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..

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Caroline began research into her great-uncle 'Max' in 2006.  Since then she has co-curated several exhibitions of his work, contributed articles to publications including Country Life and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and set up a dedicated website. An accredited lecturer for The Arts Society since 2016, she's also given talks for the National Archives, the Art Workers' Guild, Christie's, U3A, and the National Trust. Her illustrated biography MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life was published in June 2020.

Due to the extreme heat forecast for Thursday this lecture will be on Zoom.  A link to join the lecture meeting will be emailed out to you.

A king's favourite who amassed a great art collection.

 Buckingham was a beauty, and he surrounded himself with beautiful things. 

He was a discerning patron. Inigo Jones renovated his houses. John Tradescant was his garden designer.  In his great house on the Strand he put together a collection of art works as fine as King Charles’s.  At the age of 35 Buckingham was murdered. His collection was scattered, but contemporary inventories allow us to reconstruct it. 

I will show you some of the magnificent paintings he owned - the Titians, the Tintorettos, the Veroneses. But Buckingham was also a patron, commissioning boldly innovative new work. Most remarkable are the portraits of himself that he commissioned from painters including Van Honthorst, Van Dyck and Rubens – images by great artists of a man known as ‘the handsomest-bodied man in Europe’. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is an award-winning author whose book on the 17th century Duke of Buckingham, The Scapegoat, was published in October 2024 and has been shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize. Her previous biography, The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio was described in The Sunday Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. It won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her other non-fiction books include Cleopatra and Heroes.  

She also writes fiction. Her novel, Peculiar Ground, is largely set in the 17th century, and narrated by a landscape designer loosely based on the diarist John Evelyn. It was described as 'almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance' (The Guardian) and 'full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating detail’. (New York Times).  In her short story collection, Fabulous, she retells fables from classical mythology, relocating them to modern Britain. 

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she has written on books and the arts for publications including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New Statesman and the TLS. She was Chair of the Judges for the 2021 International Booker Prize. 

2024 - 2028 marks one hundred years since Winnie-the-Pooh was introduced to children of all ages in the four iconic books created by A A Milne and E H Shepard.  This lecture tells the story of how these much-loved books were created by the genius of Milne and Shepard’s groundbreaking collaboration and why they remain embedded in our national identity. A wonderful opportunity to see behind the scenes of these marvels of childhood for a hundred years. 

Photo: This image is courtesy of the Shepard Trust

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

James Campbell has a BA in History and an MA in the History of Art and a particular interest in the work of the artist, illustrator and cartoonist E H Shepard (1879-1976). He has been lecturing for over twenty years, and has lectured across the UK and overseas to Literary Festivals, Art Societies, military museums, and to private clubs and community groups. He has been a Trustee of the E H Shepard Estate since 2010 and was involved in the ground-breaking Victoria and Albert Museum 2017 Exhibition marking the 90th birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh. His books Shepard’s War and The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh were published in 2015 and 2017 respectively. His new joint biography of A A Milne and E H Shepard - The Men Who Created Winne-the-Pooh: The Lives of A A Milne and E H Shepard - commissioned for the centenary of the Winnie-the-Pooh books will be published in September 2024 by Michael O'Mara Books.  

London's history is fascinating and full of colourful characters, from William Shakespeare to Dick Whittington's cat!  In this lecture we will look at 2000 years of London's history brilliantly illustrated through the stained glass windows of the 18th,19th and 20th windows found in the city churches and livery halls and some of our contemporary glass makers. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anna studied for her BA in History of Art & Italian at the University of Sussex and did her MA in Renaissance Decorative Arts & Design at the Royal College of Art.  She worked for 6 years as a curator in the Sculpture Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum as well as in smaller collections such as the Henry Moore Family Trust. 

As well as guiding she is an adjunct lecturer at Richmond The American International University in London where she teaches undergraduates The History of London. 

Anna graduated as a Blue Badge Guide early in 2013.  Since then she has been conducting bespoke private tours for discerning visitors to London. She established her own guiding company Canvas and Stone Tours in 2018 (www.canvasandstonetours.co.uk) Her background and passion is Art & History. 

Elisabeth Vigée LeBrun was an eighteenth-century artist. The search for Elisabeth will take us to France, Italy and England during the exhilarating and dangerous time of the French Revolution.

