In the aftermath of World War II art, architecture, fashion, film, music and theatre changed radically. Through the Abercrombie plan to remake London and create new towns, architects remade cities in modernist, brutalist ways. Angry young men and new forms of musical theatre emerged. In Soho, rock’n’roll was born and artists flocked to the Colony Rooms. After the gentle Ealing comedies came social realism. The Festival of Britain highlighted the artistic communities and showcased a brighter future for every citizen. In fine art, Hepworth and Heron, Bacon and others were forging bold new directions. From buttoned up deference to ‘fings aint wot they used to be’ this lecture will take you from the the end of WWII to the dawn of the Swinging Sixties. Unburdened by the expectations of the past, a new Elizabethan age was one of unlimited possibilities.

Russell Nash trained and worked as an actor, puppeteer and theatre maker for 15 years. He also spent time as a journalist, jewellery business owner and writer. In 2015 he qualified a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. Around this time he rekindled his love of art and art history. He now regularly guides the major art galleries and museums in London including the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tates Modern & Britain and the British Museum. He has delivered lectures for institutes and museums, as well as numerous U3A groups and other societies. 

How does our experience of living with and looking at works of art today compare to the viewing experience of earlier centuries? You may never have given a thought to how you enjoy a painting, or what it is that you value in it, let alone wonder whether that enjoyment was different in the past. This lecture will consider the very different conditions in which paintings were displayed and enjoyed in earlier centuries, as well as the very different responses that they evoked. It draws on the evidence in paintings themselves for the many surprising ways in which people handled, hung, used or responded to the art that they owned. From concealing their paintings with a small curtain, to the lighting by candle or window, and the grouping of copies together with originals, this talk will present some of the more unexpected ways that people responded to a picture.

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe has an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh, and a PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, Chantal has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989, and as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies and institutions in London, including the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection. Having also trained as a paintings conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures and study sessions.

New Orleans at the end of the 19th century was a busy port welcoming ships and sailors from all over the world bringing with them many diverse styles of music. It was also one of the few places in America where the music of the slave population was not just tolerated but openly enjoyed by black and white communities alike. In this Creole crucible it was not long before such a kaleidoscope of musical traditions would come together, react, and evolve into an exciting new music, namely jazz.  

Jazz’s evolution didn’t happen overnight of course. And in this talk we’ll look at the part African Blues and Cakewalk, American Classical and Vaudeville, Latin American Dance, and Middle Eastern Klezmer all played in the story of jazz. We’ll also enjoy along the way some of the greatest musical artists of the twentieth century: Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington to name but a few.

With 30 CDs to her name, Emma Johnson is one of the few clarinettists to have performed as a soloist all over the world.

She also enjoys giving talks about music - Woodwind Wizardry and The Poet John Milton were both broadcast by BBC radio and she has lectured about composers Gerald Finzi and Malcolm Arnold for the internet company Tonebase, as well as about Schubert and Brahms for Martin Randall Travel.

Emma studied Music and English at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, where she was the first woman to be made an Honorary Fellow. She was honoured by the Queen with an M.B.E. in 1996.

Her charity, the Emma Johnson Music Foundation, gives workshops in primary schools to introduce children to instrumental music. 

 This talk takes us from some of the earliest embroidery in this country from the 10th century through the height of English work, Opus Anglicanum to the embroidered outfits of our Tudor monarchs through to the seventeenth century when new design ideas arrived from India and China, and new techniques emerged such as raised embroidery, through to the growth in silk shading with the growth in dye shades, then to Berlin wool work in the 19th century and the dawn of art embroidery by the likes of William Morris and Walter Crane in the late 19th century. Finally we reach the period of embroidery artists in the 20th century including Beryl Dean, Constance Howard and Diana Springall to the artists of today including Mr X Stitch. This lecture shows how much embroidery has changed and stayed the same over the last thousand years.

For 17 years from 2007 to 2024 Susan Kaye-Williams was Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan has a longstanding interest in textiles, especially colour, and published her first book, The Story of Colour in Textiles (Bloomsbury) in 2013. She has extensive lecturing experience across the world as well as for the V&A and across the UK. In 2022 she published An Unbroken Thread: the 150 year history of the Royal School of Needlework, a second edition of which was published in 2024 to include the RSN's work on the coronation. She is currently the President of the Society of Dyers and Colourists. and is now getting back to research into the history of colour in textiles. 

 British landscape artist John Constable was determined to paint from nature. “There is room for enough for a natural painture,” he wrote. Some of his earliest oil paintings were made out of doors in the open air. When his works were shown in the Paris Salon in 18224, including The Hay Wain, they caused a sensation. This talk will explore how the work of Constable laid the groundwork for the experiments of the Impressionists 

Mathew Morgan is a freelance art historian, educator and museum professional. He has spoken on a wide range of topics from Caravaggio to Kehinde Wiley. His first love is the art of JMW Turner and his primary interest is European 18th and 19th Century painting. 

He studied History at Cambridge, has a Masters in Art History at The Courtauld Institute and his PhD, ‘Mediating Art and Experience: Art Museums in Las Vegas’, is from Birkbeck, University of London. ​Mathew has lectured at the National Gallery, Royal Collection, Wallace Collection and the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

As Museum Director, he ran Turner’s House in Twickenham, dedicated to JMW Turner. He has taught for over eight years at Birkbeck, University of London, was Head of the London learning team at the Royal Collection and has delivered a wide range of learning events at the National Gallery. Prior to working in museums he was a Director in the Valuations Department at Christies.  

 During the Edo period of rule by the Tokugawa Shogunate (1615-1868), the arts of Japan gained in richness and diversity. With the rise of the merchant class and the growth of cities such as Edo (modern-day Tokyo), a new vitality was injected into traditional forms and an emerging middle class culture gave rise to exciting developments in the visual and performing arts. This lecture will consider the arts of the period including castle architecture, golden screen painting, ukiyo-e prints, textiles, lacquerware, and netsuke, as well as the emergence of the flamboyant kabuki theatre. It will provide a snapshot of both aristocratic and popular taste as Japan made the transition from feudal kingdom into modern state.

Professor Marie Conte-Helm is a long-established Arts Society Lecturer with a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation from 1999-2011 and has held senior academic posts at various UK universities. She has most recently served as Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group, and as a member of the Board of Governors of the University for the Creative Arts. She is widely published and has lectured throughout the UK and abroad. She is also an experienced cruise speaker and a Resident Historian with Viking Ocean Cruises, lecturing on many aspects of Asian Art and East-West Encounters. She was awarded an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK-Japan educational and cultural relations and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by the Government of Japan in 2019. 

 Born at the end of the fifteenth century, Tiziano Vecellio came from Pieve di Cadore as a child to work as an apprentice in the studio of Giovanni Bellini alongside another artist who would soon become a master, Giorgione. Catapulted into a world where painting with oil on canvas was becoming the prominent art form, he became the first artist to truly be dominant. Michelangelo famously noted 'If only he had learned to draw, Titian would have become a Great.', but his style inspired subsequent painters, from Diego Velázquez, Rubens, Van Dyck and eventually, in the twentieth century, Gerhard Richter and Cecily Brown. This talk explores Titian's working practice, his patrons and his legacy.

Charlie Hall is a passionate arts educator, lecturer, and guide, based in London and Italy. Director of the highly regarded John Hall Venice Course, (est. 1965) Tour lecturer and leader for Kirker Holidays since 2013, and of independent tours in Italy. Designer and host of a series of art talks and events for the Soho House group of private member’s clubs. Designed and led courses for Christie’s Education and The Serpentine Gallery ‘Collector’s Circle’. 

 The beauty of the Alhambra of Granada, built by the Nasrid dynasty in the 13th and 14th Centuries, speaks for itself – or does it? Many visitors, while stunned by the exquisite architecture, are unaware that the walls, covered in Kufic script, are talking directly to them. This lecture begins with an overview of the structure of the monument and the way in which it was used, as well as the broad decorative programme of the interior of the two principal remaining Nasrid palaces within the complex. It explains the hidden meanings in the complex geometry of the glazed tilework and the stalactite-like muqarnas plasterwork. It also takes a closer look at the inscriptions, some of them an endless repetition of the Nasrid dynastic motto, but many also consisting of Arabic poetry, with lines where the wall itself is boasting of its own beauty and metaphorical significance.

Ian Cockburn is an  Art historian with a BA (Birkbeck College) in art history and an MA (Courtauld Institute of Art) in medieval Spanish art history. Specialist in the nearly 800 years of Moorish occupation and Christian reconquest of medieval Iberia.  Founder and director of an art tours company, specialising in guided cultural tours in Spain and other areas in Europe, and lectures for The Arts Society, plus occasional lectures at institutions such as the V&A, SOAS, Christies Education, and the London Art History Society. Formerly a Chartered Accountant and senior manager in multi-national IT companies, with extensive public-speaking experience. 

Theatrical scene design is one of the world's most beautiful, varied and lively art forms. In his talk, Bertie looks at the relationship between actor and audience and how this transformed the space and architecture of theatre throughout the ages. Beginning with the Greeks and their remarkable innovations to pageants, masques, liturgical drama, through the science of perspective, to court theatre. A quick glance at Commedia dell'arte before entering the Elizabethan stage of the Globe and the Fortune and arriving at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. From great architects such as Inigo Jones and Frank Matcham, to practitioners such as Granville Barker and Gordon Craig and designers Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel, Bertie brings to life the magical world of theatre.

Bertie Pearce 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 and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. Has written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

The lecture will trace the story of Banksy’s humble beginnings as a tagger on the streets of Bristol in the 1980’s to one of the most recognisable names in the art world.  We will examine the reasons behind his incredible rise, looking at some of his famous stunts and discuss what his influence has been on the art market today and look at what his legacy, if any, might be. 

Pepe Martinez qualified as a London blue badge tourist guide in 2011, graduating at the top of his class. Since qualifying as a guide he has specialised in the graffiti and street art of East London. Prior to becoming a London blue badge, he was a tour manager for 15 years, travelling extensively, all over the world.

The National Gallery is home to one of the best collections of art in the world. Its incredible diversity allows you to progress through the history of art in a relatively small space. The gallery gives us the opportunity to discover the science behind fine art. How has scientific innovation changed the way we create art? From the development of prospective in the early Renaissance, to the evolution of different paint types. We will look at the genius of Leonardo da Vinci bringing original scientific knowledge into art. We will see how trade brought new copper minerals to Europe that would change the composition of paintings as seen in the work of Titian. Will explore the development of the landscape where artists experimented with optics and life like environments. The industrial revolution meant that science and innovation became the subject of art, with industrial scenes by Turner and Joseph Wright of Derby and the life like recreation of horse anatomy of George Stubbs. Finally, the 20th century brings modern chemistry that takes painting out of the studio and into the open air where we can see the impact of Impressionism.

Aaron Hunter is a professional scientist and researcher with the University of Cambridge and a prize-winning London Blue Badge Guide, a Green Badge Guide for the City of London and Oxford, and a City of Bath Mayor's Guide. As a palaeontologist, he is an expert on fossils and prehistoric life from the first animals to appear on our planet to the evolution of early humans. He has published research on the origin of marine animals 480 million years to the Jurassic World. After degrees in Geology & Palaeobiology, Aaron gained a PhD from the University of London and went on to pursue an academic career working first as a research fellow in France, Germany and Japan and then as a Senior Lecturer in Malaysia and Western Australia. He has a passion for archaeology, history, architecture and the history of art. 

Iceland’s key contribution to world culture is its literature rather than its visual arts. But how did a remote country with a population smaller than Croydon become so obsessed with writing and create such a valuable legacy? 

Using three works, one set in the tenth century, one in 1700 and one in the present age, the presentation tells the history of a heroic nation constantly under threat from the elements, colonisers and and endless cycle of boom and bust.

The talk explains how - over a thousand years ago - Iceland created an extraordinarily modern democracy and legal system. It explores the 13th century Sagas of the Icelanders - still gripping and highly readable eight hundred years later. The presentation uses one short saga, Hrafnkel's Saga, to illustrate the sagas' taut, objective style and dry humour and compares them with the works of Ernest Hemingway.

The talk also shows how Iceland consistently punches above its weight by producing writers like Halldór Laxness, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in the 1950s and recently rediscovered by readers globally.  Through examining his historical novel Iceland's Bell, set in the the country's darkest days, the hidden brilliance of his writing technique will be revealed.

In coming to the present age, the presentation turns to Nordic Noir.  The talk considers why Iceland was so late to this style of crime fiction, and how - in a nation with single digit murder rate - crime writers manage to pile on the bodies. Finally the talk considers how Iceland’s financial meltdown 15 years ago caused an extraordinary outpouring of literature.

It is illustrated with Icelandic, European and North American artworks depicting saga sites and literary works, including oils and watercolours by W.G. Collingwood.

James Vaux is a researcher and lecturer specialising in Nordic arts, culture, design and history. He has presented extensively on diverse topics throughout his career to demanding audiences across the globe, including CEOs and government ministers. His talks now focus on understanding artistic achievements through their historic, cultural and political context.  

James aims to question the underlying narratives behind artists, designers and movements, to explore the 'why' and the 'how' instead of the conventional 'who', 'what' and 'when' . A truly gripping Arts Society talk needs a mystery to be solved, not a chronological series of items and events.

James took a law degree at Oxford with First Class Honours and qualified as a solicitor before switching career. As a managing director of the international bank Rothschild, he advised governments and corporates worldwide. He set up and ran the bank’s Nordic operations, living and working in Scandinavia and immersing himself in the countries’ arts, culture and history. James then gained an MA (Distinction) at UCL in Language, Culture and History (Scandinavian Studies). His dissertation was on Swedish design, and he specialised in landscapes, the Viking Age, politics and literature. 

