s novels are often characterised as lightweight romances dealing in trivialities and portraying a limited social sphere, reflecting the constricted circumstances of the author’s own life.  This lecture offers an alternative reading, suggesting that Austen is not interested in romance but moral challenge, not a mild spinster but a social commentator of contemporary relevance and by no means inferior to Eliot and Dickens by virtue of her limited canvas.  Mary will read and discuss extracts from Emma and Pride and Prejudice, considering questions such as how we should view the tedious Miss Bates to whom Emma is so famously insolent and how we should judge the over-excitable Mrs Bennet.

Mary Sharp is an experienced broadcaster and teacher with particular expertise in literature and drama. She worked for many years for BBC Radio 4 producing some of its most popular programmes including Start the Week and Woman’s Hour before joining the senior management team as a Commissioning Editor. Mary has subsequently worked as a teacher and Director of Sixth Form at a leading girls’ grammar school. She now runs her own company 'Opening Up Literature' which offers literature courses for adults including studies of Shakespeare and Creative Writing. Her most popular course is 'Telling Tales' which explores how writers and artists have reinvented classical stories. She is also a professional bridge teacher and lecturer.

Illustration by C E Brock for Pride and Prejudice
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It is 950 years since the Normans invaded England. The roughest of company, they came not to civilise, but to seize. A mere eleven men in Duke William’s inner circle enjoyed an unprecedented bonanza, receiving almost half the land of the conquered kingdom. There followed an orgy of building in what was described as ‘a new manner’ – castles, churches, monasteries and cathedrals – that all but effaced the fabric of Saxon England. It was their way of showing us who was in charge. In describing the mass of post-Conquest masonry, Rupert focuses on individuals, like the deeply unpleasant Baldwin de Redvers, lord of the Isle of Wight, where his legacy endures. He offers an insight into their lives – and the disgusting details of William the Conqueror’s funeral.

Rupert Willoughby is an historian and Classicist, a poet, a father and a wild swimmer with a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering the layers of the past. A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London (where he immersed himself in the ‘Byzantine’, or medieval Greek Empire), he is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village, and the whimsical, yet scholarly Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. Rupert also contributes regular obituaries to The Daily Telegraph. Accredited to the Arts Society since 2011, he is an experienced lecturer, who is known for his light, humorous touch, his love of narrative and his vivid evocations of the past. Rupert’s forefathers were Vikings and his foremothers were Tatars.

Portchester Castle - Norman Keep within a Roman Fort
Adrian Farwell, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gustav Klimt and his colleagues broke away from the imperially endorsed art institutions in Vienna in 1897 and founded the Secession. That was the same year that Gustav Mahler arrived to take charge of the Opera House in the city. Comparing these two totemic fin de siècle talents, this lecture places Klimt and Mahler in context, asking what fundamentally links and, indeed, divides them.

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. You can read more about Gavin here.

Left: Gustav Mahler 1892
E. Bieber, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Right: Gustav Klimt 1887
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Jorge Lewinski, born in Lwow, Poland (now Ukraine) in 1921, has an unparalleled reputation for capturing portraits of the iconic British painters and sculptors of the 20th century. Having based his home and career in London from 1942, Lewinski photographed over 300 leading British artists principally between 1962 and 1995. We learn about his prolific career; what made the photographer and how significant are his photographs in revealing the character of each sitter as both a person and as an artist. This lecture considers Lewinski’s portraits of a selection of great 20th century British artists such as David Hockney, Henry Moore, Antony Gormley. Allen Jones, Michael Craig-Martin and Barbara Hepworth. Through the work of Lewinski, we can also explore the artistic contributions that these painters and sculptors have made or are making to the British art scene

Pamela Campbell-Johnston: MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. Over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Adult Education Department's programme of events. Also conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art. Over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register, National Trust. Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer.

Photo of  Frank Auerbach by Jorge Lewinski, 1963
© The Lewinski Archive at Chatsworth

Grant will discuss some of the great pictures he has handled during his extensive career in the art world, from incredible masterpieces by the Pre-Raphaelites to Lord Leighton and Modern British works. Why did certain works fall out of fashion at a certain point in time, only to spring back and set new world records many decades later? He will explain changes in the market place and his experiences with sellers and buyers. This talk will be focused on the international art market, but will specifically look at some of the great British artists and their work within the global art market arena.

Grant Ford is an Independent Fine Art Advisor, Private Curator and Representative. His eponymous company is based in Marlborough. Grant is a senior paintings specialist for BBC's Antique Roadshow in the UK and is particularly well known in the field of Victorian, Pre-Raphaelitism, Irish, Scottish, Sporting and European Art. He was responsible for Sotheby’s Victorian Art Department (2001-2016), as well as being a Senior Director and Head of British & Irish Art Post 1850. Grant spent 30 years at Sotheby’s and now represents a number of prestigious family collections. He is also a regular guest lecturer in the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada and elsewhere and has written extensively for multiple publications.

Nameless and Friendless. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city" 
1857 Emily Mary Osborn
Tate Britain, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Picasso told his biographer that his work was like a diary – “to understand it, you have to see how it mirrors my life.”
This lecture examines the way Picasso’s emotional life influenced what he painted and how he painted it.  His response to each new love in his life can be seen in the different styles in which his many women were represented. When he fell out of love, that fact would be revealed first in his paintings. 
The lecture will concentrate on the seven most important women in his life, two of whom he married.

Val Woodgate is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and at many other London Galleries and for various art organisations. She is a regular lecturer to The Arts Society and lectures and runs courses at the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. Val was formerly a member of the teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Portrait photograph of Pablo Picasso, 1908
AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This lecture replaces the one listed on the membership card

By the end of the German occupation of Paris in 1944, the French couture industry lay in tatters, its reputation shredded and its very existence threatened by restrictions, bureaucracy and Germany’s elaborate plan to relocate Haut Couture to Berlin and Vienna. This fascinating lecture will examine how the phoenix of Parisian fashion rose once again from the ashes of war to swiftly and decisively reclaim its long exalted dominance on the world stage.

The talk will explore how Paris’s avant-garde created a post war renaissance that fused theatre, ballet, fashion, modern art and opera into one ingenious production and how it would become a sensationally powerful economic driver that would bring Paris fashion back to a global audience whilst raising over 1million French Francs for War Relief in 1945 alone.

With a background in fashion and broadcasting, Connie Gray is a specialist in the history of 20th century fashion illustration and its powerful legacy with both the most influential fashion publications internationally and the great couture houses of Paris, London and New York. She is regularly invited to lecture both in the UK and the US and sits on advisory boards at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London and Special Collections at FIT, New York. As a curator and archivist, she works closely with institutions and foundations on acquisitions, conservation and exhibition projects. She has been invited to curate specialist exhibitions including most recently Legends Only at Claridge’s Hotel, London in 2022 and 100 Years of Fashion Illustration at The Society of Illustrators, New York. Other specialist exhibitions have included Cunard’s Transatlantic Fashion Cruise on their flagship ship Queen Mary 2 to celebrate London and New York fashion weeks. As the lead curator for the art gallery Gray M.C.A, she curates the acclaimed exhibition Drawing on Style each year that celebrates the masters of fashion illustration alongside running comprehensive lecture programmes that accompany the exhibitions in London and New York. During the Covid19 pandemic period she wrote and presented a series of on-line masterclasses, talks and short films on the subject of fashion illustration that regularly attracted audiences of over 800 people during each live event.

Lucien Lelong, Théâtre de la Mode 1945, Photograph by Bela Bernard

This lecture focuses on the design impact of the Great Exhibition and the need for a 'legacy institution' in the form of the South Kensington Museum. We look at the building as a work of art and explore the work of William Morris, Fredrick Lord Leighton and other influential designers of the Victorian Age.

Anna Warrillow writes "I graduated as a Blue Badge Guide early in 2013 and won an award for the best new guide at Westminster Abbey. Since then I have been conducting bespoke private tours for discerning visitors to London. I established my own guiding company Canvas and Stone Tours in 2018.
My background and passion is Art & History. I studied for my BA in History of Art & Italian at the University of Sussex and did my MA in Renaissance Decorative Arts & Design at the Royal College of Art.
I worked for 6 years as a curator in the Sculpture Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum as well as in smaller collections such as the Henry Moore Family Trust. As well as guiding I am an adjunct lecturer at Richmond The American International University in London where I teach undergraduates The History of London. I lecture regularly for art, history and academic societies as well as providing training courses and Continual Professional Development courses for students and guide members of the Institute of Tourist Guides."

Image of V&A frieze detail commemorating the 1851 Great Exhibition
Fæ, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A vast range of sacred and secular music has been inspired by and created for Christmas and there is surely no other musical circumstance where melodies from the Middle Ages sit happily side by side with modern pop numbers. The lecture takes a most enjoyable look at contributions both old and new to the festive season and examines the work of contributors such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir David Willcocks and John Rutter. We will also discover how some of our best-loved carols have come into existence almost by accident as well as exploring the creativity that goes into making a lasting Christmas Hit. Fully illustrated with musical examples.

Nigel Bates has worked as a performer for more than forty years in and out of London’s Royal Opera House, including seventeen years as Principal Percussion with the Orchestra and eight years as the Music Administrator for The Royal Ballet.
He has worked with many of the leading figures in the classical music industry and brings his experience, observations and reflections - both as a player and as a manager - on the unique world of the performing arts and artists.
He was a producer for both the BBC's Maestro at the Opera and Pappano's Classical Voices television documentary series, subsequently being appointed to the position of Music Administrator for The Royal Ballet.  He continues to work as a percussionist and lectures widely for The Arts Society network. You can read more about Nigel here.