 Alison will focus on three aspects of Elisabeth’s life – Mother, Heroine and Artist – telling her story through her art and her own words.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Alison Barker taught History and Art History at further and higher education for over eighteen years and currently works at the University of Essex Library. She speaks widely to diverse groups on many historical and art historical topics and has led guided tours at the British Museum and the National Gallery. Alison wrote her PhD thesis on the depiction of Saint George in art and has published work on his image in both England and Italy.  She has presented Papers for the Renaissance Society of America in both Boston and Dublin.  Her book, The Dissemination of Saint George in Early Modern Art has been recently published by Routledge.

Awards, Qualifications & Memberships:

Ph.D in Art History
First Class MA in Art History with Honours
First Class BA Honours in the Humanities with Classical Studies
FHEA - Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
PGCE - Post Graduate Certificate in Education

The Bronze Age Frescoes from Santorini: The Art of Atlantis indulges us in a sumptuously illustrated look at some outstanding ancient Greek artworks, and the intriguing possibilities of interpretation that they have produced.  Now beautifully restored, they give us some extraordinary insights into the style, composition, and techniques of their incredibly gifted artists. as well as remarkable visions of the ships, architecture, dress, jewellery, and natural environment of the islanders of Bronze Age Santorini. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Steve Kershaw (BA (Hons); PhD) has had a special interest in the world of the Ancient Greeks and Romans ever since being introduced to Homer’s Iliad by an inspirational teacher at his primary school
Since graduation Steve has taught Classics in a number of establishments and now operates principally for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. He authored and teaches Oxford’s on-line Greek Mythology, The Fall of Rome, and Minoans and Mycenaeans courses. Steve also lectures regularly at the Victoria and Albert Museum and at New York University London. 

His many media appearances include acting as an expert contributor to the History Channel’s Barbarians Rising series, appearing in a Channel 5 TV documentary fronted by Dan Snow about destroyed ancient cities, and guesting on BBC Radio 4's You're Dead to Me hosted by Greg Jenner.

Loaded with symbolism, the colour blue creates meaning, provokes emotion and ignites memory on a personal, and a cultural level, throughout the world. Enjoy this rich history of colour via two powerful forces: Impressionism and Japanese Print.  

From the sacred shade of Ultramarine to the ancient roots of Indigo, to the startling alchemy of Prussian, blue has been used to venerate icons since the earliest human civilizations.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Alice White is a contemporary oil-painter, and a Tutor at the University of the Arts London and University College London. She has provided Guest Lectures at King's College London, The Art Workers' Guild, the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

Her essay 'A Painter's Perspective' is published in Alfred Cohen: An American Artist in Europe (Alfred Cohen Art Foundation and Ben Uri Gallery 2020). Her article ‘How to Look at Painting’ was printed in The Art Society Magazine (July 2020).  

Alice’s solo show 'A New Wave' documented her year’s residency as Artist for Animals at ZSL London Zoo. Recent projects include 'The Art of Science' (Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge 2021). She regularly exhibits at the Mall Galleries in London.  

Alice White is a contemporary oil-painter, and a Tutor at the University of the Arts London and University College London. She has provided Guest Lectures at King's College London, The Art Workers' Guild, the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

Her essay 'A Painter's Perspective' is published in Alfred Cohen: An American Artist in Europe (Alfred Cohen Art Foundation and Ben Uri Gallery 2020). Her article ‘How to Look at Painting’ was printed in The Art Society Magazine (July 2020).  

Alice’s solo show 'A New Wave' documented her year’s residency as Artist for Animals at ZSL London Zoo. Recent projects include 'The Art of Science' (Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge 2021). She regularly exhibits at the Mall Galleries in London.  

Alice White is a contemporary oil-painter, and a Tutor at the University of the Arts London and University College London. She has provided Guest Lectures at King's College London, The Art Workers' Guild, the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

Her essay 'A Painter's Perspective' is published in Alfred Cohen: An American Artist in Europe (Alfred Cohen Art Foundation and Ben Uri Gallery 2020). Her article ‘How to Look at Painting’ was printed in The Art Society Magazine (July 2020).  

Alice’s solo show 'A New Wave' documented her year’s residency as Artist for Animals at ZSL London Zoo. Recent projects include 'The Art of Science' (Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge 2021). She regularly exhibits at the Mall Galleries in London.  

Alice White is a contemporary oil-painter, and a Tutor at the University of the Arts London and University College London. She has provided Guest Lectures at King's College London, The Art Workers' Guild, the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

Her essay 'A Painter's Perspective' is published in Alfred Cohen: An American Artist in Europe (Alfred Cohen Art Foundation and Ben Uri Gallery 2020). Her article ‘How to Look at Painting’ was printed in The Art Society Magazine (July 2020).  