He has also studied interior design and art history at the Inchbald School, Mid-Century Modern at Sotheby’s Institute and electronic music at Point Blank. He hosted a local radio show for four years. He lectures and provides study days focusing on Scandinavian Modern design, Danish design, Norse mythology, Icelandic literature, Swedish literature, the Modern Breakthrough in Nordic culture and the role of modernism in the Cold War.

Photo: W.C Collingwood 1897 of the Icelandic Althing (Parliament) British Museum

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Betty Joel, born Mary Stewart Lockhart, ran a furniture making and design business. At its peak, in the 1920s and 30s, Betty Joel Ltd employed 50 craftsmen and had showrooms in Knightsbridge. With no formal training, she created, through a flair for branding and marketing, the leading furnishing company of the day in London. The talk explores her early life and marriage to David Joel, exhibitions, and projects. Her clients included royalty, high society, politicians, banks, hotels (such as the Savoy in London) as well as film companies and theatres. With rare access to three surviving schemes, the style and glamour of 1930s' design is brought to life and retells the story of a determined woman in a world still run by men.

Clive Stewart-Lockhart studied on the Sotheby's Works of Art course and has been working in the fine art world for 50 years. Now an independent art advisor, Clive was, until recently, a Director of Woolley and Wallis, one of the UK's leading regional firm of auctioneers, in Salisbury, and was a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow for 25 years between 1991 and 2016. Has also lectured on cruise ships as well as for many other groups, and recently published a major article in the Journal of the Furniture History Society on Betty Joel. Clive is a Founder Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars.

Part 1 - Pre-Christian to Anglo Saxon 

A summers afternoon walk, the typical country church. This lecture will help you look at the architecture inside and out, the church furniture, those mysterious nooks and crannies, high and low. How and why did it all come to look this way? This is a fascinating journey through English history unravelled before your eyes. "I can’t make you experts" says Nicholas Henderson, "but I can teach you enough to amaze your friends on that day in the countryside."

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 arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their initially disruptive and pagan but then formative and Christian works. This is one that is itself destined to be seriously challenged by the later Vikings  Our Churches still bear the marks of these dark ages.

The Rev’d Dr 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.  He has lectured widely and has a particular interest in treating history to the present time. He assists as a priest in the diocese of London.

Photo: A lovely typical English Country Church in the Spring, St Clarus, St Clear, Cornwall

'The Night Watch' of 1642 is Rembrandt's greatest painting and the most famous painting in the Netherlands. But why is it so special? It has become an icon of the Golden Age and of the modern Dutch Nation. Why? How was it commissioned and constructed?  How did Rembrandt paint it and where has it been hung throughout its life? Who are the characters represented? Why is there a lone woman and what is meant by the dead chicken trussed up in her waistband? What does this all tell us about changing Dutch society? This work redirected how group portraits were conceived. The traditional Dutch 'schutterstuk', a military group or shooting piece, became majestic and grandiose in Rembrandt's hands. 'The Night Watch' has had a chequered history physically: it has hung in a 'doelen', a Town Hall and in Dutch museums. It was hidden in a cave in Maastricht in 1942, attacked with a knife in 1911 and 1975, then sprayed with acid in 1990. So, how has it survived as a masterpiece?

Hilary Williams was formerly a curator and Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, now Art History Education Officer in the Department of Learning & National Partnerships at the Museum. She lectures for the British Museum and Wallace Collection. Hilary is Founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society of North Kent Evening, a specialist in 17th century art and has published on Rembrandt. Hilary has vast experience of giving gallery talks, of lecturing and of leading art history tours in UK, Europe, New York and Boston. For the Royal Collection Trust, she has guided Special Interest Private Tours of the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace.

Norton Asbury Paul Cezanne: Harmony Parallel to Nature

Norton is a freelance art historian and tutor, who has provided a wide range of art historical talks and practical art workshops for Phyllis Court, The National Gallery, the Wallace Collection and various other organisations. His particular area of interest is French art from circa 1850 to 1880 as well as the role of drawing in the work of different artists. He studied at The Courtauld Institute of Art from 2002 to 2005 and was awarded a 1st Class BA (Hons) degree in History of Art and was subsequently assessed as ‘outstanding ’in an Ofsted assessment by City Lit for his art history teaching. Awards, Qualifications & Memberships: 1st Class BA (Hons) degree in History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, 2005 Assessed as ‘outstanding ’in an Ofsted assessment by City Lit for art history teaching FRICS Paul Cezanne: Harmony Parallel to Nature Paul Cézanne, widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the modern movement, once described his art as “a harmony parallel to nature.” My talk takes this statement as well as Cezanne’s other theories about art, as the context for a presentation of a selection of his most famous paintings and watercolours, several of which were displayed at the 2022/23 Exhibition, Cézanne, at Tate Modern. He rejected the dominant modes of the time, principally illusionistic techniques and fluent, virtuoso handling of paint. From the 1880s his brushwork became increasingly systematic and ordered; he worked slowly and methodically, selecting subjects he could study for long periods (especially still life and landscape subjects), translating his sensations and temperament into patches of colour. The paintings of Cézanne’s final years (e.g. the Large Bathers) have become some of the most discussed, celebrated and widely influential of his enormous output, despite frequently appearing incomplete or fragmentary. At times described as an Impressionist and Post-Impressionist, he is also held to be the forerunner of Cubism through his use of multi viewpoints which broke up the picture surface; this influenced Braque, Picasso and others in the 20th century. I will talk about these labels and whether they have any relevance to understanding an enjoying Cezanne's art.

Certified Pearl Grader Laurie Wickwire takes you on a journey to the seabed floor in the hunt for the elusive natural pearl - Child of the Sea.  The Golden Age of natural pearling transformed the bedouin city states of Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.  Pearling transformed the region, where generations of camel herders & date farmers almost entirely left their way of life, to travel to the coast to become pearl farmers.  Natural pearls were once the most prized gem in the world, with a single gram of gem quality pearl equivalent to 320 grams of gold.  It all sounded to good to last, and it was!

With over 35 years in the diamond industry, diamond expert Laurie Wickwire represents the industry across all sectors: mining, sorting, grading and  brokering some of the world’s key rough stones.  

A leader in the industry, Laurie is the On-Air Diamond Expert for the international television shopping channel QVC where her opinion is regularly sought by over a million viewers each week.  

Whether presenting diamond shows on national channels the BBC, ITV and QVC, hosting diamond master classes, filming jubilee specials, or creating the historical jewellery range for both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle gift shops, Laurie’s love of the diamond industry is apparent.  

A graduate of GIA London, IGI Antwerp, and DeBeers Institute of Diamonds, Laurie is both a certified diamond grader and certified pearl grader. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in International Business & Finance, and a Bachelor of Arts in French.   

Laurie’s industry knowledge has seen her interviewing celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival, publishing articles on Ocean Mining or the British Coronation, guest on numerous internationally streamed podcasts, enrichment lecturer on luxury cruise lines and creating bespoke commissions for the Royal Family. 

London boasts a remarkable range of architecture and this talk reveals the evolution of the capital through its great buildings. We start with a brief look at the development of architecture in the capital and then focus on the modern. Whether we like it or not, there are currently well over 500 new buildings over twenty storeys high planned for London in the next few years, including dozens more than twice this height. This is in addition to those already completed. This talk looks at the best of these buildings including the cutting-edge designs of the latest towers such as the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie, the Cheesegrater, the Scalpel and 22 Bishopsgate. We will discover their amazing architectural and engineering challenges and also examine the controversies and difficult social decisions needed to manage this dramatically changing skyline.

A Londoner with a contagious enthusiasm for art and architecture, Ian Swankie is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also a  freelance London tour guide. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his home town of Richmond in West London. 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.

The great critic, John Ruskin, believed that Turner’s later marine paintings included ‘the noblest seas ever painted by man’ and over the years few have seriously contested his judgement. One third of Turner’s oil paintings are of marine or seafaring subjects, and this lecture surveys the full range of his work in this genre. They include sea battles, fishing scenes, wreck pictures, the slave trade, mythological subjects and, above all, the sea itself in all its moods. It shows how Turner took a lowly and little regarded category of painting and used it to produce some of the most compelling images of the Romantic movement.

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 ongoing 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: Calias Pier 1803 National Gallery

"Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money" remarked Joseph Duveen. It was a simple enough observation, but there was only one man who was perfectly positioned to combine his quintessential English charm with an unparalleled gift for creative salesmanship, allowing him to convince the tight-fisted titans of Wall Street (Frick, Morgan, Mellon etc.) that there was indeed one thing more important than money - art - and, "when you pay high for the priceless, you’re getting it cheap”. Without Duveen, there is no Frick; and, without Duveen both the Metropolitan Museum in New York and The National Gallery of Art in DC would struggle, or even fail, to be considered world-class today. But was he just a charismatic crook milking millionaires, or was he indeed truly deserving of the title, ‘world’s greatest art dealer’?

Mark is the founder of HouseHistree.com and lectures regularly in Europe and the United States, notably at the New-York Historical Society. After leaving Stowe School, Mark worked for twenty years as a plumber in London. However, his real passion has always been history, and he delights in 'telling a story,' not 'giving a lecture'. Packed with facts and laced throughout with humour, he takes a particular joy in bringing to life the stories behind the people that shape houses; and, his area of special interest lies in the great American houses and American social history, from pre-revolution to the end of the Gilded Age. 

The operas of Gilbert & Sullivan are rich in contemporary satire and witty personal allusions. This lecture tells how each of the 14 operas, on which the partners collaborated, drew inspiration from the world in which they lived by drawing on celebrities, politicians, social mores, manners, artistic taste, as well as the class system. The lecture explains how the then first Lord of the Admiralty, WH Smith, became the model for Sir Joseph Porter KCB in HMS Pinafore, how Oscar Wilde inspired Bunthorne in Patience, and how Gilbert himself may have been the model for the Judge in Trial By Jury.

Peter Medhurst appears in the UK and abroad as a 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.

In the second half of the nineteenth-century an extraordinary group of purpose-built studio-houses were built on the edge of London’s Holland Park. At their centre was the house built by Frederic Leighton from the mid-1860s. With its vast studio and exotic Arab Hall it provided an inspiration to other artists who commissioned houses of their own. Combining domestic accommodation with studio space and space in which to entertain, these houses provide fascinating insights into the wealth, status and taste of successful artists of the period. The lecture explores the houses of the Holland Park Circle to determine why these artists invested so much in the creation of their homes and the uses they then put them to.

Daniel Robbins is Senior Curator, Museums with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is responsible for two of London’s most significant house museums: Leighton House and Sambourne House. Formerly with Glasgow Museums, he has organised many exhibitions and contributed to numerous catalogues and publications around nineteenth-century art, architecture and design, including the authorship of the companion guide to Leighton House. He was responsible for leading the award-winning project to restore the historic interiors of the house completed between 2008 and 2010 and for the subsequent £9.6 million refurbishment of two unsympathetic twentieth-century additions made to the museum. Completed in October 2022, the house reopened to great acclaim.  

Photo: The Interior of Leighton House

With the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, the nations of Europe were set on a collision course. Newly mechanised armies, with undreamed of power to maim and destroy, transformed the world’s notions about war. This lecture looks at the work of a group of young British War Artists and considers the ways in which they recorded this new and terrifying form of war in a body of work still remarkable for its ability to move and shock.

Jo Walton has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling and has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern. She is now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, the Art Fund, and Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery and local art societies.

The work of art is not just a symbol of creative genius but a historical object and the result of a laborious process of creation. This lecture looks at the development of stained glass, its purpose, the process by which it was created and some of the extraordinary survivals. From vast cathedrals to tiny chapels, we concentrate on the great achievements of the Middle Ages but consider, too, the reasons for the decline in popularity of this once-preeminent art form and some of the projects in which it has been reconsidered and revived. 

Where possible, all lectures are tailored to include relevant local examples. 

Nicole Mezey studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris. She was Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast until 2009, working primarily with adults, managing and teaching on both the Part-Time degree and Extra-Mural programmes and conducting annual, international study-tours. She also established and was first Director of the Department of Art History, the first in the north of Ireland. Nicole now lives in central London and is a freelance lecturer, working for organisations including the National Museums, universities, the National Trust and private companies. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Higher Education Academy and her publications focus on adult education and the arts.

Ceramics are hard, lustrous and useful, sometimes rare, costly and beautiful. They are fragile and disasters can strike in unexpected ways: as a trembling hand wields a duster in the drawing room of a grand country house; as a delicious dessert is prepared in the confectionery kitchen of an Ottoman Palace; or when a revered bowl which has passed through generations of owners falls to the floor during the Japanese tea ceremony. We can sympathise with the tears of a tired English housemaid when a matching set of treasured plates was reduced from six to five! Yet help for her was at hand in the form of skilled porcelain menders who, in the make-do-and-mend spirit of past eras repaired the damages with tiny metal rivets. In Japan, gold lacquer repairs are called kintsugi. When revitalised with intricate repairs and their unique histories of cracks and chips are outlined in gold, these tea ceramics connect with a philosophy known as wabi-sabi in which beauty can be found in the imperfect and incomplete. In contrast, Imperial China witnessed the deliberate smashing and burial of porcelain wares which emerged flawed from the kilns so they could not be seen by the emperors. We explore why some people in 17th century Spain ate fragments of broken pottery! The lecture includes my original photographs taken in China, Japan and Istanbul.