Image courtesy of Nigel Bates

This lecture will look at the enduring Western obsession with, and invention of the so called ‘exotic’ or ‘noble savage’ starting with the first discovery of the Island of Tahiti in 1767 and charting the impact, through painted images of the island and their people, of the English and European influence in this part of the world through the eyes of not only Captain Cook and those who came before him, but also through the eyes of the artists that accompanied these pioneering voyages and into the 19th and early 20th century with the images of Gauguin.

Leslie Primo is a graduate with a degree in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck, University College, London. During his studies he specialised in early Medieval and Renaissance studies, including, Italian Renaissance Drawing, Art and Architecture in Europe 1250-1400 Art and Architecture in Europe 1400-1500, Medici and Patronage, Narrative Painting in the Age of Giotto, the work of Peter Paul Rubens focusing on his paintings of the Judgement of Paris, and Greek Myth in paintings.
Leslie has worked as an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society since 2009 and you can read more about him here.

Nevermore by Paul Gauguin 1897
Courtauld Institute of Art
Paul Gauguin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The story of several extraordinary women who ventured to the Near East when travelling beyond Europe was still largely a male preserve. Lady Mary Wortley Montague scandalised London society by joining her husband on his posting to Turkey in 1716. Lady Hester Stanhope, the first European woman to visit Palmyra, left England in 1810 and died 29 years later in the Lebanon. Isabel Burton followed her husband Richard on his missions abroad and immersed herself in his passion for archaeology. Jane Digby’s life was a quest for love – she found fulfilment with an Arab sheikh and is buried in Damascus. 

Sue Rollin specialises in the ancient and Islamic Middle East, India and the Mediterranean.  An archaeologist, historian and linguist by training, Sue lectures for the Arts society and the V&A and has led Study Tours in Spain, Sicily, Morocco, the Middle East, Central Asia and India. Sue speaks Spanish, Italian, French and German. She is co-author of two travel guides: the Blue Guide to Jordan and Istanbul: A Traveller’s Guide.

Lady Hester Stanhope in Eastern clothes
Scanned by Phrood, first uploaded on de:WP,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

An in-depth look at the unique jewellery created by flamboyant artist Charles Ricketts at the turn of the twentieth century. His intricate and richly-enamelled neo-Renaissance pieces were designed as gifts for his many friends including May Morris and the fascinating couple known as Michael Field.

Helen Ritchie is one of the newest Lecturers to join the Arts Society, having qualified in 2018. Her expertise spans fashion and textiles, metalwork and ceramics, and she recently celebrated three years at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. You can read more about Helen here.

Locket pendant by Charles Ricketts
Image courtesy of Helen Ritchie & the Fitzwilliam Museum

Peggy Guggenheim was the ‘poor little rich girl’ who changed the face of the twentieth-century art.
Not only was Peggy Guggenheim ahead of her time but she was the woman who helped define it. She discovered and nurtured a new generation of artists producing a new kind of art. Through collecting not only art but the artists themselves, her life was as radical as her collection.

Alexandra Epps has a background in design having practised as a graphic designer running her own design consultancy for many years.She is an official guide and lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and Pallant House Gallery and a qualified guide to the City of London. Member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association. Co-author of the book Lord Mayor's Portraits 1983-2014 (2015).  BA Saint Martins School of Art, MA London College of Printing.

Peggy Guggenheim in 1937 archives familiales, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice G.Lanting, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

René Lalique was the 20th century's greatest glass designer/entrepreneur. Lalique's extraordinary work was unrivalled, combining his unique visual sense with a perfect understanding of glassmaking technologies and revolutionary approach to marketing.

This talk is a visual feast, covers Lalique's early work in jewels and furniture before he dedicated the remainder of his life, c1905-45, to glass. His output spanned simple, pressed cosmetic pots through car mascots and stemware to the unique cire perdu [lost wax] vases that today can command tens and even millions of pounds.

Andy Mcconnell has dealt in antiques since adolescence, but served an apprenticeship in journalism. After working in music, film and television, he returned to writing in 2004 as the author of the acclaimed tome The Decanter, An Illustrated History of Glass from 1650. He followed this in 2006 with Miller’s’ 20th Century Glass. He writes regularly for journals as diverse as The Times and Glass Circle News and runs Britain’s largest antique and vintage glass gallery in Rye, Sussex. He is best known as the distinctly humorous glass specialist on BBC’s evergreen Antiques Roadshow.

Lalique dragonfly sprklg, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Norman invasion of England in 1066 is commonly understood as the stage on which the medieval knight made his spectacular debut, fighting on horseback with spear and sword, trampling 'The Dark Ages' under the hooves of his warhorse and ushering in 'The Age of Chivalry'. Although there is some truth to this idea, the reality is more complex. Certainly the Norman way of knightly warfare was quite new in certain ways, as was their use of the image of the mounted knight in their art, foremost, the Bayeux Tapestry. This epic embroidery employs the knight in armour as one of its key visual elements. However, because Norman arms and armour is not very well understood by most historians, many of the subtleties of the 'tapestry' as a form of graphic storytelling have been overlooked or misunderstood. Here we delve deeper into the realities of war at the time of the Conquest to better appreciate the ways in which the Bayeux Tapestry was intended to be 'read' and interpreted.

Toby Capwell is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. He is the author of numerous books on the subject of arms and armour, most recently Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust (2018). Toby also appears regularly on television. In 2015 Toby had the unusual honour of serving as one of the two fully armoured horsemen escorting the remains of King Richard III, from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral.

Bayeux Tapestry Scene 55, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sadly Neil Faulkner, our sceduled lecturer for March, has recently died. You may be able read his obituary via this link.

Clive Stewart-Lockhart has kindly agreed to fill the gap in our programme.

Brought up as a house pet by a Director of the Dutch East India Company in India, from a young age, Clara the rhinoceros was shipped to Holland in 1741 and spent nearly 20 years touring Europe as one of the wonders of the age. She visited all the major Courts of Europe including to King Louis XV of France, dying in London in 1758. She was recorded in paintings, prints porcelain, bronze, clocks and even hair styles. This talk explores the charming story of this magnificent beast, only the third or fourth rhino to be seen in Europe, through contemporary records and works of art.

Clara the rhinoceros in Paris in 1749
Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Clive Stewart-Lockhart attended the Sotheby’s Works of Art Course in London, and began his career with Sotheby’s in Bond Street where he worked in the Valuations Department and then for 38 years held senior management positions with the two leading UK regional auction houses.

As well as being a familiar face on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow for 23 years, Clive was Chairman of the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers (SOFAA). He is a Founder Liveryman of the Company of Art Scholars and is an accredited lecturer with the Arts Society. He speaks regularly on a variety of art related topics, both in the UK and abroad.

This lecture will look at the history of the chair and of “sitting solutions”. It will chart the humble to high design, from antiquity to the 21st Century. Never again will you take a seat for granted!

Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques journalist, writer and broadcaster based in Wiltshire.He is shortly to begin his 23rd year as a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes. Marc regularly writes for mainstream magazines and is an author, antiques consultant and lecturer. He also runs a fine art valuation and consultancy service. Marc has his own unique style with interests ranging from pre-history to modern design and is a self-confessed collectaholic. He has a passion and reputation for divining the unusual through ‘a desire to connect with history through the interpretation and pursuit of objects and their origins’. Marc has lectured widely for many years to a number of different organisations in both the public and charity sector, including travel companies, The National Trust, The WI and many literary festivals including Cheltenham, Bath, Wells and Petworth. Marc is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Top: Hatnefer's Chair Egypt, c1480BC  Metropolitan Museum of Art , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bottom: 18th century oak side chair courtesy of Marc Allum

The lecture explores the differing drawing techniques such as pen, metal point, chalks and charcoal and what effects these produce and how they can be recognised.  How did artists Giotto or Ghirlandaio organise the painting of a fresco cycle and what is the difference between tempera and oil?   Each technique will be explained in turn using examples from artists as diverse as Durer, Rembrandt, Duccio and Seurat.

Clare Ford-Wille has an honours degree in History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London. Regular commitments include Centre for Lifelong Learning, London University, National Gallery, V&A Museum, WEA, Morley College, the City Literary Institute, the Art Fund and National Trust. Study tours abroad.

St Luke painting the Virgin and Child,  Workshop of Quinten Massys  c1520  National Gallery, London
Follower of Quentin Matsys, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The London Christmas season was invented at Covent Garden. The first theatre on the site was the home of Harlequin and Columbine and 300 years on Harlequin and Columbine are still dancing in The Nutcracker. Most of what we now consider to be quintessential Pantomime – principal boy, fairy tales, transformation scenes and the dame, can be traced back to the operas and ballets put on at Covent Garden during its first 200 years. Panto has moved on to the Palladium, but you can still see its basic components in the seasonal operas and ballets the Royal Opera House puts on every year: Rossini’s Cenerentola (Cinderella), for example, or Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty or Ashton’s Cinderella. The repertoire changes every year and this lecture is up­dated to include current ROH Christmas offerings.

Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre, principally at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and English National Opera. She writes programme articles and websites, gives lectures on the operas and ballets in the repertoire and does live opera broadcasts and podcasts for BBC Radios 3 and 4. She has written and directed many shows, including more than 20 for the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio Theatre and for Glyndebourne Touring Opera. She is also a cartoonist.

 Repairs to Cinderella's Coach
Photo courtesy of Sarah Lenton

If you think of St Pancras International or New York Grand Central you imagine long romantic journeys. You know they are special places promising excitement and adventure. But there are dozens of other glorious stations in the UK and abroad. We will take a journey around some of the most evocative and splendid stations in the world. We will look not only at the magnificence of the architecture and the brilliant engineering but will also discover numerous artworks within the stations and examine many depictions of stations in art – like Claude Monet’s Gare St Lazare or William Powell Frith’s Paddington. It may sound a bit anoraky, but it’s definitely not. It’s lavish, colourful and fun.