Alice’s solo show 'A New Wave' documented her year’s residency as Artist for Animals at ZSL London Zoo. Recent projects include 'The Art of Science' (Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge 2021). She regularly exhibits at the Mall Galleries in London.  

Alice White is a contemporary oil-painter, and a Tutor at the University of the Arts London and University College London. She has provided Guest Lectures at King's College London, The Art Workers' Guild, the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

Her essay 'A Painter's Perspective' is published in Alfred Cohen: An American Artist in Europe (Alfred Cohen Art Foundation and Ben Uri Gallery 2020). Her article ‘How to Look at Painting’ was printed in The Art Society Magazine (July 2020).  

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alice’s solo show 'A New Wave' documented her year’s residency as Artist for Animals at ZSL London Zoo. Recent projects include 'The Art of Science' (Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge 2021). She regularly exhibits at the Mall Galleries in London.  

Charles Dickens has often been proclaimed as “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and indeed on hearing that Dickens had died, a cockney barrow-girl said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?”

Dickens revived the Christmas traditions with his warm portrayal of Christmas in the domestic setting; with plum pudding, piping hot turkey, games, dancing and family cheer by the hearth. Although he celebrated Christmas in numerous works it is his enduring master piece, ‘A Christmas Carol’ published on 19th December 1843 which immortalises the spirit of Christmas Cheer. 

Bertie Pearce has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théâtre, Jacques Lecoq. He is also a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star.

Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, he has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. He has also 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 guide, he was a tour manager for 15 years, travelling extensively, all over the world

In 1925, 16 million visitors witnessed PARIS’S EXPO - The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts.  What would we have seen in this landmark exhibition, if we had been one of those visitors?  What drew the Crowds?

And how did this seminal exhibition play a fundamental role in giving rise to a new international and truly GLOBAL style that we have come to know as ART DECO?

Pamela Campbell-Johnston has an MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University.

She also has over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the RA’s Adult Education Department.  She specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art - with a particular love for the 1920s and 1930s and is now a freelance art consultant and lecturer.

Frederic Leighton’s studio-house (now Leighton House Museum) is one of the most remarkable buildings of the nineteenth-century. First built in the 1860s, Leighton continued to extend and embellish his home over the next thirty years, transforming what had been a relatively modest house into a palace of art filled with fascinating collections of fine and decorative art.

The construction of the exotic Arab Hall, lined with Islamic tiles collected as Leighton travelled through the Middle East brought new fame to the house as Leighton’s reputation continued to grow.

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.

Domenicos Theotokopolos, better known as El Greco, is often seen as an artist out of his correct place and time. At first glance his dramatic, expressionistic paintings with their sinuous figures seem more at home in a modern art museum than among other Old Masters. In this lecture we will explore how his distinctive style came to be, and how it was received by his intrigued, and sometimes bemused, contemporaries - from his early years painting Byzantine icons in Crete to his studies in Venice and Rome, and finally his decades among the medieval splendour and humanist thought of Toledo.

Isabelle Kent is an academic and educator specialising in the baroque, with a particular focus on Spain and its empire. She received a BA and MPhil in History of Art from Trinity College, Cambridge, where she is currently completing her PhD on the art of Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán. From 2017 to 2019 she worked as the Enriqueta Harris Frankfort Curatorial Assistant at the Wallace Collection. Alongside her academia, Isabelle is an expert guide for a travel company, leading groups around Spain and beyond, and she also teaches regularly for the V&A, Art Fund, Royal Academy, Chelsea Arts Club, Wallace Collection and University of Cambridge.

Visitors to the National Gallery are often surprised to find at their feet mosaics featuring a host of famous characters, including Winston Churchill, Virginia Woolf, and Greta Garbo, even Lewis Carroll’s Alice and a Christmas pudding.

This exuberant mosaic cycle was created by the Russian artist Boris Anrep between 1926 and 1952. A larger-than-life character, Boris Anrep was an intimate of the Bloomsbury Group and a close friend of Augustus John and Anna Akhmatova.

Dr Lois Oliver is Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute. She has worked as a Curator at the V&A, the National Gallery, and the Royal Academy. Her recent exhibitions include ‘Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism’ at Dulwich Picture Gallery and ‘Jock McFadyen: Tourist without a Guidebook’ for the Royal Academy.