Anne Haworth is a lecturer at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the Queen’s Gallery. She is a visiting lecturer for Regent's University, Sotheby's Institute and SOAS. Since 2008, she has been a member of the London faculty of Eckerd College, Florida, teaching Art History and is also an accredited Arts Society lecturer. For ten years she guided private evening tours of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. She lectures extensively for private groups, guides museum tours in London and has lectured on William Morris for the British Council and British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow.  

After studying Modern History at Durham University, she trained and became a senior specialist in ceramics at the head offices in London of Bonhams (1981-1986) and Christie's (1987-1995). From 1995 to 2002, she was resident in Shanghai, China and gave lectures on the history of the China trade and European Chinoiserie to the international community of diplomats and expatriates in Shanghai and Beijing. On returning to London in 2002, she worked on a short project cataloguing Chinese ceramics at Kensington Palace and became Hon Membership Secretary and Treasurer of the French Porcelain Society.

Photo: 11th to 12 century tea bowl with  gold lacquer repair known as kintsugi

MacDonald 'Max' Gill, younger brother of the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill, was an architect, graphic designer and letterer, best known for his pictorial maps, especially those for the London Underground. He also created painted maps for Arts & Crafts houses including Lindisfarne Castle, magnificent murals for Cunard liners, and eye-catching publicity posters for organisations such as the Empire Marketing Board. An enduring legacy is his alphabet for the Imperial War Graves Commission used on all British military headstones since the First World War. This illustrated talk by Max Gill’s great-niece presents a colourful overview of this versatile artist's personal life and artistic achievements.

NB. Max's work can be found in many localities around Britain. Caroline will include local connections wherever possible.

Caroline Walker has always been aware of close family ties to the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill, a fascinating but controversial character. In 2006, however, a family history project drew her into an exploration of the life and work of his younger brother. MacDonald 'Max' Gill was an architect, mural painter and graphic artist, famed for his humorous pictorial map posters for London Underground and the alphabet he designed for the British military headstone.

Although Caroline's principal profession has been English teaching, she now spends much of her time researching the Gill brothers and championing the work of the lesser known of the pair. Caroline has co-curated numerous exhibitions including Out of the Shadows: MacDonald Gill at the University of Brighton and Max Gill: Wonderground Man at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. In 2016 she co-organised a series of events in the capital to celebrate the centenary of the author Eleanor Farjeon's delightful collection of verses entitled Nursery Rhymes of London Town and illustrated by Max Gill.

She has contributed articles to a range of publications such as Country Life, the TAS journal and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. She has given talks for organisations including the National Archives, the Art Workers' Guild, Christie's, Friends of Kettle's Yard and the National Trust. Caroline runs the MacDonald Gill website and is the author of MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life.

Henry Moore established his unique approach sculpture from the 1920s based on Michelangelo, Cubism, abstraction and central and south American Aztec and Mayan cultures. He often sculpted family groups and reclining figures, and was a great believer in taking art into public places. By the middle of the 20th century, Moore was a dominant figure in world art. When Anthony Caro studied sculpture in the 1940s, he was taught by traditional sculptors.  Seeking to be modern he became Moore’s studio assistant for two years and made Moore-like sculptors. In 1959, Caro met with American abstract artists, and in consequence changed his approach, relying on sheets of steel to produce non-figurative sculptures. Subsequently Caro publicly criticized Moore for being a showman and thwarting younger talent. Moore took it badly and relations between them never fully recovered. This lecture traces the career of both Moore and Caro, and describes their time together, their falling out, and their respective impacts on modern sculpture.

Raymond Warburton has had a life-long love of art. From 2014 to 2017, he studied art history at the Open University, and then at the University of Buckingham, from where he has an MA in the History of Art. Since 2011, he has been a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, where he leads public tours of all the permanent displays and also undertakes exhibition tours. In his twenties, Ray studied social sciences at the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies, from where he was awarded a BSc and a MSc respectively. These degrees led to a career in health and social care, with art being an evening and weekend passion. They also gave Ray a grounding in evidence-based approaches, which he now uses to ensure his art lectures are well-researched and well-informed. Ray is an experienced public speaker who, over many years, has given presentations and lectures on a range of health, art and other themes to diverse audiences in the UK, and abroad from San Diego to Hong Kong. In mid-2020, Ray began organising, hosting and giving many on-line art-based seminars for fellow Tate guides and other art lovers. 

Photo: Anthony Caro with Henry Moore’s ‘King and Queen’, 1952-53, at Hatfield House in 2011

Raffles, whose name is synonymous with a luxury hotel rather than the greatest Buddhist temple in the world, was the enlightened colonal administrator of Java, Indonesia. He discovered the 8th century temple of Borobudur, hidden under volcanic ash, in 1804, acquired wondrous artefacts in Java, such as shadow puppets and textiles, now in the British Museum, and founded Singapore, the most important trading port in the East.

This lecture tells the story of Raffles, a scholar and polymath, looks at the art objects he collected, reveals the mystical temple in Java and its radiant carvings, and shows the architectural heritage of Singapore, inspired by his vision, and its revival today as innovative art galleries and museums.

Denise Heywood is an Art historian, author, lecturer, photographer and journalist. She worked in Cambodia in the 1990s and has been a scholar of Southeast Asian art ever since. Her books include one on the Buddhist temples of Laos, Ancient Luang Prabang and Laos, also in French, and Cambodian Dance Celebration of the Gods, with a foreword by the daughter of King Sihanouk. She lectures for the Art Fund, the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies on their post-graduate Asian Art Course and for the V&A; also for organisations such as Madingley Hall (University of Cambridge), the British Museum, the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Asia House, the National Trust, the Royal Geographical Society and has lectured worldwide for universities, museums, colleges, art institutions, literary societies and travel organisations. She writes for art, literary and travel publications and has appeared on television and radio. She has led cultural tours to Southeast Asia and France for the Royal Academy, the Art Fund, Asia House and many more and lectures on cruise ships.

Photo: Borobudur by Denise Heywood ©

This lecture looks at how artists have used art to challenge and question established conventions within the art world and in a wider social and political context. Focusing on artists from the late 20th - early 21st centuries, with a special emphasis on works at Tate Modern. Be prepared for some surprises!

Cindy Polemis is an art historian, independent lecturer and art guide. She has a BA in Modern History from Oxford University and as a mature student she went back to university to study first for a BA and then for a Masters in History of Art at Birkbeck College, London University. Before that she spent many years as a radio producer and presenter for the BBC World Service working in news and current affairs. Since 2016 Cindy has worked as an official art guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. She has also been a trustee at the Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum. Cindy has accumulated a wide range of art historical knowledge ranging from 18th European and British art to the contemporary international art scene. She has been an official guide for both Frieze Masters and Frieze Art Fairs in London. She is particularly keen to draw parallels with art and social history and her lectures are accessible and engaging, drawing out the stories of art and artists which are steeped in human emotions and experiences which we all share.

What is it about this extraordinary artist who broke away from the mould, and was so unique in her stylistic output when compared to her peers, that makes her so popular for certain art collectors? More than any artist of her day, her most striking portraits, especially her depictions of women, have come to personify the age of Art Deco. Lempicka derived a distinct style of painting that was unlike most of her male contemporaries. She infamously stated “I live life in the margins of society and the rules of normal society don’t apply to those who live on the fringe”. Her style of classic portraiture was revamped for a new age. With glamour and feminine allure, her subjects oozed a seductive appeal with influential roots from the cubists, neo-classicists and Tamara’s infatuation with Hollywood and its contemporary cinema. We follow Tamara de Lempicka from her early days in Warswaw, St Petersburg, Paris to eventually New York, Hollywood and finally to Mexico, where she ultimately lived out her days. We comment on her appeal to individuals like the American singer-songwriter, Madonna, who has not only purchased a number of Tamara de Lempicka’s work but also made reference to them in her music videos - notably, Open your Heart, and the chart topping song Vogue.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. Pamela has 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. She has conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialising in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art, she has over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Pamela has work experience at Bonhams, Art Loss Register, National Trust, is now a freelance art consultant and lecturer, and recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

Ukiyo-e, or ‘Pictures of the Floating World’, executed in woodcut, was the dominant, popular Japanese art form between the 17th and 19th centuries. This historical overview beginning with the introduction of the woodcut to Japan in 770 introduces the cultural and political background, key artists, imagery and innovations that led to the ukiyo-e period, and goes on to explore the cultural and creative cross-fertilization that such prints inspired when they first arrived in the West in the 1880s, causing an immediate sensation. The influence of ukiyo-e can be particularly seen in the work of the Impressionist artists, and later through the Crown Point Press. Following a residency in Japan, where the lecturer learned the mokuhanga technique from Japanese sensei, her own artistic practice has been informed by a similar cross-cultural sensibility. 

Carol Wilhide Justin is an artist-printmaker who specialises in Japanese woodcut.

In 2014 Carol was awarded a residency at the MI-LAB studio, Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, where she was taught the mokuhanga technique by Japanese sensei. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2017 with an MA in Print.

She has exhibited in a number of independent shows and larger mixed exhibitions such as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair and Bankside Gallery. Her work is held in private and public collections including Clifford Chance and the V&A.

She also teaches Japanese Woodcut at Morley College, the City Literary Institute and the Art Academy.

By the latter half of the 1700s British artists were making their mark and if they wanted to make money then portraiture was the genre to focus on. The two most successful portrait painters of the day were Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. Both worked in very different styles which reflected different modes of flattery as well as fashionable aspects of 18th century society and culture. The other key ‘portrait’ painter we will look at is George Stubbs, who did not paint portraits of people but animals – he was the horse painter par excellence who showed us, with scientific exactitude, that animals could be a worthy subject for art. 

Sarah Ciacci has an MA in History of Art (Late 19th century French Painting and 20th Century Art) from University College London. She has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries, so relevant tours and visits for talks can be arranged. Since 2008 she has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and for a period the National Portrait Gallery. She is a gallery educator and Adjunct Faculty at Richmond University (since 2008) teaching the History of British Art, the History of Museums in London and the History of London, and runs regular courses and independent lectures on a variety of art historical periods.    

The talk comprises a practical, step-by-step guide to the conservation of paintings through the ages.  It starts with a brief history of the preparation of panels and canvases and illustrates the different approaches and techniques involved in their conservation.  Various ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’ photographs show the pictures undergoing conservation and the processes involved. 

The frames housing various paintings undergoing conservation are discussed with illustrations showing the various stages involved in their conservation. She would be delighted to answer any questions on conservation and, indeed, to advise on any complex cases in peoples’ homes after the talk. Should members like to bring along pictures for advice on their care, outside the lecture, she would be only too delighted to help.

Julia Korner is a specialist and lecturer in fine art conservation and the restoration of paintings, sculptures and frames. She is also a valuer, passionate collector, advisor and curator of paintings and works of art. Julia trained in art history and conservation, Cambridge, England. Then, for twenty years, she worked for Christie's as a paintings’ specialist, building extensive knowledge of Old Masters, and of British, European and American paintings from the 1700s onwards. She set up Christie's Maritime Department in 1986, followed by the Frame sales, the Aeronautical, Exploration & Travel and the Polar sales. Julia was elected Huntington Fellow of the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, USA, in 1997. A seven-year commitment there saw her catalogue this collection and that of its sister organisation, the South Street Seaport Museum, New York.

Julia has worked independently in her own studio in West London since 1997. Here, she and her small team give specialist conservation work personal and expert attention through restoration, scientific analysis and research. Damaged paintings, polychrome statues, over-mantles, traditional gold leaf & gesso frames, along with unusual and exquisite handmade cabinets all emerge transformed by the conservation work, or created from scratch, under her expertise, knowledge and care.

Julia acts as an advisor, valuer and exhibition curator for public and private collections, in the UK and abroad. She also gives illustrated talks and lectures. She is an elected member of The British Antique Dealers' Association, The British Association of Paintings Conservator Restorers, The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, and The International Institute for Conservation.  In addition to her role as a lecture for The Arts Society, Julia also lectures for Sotheby’s Institute, Christie’s and Fine Art Societies at home and abroad.

When Diaghilev created ballet in the west in the early twentieth century, he brought extraordinary revolutionary energy from Russia. By bringing together talented artists of different disciplines; choreographers, dancers, musicians, designers and painters; Fokine, Nijinsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Picasso and Coco Chanel to name but a few, Diaghilev fused the latest in art, music and dance in spectacles that dazzled and astonished audiences around the world.

The dream Diaghilev created of dance joining hands with the other creative disciplines to create a total work of art changed the course of ballet forever.

Using stills and video clips we take an exciting look at the Ballets Russes that dominated the ballet stages of the world from its explosion in Paris in 1909 until Diaghilev’s death in 1929. 

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.

An American artist in London, James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a leading proponent of the idea of "art for art's sake". He signed his paintings with stylized monogram of a butterfly with a long stinger for a tail – as much a symbol of his love of Japanese art as his assertive and sometimes combative nature.

Having lived and worked with the Paris avant-garde he settled in London in 1859 having created a distinctive Post-Impressionist style at a time when many of his British contemporaries had yet to come to terms with Impressionism. Whistler’s art moved painting towards abstraction, sparked a renaissance in printmaking and gave us the Peacock Room, a masterpiece of interior design.

Inspired, influential, and infuriating, his art was full of subtle delicacy, he had a wide social network of friends and family and yet, if crossed, could be a formidable opponent. He mastered the art of making enemies.

Julia Musgrave got her first degree in Chemical Engineering and went on to become a Chartered Information Systems Engineer and IT project manager. In 2008 she decided that life was too short for just one career and decided to become an art historian.