Ian Swankie is a Londoner with a passion for art and architecture. He is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul's Cathedral and gives tours at each venue. He is also a qualified and active freelance London Guide. He is an accredired lecturer for the Arts Society and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars.

William Powell Frith, The Railway Station (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Two lovers meeting underneath the orange tree, an elopement, a fierce father and jilted suitor; pursuit across a bridge and  into a little boat; tragedy and death. Two love-birds flying together forever – all under the gentle sway of the willow tree – on the instantly recognisable ‘Willow Pattern Plate’.  From the early nineteenth century it was well-known and much loved design on thousands of English teapots, plates and dishes. Is it Chinese? Is it English?

With one or two surprises, the story behind this famous image takes us from the origins of blue and white designs in the exotic East to the emerging wealth of the Midlands pottery towns.

Amanda Herries read Archaeology & Anthropology at Cambridge. 1978-1988 Curator at Museum of London specialising in the decorative arts 1718 to present day, exhibitions, lectures, booklets, broadcasts. 1988-1995 moved with family to Japan, lecturing and writing on Oriental / Western cross-cultural and artistic influences. 1995 returned to UK, fundraising for arts companies, writing, lecturing and guiding tours to Japan. Most recent publications on Japanese plant and garden influences in the West.

Blue Willow china, c. late 1800s, various manufactures. Lahaina Heritage Museum, Hawaii
Courtesy of Wmpearl, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

A mixture of art-historical analysis and scandalous anecdote, this lecture takes a generally light-hearted look at changing attitudes to sexual morality down the ages, by examining the portraits and careers of some of history’s most notorious mistresses and courtesans.

The lecture also charts the attitudes of art and society towards the anonymous working girls, by investigating how they have been represented in different times and places from the 17th to the 20th century.

Linda Smith holds two first-class degrees in Art History. A broad knowledge of art historical subjects, but specialises in British Art and twentieth century art. Experienced lecturer and guide, especially at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Has lectured to a wide variety of audiences in different venues, including school and university students, and independent arts societies in the UK and overseas.

Giovanna Baccelli c1682,Tate Gallery
Thomas Gainsborough, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This is a BONUS lecture to thank our loyal members for their support through this difficult year.

It will be run as a “hybrid” session with the lecturer at Herongate addressing a small invited and socially-distanced live audience and it will also be broadcast on Zoom so that members can watch it at home.

How was Napoleon such an excellent self promoter? What was it that drove him? What on the other hand drove his wife? And what was it that made Napoleon and Joséphine one of the most followed couples in history?
These questions can be answered giving a true insight into their character by exploring the collections at the Château de Malmaison.
The Estate, which was bought by the couple as their private retreat, away from the Pomp and Ceremony of the Official Residences, was made into a National Museum in 1905 amassing a huge collection of their possessions. Paintings, personal objects, complete room layouts, and some magnificent pieces of porcelain are just some of the things on display. 

Carole Petipher is an experienced guide and lecturer on combined history and art tours in France with 20 years experience. Having lived and worked on a number of bespoke river vessels and converted barges there she has used them as a platform from which to research her lectures. She uses art in all its guises to explore the characters who shaped France and likes to delve behind the scenes to discover hidden truths.

She also acts as a guide for a privately owned ancestral home in her native Chilterns

Image of Appartement de Joséphine: http://Moonik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE

The history of English garden design can be told in different ways, but rarely can it be told "through the lens" of one garden.  The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and its layout bears all the hallmarks of 17th century design. Through the next 400 years successive Horti Praefecti  (head gardeners) changed the features reflecting the art of gardening, and very occasionally the science of botany.

This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed, or perhaps has not, over four centuries and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century. The title of the talk refers to the fact that one of the motivations for garden design remains the desire to create paradise on Earth.

Since 1986 Timothy Walker has given 1,500 public lectures. This was originally part of his work as director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden from 1988 to 2014. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Since 2014 Timothy has been a college lecturer and tutor at Somerville College Oxford. Gardens are often thought of a place where science and art meet on equal terms. His lectures investigate this relationship.

Oxford Botanic Garden 1675

1642 Yew tree

THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE

Rodin is one of the heroic figures of 19th century art history and was internationally celebrated during his lifetime. After his death his reputation slipped and there were questions about his use of the female image. Now, that is being reassessed and he is seen as having in one career, taken sculpture on a revolutionary path equivalent to what the Realists, Impressionists and Post Impressionists did with many careers. This lecture surveys his work showing why he is one of the greatest sculptors ever, looking at his work in relationship to 19th century sculpture as well assessing his continuing relevance.

David Worthington was drawn to abstract sculpture on seeing a Barbara Hepworth in a school history book aged 10. He graduated from Oxford University in 1984 with a degree in Philosophy and Theology, then studied fine art in London, Barcelona and New York. A sculptor, he also curates and writes about art. He was shortlisted for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2009.

David is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Sculptors, and was Vice President in 2010-13.

He has carried out public commissions in the UK, America and Japan. His work is in the museum the Creative Cities Collection Beijing China. He has had solo shows at the Lefevre Gallery, Sladers Yard, Horatio’s Garden, the William Bennington Gallery, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and in October 2017 at the Lightbox Gallery Museum, Woking. He is currently taking part in exhibitions at Colyer Bristow Gallery and Contemporary Sculpture at Fulmer 2018.

THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE

Mary Gainsborough (known to her parents as Molly) and her slightly younger sister Margaret (‘the Captain’) were sketched and painted more often than most girls of their time and class. The images of the talented sisters and their affectionate father’s letters give an exceptional chronicle of two young women growing up in mid-Georgian England.  Through their father’s sensitive portraits of Mary, Margaret and their family (and a few of their pets), this lecture will follow their story from childhood in Suffolk, to the ‘tea-drinking, dancing, husband-hunting’ of Bath and the difficulties of adult life, keeping up appearances in London.

Amina Wright is a curator of historic art collections and exhibitions. As Curator of Fine Art and Senior Curator of the Holburne Museum in Bath she was a key member of the team that delivered the museum’s highly successful redevelopment. She has produced a number of major exhibitions on eighteenth-century British Art and Old Masters and published and lectured widely in these areas. She has also worked as a collections and interiors curator for English Heritage and for the National Trust, among others

Thomas Gainsborough, Stipple engraving and etching, Bartolozzi after Gainsborough
(Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection)

The Painter's Daughter Mary, copy after Thomas Gainsborough (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

THIS IS A REPLACEMENT FOR THE ORIGINALLY ARRANGED LECTURE

IT WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE
Instructions for "attending" will follow

This is the story of the epic rivalry between the two giants of British art, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. As unlike in background and temperament as their paintings were in style, these two creative geniuses transformed the art of landscape during the nineteenth century.

This lecture sets them head-to-head and examines their ‘signature’ paints and how their differing approaches fared in the competitive arena of the Royal Academy. We also examine how they overcame the ‘technical challenge’ of sketching from nature before witnessing the final showdown of their respective ‘showstoppers’. But who will ultimately be crowned star painter?

Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Formerly a curator and researcher at Tate Britain she has published widely on J.M.W. Turner, including How to Paint like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010) and the Tate’s updated online catalogue of the Turner Bequest. She is currently working on an exhibition of the work of John Constable. She has appeared as an expert on television and radio, including most recently Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr and her film, An Artist of Note: Turner and the new £20, is featured on the Arts Society Connected website.

THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE
Instructions for "attending" will follow

Andrew was inspired to produce this after visiting the National Portrait Gallery, and seeing all the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, in all their finery, and wondering where were and what are all the jewels that they wore.

Among the many jewels he traces, Andrew follows some pearls that belonged to Catherine De Medici then Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth I and that are now worn by Queen Elizabeth II. Also a spectacular diamond that belonged to King Charles I later worn by Marie Antoinette, which was stolen then purchased by a Russian Aristocrat and later mounted in a tiara by Cartier for and American Heiress, when she became a British member of parliament! Jewel hunting has never been more fascinating.

Andrew Prince’s passion for jewellery started as a child, when he visited exhibitions at the V&A, Wartski & Co in Bond Street and the Sotheby’s auction of the Duchess of Windsor's jewellery collection, in Geneva.  
Two weeks after his 16th birthday, Andrew started work in London’s Bond Street, working for The Antiques Roadshow expert Ian Harris. Under his guidance, Andrew developed an appreciation for jewels that were valued for their quality of design and craftsmanship, rather than for how much the stones in the piece were worth. He then joined the renowned contemporary jeweller Elizabeth Gage and worked with her on the design and production side.
In 2002, the V&A commissioned a collection of jewels to accompany the resplendent Tiaras, Past and Present exhibition which became one of their most popular exhibits. This exposure then led to Andrew's jewellery appearing in film. He has made tiaras and jewellery for many films and television programmes, including Mrs Henderson Presents, The Young Victoria and Downton Abbey.

The Heneage Jewel, Nicholas Hilliard, ca 1595. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE
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Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957) have iconic status in Mexico. Rivera's intricate visual narratives, rich with allegory and symbolism, adorn the walls of public buildings. Inspired by Aztec and Maya imagery and by early Italian fresco painting, his vast murals combine social criticism with faith in human progress. Kahlo's work, unlike Rivera's, is small in format. Arguably Mexico’s most original painter, she made herself the principal theme of her art. Her paintings reflect her experiences and dreams. This lecture surveys the work of both artists; it chronicles their turbulent marriage and Mexico's history after the 1910 Revolution. 

Chloe Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America and has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. She has made collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum, and is Research Associate in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture. She is author of several publications

THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE
 

In the quietness of an enclosed garden filled with symbolic plants, or glimpsed inside a sturdy house, a young woman reads quietly, blissfully unaware that her life is about to change. Not just her life, but that of the western world and beyond. Approaching her, almost unwilling to interrupt her thoughts, an angel is poised to break the news, to make the great announcement. Whatever your personal beliefs, it’s hard to deny the impact Christianity would have on the world. The Annunciation by Gabriel to Mary, telling her that she was to bear a son was one of the most popular images of the Middle Ages, more popular indeed than the Nativity itself. This lecture reveals the key players in the story, dissects the symbolism of Mary and The Annunciation and examines the world-changing importance of that particular moment. It is richly illustrated with gorgeous images from the fourth to the sixteenth century. 