She has created audio and multimedia tours for many of the UK’s leading arts institutions and has appeared on BBC Radio and TV. Also a keen violinist, Lois plays regularly with Kensington Chamber Orchestra and the Endellion Festival Orchestra. Lois studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and writing her PhD thesis on The Image of the Artist, Paris 1815-1855.

Just what is it that artists and designers need to achieve and hold onto fame? Is genius enough?

In the 1950s Finn Juhl was one of the most celebrated architects and designers in the world. Only 30 years later he had fallen into total obscurity, his works selling for a pittance. But today he is recognised as one of the giants of mid-century design - and one of his chairs achieved over £400,000 at auction.

What was behind this extraordinary reversal in fortune, and what does it tell us about the vagaries of artistic success more generally?

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 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. James then gained an MA (Distinction) at UCL in Language, Culture and History (Scandinavian Studies).

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.

A visit to the reopened National Portrait Gallery reveals some fascinating secret histories of monarchs, often hidden within their portraits. These public images can often show their frailty and their inner lives.

This lecture looks at the personal and medical histories of assorted British Monarchs. How they lived and how they died. These stories are sometimes shocking, sometimes poignant but are always fascinating.  How bizarre murders, wretched obstetrics, botched medical procedures and some very poor lifestyle choices did for some of our most famous kings and queens. 

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 as 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 for U3A groups and other societies.

London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’.

Starting on Oxford Street’s ‘golden mile’, we’ll set off on a cultural tour of the capital’s big stores – from snooty Marshall & Snelgrove, to Pontings, ‘House of Value’; from Kennards’ wart-removal service, to the live flamingos atop Derry & Toms; from Bodgers of Ilford, to Bon Marché of Brixton. How did it feel to enter a great store in 1850 – and in 1950? What was it like to serve? From shoppers to shop girls, publicity stunts to wow factor window dressing, a fascinating slice of social history, with wonderful period images.

Tessa Boase is a freelance journalist, author, lecturer and campaigner with an interest in uncovering the stories of invisible women from the 19th and early 20th-centuries – revealing how they drove industry, propped up society and influenced politics. She is the author of three books of social history.

Since uncovering the feminist origins of the RSPB, Tessa has been campaigning for public recognition of its female founders with plaques, portraits and a statue.

In a change to our published programme our February lecture will now be The Mayan Civilisation of Central America, given by Duncan Pring.

The Maya lived in Central America between 1000 BC and 1528 at which time they were conquered by the Spaniards.  The peak of their civilisation was between 300 and 900 AD. During that time they built enormous monuments, produced jade and ceramic items of great beauty and developed a calendar that was far more advanced than anything in Europe at the time.  They had an advanced understanding of mathematics and astromony and developed a hieroglyphic script which scholars are beginning to decipher, allowing us to undersatnd their achievemnets much more fully.

Duncan Pring was educated at Oxford (BA, MA) and London (MA, PhD) universities.  He completesd his PhD thesis on 'The Preclassic Ceramics of Northern Belize'.  He has since published other articles, mainly on Mayan ceramics.

In the early 17th century 2 admired painters teamed up to profit from each other’s strengths: Peter Paul Rubens painted the figures while Jan Brueghel the Elder the landscapes, flora and fauna.

Join Art Historian of Netherlandish art Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff as she discusses this fruitful partnership and looks at some of their most mesmerizing works of art.

Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff read Social Psychology at the University of Amsterdam and was tempted to do a PhD in Decision Making Behaviour. In the end she turned to her true love - the Arts.

She completed her BA and MA in Art History, majoring in The Dutch Baroque Arts from the 17th century at the Courtauld Institute of Arts. She started as a College Lecturer, but soon after started her own company - Art Historical London offering art historical lectures, museum visits, courses, tours, travel and events from Amsterdam, London and New York, and since 2020 online.

A fully accredited PTLLS lecturer, she also teaches on the public program of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and for the New York Adventure Club in the States.

Apart from the pear tree in which sat the partridge, there are no plants in the 12 days of Christmas according to the folk song. Sadly, even that reference is erroneous, because partridges are ground dwelling birds. And yet at Christmas we are surrounded by plants. This talk puts the record straight and rewrites the zoocentric song replacing partridges with poinsettias, and maids with mistletoe.

I read Botany at University College Oxford. After graduation, I worked as a trainee at Oxford Botanic Garden, the Savill Garden Windsor, and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. In 1995 I was awarded a Master of Horticulture by the Royal Horticultural Society of London.