She now has a Graduate Diploma in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MLitt in ‘Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism, c.1450 – c.1930’ from the University of Glasgow. She gained her PhD at the University of York for her research into the involvement of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group and the social networks of the British art world in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1939.

She teaches Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit) and is Co-Director of The London Art Salon.

1685 was an extraordinary year for music. Two of the world’s greatest composers were born 130km and just one month apart. Much of their childhood development mirrored the other – including the tragedy of losing their fathers at the age of ten. Their careers took very different directions, and they never met, despite several near misses. Patrick will reunite these two giants, tracking their lives across six decades, with a special focus on their vocal music, which has inspired his career as both a countertenor and a conductor.

Patrick Craig is a Vicar Choral at St Paul’s Cathedral. For twenty years he combined this with an international career singing over a thousand concerts with the world-renowned early music consort The Tallis Scholars. He also sings with the award-winning group The Cardinall’s Musick. He founded and conducts this country’s leading all-female professional choir, Aurora Nova. He has conducted concerts for the BBC Proms, the Brighton, Lichfield and Aldeburgh Festivals, and with the City of London Sinfonia.

As a Cambridge history graduate with a lifelong interest in the arts, he has gone on to lead choral workshops for amateur singers across the world, where he places music in its historical and cultural context. He regularly lectures for the St Paul’s Adult Education programme and for John Hall’s Venice Courses, which have allowed him to incorporate his interests in theology, art and poetry. 

In 2020, when his singing and conducting work disappeared overnight as a result of the Covid pandemic, Patrick poured all his experience into online presentations which have raised vital funds for the Help Musicians Charity.

The Stirling Prize has celebrated the very best contemporary buildings since 1996. Some winners, such as Norman Foster’s Gherkin, of 2004, have become enormously successful and appreciated by the wider public. Others have proved harder to love. This entertaining lecture looks at some of the hits, some of the misses, and several buildings that arguably should have won, but didn’t.

Brian Stater lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography. He therefore offers lectures to The Arts Society on each of these subjects.

He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

Brian is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience.

This lecture tells the story of men's tailoring over the past 200 years, told through the lives of the men who commissioned and created and wore it. Tailors, shirtmakers, hatters and other craftspeople in London’s west end, especially around Savile Row & Jermyn Street have shaped the way men dress since the Regency. How did men such as Beau Brummell, The Duke of Windsor, Tommy Nutter, Montague Burton, Alexander McQueen and John Stephen create their signature looks which influenced the mens fashion? This lecture also looks at the wider cultural shifts since the early 19th century to the present day and how they affected the way that men present themselves.

Russell Nash trained and worked as an actor, writer, puppeteer and theatre maker for 15 years. In 2015 he qualified a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. Around this time he rekindled his love of art and art history. He now regularly guides the major galleries and museums in London such as the National Gallery, Tates Modern & Britain and the British Museum. He has delivered lectures for institutes and museums, as well as numerous U3A groups and other societies. During Covid lockdowns he devised and delivered more than 30 different virtual tours and lectures to groups from the UK and across the globe.

The lecture is based on research into why this Baltimore woman, born in 1896 into relative obscurity, was so demonised by the British establishment and wider commonwealth, accused of being a spy, prostitute or Nazi sympathiser, yet how, after she married the ex-King and became Duchess of Windsor, she turned her exile and hatred into a platform from which to launch herself as one of the world’s best dressed woman who entertained in the most elegant homes fit for a King – or an ex-King.

Was she simply a clothes horse for dress designers and jewellery makers or did she have a heart that has never been fairly understood? The lecture will include pictures of Wallis and the clothes and jewellery she had made especially for her as well as the homes she lived in. We will hear how, in the context of the 1930s, this woman with three husbands was unacceptable as Queen of England and of the Empire. What was the power she had over King Edward Vlll. Seventy five years since the Abdication in 1936, it is now time to reassess That Woman. 

Anna Sebba is biographer, historian and author of eleven books who lectures to a variety of audiences in the US and UK, including the English Speaking Union, Royal Overseas League, National Trust, British Library, Imperial War Museum. 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. The latter, published as That Woman, was an international bestseller followed in 2016 by a history of Paris between 1939-49 through women's eyes entitled Les Parisiennes, How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s. Her latest book is Ethel Rosenberg A Cold War Tragedy (published 2021). Anne is a former chair of Britain's 10,000 strong Society of Authors and a Senior Research Fellow at The Institute of Historical Research.

PLEASE NOTE THE RE-SCHEDULED DATE FOR THE SEPTEMBER LECTURE

Using the extraordinary fourteen-foot-long printed panorama of the north bank of the Thames created by the Buck brothers in 1749, this lecture will take us on a journey along the early Georgian river from Westminster to the Tower of London. The luminous paintings of Canaletto will bring the journey to life in sunlit colour and the highly detailed map created by John Roque in 1747 will be our constant guide. Along the way we will encounter wharves, warehouses, watermen and water closets, dukes, criminals, cranes and churches, and even a lost palace or two.

Peter has a History of Art degree, an MA in London history, a PhD in the cultural history of an English Criminal, and qualifications in the teaching of adults. Currently Principal Librarian at Guildhall Library, he has for 20 years lectured on a broad range of topics including the history of English books, portraiture, and London history. Peter has appeared on TV and radio as a consultant on the 18th century criminal Jack Sheppard and on the history of English food. His most recent publication, The Curious Cookbook, was published by the British Library.

This lecture gets up close and personal with the dynamic east London street art scene.  You’ll see art on the walls, the sides of buildings and sidewalks….. 

In this lecture we will look at work by Banksy, quite possibly the most famous living street artist in the world, as well as street art by Ben Eine whose piece “Twenty First Century City” was  presented by Prime Minister David Cameron to Barrack Obama. We will also see work by Shepherd Fairey the most celebrated street artist working in the US today, known around the world for his Obey and Hope campaigns.  

You will discover how the huge growth and popularity of Street Art is reflected in the astonishing transformation of Spitalfields and Shoreditch from a once seedy and deprived area into one of the most vibrant, most fashionable, most happening neighbourhoods in London.

Pepe qualified as a London blue badge tourist guide in 2011, graduating at the top of his class. Since qualifying as a guide has specialised in the graffiti and street art of East London. Prior to becoming a London blue badge, he  was a tour manager for 15 years, travelling extensively, all over the world.  

Too often the sculpture of Central Europe is ignored and yet some of the most important pieces of Renaissance sculpture were produced in northern cities and towns, often for small parish churches off the beaten track, as well as for the large cathedrals. As sculpture becomes independent of architecture, sculptors emerge from obscurity and during the later 15th century wonderful sculpture begins to appear in limewood, culminating in the work of the great limewood carvers, Michael Pacher, Tilman Riemenschneider, Veit Stoss and culminating in the exquisite carvings of Grinling Gibbons.

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

By the close of the sixteenth century, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II had amassed one of the most impressive collections of art, natural artefacts and scientific instruments in Europe at the time. According to one Venetian ambassador, the paintings in his collection alone numbered three thousand. While somewhat reclusive on the political arena, Rudolf wielded his power through culture and the opulent display of wealth at his court in Prague. After a brief introduction to the concept and practice of the Kunstkammer, this lecture will explore the nature of Rudolf’s collection, the wide networks of artistic patronage that his collecting enabled across Europe, and examines the group of artists, philosophers, alchemists and esoteric figures who gathered at his court.

Albert Godetzky’s research concentrates on Northern European art of the early modern period. He is currently Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute where he received his PhD with a thesis on ‘Haarlem Mannerism’. Before joining the Courtauld, Albert was Visiting Lecturer at The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Harry M. Weinrebe Curatorial Fellow at the National Gallery, London, where he contributed to exhibitions including Rembrandt: The Late Works and Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure. Albert also works as a cultural advisor to several international corporate institutions and private individuals, drawing on his experience in the field and using education to widen understanding of and participation in the study of art history.

In Spring 2000 an archaeological drama began to unfold on the banks of the Euphrates river in Turkey, close to the border with Syria. A small team of French and Turkish archaeologists found a Roman city on the banks of the river, with mosaics and wall-paintings finer than those of Pompeii. However, just beside them was the almost completed Birecik Dam, and the Turks had begun to flood the great reservoir behind it, taking the city under water. This lecture tells the story of the extraordinary archaeological rescue excavation that then took place (racing against the inexorable waters for four and a half months as they rose at a rate of two feet a day) and the fabulous treasures recovered, including mosaic floors (arguably the finest ever found) depicting colourful scenes from myth and legend.

Louise Schofield is an archaeologist who was Curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities at the British Museum from 1987-2000. Her book, The Mycenaeans, was co-published by the Getty Museum and the British Museum in 2007. She now writes, lectures and runs international archaeological projects - previously in south-eastern Turkey, Greece and Albania and currently in Ethiopia. And rather wonderfully she has just been appointed Visiting Professor of Archaeology at the American University of Rome.

This lecture looks at the life and work of Paula Rego, who is a British artist of Portuguese origin best known for her depictions of folk tales and strikingly unusual images of women.

Married to the British artist Victor Willing (1928-88), Paula Rego settled in this country permanently in the 1970s, but her career in Britain had effectively begun in the early 1960s, when she exhibited with artists like Frank Auerbach and David Hockney. Over the following twenty years her career and reputation built steadily, and in 1990 she was invited to become the first Associate Artist at the National Gallery. Her well-known series of paintings and prints based on nursery rhymes emerged from this residency, as did another series of large scale paintings which is currently displayed in the National Gallery restaurant.

In her early days, Paula Rego experimented with many different styles, including abstraction, and was very much influenced by Surrealism, but her mature style places a strong emphasis on clear draughtsmanship and the human figure. She produces works which suggest complicated narratives full of psychological tension, drama, and emotion. Frequently she depicts women and girls in disturbing or ambiguous situations and poses, which has occasionally caused some controversy, but her insistence on the physicality of her female figures, and her refusal to idealise or revert to cliché, has earned her global recognition and many prestigious awards. She was made a DBE in 2010. 

Linda 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.

The fabulous collection gathered by industrialist, Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) is a sumptuous array of great works by the greatest artists. Inspired by other collections, in Europe and USA, Frick’s visit to the Wallace Collection, London was instrumental in shaping his taste. In a superb quality collection including Sevres, Riesener, Hals, Rembrandt, Holbein, Claude Lorrain, Boucher, Fragonard, JMW Turner, Constable and Whistler, we will see his successful criteria for collecting. All of this was set within the fine Frick Mansion.

Hilary Williams studied at the University of East Anglia, Norwich and was a postgraduate at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has worked as a curator in prints and drawings at the British Museum, specialising in Dutch 17th century art. She now works as a Learning Programmes Manager for Adults in the Museum. Additionally, Hilary has worked for the Royal Collection and the Wallace Collection, London.

Variety is the hallmark of William Hogarth’s work: the biting satirist of the corruption and hypocrisy of his society, the inventor of great pictorial narratives about those who lived outside the boundaries of respectability, the creator of great theatrical scenes on canvas was also a fine portraitist, engraver, pioneer of copyright protection, teacher, promoter of English art and writer of aesthetic theory. Whether elegant conversation pieces or salacious brothel scenes, the scenes and characters he creates seem ready to step out of their pictures and into our lives. An exploration of Hogarth’s art becomes a virtual tour of eighteenth century London - his work is indeed ‘descriptive of the peculiar manners & characters of the English nation’ in his time.

Sarah is a Guide and lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Studied art history as part of her first degree at Harvard. After a further degree in English at Cambridge and a career as a teacher of English literature in both the United States and England, she has returned to the world of art history where her special interests are in British and post-1900 art as well as the connections between literature and the visual arts. 

Described by The Guardian as a ‘constellation of engrossing portraits,’ the Wallace Collection’s current exhibition Frans Hals: The Male Portrait provides us with the perfect opportunity to explore a small selection of works by this outstanding painter. A key figure in the history of art and in the development of Dutch painting, Frans Hals (1582/3-1666) is a celebrated painter. An encounter with one of his portraits can seem like a meeting with a living person where paint transforms into an animated and stylish figure - one who is impeccably poised and often prepared to engage with you. But how did Hals achieve these effects? In this talk, we will consider painting technique, sitters’ poses and the inspiration which led Hals to create paintings which, even in our digital age, still retain their ability to appeal and amaze.

Since completing an MA at University College London in the History of Art: Modernism and the Politics of Representation (1997), Jo Rhymer was employed in various roles at the National Gallery including Adult Learning Officer and the Head of Adult Learning Programmes.
In a freelance capacity, she has worked in prestigious learning departments in London galleries and museums including Tate, the Hayward Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery as well as leading group excursions in the UK and abroad. She currently lectures for the Institute of Continuing Education at University of Cambridge and the V&A and teaches for the Wallace Collection, the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of York as well as a range of private institutions.  Her areas of specialism include 19th century and early 20th century French art and her interest include the visual skills involved in sustained looking at paintings.

Early Christians celebrated Christmas at the same time as the ancient Romans were feasting and partying for their pagan Saturnalia festival.

Many of the pagan habits were therefore absorbed into our Christmas traditions. Present-giving, holly and even party-hats all have their origins in this 2,000 year old party.

This talk will revel in artwork that is ancient and modern as we un-wrap the images and stories behind our festive season.

Gillian was awarde BA (Hons) Latin and Ancient History, Exeter University, and then branched out into archaeology. Ex-BBC, lecturer for British Museum and York University, an award winning writer and author who specialises in relating the ancient world to our modern lives, in person, in the field, on line and in the media (most recently on Radio 4). Publications include Visiting the Past: A guide to finding and understanding Britain's Archaeology and Roman Britain. Forthcoming Latin Yesterday, Today and For Ever, and A Mediterranean Tour: Not just a Load of Old Stones. Teaches adult education courses in Latin, archaeology and ancient history and has publicly lectures widely and passionately, on cruises and tours and for museums such as the British Museum & Ashmolean, national press, universities, literary festivals, and diverse societies including Classical Associations, the U3A and the National Trust. 