After nearly 20 years in the British army, Imogen Corrigan went to the University of Kent to study Anglo-Saxon & Medieval History and Art, graduating with 1st class honours, followed by an MPhil from the University of Birmingham. She works as a freelance lecturer across Britain and Europe as well as lecturing on small cruise ships and running study tours and courses on land.
Imogen has written Stone on Stone: the Men Who Built the Cathedrals, published 2019.

Annunciation Screen, St. Mary's Church, Hennock, Devon

THE NOVEMBER LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE
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The modern fashion for colour has left us all rather ‘tone blind’. But from antiquity through to the nineteenth century tone was often the most important property of a painting. Leonardo invented Sfumato. Caravaggio embraced Chiaroscuro. The Tenebrists depicted a world of shadows. A favourite device used by Constable and Corot was a small black convex mirror! Twilight often was referred to as ‘the painter’s hour’. Shading, together with perspective, can offer a convincing illusion of solidity and space. But how can the artist create this illusion? And why was the invention of oil paint so vital for the creation of realistic light effects? We explore a wide range of paintings from across the history of art to discover some tricks of the light. 

Lynne Gibson works as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art.  Lynne originally trained as a fine artist and has taught painting, drawing and printmaking in higher and adult education. She lectured as an art historian for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme. She gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of organisations and institutions including ARCA colleges, the National Trust, National Gallery, art museums and art societies. She has worked as a professional artist specializing in oil painting and etching. Solo and group shows have included the RWA, British Museum and the Barbican.

The Mill at Wijk-bij-Duurstede, Jacob van Ruisdael c. 1670, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

THE OCTOBER LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE
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“Antiques. I don’t understand them and they’re beyond my budget. Nobody even collects anymore. They’re not for me.”
A persuasive introduction to buying antiques and integrating and using them in today’s homes. The state of the antiques market and the different meanings of the word value are considered, and we take a look at what current and future generations of collectors are buying, why they are buying it and how they are displaying it.

Mark Hill was a specialist in the collectors departments at Bonhams and Sotheby’s in London before joining an internet company where he became a director, forming and running its ground-breaking alliance with eBay Live Auctions. He is now an author, publisher, TV presenter, and a leading dealer in postwar Czech and 20th century decorative glass.

His publishing company Mark Hill Publishing Ltd, specialises in producing innovative books on new areas in 20thC design and decorative arts. Mark is an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow, and has appeared on the BBC 20th Century Roadshow and Priceless Antiques Roadshow. He was also co-presenter of BBC Two’s landmark primetime antiques and interior design shows Cracking Antiques, Antiques Uncovered and Collectaholics (two series). He was the co-author of the international Miller’s Collectables Price Guides from 2002-17 and writes regular columns for The Daily Mail and Homes & Antiques magazine.

He is also a member of the vetting committee for major international fairs including the Olympia Fine Art & Antiques Fair, the BADA Fair, and Antiques For Everyone. He is a co-founder of the rapidly growing and influential Antiques Young Guns website and movement and a dealer member of The British Antique Dealers’ Association.

He is a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Freeman of the City of London.

Photo courtesy of Battersea Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair

THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE
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After World War I, artists and architects were in a state of flux, just like the world they inhabited. How could they create and what, indeed, would they produce in a Europe still reeling from the worst conflict ever known? Yet out of crisis came a truly stimulating period of artistic endeavour. Contemplating painters such as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and Christian Schad, alongside the experiments of the Bauhaus, new film technologies and the sultry stylings of Marlene Dietrich. This talk looks at the culture of German-speaking Europe during the interwar years. 

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries

There's more to the world of street art than Banksy, Hidden Canvases is a beginner's guide to the biggest art movement since pop art.  From train writing in New York to interactive technology that brings murals to life, the concept of un-commissioned public art is a very different beast to that which it once was.  Hidden Canvases explores the key stages in street art's growth examining the different elements and styles that comprise the scene with no rules.  From the international superstars to the local underground heroes you're guaranteed to leave knowing your Invader from you Aryz and who knows you might even start looking at the world a little differently.

Doug Gillen is heavily involved in documenting the street art scene in London and abroad through his project Fifth Wall TV, and can offer a genuine insight into this world. Previously lectured for London Art and More, and when not filming he is an East End tour guide for Alternative London, specialising in culture and art.

Victorian interiors are traditionally characterised as eclectic, cluttered and garishly decorated. But while bright colours and ornate and heavily carved furniture were certainly popular in many homes, the period also saw the introduction of innovative and original styles including the Gothic Revival, Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau. Improvements in technology led to the mass production of luxuries like wallpapers, textiles, mirrors, ornaments and upholstered seating.  And while early Victorian interiors strictly adhered to conventions like the designation of masculine and feminine rooms, by the outset of the 20th century the gradual relaxation of these rules had led to more informal, open-plan living.  This lecture will explore some of the social, artistic and technological changes that determined the decoration of the Victorian and early 20th century home.

Jo Banham is a freelance curator, lecturer and writer. From 2006-2016 she was Head of Adult Learning at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and before that Head of Learning and Access at the National Portrait Gallery, and Head of Public Programmes at Tate Britain. She has also been Curator of Leighton House and Assistant Keeper at the Whitworth Art Gallery. She has published on many aspects of Victorian and early 20th century decoration and interiors. She is currently curating an exhibition on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement for the Juan March Fundacion in Madrid and the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya in Barcelona. She is also Director of the Victorian Society Summer School.

Why do we bring a tree into our homes at Christmas? How did Santa become the patron saint of pawnbrokers and what has a snake got to do with it all?  The truth about some of our Christmas traditions may surprise you.

Geri Parlby is a former Fleet Street journalist and film publicist. She has a first class honours degree in History and Theology, a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology doctorate from Roehampton University in London. She has been lecturing for the past eleven years both in the UK and internationally. She is also principal lecturer on the The Arts Society South West Area’s History of Art course and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Roehampton University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

The lute holds a special place in the history of art: painters of the Italian Renaissance depicted golden-haired angels plucking its delicate strings, evoking celestial harmony; in the sixteenth century, during the rise of humanism, the lute was a becoming pastime of educated courtiers, as depicted by the likes of Holbein and Titian; throughout the seventeenth century, the instrument continued to play a key role in emphasising the intimate, debauched and transient pleasures of interior scenes by Jan Steen and portraits by Frans Hals. This lecture looks at the lute, and other musical instruments, as devices to express various aspects of the human character throughout the ages. Adam will play some pieces to accompany the lecture.

Biography

Adam Busiakiewicz is an Independent Art Historian and Guide Lecturer at the Wallace Collection. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree in History at UCL in 2010 he held the position of Head of Historical Interpretation (curator) at Warwick Castle. He left the castle in 2013 after winning a full AHRC studentship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Fine and Decorative Art at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. In December 2014 he became the youngest Guide Lecturer at the Wallace Collection, where he regularly gives talks, tours and lectures to both public and professional audiences. Adam is currently planning a publication on the Grevilles of Warwick Castle, and has had articles published by the British Art Journal and Hispanic Lyra (Spain’s leading Guitar History publication).

This talk combines the lives of the Astors, the Sackville Wests and the Rothschilds and their family history with the story of the gardens they have all created, despite their very different backgrounds, here in the English countryside.

Caroline Rayman has lectured for many years to universities and art organisations in America and on cruise boats. She was an official guide at the British Museum and has published articles on samplers.

This lecture will follow the AGM which starts at 10.20am. Don't be late!

From the early sixties, when he left the Royal College of Art more famous than his teachers, Hockney's paintings have shown a charm and humour that sets them apart from others of his generation. A naturally gifted draftsman, his love of ingenious visual devices has led him to experiment with a whole range of techniques, from stage design to coloured paper making. From the early abstract expressionist images, through his famous Californian scenes of swimming pools to the photo-montages of mid-eighties, this lecture follows the career of an artist whose wit and imagination has never faltered.

Douglas Skeggs was the director of 'The New Academy of Art Studies' for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at 'The Study Centre', Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe. He helped set up the Abercrombie & Kent "Private Label tours" and is presently cultural adviser to Ultimate Travel. He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on 'Whistler' and the exhibition video on 'William Morris.' Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland.

Artists have depicted multiple aspects of medicine and its practice for centuries. Often their perceptions are tempered by personal experience of sickness or chronic ill health.

This lecture looks at how artists as diverse as Jan Steen, Rene Magritte and L. S. Lowry have depicted the various steps in the development of modern doctoring.

It is a profession that grew out of superstition and quackery before the birth of modern scientific medicine in the 19th century. The various stages in a doctor’s life from student to senior clinician are explored with insight and humour.

The talk highlights the importance of the doctor patient relationship in the life of a successful doctor.

Biography

As a retired country doctor with a lifetime of working in the NHS both in hospital and in rural practice James  is passionate about all aspects of medicine, its history and its relationship to art and artists. He feels very strongly that lecturing should be stimulating, informative and entertaining.

This lecture, originally planned for May 2018, replaces the one advertised in our programme card.
The Herongate cafe is closed for refurbishment so unfortunately coffee will not be available before the lecture. We should be back to normal in June.
Please bring your cheque book to renew your membership for next season.

Brian’s time spent in Iran and Afghanistan during the 1970s, began to foster a passion for the wonderful woven art produced by nomads on basic ground looms. His subsequent visits were spent travelling and searching amongst nomadic tribes for these exquisite 19th century weavings, which have become harder to find and have now virtually disappeared amongst the tribes themselves.