From 1988 to 2014 I was director (Horti Praefectus) at the Oxford Botanic Garden. Between 1992 & 2000 the OBGHA won 4 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show London. In 2009 the Botanic Garden was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for providing imaginative educational programmes for adults, students, children, and the general public, thereby breathing new life into education for people of all ages and enriching their lives.

In 2010 I was elected as a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London. In the same year I presented a 3-part series of films on the history of botany on BBC4.

Since 2014 I have been a tutor in Plant Biology at Somerville College, Oxford.

In sixteenth-century Venice, Tintoretto, helped by his studio assistants, produced work so quickly that he was nicknamed ‘Il Furioso’ (“The Furious”) by his contemporaries. He had received almost no formal training. Without the benefit of an apprenticeship in the studio of a major artist he had to find work the hard way: by under-cutting prices and delivering faster than his competitors (who included Titian and Veronese). The scourge of the Venetian art market, Tintoretto would obtain commissions by either working for no fee or charging only for the cost of materials. What might have driven his ambition, and why might he have given so many of hios pictures away?

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.

In a change to out programme, due to a bereavement, Nicola Moorby will now be presenting our October lecture on Turner's watercolour practice.

J.M.W. Turner was arguably the greatest practitioner in watercolour the world has ever seen and his achievements still represent the benchmark for artists working today. Yet he left frustratingly few written records of his processes and was notoriously reticent about his methods.

One brave soul apparently once asked him the key to being a successful artist and it is recorded that he rather grumpily replied ‘The only secret I have is damned hard work’!

This lecture examines Turner’s watercolour practice in detail, unlocking the mysteries behind his exceptional effects.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian and curator, specialising in British art of the nineteenth century. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly at Tate Britain, she has curated a number of exhibitions including, most recently,Constable: The Dark Side at The Arc, Winchester in 2023. She has published widely, including as co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010) and as a major contributor to the online catalogues of the Turner Bequest and the Camden Town Group. She is an experienced lecturer and regularly teaches short courses at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has appeared as an expert on television and radio including ‘Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr’ (2020 and 2021) and ‘Art on the BBC’ (2022). Her forthcoming book about Turner and Constable for Yale University Press will be released in 2025.

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 is Managing Director of an art tours company, running residential courses in Andalucía, Southern Spain in the art and culture of the region www.artandculturetravel.com. She is a course director and lecturer at the V&A and also lectures at The Royal Academy, The Art Fund, The London Art History Society and has toured New Zealand and Australia for The Arts Society. Her specialist field is Spanish Art, but she also lectures on European Art 1790-1950. Her most recent publication is A Taste of Art, London Unicorn Press 2019).

Founded in 1824, the National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square houses one of the world's finest collections of European paintings. In contrast to its peers, however, this institution did not begin its life as a royal collection: the Gallery was founded by parliament and remains reliant on public funding.

This lecture uses highlights from the NG's collection to show how our vision of the "ideal" art collection has evolved over time, along with ideas of the kinds of people the Gallery was supposed to serve.

Dr Jonathan Conlin is a cultural historian of modern Britain and Professor of Modern History at the University of Southampton.

Born in New York, he studied History and Modern Languages at Oxford, subsequently moving to the Courtauld Institute and Cambridge for his MA and PhD. In 2023 he was commissioned by the National Gallery to write its bicentenary history.

Too often the sculpture of Central Europe is ignored and yet some of the most important pieces of Renaissance sculpture was 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, and 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.

Her regular commitments include Centre for Lifelong Learning, London University, National Gallery, V&A Museum, WEA, Morley College, the City Literary Institute, the Art Fund and National Trust. 

In the early 1900s the group of artists subsequently known as The Scottish Colourists -John Duncan Fergusson, Francis Cadell, Samuel Peploe and George Leslie Hunter – turned their attention to Paris. Influenced by the French Fauves and Post Impressionists, they combined strong, vibrant colours with the painterly traditions of Scottish art, to produce innovative still life paintings, landscapes and portraits.

This lecture will look at those bright, colourful works, but also at each individual’s development, as they worked towards the artistic language that would come to define them.

BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. Experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. Lectures at Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises. Leads art appreciation holidays. 

Post war, the world of fashion, interiors and modern art fused with dynamic results.