The work of Nicolas Poussin became the cornerstone of the French classical tradition. This lecture will look at the ways in which Poussin was in fact highly original, with early works that were dramatic and highly idiosyncratic. It will look at some of the ideas underlying his work, examining how it compares with that of his contemporaries, and how his mature works reflect a new and coherent philosophy of art. It will consider the fact that Poussin was a thoughtful, private person who resisted attempts by the French court to lure him into the art establishment – and how his work would one day influence radical, anti-establishment artists such as Cézanne and Picasso.

Richard is a professional artist who graduated in English and Art History from York University in 1986. From 1988-1994 he lectured at the adult education departments of Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, and then went on to become a full-time figurative artist, executing large-scale public commissions, and exhibiting widely throughout the UK. He now lives and works in Chichester, West Sussex.

In this talk, Simon Rees will give a glimpse backstage at Welsh National Opera in its home theatre, the Wales Millennium Centre. WNO was founded in Cardiff in 1945, and has operated as a fully-professional touring opera company ever since. The Wales Millennium Centre was built on Cardiff Bay, near the Senedd and other iconic buildings, and is a home not just to WNO but to numerous other arts companies, as well as acting as a receiving house for visiting musicals and ballets. WNO’s roots in Wales and its musical traditions are deep, and the WMC also reflects, in its structure and decorations, many of the elements of Wales both past and present. Simon Rees worked as Dramaturg in the building for twelve years, and knows it inside and out. He is looking forward to sharing that information, and many backstage secrets, with you at the Arts Society.

Simon studied at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a BA and an MA in English Literature. Taught in Italy and Japan, exploring the art and architecture of both countries. From 1989 to 2012 was Dramaturg at Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, working with set, costume and props designers and giving lectures on their work in opera production. Now a freelance writer and lecturer, lectures widely on opera, art history and literature, travelling extensively with travel companies. Has published several novels, including the award-winning The Devil's Looking-Glass, poems and opera librettos.

Looking slowly at an Impressionist painting might at first seem counterintuitive, since one of the concepts associated with Impressionism is that the artist captures in paint a fleeting, fugitive moment. Such an approach implies that the artist’s painting was speedily executed when, in reality, this was not often the case. It was usually the result of careful observation and planning and it was not the artist’s intention that viewers should spend just a couple of minutes looking at the completed work, yet the average time spent looking at any painting is less than one minute.

Looking slowly at an Impressionist painting is to engage with the idea of seeing a moment which in lived existence might pass unnoticed, but one which the artist was keen to represent to produce visual pleasure. Touches of paint, punctuations of colour and varied textures come alive with sustained looking. 

This presentation looks slowly in order to experience a small number of Impressionist works with particular attention to the skills of visual analysis and the characteristics of Impressionism.

Since completing an MA at University College London in the History of Art: Modernism and the Politics of Representation, Jo Rhymer was employed in various roles at the National Gallery including Adult Learning Officer and the Head of Adult Learning Programmes.

In a freelance capacity, she has worked in prestigious learning departments in London galleries and museums including Tate, the Hayward Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery as well as leading group excursions in the UK and abroad. She currently lectures for the Institute of Continuing Education at University of Cambridge and the V&A and teaches for the Wallace Collection, the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of York as well as a range of private institutions. 

Her areas of specialism include 19th century and early 20th century French art and her interest include the visual skills involved in sustained looking at paintings. 

William Morris led a revolution against the products of the machine age. The first of our ‘passionate potters’, William de Morgan, was a friend of Morris who rediscovered the secrets of Near Eastern lustre glazes. In contrast, the eccentric and argumentative Martin Brothers created a range of elaborate salt glazed pots unparalleled in their imaginative breadth. Sir Edmund Elton, the ‘potter baronet’, made pots which combine startling glazes with exotic forms. And finally, Bernard Leach, the father of English studio pottery, not only married the arts of Japan and England but created a legacy that is still alive today. 

This lecture explores the lives of these truly passionate potters and celebrates their extraordinary and beautiful creations.

Julian studied archaeology at Reading University and has since worked as a professional archaeologist, in commercial archaeology, for English Heritage, for the BBC and as an independent. Elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1992 and is being awarded an honorary doctorate. Has been involved in teaching and outreach projects, lecturing widely in continuing education, to groups and societies and to special interest tour companies. A career in broadcasting involved researching and presenting Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings for BBC2, and Mapping the Town for Radio 4. Author of a number of English Heritage publications on Stonehenge, including the previous and current guide books to the monument and landscape.  

Lights, Camera, Action! – inside stories of the art and artifice of the early decades of Hollywood. This lecture covers the work of stills photographers, costumiers, publicists, actors and actresses and the movie moguls who made it all happen.

Geri is a former Fleet Street journalist and film PR. 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 14 years both in the UK and internationally. She is also principal lecturer on The Arts Society South West Area’s History of Art course and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Roehampton University.

Poised between Europe and Africa, Sicily has been both a gateway and a crossroads attracting a long line of colonisers from the Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs to the Normans and Spanish. The legacy of so many dominant civilisations produced a cultural mix of great richness and diversity, and included periods of exceptional wealth, intellectual activity and artistic achievement. This lecture looks at Sicily during the ancient and medieval periods: the Greek temples, the beautifully preserved Roman Villa Casale, and the monuments from the Arab - Norman period when Palermo was the most intellectually active and artistically eclectic centre in Europe. The 12th century cathedrals of Cefalu, Monreale, and the Palatine Chapel of the Norman Palace, witness to a brilliant fusion of Norman, Arab and Byzantine art and architecture.

Jane is a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society and other arts organisations. She runs her own art tours company, specialising in cultural visits. She speaks several foreign languages and has translated a number of works of 19th century Russian literature for Penguin Books and Oxford University Press. She has a BA in Russian Studies and an MA in Byzantine Studies.

Susan’s current research is on the 19th century developments in dyeing and social history. In this lecture she brings a sumptuous feast of colour: beginning with what was available start of the century, and where it came from, looking at the research into colour and colour perception by the head of the Gobelins factory, Michel Chevreul and the impact of the great international exhibitions where new developments were proudly displayed. She examines the changes brought about by the discovery of the first synthetic dyestuff and visits some of the dyers themselves, including David Smith of Halifax, through their published works. This is a vibrant lecture that reveals the pace of change and the impact of the new colours on fashion and society.

Susan is Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2015 she was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan has a longstanding interest in textiles, especially colour, and published her first book, The Story of Colour in Textiles (Bloomsbury) in 2013. She has extensive lecturing experience and has been invited to lecture in the USA, Canada, China, Japan and Taiwan as well as for the V&A and across the UK. 

Can a single year adequately encapsulate an artistic environment in British art history? This lecture, The Art of 1935, explores that year’s many aspects of decorative and fine art, demonstrating how these artistic forms reflected the period in a fitting and cohesive manner. Set against the backdrop of the 1935 Silver Jubilee Celebrations of King George V and Queen Mary, audiences are transported back to this fabulous time and learn about this pivotal year. The fully illustrated talk examines the range of contemporaneous art forms; including the work of the celebrated British portrait photographer, Cecil Beaton; magazine, poster and Penguin paperback book design; architecture; Silver Jubilee memorabilia; commemorative stamps; locomotive design and fashion. An exploration of the year 1935 would not be complete without a study of certain significant works by the Polish-born artist Tamara de Lempicka which have come to personify the age of Art Deco. We also review Art Deco interiors on stylish cruise liners and film sets, as well as acknowledging the importance of The Lansdowne Club which opened its doors for the first time on 1 May 1935. Sporting and motoring trivia are also revealed.

Pamela has an MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. She has over 20 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. Pamela has also conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. She specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art with over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy and work experience  at Bonhams. She is an Art Loss Register, National Trust and now a freelance art consultant and lecturer. She recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

Part 1

Some of the greatest artists in history - Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Gainsborough - have invoked the world of music into the heart of many of their paintings resulting in a harmonious combination of two much loved disciplines of the arts. However, the viewer of these scenes should always be a little on his guard, since references to music are invariably laced with powerful allusion and complex symbolism. With a musicologist's eye, Peter Medhurst views, discusses and analyses a range of magnificent paintings that stem from the Late Medieval and Renaissance eras.  At the same time, to add a further dimension to the lecture, he complements the paintings discussed with a selection of period music played by him on the harpsichord, the virginals and the organ. Paintings include works by Geertgen Tot Sint Jans, Lorenzo Costa, Francesco Raibolini,
Titian and Anon.

Part 2

Peter Medhurst plays a selection of period music to complement the paintings discussed in the first part of the study day. The pieces will be performed ‘live’ on the historic 18th century pipe organ that resides in his music room in London.  Music to include: Three Dances from the Mulliner Book, Il ballo del Granduca - Sweelinck, Rondo from Abdelazar - H Purcell.

Peter Medhurst:

Peter Medhurst appears in the UK and abroad as musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied composition and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music in London, and singing with Erik Werba at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.  He is known today for his lecture-recital work which has taken him to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as to all the major cities in Europe.  He lectures for The Arts Society, The National Trust and The Art Fund.  Peter also leads tours abroad to places like Venice, Rome, Berlin, Vienna and Madrid, and as part of the time spent exploring these places he gives organ recitals on the historic instruments in the various cathedrals and churches.

Because he had ‘no faith in coteries’ Brown refused to join the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood but nevertheless was responsible for some of the most powerful paintings of the period such as Work (1852-65), The Last of England (1852- 55) and the haunting 'Take Your Son, Sir!’ (1851). This lecture looks at the life and work of this influential artist and his family relationships and his relationship with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Alan holds a Master’s and First Class Honours degrees in History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a gallery guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery and has lectured at many galleries including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Plymouth City Art Gallery and the NPG. He is also a London Blue Badge Guide and City of London Guide.

Welcomed at first with open arms and bringing luxury skills, the Huguenots’ fortunes fluctuated wildly. I talk about their early 18th-century houses that still stand, how they were decorated and lived in; I discuss the fashionable patterned silk dresses – who designed and made them. And how, finally the trade died out, with some weavers literally dying in poverty at their looms. One of the weavers’ houses can still be visited today. 

Originally in art and design publishing (Phaidon and Yale University Press), Sue Jackson now lectures for the National Trust, U3A, City Literary Institute. A qualified Blue Badge Guide, she gives guided walks on various themes and has published work on the lost world of the River Fleet.

Alnwick Castle in Northumberland has been the home of the Percy family, now the Dukes of Northumberland, for over 700 years. From its beginnings as a fortress defending the English-Scottish border, the castle and its inhabitants have been involved in major events of British history, from the Wars of the Roses and the Gunpowder Plot to the World Wars of the 20th century. 

Today, the 12th Duke of Northumberland and his family live in the castle’s State Rooms, which were restored in the 19th century and host one of the finest private collections of Old Master paintings, furniture and ceramics in the country.

Join Alnwick Castle’s head guide, Daniel Watkins, for a virtual visit, taking in the medieval defensive structures and Capability Brown landscape around the castle grounds, as well as the State Rooms and highlights from the castle’s collection. 

After your tour of Alnwick Castle, there will be an opportunity to ask any questions and find out more about this fascinating site and its place in history.

Occupying a pair of early Georgian townhouses nestled in historic Greenwich, the story of how The Fan Museum came to fruition dovetails into the multifaceted history of the handheld fan. From an especially rare Elizabethan-period embroidered folding fan to contemporary examples decorated by street artists, discover some of the key objects within the Museum’s extraordinary collections which encompass more than 5,000 fans and related objects dating from the eleventh century to the present day and gathered from most parts of the world.

Having obtained a postgraduate degree in Fashion Curation from London College of Fashion in 2010, Jacob Moss took up a position at The Fan Museum, Greenwich, the UK’s only Museum dedicated to the history of fans and craft of fan making.  As the Museum’s Curator, he is responsible for co organising the temporary exhibition programme.

In May 2018 he was awarded an Art Fund Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant in support of a collections management project to be launched later this year in collaboration with the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York.

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was the most catastrophic event in the City’s history since Boudicca’s revolt 1600 years before. It marked a turning point in London’s history with the destruction of the old medieval city and the emergence of something more recognisably modern in its place. The Fire changed London forever, introducing a new architecture, a new geography and a new sensibility to London. In his illustrated lecture, Tim Potter will examine the context, the terrifying four days of the Fire and its consequences. Along the way, he'll talk of pandemics, paranoia, fake news and Europhobia: issues we grapple with today.

Tim Potter is an experienced lecturer and London guide. He has given talks on London’s history to a wide range of organisations ranging from the Royal Over-Seas League to primary schools. He is the author of ‘Walking London’s History: 2000 years in 15 walks’, which guides the reader through London’s history from Londinium to the Shard.  It’s published through Amazon and Kindle.

National Gallery Exhibition 6 March – 13 June 2021                                                                                   Dürer's Journeys:Travels of a Renaissance Artist  

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) – arguably the most important Germanic artist ever – stands for the representation of Italian Renaissance ideas and Humanist thought in the North of Europe. Not only was Dürer an exceptional painter and draughtsman, he was also the first to write on art theory in the German language. His extensive graphic production carried Dürer’s fame well beyond his native Nürnberg.