This lecture illustrates the woven art of the nomads as they moved over the lands they have travelled for generations. The audience will have the opportunity of seeing their way of life and looking at the 19th century rugs and utilitarian weavings, similar to those which he discovered during his forays into the different tribal territories. The lecture also brings to life some of the unforgettable stories and adventures he experienced whilst looking for them.

Biography

Brian has been a dealer and consultant in antique oriental rugs and carpets since 1979 after his return from Iran. He is the author of 'Tribal Rugs - Treasures of the Black Tent' which was originally published in October 1997; re-printed in April 2010 and a completely new up-dated edition due out by the summer of 2016. Brian is one of few western dealers to have lived and worked among tribal groups in remote areas of Iran and Afghanistan during the 1970s and then again, after the Iranian Revolution, in the 1990s. In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for his work amongst the Persian tribes. He has lectured for NADFAS since 1986.

Kenneth Bruce McFarlane (1903–1966)

Bruce McFarlane was an undergraduate at Exeter College, who came to Magdalen in 1926 and never left. Over the following 40 years he devoted himself to the study of England in the 14th and 15th centuries, particularly the structure of the ruling class: their finances, education, and beliefs; their complex structures of patronage, ambition, and floating loyalties...........

Few people, when visiting someone’s house, can avoid the temptation of looking through their bookshelves. Studying someone’s collection, seeing which books they have chosen to buy, read, keep, and display, can tell you a lot about a person. What subjects are they interested in, are their collections tightly focused or wide-ranging? Are the books heavily used, or pristine copies that have never been touched? Have they annotated the books with their thoughts on the text? Are there notes saying where they got the books from, did they buy them or get given them? Antiquarian books, from a time before mass production, can tell us even more. Medieval manuscripts, where books were often copied and decorated to order, contain a wealth of information about the person who commissioned them. Book bindings, on medieval manuscripts and on early printed books, can also tell us a lot about the owner who spent the money on binding them, and their priorities.

Biography

Mark is a Deputy Director of Cambridge University Library, and a Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of London. At Cambridge he is responsible for the heritage collections of one of the world’s great research libraries, and for sixteen years prior to that he had charge of more than 150 historic libraries in the care of the National Trust. He is an acknowledged expert on historic libraries, and in particular on country house libraries in Britain and Ireland, a subject on which he has published and lectured extensively. 

This lecture celebrates the 200th Anniversary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were first cousins and born just three months apart in 1819.  Their shared enthusiasm for art and music endured throughout the twenty-two years of their marriage and they demonstrated their love through the works of art and jewellery they gave each other for birthdays, Christmases and anniversaries. Victoria and Albert understood and appreciated sculpture more than any of their predecessors since Charles I. They furnished and extended Buckingham Palace, made significant changes to Windsor Castle and commissioned three other royal residences, Balmoral, Sandringham and Osborne – the single most important example of their shared taste. Theirs was a partnership of patronage by a monarch and her consort which is unique in the history of the British monarchy.

Biography

Barbara is an historian and London Blue Badge Guide since 1988. Lecturer, Examiner and Course Director on Blue Badge Guide Training Courses and an acknowledged expert on Windsor Castle. She is a rota guide for the Albert Memorial, British Museum and Houses of Parliament and has conducted tours for American museums and alumni groups for the past 25 years.

On the basis of sensational new evidence from archaeological fieldwork, Neil will contrast the legend of Lawrence of Arabia with the true story of what happened in the famous desert war of 1916 to 1918. Is the legend a myth? Was Lawrence, as some claim, a liar and a charlatan? Or does the legend reflect reality? Was he, in fact, a brilliant military commander and a sincere advocate of the Arab national cause?

‘Lawrence of Arabia’ is an early 20th century instance of celebrity culture. Neil will analyse the invention and re-invention of the legend from 1919 onwards through memoirs, photos, films, paintings, biographies, and documentaries.

The historical context for the legend was the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918. The numerous well-preserved archaeological remains of the conflict, mainly along the line of the former Hijaz Railway, have been the subject of a ten-year programme of field research led by Neil and his close colleague Professor Nick Saunders. Neil will summarise the key findings. Some representative archaeological objects will be on display.

He will also offer a new narrative and analysis of the war based on the archaeological evidence, leading to a new assessment both of Lawrence’s role and achievements, and of the relationship between art and reality in the creation of ‘celebrity’.

Biography

Dr Neil Faulkner of Bristol University, are the academic director of the Great Arab Revolt Project (GARP), which has been exploring the archaeology of the First World War in the deserts of southern Jordan since 1996. He is a leading First World War archaeologist, and GARP has been at the forefront of new approaches to the investigation of modern conflict using archaeological and anthropological techniques.

We take it for granted that we are free to enjoy whatever appeals to us. But this hasn’t always been the case. Before the 18th century, many of life’s pleasures had to be justified on account of their moral value. This illustrated talk will explain how it was not until the mid-18th century that it became acceptable to enjoy the pleasures of life for their own sake, in luxury goods and otherwise - sometimes to scandalous effect. It will focus on the golden age of French art and interiors, exploring how new sensibilities among the Parisian nobility required a new style of living, a development that gave rise to some of the most delicious and fanciful pieces of furniture and porcelain ever made.

Biography

Andrew is a lecturer at Christie's Education,  Ex-curator at the V&A (British Galleries and Metalwork Department), Icon specialist at the Temple Gallery and a regular tour guide to Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Romania, Turkey, Crete.

This lecture unfortunately had to be cancelled at short notice.

The London Christmas season was invented at Covent Garden.  The first theatre on the site was the home of Harlequin and Columbine and, 300 years on, Harlequin and Columbine are still dancing in The Nutcracker.  Most of what we now consider to be quintessential Pantomime – the principal boy, fairy tales, transformation scenes and the dame, can be traced back to the operas and ballets put on at Covent Garden during its first 200 years. Panto has moved on to the Palladium, but you can still see its basic components in the seasonal operas and ballets the ROH puts on every year: Rossini’s Cenerentola (Cinderella) for example or Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty or Ashton’s Cinderella.  The rep changes every year and this lecture is up-dated to include the current ROH Christmas offerings.

Biography

Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre, principally at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and English National Opera.  She writes programme articles, websites, lectures on the rep. and does live opera broadcasts and podcasts for BBC Radio 3 and 4. She has written and directed many shows, including more than 20 for the ROH Linbury Studio Theatre and for Glyndebourne Touring Opera. She is also a cartoonist. 

Vienna is renowned for its ‘Ring’, a magnificent series of buildings that encircle the city but these buildings typically display the 19th century fixation with Historicism, or the recreation of past styles. On the Ring you can find Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Classical and even Neo-Romanesque. By the close of the century most artists and designs were tired of reworking all the old styles. In search of something new many turned to nature and the result was Art Nouveau.   In Vienna the flowering of the arts c.1900 took a different turn from that in Belgium and France. Restrained and linear in style, influenced by English Arts and Crafts and Mackintosh and the Glasgow School, the Viennese Secession created a look which would epitomise the aspirations of the new century. The artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, the architects Otto Wagner and Joseph Olbrich, the designers Hoffmann and Kolo Moser, all contributed to what is today heralded as proto-Modernism.

Biography

Anne graduated in Art History and Archaeology from Leicester University in 1978 and worked as an archaeologist for 8 years, being elected to the Society of Antiquaries in 1997. 1993-2007 senior lecturer on the Fine Arts Valuation degree courses at Southampton Solent University, specialising in the Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau and Modernism. She is currently Hon. Research Fellow at Exeter University; a Fletcher Jones Fellow of the Huntington Library, CA; a fellow of the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum and Library; Cumming Ceramic Research Foundation Fellow (2007 and 2010) and consultant for Lord Frederic Leighton's Studio-House, Kensington. She has published books on Roman pottery, Art Deco teapots and Edward Burne-Jones. Her television credits include BBC's Flog It! Anne is also a tutor at the V&A on the Chardin to Cézanne year course.

Throughout history, mankind has been absorbed with understanding the concept of Time. An extraordinary variety of devices has been developed, either to tell when something should happen (its 10 o’clock), or how long it should take (you’ve got 20 minutes), or to alert us to do something now (wake up, it’s time to go). So we have developed all kinds of devices to tell the time - using the Stars, Sundials, our Shadows, Clepsydra (water clocks), Mechanical Clocks and Watches, Burning Timers, Sand Glasses, Bells, Electronics and our fundamental Biological Clocks. But the ‘tick’ of all of these is the rhythms of the universe - the daily and yearly movement of the Sun, the monthly movement of the Moon and, more recently, by the buzz of the quartz and caesium atom. Such is our interest in the subject that craftsmen have always found commissions to create beautiful time telling things. The lecture looks at all these devices and many more. It charts how their use has risen and fallen as history, fashion and technology have progressed.

Biography

Kevin studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, he was a VSO teacher in Borneo, and worked across the world as an underground engineer. Now a magistrate in Gwent, he has had a life-long interest in the history of timekeeping and cosmology, and in sundials in particular, as objects of art, craft and science. His specialist topic is the Equation of Time.

Vivaldi is the one Baroque composer whose music is a direct reflection of the city in which it was composed. Listen to a Vivaldi concerto and hey presto you are transported directly to the heart of 18th century Venice. The reasons for this are many – Vivaldi’s passion for colour, display and spectacle in his music; the unusual way in which Venice solved its problems with the poor and the homeless; Vivaldi’s health problems and his eccentricities as a man and a priest. Against the luxurious backdrop of 18th century Venice, and with live musical performances, this lecture explores the amazing world of Vivaldi’s music - music that is as intrinsically Venetian as the canvasses of Canaletto.

Biography

Peter appears in the UK and abroad as musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He takes groups to Europe. His lectures include live music sung and played on piano, virginals or clavichord.

Dutch artist and forger Han van Meegeren committed the most lucrative, audacious art fraud of the 20th Century. Today he is renowned as the man who ‘Made Vermeers’ and duped a certain buyer, Reichsmarschall Herman Göring.

This lecture explores his extraordinary life, from a childhood passion for the 17th century painters of the Dutch Golden age to his mixed fortunes as an artist in his own right before developing a career as an art forger and criminal fraudster.  It reveals how he slowly evolved the techniques to deceive the most authoritative art historians of the day.  He flourished just before and during the Second World War with a prodigious output of forged works eagerly purchased by wealthy Dutchmen. Despite the tumultuous conditions of that period he generated incredible wealth. Van Meegeren enjoyed an exotic lifestyle of wine, women and locations.

The sale of his Vermeer ‘Christ with the Adulteress’ in 1943 to Göring, would ultimately lead to his downfall and arrest in 1945 as a collaborator, punishable by death.  An incredible story of cunning, greed, treason, love and life.

Biography

Malcolm is an experienced, retired, specialist police and private detective, investigating art and antique crime. Formerly the Recoveries Director for the Art Loss Register which operates an international commercial database of stolen cultural property. He formed his own company and developed training programmes designed to educate law enforcement officers in all aspects of this area of criminal activity, undertaken in partnership with the Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Unit at New Scotland Yard, London. He has lectured to police conferences, customs officers, auction house staff, museum employees, Interpol and FBI.

This lecture was cancelled, but was rescheduled for presentation on 15th May 2019

Paris is the custodian of the famous ‘high jewellery’ houses such as Cartier, Boucheron, Chaumet and Van Cleef & Arples who have created jewels that have adorned Kings, Queens, Maharajahs, millionaire industrialists of the 1900’s, bankers, entrepreneurs, Hollywood royalty and some of the most beautiful women in the world. These jewellery houses have continued their quest to create jewels that are innovative in design and beautifully crafted, ingredients needed to make iconic creations that will stand the test of time. The skill’s of the Parisian goldsmith is unrivalled and Joanna has had the unprecedented privilege of being invited to Cartier’s workshops in Paris to discover and witness firsthand what goes into making ‘high jewellery’ that will ultimately be sought after and collected by international jewellery connoisseurs. But it is also the stories that lie behind the commissions and the fabulous diamonds, pearls and gemstones that have been used which bring the jewels alive and by sharing these tales we will travel through history following some of their remarkable journeys that have helped make Paris the centre for jewellery luxury and excellence.    

Biography

Joanna trained as a goldsmith before working for De Beers valuing and grading rough diamonds, before becoming one of the few women diamond dealers, trading in Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Mumbai and New York. She worked as a senior jewellery specialist for Philips Auctioneers, and for Sotheby’s London, where she was responsible for jewellery sales in New York, Geneva and London. She is now an independent jewellery consultant, delivering seminars, jewellery master classes and lectures worldwide. She writes for the international press and is a published author, also curates Contemporary Jewellery exhibitions and is a regular jewellery expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. She is a Liveryman of the Goldsmith’s Company, a Freeman of the City of London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.                   

This year it is 100 years since the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1918.  To mark the centenary of women first getting the vote after decades of struggle, this lecture will

explore the story of the suffragettes through portrayals in art and their own artistic productions.  It will also look at how contemporary artists choose to depict female politicians,  and the controversies surrounding these portraits, with regard to power, dress and gender: all so familiar to the suffragettes.

Biography

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist, historian and writer.  She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives and a senior archivist at the National Archives, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society.  Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down was published to rave reviews in 2012 and won top prize at the inaugural Political Book Awards in 2013.

This lecture will look at the enduring Western obsession with, and invention of, the so called ‘exotic’ or ‘noble savage’ starting with the first discovery of the Island of Tahiti in1767 and charting the impact, through painted images of the island and their people, of the English and European influence in this part of the world through the eyes of not only Captain Cook and those who came before him, but also through the eyes of the artists that accompanied these pioneering voyages and into the 19th and early 20th century with the images of Gauguin. And to this end the lecture will look at how romanticised depictions of the island, and its peoples, by artists such as: William Hodges (1744-1797), Benjamin West (1738-1820), John Webber (1751- 1793), and John Cleveley (c.1712-1777), and indeed those of Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903), not only bolstered these notions in the minds of Europeans, but helped to perpetuate and invent the Western notion of the exotic and the myth of paradise.

This background of England’s exploration abroad also sees the involvement of Royal academicians such as its first director Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 – 1792). This lecture eventually comes into the modern period and looks at what happen to these notions of the exotic in the 19th century, explored through the Impressionist and Post- Impressionist work of this period’s most notable visitor to the island of Tahiti also looking for the exotic and paradise - Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903). His experiences, vibrant evocations of paradise through his paintings, and his discoveries and eventual death in the South Pacific bring this exploration of the exotic to its conclusion.

Biography

Leslie holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. He was Visiting Lecturer in Art History at the University of Reading in 2005 and 2007, and gives lectures and guided tours, plus special talks, at both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. He also lectures at the City Literary Institute, and has presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute.

NADFAS 50TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE

For thousands of years the mystery of the Golden Section has inspired thinkers from all disciplines - artists and architects, mathematicians and musicians. Discover the secrets of its sacred geometry and beauty within creations from the classical to contemporary.

Biography

BA Saint Martin’s School of Art, MA London College of Printing. By profession Alexandra is a graphic designer running a design consultancy for many years for a wide range of sectors including the arts, financial, government and professional services. She is a Guide and Lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Official Guide to the City of London, offering lectures and walks about many aspects of the arts for societies, corporations and private individuals. Member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association. Co-author of the book Lord Mayor's Portraits 1983-2014 (2015).

Using illustrations from illuminated manuscripts, readings from literature and contemporary accounts, and the haunting songs and lively dance tunes of medieval England, Sarah brings alive the spirit of a Medieval Christmas, a time of joy and celebration for some, but hardship and suffering for others. With extracts from literature and manorial household accounts, she pieces together life in a medieval manor house at Yuletide. In addition to her reproduction medieval harps, she adds the plucked psaltery, hurdy-gurdy, hammered dulcimer, and gems horn to the musical mix, performing carols, music and readings for an atmospheric and musical seasonal celebration.

Biography

Sarah performs, writes and lectures in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, having been a graduate and prize-winner from the Royal Academy of Music. She has appeared on national radio and television in UK and America, lectured for National Trust, English Heritage, U3A, schools and colleges and onboard the QE2. Her lectures include live music and songs on various harps, depending on the subject.

Ever since the mid 19th century, modern art has been (and remains) a popular subject for satire. Constantly changing and often seemingly bizarre, it made an irresistible target for a host of cartoonists, humorous writers and wise-guys. Some artists, such as Gustave Courbet, welcomed their attention, in the belief that there was no such thing as bad publicity; others, like Jackson Pollock, were hurt by what they took to be an attack on their integrity. The cartoonists themselves could be funny, cruel and, at times, extremely perceptive. From the French humourist, Cham, through the work of the gifted staff on the New Yorker, to the Daily Telegraph’s brilliant cartoonist Matt, they provide an absorbing, illuminating and, above all, a funny, revealing and sidelong view of 150 years of modern art.

Biography

Barry is an historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely. He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and has recently taken part in a BBC documentary called 'The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution'. He has also published a study of John Constable's paintings. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art. He is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for NADFAS, Christie's Education and other organisations.

Between 1870 and 1914 hundreds of American heiresses flooded the shores of continental Europe, trading fortunes for titles. They were known as The Dollar Princesses and included Consuelo Vanderbilt at Blenheim and Mary Curzon at Kedleston. These marriages - dubbed by some as gilded prostitution – were usually hard-headed matches plotted by the parents. They may have kept many a grand estate from collapsing but few provided lasting happiness  when the fairy tale was exposed. This lecture examines the clothes, the portraits, the jewels and the literature of The Dollar Princesses.

Biography

Anne is a biographer, historian and author of nine books who lectures to a variety of audiences in the US and UK.  A broadcaster - she presented a Radio 3 documentary about the pianist Harriet Cohen and for Radio 4 the documentary 'Who was Joyce Hatto?' - she regularly appears on television talking about her books, mostly biographies including Jennie Churchill, William Bankes, Laura Ashley and Wallis Simpson. Anne is currently chair of Britain's 9,000 strong Society of Authors.

This lecture looks at the key developments in early English painting during the tumultuous reigns of the 5 Tudor monarchs which, in the 16th century, were being made largely by foreigners. Important works by artists like Holbein, Eworth and Gheeraerts are explained in detail, and close attention is paid to symbolism, both personal and political.

Portraiture dominated the period, and images of the great monarchs and personalities of the age are compared and contrasted in terms of the functions they were intended to fulfil. Other genres, like religious subjects and the early beginnings of landscape painting, are also featured. The talk also examines the intriguing issue of naturalism, and how and why the requirement for it waxed and waned during the period.

Biography

Linda holds two first-class degrees in Art History. She is an experienced guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. She lectures to secondary school audiences and independent arts societies.

2017 sees the 200th anniversary of the early death at 41 of Jane Austen.  She only wrote six novels yet is one of the most famous and popular of English novelists, not just of the 18th century but also of all time.

She led a quiet life mostly at the family rectory.  She never left her parent’s home, never married, never had a real relationship with a man  and yet was a master and mistress of the romantic novel.  Her understanding of the society in which she lived and the restrained, amusing and ironic language she uses to expose its complexities are what make her novels the timeless studies of love, class and money.  She was a minimalist in her choice of words but always achieved the maximum effect with them, which makes her work accessible to all readers from Bath to Berlin, from Moscow to Manhattan from 1817 to 2017.

Join me in this exploratory journey as to who she was and how she discovered and achieved her remarkable talent, which still resonates with readers of all ages and nationalities.