Eveline has a BA Hons Courtauld Institute; Diploma: Study Centre for the History of Fine & Decorative Arts. She is a freelance lecturer in Fine Arts and tour-guide to Berlin, Dresden, Munich and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dresden Trust.

At 7.30pm Blue Badge Guide and lecturer Anna Warrillow will be giving a talk on some of the highlights to be found in the British Museum.

Included will be some old favourites such as the Lion Hunt Reliefs which greeted visitors to the Palace of King Ashurbanipal, as well as some objects that perhaps aren't so familiar. These include the Leaping Bull from Crete and the Holy Thorn Reliquary which houses a relic from the Passion of Christ.

Find out about the origins of the museum. Enjoy the close up detail of these objects and hear their stories.

Anna is a Blue Badge Guide who has worked in museums and private art collections and her passions are art, sculpture, architecture, history and the people who make London and beyond what it is

What misfortune to be an artist born at the same time as a dazzling personality like Michelangelo or Caravaggio. Perhaps we should pay more attention to the artists contemporary with and learning from such overpowering characters? This lecture repositions Caravaggio’s achievements in the period immediately following his brilliant but short career. Turning over the page of art history, it presents the splendid achievements of many artists such as Gentileschi, - father and daughter - the Spaniards Ribera and Velázquez, the Dutch Honthorst, French artists Vouet, and de la Tour, and ultimately connecting him to Rembrandt. It also asks “what happened next?” - how was it that Caravaggio’s style came to lose its hold and that fashion in art began to change.

MA in History of Art from Edinburgh, Ph D from the Warburg Institute, London University. With 40 years experience as a lecturer, Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989, and as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies in London, Italy and America. Having also trained as a paintings conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures and study sessions.

Using illustrations from illuminated manuscripts, readings from literature and contemporary accounts, and the haunting songs, carols 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 plucked psaltery, hurdy-gurdy, hammered dulcimer and gemshorn to the musical mix, performing carols, music and readings for an atmospheric and musical seasonal celebration.

Sarah is a graduate and prize-winner from the Royal Academy of Music and in 2015 was elected an Associate. She performs, writes and lectures about the harp regularly in America, Australia, Europe and UK. All lectures are presented digitally and include live music and songs on harps and other instruments depending on subject matter. 

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, born in December 1770, Sandy guides us through the life and work of this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer, a man who tore up the rule book of classical music. Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits, while musical examples are drawn from his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, and from the revolutionary opera Fidelio. We’re talking about much more than just a musician here – Beethoven was a true Romantic artist, or as he preferred to describe himself, a “poet in sound.”

Sandy Burnett is one of the UK’s most versatile music commentators, enjoying a career that combines broadcasting, performing and lecturing. After studying at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy Burnett spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3. Combining engaging scholarship with hands-on expertise, he devises and leads cultural holidays all over the world, is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, is a highly sought after double bassist on the London jazz scene, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

Tuesday November 3rd at 7.30, delivered via Zoom

This talk treats you to historical vignettes and anecdotes about some of our famous theatres. Discover how theatre developed from the Elizabethan playhouses of Bankside and Shoreditch, through the rise of restoration drama in Covent Garden to Shaftesbury Avenue’s Edwardian and Victorian theatres. Bringing things up to date we’ll discover the birth of the Fringe and the current vogue for site specific theatre in unusual venues. The illustrated talk will include anecdotes about theatrical personalities, superstitions and traditions. 

Without its horses, London in 1900 would have ground to a halt – no buses, no deliveries, no goods trains. Alongside London’s growing dependence on technology was a vast increase in the demand for horses. So much so that The Times suggested in 1894 that this trend would bury the city 9 feet deep in manure by the year 1950. This eye opener to a lost city mixes what’s still there – the mews, horse hospitals, cab shelters and drinking troughs - with what’s less apparent- like the horsepower each bus route needed, and why flogging a dead horse wasn’t just a turn of phrase. In fact, in 1900 the end was nigh - the internal combustion engine and the Great War loomed. All this is brought alive through painters like Robert Bevan and early photographs

As a London walking tour guide and lecturer Charlie Forman highlights the social, architectural and artistic history of my home city. It is a city he is passionate about, not least because it has a historic core larger and richer than any other world city. A member of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association, his talks focus on the forces that have shaped and changed this multi-faceted metropolis and the artistic and cultural heritage that this has given us. After many hundreds of walks and a four-decade long career in housing and regeneration Charlie has absorbed a deep understanding and appreciation of the capital. He has had some fascinating vantage points like the seven years build-up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games where he played a role in channelling potential long-term benefits into surrounding East London communities. Publications include Spitalfields: A battle for Land.

In 1917 Wilkinson (1878-1971), a first-rate painter and poster designer, invented Dazzle ‘camouflage’. Thousands of British and Allied ships were painted with vivid and violently contrasting patterns of colour to deter U-boat attacks. Discover the life and work of Wilkinson and his Dazzle scheme that continues to inspire art and design. Was it really inspired by Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism?

James Taylor studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Manchester, and is a former curator of paintings, drawings and prints, and co-ordinator of various exhibitions and galleries, at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, also lecturer and ships' historian on board cruise ships. Publications include illustrated histories of Marine Painting (1995) and yachting art Yachts on Canvas (1998), The Voyage of the Beagle: Darwin’s extraordinary adventure aboard FitzRoy’s famous survey ship (2008), Careless Talk Costs Lives: Fougasse and the Art of Public Information (2010) and Your Country Needs You: the Secret History of the Propaganda Poster (2013). Completed his PhD at the University of Sussex in 2015 on the voyager artist William Westall (1781-1850) who sailed with Commander Matthew Flinders aboard HMS 'Investigator' (1801-1803) the first ship to circumnavigate Australia. 
 

Between the wars something extraordinary happened to the British seaside: it became glamorous, exciting... modern. Enticed by eye-catching railway posters, holidaymakers grabbed their new cameras and slinky new bathing suits, and headed for the coast. Meanwhile artists galore found inspiration on the beach, from Laura Knight in Lamorna and Eric Ravilious in Newhaven to Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore in North Norfolk. With eye-catching artworks, glorious posters and startling archive photos, this exuberant, colourful lecture explores a remarkable period in 20th century British culture.

James Russell studied History at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and enjoyed a lengthy stint selling contemporary paintings and sculpture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an experience that inspired him to begin writing and lecturing on 20th century art.James has curated major exhibitions at Dulwich Picture Gallery and for museums around the country. He bases his lectures on wide-ranging original research into the subjects that fascinate him.

Raphael died in Rome on Good Friday, 1520, aged only 37.The Pope, his most prestigious patron, was devastated and earth tremors were felt around the city. He was buried in the Pantheon – Rome’s most important classical building – a fitting tribute to an artist who rivalled the greatness of the Ancients. (He was also charming, handsome and polite – which couldn’t be said for all Renaissance polymaths.) This lecture looks at his short, but astonishing career as painter, architect, administrator and superb draughtsman and considers his lasting influence on subsequent artists.

Jo Walton has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling and has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, the Art Fund, and Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery and local art societies.

“Antiques. I don’t understand them and they’re beyond my budget. 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 studied History of Art & Architecture (BA Hons), and began his career as a porter and Junior Cataloguer at Bonhams, before moving to Sotheby's where he was a Specialist in the Collectors' Department. Became director of an internet company forming and running a ground-breaking deal with eBay Live Auctions. Was co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-17. Founded his own publishing company in 2005 and has since published over 12 books on specialist subjects in 20th century design and decorative arts. A Miscellaneous expert on the Antiques Roadshow since 2007, and has co-presented three primetime factual TV series on antiques and collecting for BBC2. An auctioneer running 20th century design auctions in partnership with Dawsons Auctioneers. Has lectured across the world, including at the V&A in London, and contributed to many newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programmes. A Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Freeman of the City of London.

One of the most extraordinary Spanish artists from Valencia; Joaquin Sorolla has become better known more recently. He lived from 1863 to 1923 and created a world full of light and colour which delights the senses. Sometimes a social painter he was more concerned with capturing light falling on bodies and sea-scapes and his wonderful technique will be considered in this colourful lecture. His final Visions of Spain now in New York will also be shown.

Jacqueline Cockburn is a linguist and art historian, with first degrees in French and Spanish and Art History, an MA in Applied Linguistics and a PhD in Art History and Spanish Jacqueline is now Managing Director of an art tour company. She is currently publishing a book called A Taste of Art.

From cathedrals to churches, cottages to coastlines we are never very far from a place John Piper has painted, written about or undertaken a commission for. One of the most versatile British artists of the twentieth century - painter, designer, stained glass artist, photographer and writer on the arts - a man of many parts.

Alexandra Epps is an Official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Guildhall Art Gallery. Pallant House Gallery Lecturer. 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.

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.

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, Ian Swankie is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives tours around 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 home town of Richmond in West London. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.

This lecture will be preceded at 7.30pm by the Annual General Meeting.

Julia Musgrave got her first degree in Chemical Engineering and went on to become a Chartered Information Systems Engineer and IT project manager. In 2008 she decided that life was too short for just one career and decided to become an art historian.

She has a Graduate Diploma in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MLitt in ‘Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism, c.1450 – c.1930’ from the University of Glasgow. She is currently working towards her PhD. at the University of York where she is researching the involvement Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1937. Her research interests include 20th century British Modernism and the English Renaissance of the early 17th century.  She is a lecturer in Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit) and also co-director of the London Art Salon.

 Bloomsbury Group: The Art of Vanessa Bell

Avant-garde painter, designer, decorator, inspired colourist, mother and muse, Vanessa Bell was the warm heart of the Bloomsbury Group, a set who Dorothy Parker once described as “living in squares and loving in triangles”. Navigating the tides of sexual and artistic revolution with tolerance, irreverence and wit she had a central role in the social and aesthetic life of Bloomsbury; alive to their love affairs, romances, passions and pleasures, and refreshingly uninterested in politics. She was the sister of the writer Virginia Woolf, wife of the critic Clive Bell, and counted the painter Roger Fry and the artist Duncan Grant among her lovers. Her Bloomsbury Group connections and their associated scandals have perhaps lessened the fame of her work – this lecture asks the question was Vanessa Bell the painter as radical as Virginia Woolf the writer?

Caroline is an architectural historian, and trained at the Courtauld, specialising in 16th to 18th century English and Scottish architecture. She is also a Lecturer at the V&A on the year courses and short courses, and lecturer for The Art Fund, and for the Royal Oak Foundation in the US. She has researched and written a history of Kensington Palace. Contributed to a book on the Cecil family, and has written several articles on architectural and social history and the history of travel. Caroline is the author of London's Country Houses (2009). Contributed a chapter to a history of the Royal Academy (Yale, forthcoming).

London in the 18th Century: The Terrace House & Garden Square (S) 

The tall London terrace house overlooking a tree-filled square is a familiar image of London. This lecture looks at its 17th century origins in Covent Garden, and the development of London’s West End with well-planned streets and squares. Different functions were on different floors, providing flexible space for entertaining and living. London squares, often embellished with churches, still provide some of the most attractive places to live or work. The lecture will end with the only royal development, Regent’s Park, with its picturesque landscape setting. 

John is a Lecturer and Guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern. He ran an an MA course in Heritage Interpretation at St Mary's University College. John lectures freelance to numerous art societies, to the National Trust and the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in Venice. He also lectures on art for cruises. In 2012, he wrote the new guidebook to the newly opened Strawberry Hill.

 'Sweet Thames Run Softly .....': The Thames Through Artists' Eyes (S)

Peter Ackroyd calls the Thames “the most painted river in the world”. It has also been the favoured river of writers and poets. From its source to the sea it has been variously seen as the sweet river of Spenser’s Prothalamion and the ironically ‘sweet’ river of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land - from flowery arcadian banks to a river of death. This talk will journey down the river but particularly look at the way artists have treated the river and its banks in central London, where Hogarth, Canaletto, Scott, Turner, Constable, Egg, Dore, Whistler, Monet, Derain, Nevinson and others have portrayed both the poetry.

Leslie holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. He was a 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. 

Personal Favourites: Materpieces from The Barber Institute of Fine Arts - In the Context of the Image of Black People

This lecture will explore my personal favourite paintings from the rich and varied collection of paintings that make up The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Collection. Beginning with works that as yet still have no artists attributed to them, the lecture will be looking at works as diverse as Botticelli, van Dyck, Aelbert Cuyp from Rubens through to Degas and Gauguin. The lecture will place these works in that context of those from national collections; drawing parallels and contrasts. This lecture will not only revel in the exquisite details in some of these works with detailed explanations of the meanings, but it will also look at a hidden aspect of these works and that is the appearance and function of black figures in these Masterpieces. This lecture will take the audience on a journey through this Collection that will make you want to look again at this marvellous gallery of Masterpieces.

Short Reading List: Campbell, Lorne, The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools (National Gallery Publications, 1998) Dabydeen, Davis, Gilmore, John, and Jones, Cecily, (Eds), The Companion Guide to Black British History (Oxford University Press, 2007) Dunkerton, Jill, Foister, Susan, Gordon, Dillian, Penny, Nicholas, Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery (National Gallery Publications, 1991) Spencer-Longhurst, Paul, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Handbook (University of Birmingham, 1999) Verdi, Richard, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts (Scala, 2005).

"I'm sure no doubt we'll find attendance increases considerably with the curtailment of American films in this country." Daily Express, 11th Jan 1948

Barry is an historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely, including the volume on Turner in Phaidon's Art & Ideas series, and several catalogue essays for exhibitions in the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland. He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and took part (2013) 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 The Arts Society, Christie's Education and other organisations.