Biography

Jane is currently Special Events Organiser, Theatre Royal Bath. She interviews visiting actors, writers, directors and lectures regularly.  She is an author and researcher of theatre programme notes on Hamlet, Sheridan's The Rivals and Jane Austen's Emma. Theatrical landlady! Home Economist. Consultant to various TV productions of Jane Austen adaptations on food in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hosts and cooks period meals in her Regency house in Bath for the Jane Austen Festival and other literary groups.

London boasts an extraordinary range of architecture and the city’s rich legacy and social history can be discovered through its buildings. Starting at the Norman Conquest and the White Tower and finishing over 900 years later at the cutting edge with The Shard, The Walkie-Talkie, and The Cheesegrater this talk reveals the evolution of London through its architecture. We’ll explore public buildings, churches, commercial developments and some surprising residences.

Biography

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture. Ian is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul's Cathedral, and gives regular tours at each venue. He’s also a qualified and active freelance London guide and a member of both the City of London and Westminster Guide Lecturer Associations.  

This lecture explores the passion for the exotic and beautiful tulip flower, originally brought from Turkey, which reached its height in Amsterdam in the 1630s.  Collectors speculated in and paid ever higher prices for the rarest varieties, enthralled by the transformation of bulb into flower with petals of an unparalleled richness and intensity of colour.  The variety ‘Semper Augustus’ was the most desirable, with its mysterious and brilliant ‘flamed’ petals.  Many aspects of Dutch cultural life in this Golden Age will be examined, from the wealth of Amsterdam as the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies trade to the intellectual university city of Leiden with its botanical gardens.  The coveted tulip featured as a motif on still-life flower paintings by Balthasar van der Ast and Ambrosius Bosschaert and on diverse works of art from furniture to embroideries, ceramics and silver.  During the 17th century this rare and precious flower, which featured in much Dutch art, inspired the production of Delftware flower pyramids for the court of Queen Mary, and examples can still be seen in the collections at Hampton Court Palace and Dyrham Park near Bath.

Biography 

Anne lectures regularly at the V&A, she guides private evening tours of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace and at the Queen’s Gallery and is also a visiting lecturer at the British Museum.  She teaches a course on British painting 1760-1960 to American university students on their study abroad programme in London.  She has lectured at Dulwich Picture Gallery and at the Courtauld Galley and gave a paper at a V&A conference on tulipomania.  After taking a degree in modern history at Durham University in 1981 she spent 14 years from 1981 to 1995 as a ceramics specialist first at Bonham’s and then at Christie’s head offices in London.  From 1995 to 2002 she was resident in Shanghai, China where she gave lectures to the international community of diplomats and expatriates.  On returning to London in 2002, she worked on a short project cataloguing Chinese ceramics at Kensington Palace.

Livery Companies originated when medieval merchants banded together to form guilds or fraternities.  These guilds were probably in existence before the Norman Conquest and were to be found, not only in London, but in other parts of the country and on the continent.

Today there are 109 Livery Companies in the City of London, direct descendants of the medieval trade guilds. They are still influential bodies, maintaining fine Livery Halls with art treasures and contents of historical value.

Only Liverymen and women may elect the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London, and many ceremonial occasions are supported by the companies.

Biography

Fenella has a Masters Degree in Art History, Manchester University and is a lecturer for the University of Liverpool's Continuing Education Programme for Adults. She has guided tours to Rome and Florence, and been a speaker on cruises. She gives freelance talks to art societies, historical associations and charitable institutions, including the Art Fund, U3A and the National Trust and is a Liverywoman of the Worshipful Company of Skinners of London.

Inns and public houses are a rich part of Britain’s heritage.  Their signs provide us with an abundantly illustrated guide to both our history and our cultural heritage.

Currently there are about 50,000 pubs in the UK with an extraordinary 17,000 different names but why are there so many pubs called the ‘Red Lion’ the ‘Crown’ or ‘White Hart’?

In this colourful and entertaining lecture John shows some of the most interesting and distinctive signs and explores the fascinating stories behind the ‘Bucket of Blood’,  the ‘Blazing Donkey’, the ‘Cow and Snuffers’ or even the ‘Eager Poet’ – and who on earth was ‘Blind Jack’?

Biography

Eric was formerly a lecturer at the University of Bath where he was Director of Studies in the School of Education with responsibility for the professional development of teachers. His principal areas of research were course design and the role of pictures in both teaching and learning. He also found time to teach presentation skills to his academic colleagues...... 

 ‘The utmost fulfilment of Leonardo the scientist is seen in his artistic creations.  These reveal the most amazing and inseparable affinity of his scientific and artistic concepts’  -  Ludwig Heidenreich  1958

Leonardo would say nature must be his guide and that art was based on a scientific understanding of everything depicted. He used his powers of draughtsmanship and astute sense of observation in his scientific drawings making an incredible contribution to our early understanding of anatomy, aeronautics, warfare, cartography and water engineering to name but a few. It would take centuries of science and technology to catch up with his thoughts.

This talk follows Leonardo’s pursuit of these investigations whether they be on his own iniative, his pursuit of remunerative employment or in response to a particular set of circumstances in his life.

Biography

Guy comes to NADFAS not from the arts world but from the world of science in general and surgery in particular. For a surgeon the basis of safe and successful operations is a sound knowledge of anatomy; his talks explore the delineation of our anatomical knowledge through a world of art and specifically the remarkable contribution made to our understanding of the subject by Leonardo da Vinci.

Where better to spend yuletide in pre-revolutionary times than in snowy Russia? Imagine yourself on Christmas Day wrapped in furs, sitting in your troika, bells ringing, on your way to church to celebrate the end of the 40 day fast, which ends as soon as the first evening star appears in the sky. This lecture explores the rich tradition of religious and folk customs associated with the Christmas period in Russia, and shows how they are reflected in the

Russian arts, with musical illustrations. It also discusses the secular Christmas celebrations introduced to Russia by Peter the Great, how they were transformed by Stalin during Soviet times, and what Christmas means to Russians today.

Biography

Rosamund has a Doctorate from Oxford and has held senior university posts, most recently at the European University Institute in Florence. Specialises in comparative study of art, music and literature, and currently writing a book on the Russian Avant-Garde and European Modernism. She is the author of several books and has extensive experience lecturing in Russian cultural history at venues such as the V&A, the National Theatre and Covent Garden, and broadcasts regularly on the BBC. Often invited to lecture on tours, and is founding Director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, set up to preserve the writer's house in Yalta.

For about two hundred years until the middle of the eighteenth century, workshops in the small Northern Italian town of Cremona produced the violins and other string instruments which remain the most desirable in the world.  This lecture traces the story of that golden age, beginning with Andrea Amati in the 1560s and following it through the generations to the death of Antonio Stradivari in 1737. It will talk about the shape of the violin, the principles behind it, the methods used in its construction and the innovations made by successive makers before Stradivari brought the form to perfection. It will address the question of why techniques have been lost and whether they can ever be recovered. And it will introduce some of Cremona’s celebrated customers: not just the most famous violinists of their era, but also Galileo Galilei and royal patrons like Catherine de Medici, Queen of France.

Biography

Toby has written two works of narrative history, Stradivarius and Fabergé's Eggs, and given lectures associated with these two subjects at venues including The V&A, Bath Theatre, The Library of Congress and the Huntington Library, as well as a number of literary festivals. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. Is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music, a trustee of Yale University Press (UK) and a director of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society.

Have you ever wondered where the blue in medieval illuminated manuscripts came from, or how the glaziers of our Gothic cathedrals made their blue glass? The Ancient Britons tattooed their bodies in a blue dye, and, two thousand years later in a Parisian art gallery Yves Kline in a public performance painted his nude models blue and dragged them across his canvasses. Why doesn’t the Virgin Mary wear green, and why is Krishna painted blue? These are some of the questions that I will be addressing. The story of blue takes us from the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan to the studios of Titian, Vermeer, Hokusai, Picasso and Matisse, to name but a few. The spirituality of Blue led Kandinsky and Franz Marc to name their art movement ‘The Blue Rider’.

Biography

Alexandra is an art historian and a professional artist specialising in painting, sculpture and performance. Her lectures combine art historical knowledge with personal expertise in aesthetics and artistic techniques. Art from all periods, including examples of her own work, is examined from an artist's point of view. This entails a perceptive analysis of a painting's structure, its meaning, and its relationship to the history of art. She puts a particular emphasis on studying the symbolic language of the imagination. BA (Hons) Fine Art from Chelsea School of Art and an MFA from Cambridge School of Art.

At the age of ten Turner travelled out to Brentford to stay with his uncle. It was the first time he’d seen the open countryside. Born in 1775, the son of a barber, he was brought up in the bustling market place of Covent Garden; the only landscape he knew as a child was the misty reaches of the Thames. That first, momentous vision of nature set the course of his career and, as a young man, he walked hundreds of miles across southern England, the Lake district and Scotland, recording his observations in rapid drawings and watercolours that he worked up later into full scale paintings. At the turn of the century he became the youngest member of the Royal Academy and his romantic interpretations of stately homes and sweeping parkland became the cherished possessions of the English aristocracy. His love of travel took him to Europe and, at the age of 44, he made his first trip to Italy in search of the clear light he’d seen in paintings by Claude Lorrain. It made a powerful impression on him and from then on the mountain passes of the Alps, the pines of Rome, the canals of Venice became part of his mythical world of mist and vapour, shimmering light and deep shadow. At the time of his death in 1851, Turner stood alone in English painting; a master of technique, colour theory and perspective with a near spiritual comprehension of nature - the giant of Romantic Art.

Venue: Ashmolean Lecture Theatre

For 2500 years, Sicily was the place where great ancient civilizations met and fought (Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Normans).  This major exhibition at the Ashmolean displays objects rescued from the bottom of the sea – from chance finds to excavated shipwrecks.   As well as being the Ashmolean’s Keeper of Antiquities, Paul Roberts is a NADFAS lecturer with a reputation as a lively and entertaining speaker.