 Giles: His Life, Times and Cartoons

 The cartoonist, Carl Giles, once said that he loved his creation, Grandma Giles – that fearsome, black-clad, gambling, drinking battleaxe – because she allowed him to say things through his cartoons that he was too polite to say in person. She helped him to poke fun at authority in all its forms, from Hitler to traffic wardens and even his employers at the Daily Express, who didn’t trust him and had sub-editors scouring his cartoons for subversive background details. His admirers included Prince Charles, Sir Malcolm Sargent and Tommy Cooper, and it was no surprise when he was voted Britain’s best-loved cartoonist in 2000. Few people realise, however, that this likeable and humane satirist was also a war correspondent who witnessed the horrors of Belsen, where he found that the camp commandant, Josef Kramer, was also a great fan of his work. Giles gave us a remarkable picture of a half-century of British life. He was also, as his editor John Gordon put it “a spreader of happiness’ and ‘a genius…with the common touch’.

Karin is known for her entertaining lectures on writers and diarists connected with the arts from the mid-18th to 19th century, and moving forward in time with Virginia Woolf. Extensive research into diaries and letters bring lectures to vivid life. Karin illustrates them with slides of contemporary pictures and portraits from varied sources.

 "I was most excessively delighted": Young Victoria's Watercolours & Diaries showing delight in the Arts

Taught from childhood by artists, including Edward Lear, throughout her life Queen Victoria painted and sketched. There are delightful watercolours and sketches of the people around her, together with revealing self-portraits. Others, drawn from her remarkable memory, are of performances witnessed from the Royal Box at Drury Lane. She loved the ballet, then in its full romantic flowering; worshipping Marie Taglioni, first ballerina to dance on points. In opera, she admired the beautiful soprano Giulia Grisi and took singing lessons herself with the great operatic bass Luigi Lablache. In youth an excellent dancer, aged 72 the Queen was seen to perform “light, airy steps in the old courtly fashion, no limp or stick, every step carefully and prettily danced.” With slides from the Royal Collection at Windsor of Victoria’s watercolours and sketches, together with paintings, portraits and cartoons of the early 19th century.

Val is a Lecturer and Guide in Tate Britain,Tate Modern,  and at many other London galleries.She was a former member of the teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Val iasa Lecturer and runs courses at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.

 The Mysterious World of Salvador Dalí (s)

 Dalí “.....the difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad.” At one time the most well-known and popular artists of the twentieth century, Dalí was a self-publicist who filled gossip columns with accounts of his eccentricities for over 60 years. His paintings of the invisible world of the unconscious mind were considered shocking even among a group of extremists like the Surrealists, and after joining them he quickly became their most exotic and well-known member. His soft watches and huge animals with stick-insect legs are among the most memorable invented images of our time, and his Christ of St. John of the Cross is a highly original re-working of one of the central themes of Western art.

The lecture will be followed by wine and mince pies to celebrate Christmas.

Nigel is the Music Administrator of The Royal Ballet and has been a performer for nearly forty years in and out of the Royal Opera House, including seventeen years as Principal Percussionist with the Orchestra. He has worked with many of the leading figures in the classical music industry and was also a producer for both the BBC's Maestro at the Opera and Pappano's Classical Voices documentary series. He is a regular contributor to the printed and online content of the Royal Opera House.

He has given lectures for over twenty years, including arts societies and conservatoires in the UK and across Australia.

 In The Kingdom of Sweets

The Nutcracker has delighted audiences at Christmas for many decades yet it was deemed a failure at its first performances.  We take a close look at how this well-loved ballet now takes its rightful place on stage and how the music of Tchaikovsky, along with story-telling, design and dance, all come together to make the most magical escape for young and old alike. Includes several performance video clips.

Dr Thomas completed an MA in Canada in Development Studies, and a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin in History and Political Science. His career as an academic and as a political and institutional analyst in the field of International Development has enabled him to travel widely in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He has always sought to understand the arts and culture of the country or region he was living or working in since they illuminate the past and help to explain the present.

Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven: Painters inspired by the Canadian Landscape

From 1912 Tom Thomson and  the ‘Group of Seven’  revolutionised Canadian painting. Some were war artists who went on to  produce  wonderful portraits and  townscapes  but all were  inspired by the Canadian landscape and the wilderness to the ‘north’. The early focus was on Algonquin Park near Toronto – into which Tom Thompson mysteriously disappeared in 1917. The others continued throughout the 1920s and 1930 ‘and moulded the way Canadians looked at their land’.  The talk will discuss the main artists within the group  (including FH  Varley, Lawren Harris and AY Jackson ) and show many of their defining paintings.

Colin is a Professor of Architectural Theory and former editor of  Architects Journal . He contributes to magazines worldwide. He has written Thinking About Architecture, Key Houses of the Twentieth Century,The Prefab Home, High Tech Architecture. He has also written monographs on the work of Foster, Hopkins, and Grimshaw.

Zaha Hadid: Architectural Superstar

Dame Zaha Hadid died on March 31st 2016 at age of 65. Architectural historians of the future will surely recognise her as one of the most important architects of the early 21st century. She was born in Iraq and her reputation was global, but she made Britain her home. This lecture tells the story of her career from the visionary projects of the 1980s, through the years of frustration when her designs were considered unbuildable, to the prolific crop of successful projects built all over the world in the last decade of her life.

Charles is former Director of Broadfield House Glass Museum (1974-2003) and one of the top authorities on glass in the country. Author of British Glass 1800-1914 (1991), 20th Century British Glass (2009) and contributor to numerous books and magazines he lectures internationally to glass museums and collector's societies. He is Fellow of the Society of Glass Technology, and a member of the Arts Advisory Board at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland. Charles is President of the Glass Association which he was instrumental in founding.

American glass artist Dale Chihuly (born 1941) is the super-star of the glass world. With his passion for glass, his larger-than-life personality, his skills as a natural leader and educator, and his constant exploration of glass's luminous qualities and colour possibilities, he creates glass sculptures which are extravagant, colourful and spectacular. Following two accidents he is no longer able to hold a blowing iron and now employs two glass teams to blow his visions from his spontaneous drawings, themselves works of art. His glass magic has transformed the studio glass movement and altered our visual perceptions of this extraordinary material forever.

Kathy graduated at Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute. In 2001 she completed a PhD thesis on French painters in Rome during the 19th century. A course director at the V&A and freelance lecturer specialising in 19th century art history, she has also published catalogues and articles for the British Council and the Barbican Art Gallery. She is currently head of the Visual Art Department, Morley College, London.

Looking back on his work towards the end of his life, Peder Severin Krøyer recalled his work at Skagen, the Danish artists' colony at the northernmost tip of Denmark, and expressed his particular love for that time "when the sun is going down, when the moon is rising over the sea, hanging there, crystal clear, and the water, smooth as glass, reflects its light...." Krøyer was referring to the 'blue hour' of northern Scandinavian summer nights, when sea and sky appear to merge into a single luminous whole. This lecture explores Krøyer's life and work in Skagen, and evaluates the paintings that made him into one of Europe's most celebrated artists by the end of the 19th century.

Andrew was Assistant Director of the British School at Rome from 1998 to 2002 and since 2004, Associate Professor at the University of L'Aquila. Part of his PhD (Courtauld Institute 1995) on Venetian architecture was awarded the Essay Medal of 1996 by the Society of Architectural Historians. He was a Fellow at Harvard University's Villa I Tatti in Florence in 2003-2004, and in 2009 was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Amongst his many publications are, with Arnold Witte, Alois Riegl, The Origins of Baroque Art in Rome (2010), and Baldassare Longhena and the Venetian Baroque (Spring 2012). 

The Guggenheim name has become synonymous with some of the most inspiring art and museums in the world. Compared to the Frick and Gulbenkian, individual collections displayed in single museums, the Guggenheim name was transformed in the late 20th century into a brand, some would say a chain. With celebrated museums in New York, with the flagship Solomon R. Guggenheim landmark on Fifth Avenue, together with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal in Venice, the family foundation did not stop there. They commissioned the celebrated building by Frank Gehry in Bilbao. Other expansion plans have not fared so well, with outposts in Las Vegas and Berlin closing, and new building projects in Vilnius and Helsinki abandoned. This lecture looks at the beginning of both Solomon’s and Peggy’s collections in New York City, with artists they acquired such as Kandinsky and Pollock, and traces the development and expansion of their collections over more than half a century.

Anthea has been a regular visitor to Kingston sharing her specialist knowledge of architecture. She studied Fine and Decorative Arts in London and continued her studies at Harvard University. It was while at Harvard, where there was great enthusiasm for American design, that Anthea became interested in 20th century architecture. Since returning from America she has taught on courses in Oxford and London, lectured on the Country House course in Sussex, and for several private groups around the country.

Anthea takes a look at the changes to the City of London skyline viewed from across the River Thames. When a thriving Roman port the forum and City wall would have dominated the skyline and later the medieval cathedral of St Paul’s towered over 100 parish churches.The Great Fire in 1666 transformed London from a timber medieval city to a brick-built city dominated by Sir Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s. Early photographs illustrate Victorian icons such as the Palace of Westminster and Tower Bridge. At the turn of the 20th century buildings were limited in height by restrictions based on how high a fireman’s ladder could reach, 100 ft. Wartime damage caused many changes to the London skyline. Richard Seifert’s designs in the 1960s and 70s, including the NatWest Tower (now Tower 42), also dramatically altered the skyline. Among the new generation of striking buildings in the City, are Foster Associates’ ‘Gherkin’, the ‘Shard’, the ‘Cheesegrater’ and the ‘Walkie-Talkie’. There are more high buildings presently under construction along the South Bank and around the City periphery.

After studying music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy Burnett spent a decade as one of the core team of music presenters on BBC Radio 3. His varied career embraces broadcasting, conducting, playing double bass and communicating his passion for music. His radio series for Ireland’s RTÉ Lyric FM, Great Moments in Classical Music, recently won silver in the Specialist Music category of the PPI Radio Awards. He regularly leads cultural lecture holidays, and is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music.

Sandy’s lecture ties in with The Age of Jazz exhibition, a collaboration between The Arts Society and The Bulldog Trust, at London’s Two Temple Place, running from January-April 2018. One hundred years ago a group of American musicians docked in London, bringing with them for the very first time one of the twentieth century’s most important musical genres: jazz, a blend of rigorous structure, free-wheeling creativity, close-knit ensemble work and improvisation. Sandy covers the early years of jazz from its beginnings through to the start of the Second World War. Drawing on his practical experience both as musicologist and musician, he is able to shed light on jazz from the inside. His illustrations range from early pre-impressions by Maurice Ravel and the very earliest jazz recordings through to classics by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the dawn of the Swing Era.

Dr Meri Arichi studied Art History in London and Florence, and worked at Christie’s in London. She studied Asian Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she has been teaching History of Japanese Art in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology as a Teaching Fellow since 2007. Meri has also run courses at the Birkbeck College, V&A, British Museum, and the Courtauld Institute of Art Summer School. She has led tours to Japan and lectured on cruises.

The Way of Tea, often translated as “Tea ceremony”, is considered to be the embodiment of Japanese culture. The architecture of the tea hut and attached garden, ceramics and other utensils were designed to reflect the ideals of the Tea ceremony which was heavily influenced by Zen Buddhism. The aesthetic concepts wabi (simplicity, frugality) and sabi (tranquillity, patina of age) are most prominently expressed in the art of rustic ceramics which overturn the conventional standard of beauty. This lecture will consider the intriguing nature of wabi and sabi that challenges our idea of art. 

Having graduated from Cambridge University, Siân spent four years in Italy and France where she worked for the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. She is a lecturer at the National Gallery and Surrey University, specialising in 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish art and architecture, and the relationship between dance and art. She also organises lectures, study days and is an award winning guide for art holidays abroad.

2018 marks the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto’s birth which will be marked by a number of celebratory events worldwide, so we are particularly pleased to welcome Siân who will look at one of this artist’s greatest achievements. The Venetian scuole were semi-religious confraternities or guilds and the Scuola dedicated to St Roch was one of the wealthiest and most prestigious. The vast canvases which cover the walls and ceiling of this Renaissance building represent one of the most ambitious artistic projects of the 16th century. This lecture examines how Tintoretto was able to secure this commission, explores the genesis and development of the series and considers the influence on generations of artists including Rubens, Velázquez and El Greco.

Frank is a guide and lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and a lecturer  at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, for the National Trust, the Art Fund and other organisations. He is also a lecturer for the Tate on P&O Cruises. Frank is script-writer for the Living Paintings Trust, which brings art to the blind and partially-sighted.

Opinions are divided about what would have become of Amadeo Modigliani, had he not died of tuberculosis (and excess) at the age of only 35. Some critics claim that he would have gone on to be a modern master, while many feel that he had already produced his greatest and most powerful works of both painting and sculpture before his untimely death. From an Italian/Jewish background, he settled in Paris in 1906 and, while outside the prevailing movements (Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism), was friendly with other artists such as Picasso and absorbed influences from such varied sources as Botticelli and African tribal carving. 

We welcome back Toby Faber, who in 2014/15 gave two linked lectures on Fabergé's Imperial Easter Eggs. He has written a narrative history on this topic and another on Stradivarius. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and on to 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.

For our October lecture Toby will take a look at the artists who followed the explorers opening up the west of America in the 19th Century. Painters like Alfred Miller, Frederick Church and Albert Bierstadt have left us a powerful, if romanticised, record of the country and people that the settlers found. Their pictures chart the arrival of the railroad, the confinement of native Americans into reservations, and the extermination of the buffalo. Among the pictures illustrating this lecture are some of the largest and most grandiloquent paintings of the era. After a period of deep neglect, they are now very much back in vogue

Tasha Marks is an award-winning food historian and artist, who explores the relationship between food, art and history. Her practice, AVM Curiosities, champions the use of food as an artistic medium, with projects ranging from museum-style exhibitions and sculptural installations, to interactive lectures and limited-edition confectionery. Recent academic achievements include publication in the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, where Marks authored the entry on Mrs Beeton, one of the Victorian era’s most influential cooks.

A whistle-stop tour of the history of food as artistic medium; starting with 16th century sugar sculpture and venturing all the way up to 3D dessert printing and beyond. This exploration into the realms of dessert as spectacle includes an accompanying display to illustrate and enhance the historic subject. 

Elizabeth  lives in Kosovo and works with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina where she co-founded ‘The Ideas Partnership’, a charity working on education and cultural heritage projects. She speaks fluent Albanian, and has translated and authored books about Kosovo. She has appeared on Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, including interviews with John McCarthy and regular slots on From Our Own Correspondent.

This lecture looks at the silver thread which winds through Kosovo’s history, from the early Kosovan silver mines, through to twentieth century politics. Its most intricate tanglings are in the country’s cultural capital, Prizren, where a seventh generation of filigree artisans work to produce boxes, buttons, jewellery, religious ornamentation and the talismans of superstition.

Susan is Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace. She was made a Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in recognition of her work on the history of dyes. Susan published her book The Story of Colour in Textiles in 2013.

This lecture unpacks the history of how cloth and yarn were coloured and how the different colours represented power, achievement and desire. It sheds light on how important textiles have been in European history, and how the history of textiles is also a story of politics, money, war, trade, laws, the church, agriculture, exploration, science and even serendipity. 

Julian studied archaeology at Reading University and has since worked as a professional archaeologist. His career has also encompassed TV and radio broadcasting, and he is the author of a number of English Heritage publications on Stonehenge, including the previous and current guide books to the monument and landscape.

In this lecture Julian examines the sophisticated architecture of Stonehenge. Just as it inspired early worshippers, so it has inspired painters, potters and poets. Julian will look at Stonehenge as a global icon and how the instantly recognisable stones now grace tea towels in Wiltshire, phone cards in Japan, and stamps from Bhutan. 

A social evening with an after dinner talk.

After 38 years in education, Frances now lectures at the National Portrait Gallery and for the National Trust. She is Secretary of the Shakespeare Reading Society, Chairman of the Irving Society, and Chairman of the Henry Irving Foundation.

The Music Halls flourished from 1820-1914. Architecturally, buildings ranged from the supper rooms in Covent Garden and the Coal Hole in London’s Strand, to gilded Palaces and Empires. Of special interest is the interior of Wilton’s Music Hall near Tower Bridge, still used for performances. The Music Hall was truly ‘the people’s art’ and Frances will argue that something has gone from British culture with its demise. 

We welcome back Michael, who previously spoke to the Group on L.S. Lowry. He is the Programme Leader in the School of the History of Art and Design at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He is also a practising artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker and ceramicist.

Coinciding with Hockney’s 80th birthday, there will be a major exhibition of his works at Tate Britain, Feb 9th–May 29th 2017. This lecture gives an insight into Hockney the man and his groundbreaking art.

Mark is a familiar face to fans of the Antiques Roadshow. He studied History of Art & Architecture and his career took him to Sotheby's where he was a Specialist in the Collectors' Department. He has, since 2002, been the co-author of the Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller. He founded his own publishing company in 2005 and has since published over twelve books on specialist subjects in 20th century design and decorative arts.

Mark takes a look at how the antiques market has changed dramatically. Pieces that were made during the 1970s can fetch many times more than a piece made in the 1770s. This lecture looks at furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and metalware, identifies key designs and designers, and then examines the revolutionary design movements they began.

A garden historian, author, researcher, and lecturer, Twigs has presented Lost Gardens for Channel 4 and has appeared on Gardeners' World as well as making media appearances on a wide range of garden history related topics.

A lecture with a strong local interest, we look forward to learning about the unconventional life of Marianne North. Her pursuit of plants took her round the world, travelling alone into remote areas, but maintaining the dress and manners of a Victorian lady. You will want to visit her Gallery at Kew Gardens!

James was the first Renaissance PhD from the Royal College of Art and the V&A. He has convened and presented at international conferences, lectures widely in the UK and overseas, and is currently a fine art underwriter in the City.

While they are two of the most familiar figures in Italian Renaissance art, the rivalry and antipathy that existed between them remains a story without an author. This lecture throws light on these themes using select examples of their works, which, it is argued, hold the key to understanding the motivations for their animosity.  

By profession a graphic designer Alexandra is a guide and lecturer at Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and an official guide to the City of London. 

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.

Please note that this meeting will commence at 7.50pm with a short Extraordinary General meeting.

Toby is 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.

Armour was one of the great Renaissance art-forms, but today is largely overlooked. In the 15th and 16th centuries the most powerful noblemen in Europe were dedicated patrons of the armourers art. An art which combined skills in the sculpting of iron and steel, and the mastery of decorative techniques.

The evening will begin with our AGM followed by the lecture at 8.00pm.

Theodora Clarke is an expert and lecturer on Russian art and twentieth century modernism. She edits the online magazine Russian Art and Culture and founded ‘Russian Art Week’ in London.

This lecture will be of interest to anyone who enjoys Russian and Soviet art, and offers an introduction to the intriguing period of artistic and political evolution of early 20th century Russia.  Major artists to be considered are Kandinsky, Tatlin, Malevich, Lissitzky, Goncharova, Chagall, Rodchenko and Popova.

Caroline is currently completing a PhD on Venetian painting. She also lectures regularly at London Galleries, is the Author of the Universal Leonardo project website, and was the script advisor for a Channel 4 Documentary.

This talk focuses on the Venetian tradition of narrative painting during the 15th and 16th centuries, which demonstrates the role that stories played in shaping both civic and corporate identity during the period. It considers the demands placed placed on Bellini and Carpaccio in the creation of large scale paintings to illustrate Venice’s mythic past. It also focuses on specific examples painted for the Scuola Grande di Giovanni Evangelista and Scuola di Sant’Orsola.

Clare Ford Wille studied History of Art at Birkbeck College and lectures regularly at many London Galleries. She is involved with the Art Fund and the National Trust, and takes study tours abroad.

In her lecture Clare Ford-Wille explores Armenia’s rich artistic past. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity in 301AD and its churches built in that period exhibit highly sophisticated experiments in dome construction and masonry techniques. The khatchkars (carved crosses) are particularly beautiful. The lecture will also explore the diverse and colourful illuminated manuscripts and Armenian painting of the 19th century.

Lucia has extensive experience in Egyptological research, teaching, museum work and excavation, and has a well-deserved reputation for making Egyptology exciting and accessible.

The ancient Pharaoh was by definition male, he was the embodiment of the god Horus on earth. So how could a woman become king? In this lecture Lucia will explore the rise to the power of this 18th dynasty queen, her extraordinary achievements as Pharaoh, and the evidence of a posthumous backlash against the presence of a woman on the throne of Egypt.

We welcome back Valerie Woodgate, who is both a lecturer and guide at many London Galleries and is on the teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Valerie’s 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. This lecture will concentrate on the seven most important women in his life, two of whom he married.

Charles Beauclerk has lectured widely in the UK, USA and Canada and is a trustee of the Shakespearian Authorship Trust, which organises seminars etc on Shakespeare, authorship and Elizabethan history.

This lecture presents the true story behind the name Shake-speare and paints a picture of the court intrigue and treachery which led to the biggest cover-up in English history. It tells the tale of the 17th Earl of Oxford, poet and playwright and the semi-literate Gulielmus Shaxpere from Stratford. Finally, it shows how an understanding of Shakespeare’s true identity adds new depths to his works.

Jasleen Kandhari has extensive lecturing experience in a wide range of museums, universities and art societies in the UK and overseas. She specialises in the artistic heritage of Asia and Canada.

In her lecture, Jasleen will explore the sculptural traditions of the breathtaking Buddhist, Hindu and Jain art. She will discuss these artistic traditions, how they have developed in India, and demystify how to interpret Indian sculpture.

We welcome back James Lindow, previously James spoke to our Group on 'The Renaissance Palace in Florence'.  He has now published his book on the subject with Bookpoint Ltd.

His new lecture explores the Nativity according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke through a selection of images comparing and contrasting the artists' approaches to the theme, the traditional story having made many changes by the end of the Middle Ages.

Brian Stater has a great interest in photography, architecture and history, and has combined all three in his lecturing career.  He has exhibited his own photographs at UCL.

His lecture discusses whether the best photography can be accepted as fine art, and argues that photography can equal and exceed traditional disciplines.

Refence will be made to Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fay Godwin and Ansel Adams etc.

Lydia Bauman is both an artist and art historian and works at the major Art Galleries in London. She recently guided a group of our members through the National Gallery, discussing the history of Portraiture.

Her lecture on 'Goya: the Portraits' will be tailor-made to line up with the Autumn exhibition on Goya at the National Gallery, and will be very informative for those hoping to visit the exhibition.

This lecture is about the creative process of Alphonse Mucha; his elaborate ornamentation with themes from nature, his fine draftsman ship, his idealism of female subjects partly inspired by Sarah Bernhardt, and the use of symbolism and allegory.

After going missing in the Revolution, many of the eggs emerged from the storerooms of the Kremlin, where they were identified as a source of much-needed foreign exchange. Eggs have subsequently been sold and smuggled, stolen and forged. This lecture is illustrated with pictures of the eggs today, their owners, and with archival material relating to some of the missing eggs.

This lecture is a study of the naive ship portrait painters in Europe and America from 1780 to the early 20th century. It looks at the informal ‘spontaneous’ watercolours of the Roux family dynasty of Marseilles and its influence on the painters of the ports and harbours of Europe and America.

Her subject tonight is Rudyard Kipling, who, as a young reporter working in Lahore, took a journey through Rajasthan, during which he produced magical and evocative descriptions of buildings he saw there. In this lecture we explore Kipling’s love of India and discover the world of the Moguls and Maharajahs.

His lecture tells the story of the Great Omar Binding and the Bookbinders Sangorski and Sutcliffe, who were known for their jewelled bindings. The Great Omar binding was embellished with over one thousand jewels, five thousand leather onlays, and one hundred square feet of gold leaf. Sadly, it went down with the Titanic.

Louise Schofield worked as a curator of antiquities at the British Museum before changing her career to work on international archaeological projects. She lectures widely for universities and institutions.

This lecture will be a fascinating account of the archaeology of Ethiopia from Louise who has spent much time visiting and studying the ancient history of the country.

This lecture is a commemoration of the bicentenary of Waterloo in 2015, and offers an artistic and cultural appreciation of one of the most famous battles of all time. Waterloo was a defining moment in European history and the lecture shows how artists have interpreted the event and so influenced our understanding of what actually happened on 18 June 1815, but not always correctly.

In this lecture, Hilary Williams will be talking about Rembrandt’s work with reference to his family, faces and friends. She will expand her lecture to explore Rembrandt’s final years of painting, in which he consciously searched for a new style that was even more expressive and profound. This lecture will coincide with the Exhibition at the National Gallery-‘Rembrandt -The Late Works’, which is on view from 15th October 2014 to 18th January 2015.

In this lecture, Aliki will investigate the shifting environment in which artists have depicted themselves. While earlier paintings emphasised craftsmanship and allow the viewer an insight into materials and techniques used, early modern paintings see a shift of context from a workshop to a space of learning and intellect.

In this very entertaining lecture, Bertie Pearce discusses the Art of Visual Deception, including Trompe L’Oeil, Anamorphic Art, Double Imagery, Optical Art and Camouflage. During his lecture he will give examples ranging from 15th Century Art to the Art of Bridget Riley.

Barry Venning lectures at a range of Art Colleges and Universities, his main topics being Modern Art, Italian Renaissance, and ‘Art and its Histories’. He has also been involved in various BBC productions.

Since studying for a Phd at the European University, Florence, Claire Walsh has lectured widely at various universities and art groups, including, The Art Fund, the Ceramics Society, the Costume Society and the Ancient Monuments Society.

David Boyd Haycock read History at the University of Oxford and has lectured widely at galleries and museums including Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery. He was a curator at the National Maritime Museum and has written a number of books, including ‘A Crisis of Brilliance’.

Anthea studied Fine and Decorative Arts both in London and at Harvard University. Her special interests are architecture and design of the 20th Century.

Gloria Broadbent studied architecture in Cusco and Lima, Peru. She has lectured widely to many institutions, including to the R.A. and has provided briefings on Peru to diplomats.

Our lecturer, Tony Faber, is the Managing Director of Faber and Faber, which was founded by his grandfather. He has written two works of narrative history, Stradivarius and Fabergé's Eggs. He has lectured widely on these two subjects at venues, including the V&A, Bath Theatre, the Library of the Congress and the Huntingdon Library.

Mark Corby is a freelance lecturer in history and occasional lecturer at Institute of Archaeology, University College, London. He has led tours to Spain, Sicily, Italy Cyprus, Turkey, Libya and Ireland. He has presented many documentaries on TV.

Shirley Smith graduated from the University of East Anglia where she specialised in Italian and Northern Renaissance Art. She remains as a part-time lecturer there as well as being a Tutor for the Board of Continuing Education at Cambridge.

21 October 18 November Picturing the Nativity: 15C Artists reinterpret the Scriptures Shirley Smith

21 October Sevres Porcelain Jane Gardiner 18 November Picturing the Nativity: 15C Artists reinterpret the Scriptures Shirley Smith