 Cost: £5

Members may then make their own arrangements for entry into the exhibition.

Tickets available         www.adfas.org.uk for a booking form

or                         by email to info@adfas.org.uk

or                         by phone 01235-522886

Armour was one of the great Renaissance art-forms, but today it is usually overlooked by art historians, scholars and enthusiasts. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries almost all of the richest, most powerful noblemen in Europe could be counted as dedicated patrons of the armourer’s art. This was an intensely personal art, both expressive and decorative. Its essence was the creation of a living sculpture, a process which demanded not only fantastic skill in the sculpting of iron and steel, but also mastery of all decorative techniques available to the Renaissance metalworker. The achievements of virtuoso master armourers were not however just about splendour and richness. They also embodied more complex messages, about status and the social order, divine power, and attitudes and identities.

Biography

Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an internationally acknowledged expert on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. His book, Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011) was named Book of the Year by Apollo Magazine in 2012. Appears regularly on television, most recently as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III: The New Evidence (2014), and as the writer and presenter of Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (2012). After fifteen years of research, his book Armour of the English Knight 1400 50 will be published in 2015; it will be the first of three volumes exploring the story of armour in late medieval England.

The Great Omar was the most fabulous, elaborate and opulent binding ever created. It was embellished with over one thousand jewels, five thousand leather onlays and a hundred square feet of gold leaf, and took a team of craftsmen over two and a half years to make. It went down with the Titanic. This lecture tells the story of the making of the fabulous Great Omar. It is also the story of the renowned bookbinding firm of Sangorski and Sutcliffe - who were known for their elaborate jewelled bindings - and the men that made this extraordinary book. It also tells the moving story of life after the tragedy, and of one young man in particular, who decided against the odds to recreate the binding, a venture which itself is mired in tragedy and which occupied him for the rest of his life.

Biography

Dominic is a bookbinder, artist and teacher. He first learned bookbinding at 16 from Benedictine Monks at Douai Abbey in Berkshire and later at the London College of Printing. He has worked at the V&A, and for various binderies in London, New York and San Francisco, and spends part of the year teaching across the USA. He has his bindery in the Lake District.

‘What is needed for doing the best gardening is something of an artist’s training’ (Gertrude Jekyll). Almost eighty years after her death, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) is still one of the most influential of all English garden designers. Best known for her superb use of colour schemes in her hallmark flower borders, she combined an early training in art with self taught horticultural skills and won herself a place in the pantheon of Arts and Crafts. This talk explores Gertrude Jekyll through an examination of the influences of art, architecture and horticulture in her life and work.

Biography

Garden historian, author, researcher and lecturer. Twigs presented Lost Gardens for Ch4 and has appeared on Gardeners' World as well as making media appearances on a wide range of garden history related topics. She carries out freelance research in the history of specific gardens and parks for English Heritage, the National Trust and various private clients, and has a specific interest in the portrayal of plants and gardens in art and literature and the social aspects of garden history.

A door is not a door “when it’s ajar”; so when is a cupboard not a cupboard and why were tills ’in’ rather than ‘on’ counters? How did the chest with drawers become the chest of drawers and where do ‘withdrawing’ cupboards fit into all this? This lecture will answer these conundrums through an explanation of the development of cupboards and chests of drawers in terms of their use, social significance, and their construction and decoration from mediaeval times to the 18th Century.

Biography

Janusz is a freelance lecturer and researcher in English furniture history and also an antique dealer.

Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest continuously occupied castle in the world. It has been enlarged and modified throughout its 900 year history to reflect the needs, ambitions and styles of various monarchs. As such the castle has evolved from an impregnable fortress into a royal country residence which as well as being the Queen's favourite home, is regularly used by her for spectacular state occasions. The restoration of the castle after the fire of 1992 enabled Her Majesty to continue the development of the structure. The lecture shows how today's castle has grown from its 11th century origins and how this evolution relates to the personalities and tastes of its Royal occupants and to the history of Britain. Four monarchs in particular are shown to have made Windsor Castle what it is today – Edward III in the 1360s, Charles II in the 1670s, George IV in the 1820s and the present Queen.

Biography

Oliver was educated at Cambridge University and did post graduate work in the USA and London. Following service in the Foreign Office he was Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales,1978-80; and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981-3. He was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1984-2002. He is now Librarian Emeritus following his retirement in 2002. He wrote the official guidebook and audio tour on Windsor Castle.

Art has often been stimulated by war, from the Iliad and Aenead to novels such as War and Peace, the poetry of Wilfred Owen, the visual images of Goya’s Horrors of War, Picasso’s Guernica, Henry Moore’s huddled masses and the sculpture of countless war memorials. Then there’s music. Upbeat anthems like the Marseillaise or choruses belting out “Guerra! Guerra!” in operas such as Aida and the sadness of Nimrod every year at the Cenotaph. With the anniversaries of the First World War and of Waterloo, we examine the links between art and war across Europe over the past two centuries. During the course of our artistic explorations, we encounter the triumphs and tragedies of Napoleonic times, visit mid-century Italy during its struggle for independence, learn how the arts in France portrayed the regime of Napoleon III before and after he was toppled by the Franco-Prussian war, and examine artistic responses to the Boer War and the two World Wars - at the time and since. This lecture places art in a powerfully resonant historical context. It is richly illustrated with imagery taken from throughout Europe.

Biography

Daniel Snowman is a writer, broadcaster and professional lecturer, he’s also an author of a dozen books on social and cultural history.

To many people Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a turkey and trimmings, pudding and brandy butter and a feeling by the end of the day that movement is impossible. But where do our notions of ‘traditional fare’ come from, and when modern writers ‘reinvent’ the Christmas meal, are they really doing anything so very different? This lecture charts the traditions of dinner, along with the specific foods consumed, from the high medieval to the Edwardian period. From the celebration of the twelve days under Edward I, to the masques and merriment of Elizabeth’s court, Christmas has been a celebration. But it dwindled and nearly died under the Georgians, before being reborn under Victoria. Concentrating on dinner, this talk covers the way the English have celebrated Christmas through the medium of the table. It uses recipe books, literary description and illustrations, as well as experimental work on recipes from the everyday to the spectacular.

Biography

Annie is a food historian with degrees from Oxford, York and Liverpool. She works across the heritage industry, as a consultant on food and dining. Increasingly in demand from the media, she has appeared on many TV and Radio programmes.

The Silk Road extended for over 8,000 kms, acting as a highway for beliefs, ideas, inventions and art, whilst silk was just one of the many products traded for 1,400 years. Buddhism spread throughout Central Asia and there are wonderful paintings from the Magao Caves at Dunhuang and the 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas' at Bezeklik. Samarkand and Bukhara are the beginning of the great Islamic buildings that continue through Persia and Syria. Along the way we see traditional murals, ceramics, statues, carpets, architecture, mosaics, tile-work, rock carvings and of course, silk itself.

Biography

Christopher is an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. As a professional tour guide and lecturer he has led groups throughout the Middle East and Asia. Has written extensively on Arabia and is a photographer, film producer and cameraman.

Despite his German birth and his Italian musical training, Handel remains one of the most important composers that England ever nurtured. Not only did his music have direct influence on his musical contemporaries, but his ‘larger than life’ personality had a profound effect on the literary, visual and decorative arts as well – both in his lifetime and after his death, in 1759. By exploring the works of the French sculptor Roubiliac, the paintings of Hudson and Denner, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the novels of Samuel Butler, the Crystal Palace, the chimes of Westminster, as well as compositions by Sullivan and Tippett, the lecture assesses the cultural influences Handel had on a nation, as he once wrote, “from whom I have receiv’d so Generous a protection”.

Biography

Peter appears in the UK and abroad as musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He takes groups to Europe.

Biography Douglas read Fine Arts at Cambridge. He is a writer, Artist and TV Presenter, also a lecturer to many London art courses. Director of the New Academy of Arts. Author of 6 Novels.

Peter is a retired member of Royalty and Diplomatic Protection at Scotland Yard. He is an adult education tutor of Architectural History and Social Studies, Tutor at Denman College, Oxon, Freeman of the City of London, author and broadcaster on London and Essex History, President of Woodford Green National Trust Centre and also President of Woodford Historical Society.

Michael is Programme Leader in the School of the History of Art and Design at the Manchester Metropolitan University where he teaches both academic and studio based students. He’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and President of Bolton NADFAS and is a practising artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker and ceramicist. With his wife, also an artist and NADFAS lecturer, he runs weekend and one day courses. He has curated many exhibitions and published widely

Clare has an Honours degree in History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London. Her regular commitments include Centre for Lifelong Learning, London University, National Gallery, V&A Museum, WEA, Morley College, the City Literary Institute, the Art Fund and National Trust. She also takes Study tours abroad.

After reading Theology at Kings College London, Sarah Lenton has spent all her working life at English National Opera, the Royal Opera House and now Glyndebourne. She writes programme articles, lectures on the rep and talks about opera for BBC Channel 4, on podcasts and during Radio 3 live broadcasts from the Royal Opera House. She is also a cartoonist.

Was with Phillips Auctioneers for 23 years, latterly as International Director of Jewellery. Since 1999 has been an independent Jewellery Consultant. Lectures, writes and broadcasts (including BBC Antiques Roadshow). Admitted to Goldsmiths' Company in 2000. Author of Starting to collect Antique Jewellery and co-author with Paul Atterbury The Jewellery and Silver of H.G. Murphy. Lecturer is happy to bring own slide projector.

Has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. A member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing to cruise ship audiences, the Women’s Institute, theatre clubs and the Sussex Magic Circle, as well as NADFAS. In addition, has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled ‘All Aboard’. Has written an article on entertainment for the Guardian newspaper.