Alistair Morton’s Edinburgh Weavers brought powerful modern artists' designs into the home. Czech emigres Zika and Lida Ascher through fashion brought modern art onto the street. From Matisse and the flamboyant Parisian modernists to the cutting edge of the St Ives school, this lecture considers the role fashion and textiles played in democratising modern art through the eyes two innovative textile visionaries. 

Ashley Gray is a leading specialist and curator in the key art discipline of Modern Textiles and their history. He is a regular vetter at international fine art fairs and served on the Fair Committees of BADA, The Works on Paper Fair and on the BADA Council. He regularly lectures in the UK and the US and sits on the advisory board of The Frances Neady Collection at FIT, New York.

As a curator and archivist, he works on conservation and exhibition projects. He recently curated the acclaimed exhibition Styled by Design that celebrates the innovation of Modernist textile design alongside a comprehensive lecture programme. 

Delacroix wrote to his brother: “if I have not fought for the country, at least I will paint for her.”

This lecture explores one painting, Liberty Leading the People, placing it at the heart of French Romanticism and looks at its powerful role in the aftermath of the July Revolution and its mixed critical reception. It also covers the historical background and the influences that led to the creation of Liberty and her compatriots on the barricades and asks why this icon of French revolutionary fervour continues to exert its fascination today.

Daphne Lawson has an MA by Research and Thesis from the University of Kent on Degas’s Public and Private Spectacle and a BA in Art History from London University. Until retiring she was the full time Art History Lecturer for The Bader College, Herstmonceux Castle.

Her first career was as an actress. She was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and worked in theatre, film and television as an actress. 

In the year 2000, having been a Curator in the Greek And Roman Department of the British Museum for 13 years, Louise decided to escape. Given a trowel with a diamond and silver casing in the handle as a leaving present, she set off on a series of extraordinary archaeological adventures. In this richly illustrated talk she will take you with her to a mysterious and atmospheric ancient city on the coast of southern Albania, to the banks of the two great rivers of Mesopotamia - the Euphrates and the Tigris - and then to the wild and wonderful mountains of northern Ethiopia. 

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. 

Paul Nash is best known as a painter of war. The lecture will consider the art of war but will also look at the other ‘wars’ that played a major part of his life and art: including the never-ending war between mankind and nature, and his own personal wars with ill-health, love and loss.

While staying connected to real events and emotions, Nash also incorporated abstraction, surrealism, mysticism and spirituality into his art making. These influences came together in many paintings including his landscapes based on the Wittenham Clumps (Oxfordshire), Dymchurch (Kent), Iden (East Sussex), Avebury Henge and Silbury Hill (Wiltshire), all of which will be included in the lecture. 

Ray 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,

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. Ray is a member of his local Arts Society in Blackheath. 

Appreciate the astonishing range of signature buildings of faith communities settling in London. New arrivals leave their imprint on a city – nowhere more so than in London where Jews, Muslims, Roman Catholics, Hindus, Methodists, Sikhs, Buddhists and Orthodox Greeks have each added their own layer.  Here are eight faith communities which can each point to a special place they built, not on first arrival, but when numbers and self- confidence had grown in the knowledge they had established themselves for the long term. Crucially, it was when they had the wealth and resources to commission great architecture. Their differences stretch across cultures and 300 hundred years of persecutions and economic crises. But their similarities are also striking.

As a London walking tour guide and lecturer, I highlight the social, architectural and artistic history of my home city. It is a city I am 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, my 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 I have absorbed a deep understanding and appreciation of the capital.

How and why did young British artists (yBas) leave a major mark on the international art scene and in such a sensational way during the 1990s and beyond?  Looking at the development of contemporary art in London during this critical decade we chart the 10 years between the famous Freeze exhibition of 1988, curated by Damien Hirst while he was still a student, and which started the ball rolling, and the major staging of Charles Saatchi's collection at the Royal Academy in 1997.  In looking at the work of Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Ron Mueck and Mark Wallinger, among others, we hope to throw light on the symbiotic relationship between artist, collector and the art market.

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

The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester raised an army of new and fascinating questions. The severe scoliosis exhibited by the skeleton revealed that the twisted physique of Shakespeare’s ‘Black Legend’ was based in fact. But how could a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have become a skilled practitioner of the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn armour and fought in three major battles? What would his armour have looked like? How might it have disguised the King’s condition, presenting him as a powerful warrior? In the case of a king whose royal legitimacy was questioned by many people, how were the visual trappings of knightly kingship used to solidify his claim? Here we encounter armour as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- a wielder of divine power on Earth

Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. He is the author of numerous books on the subject of arms and armour, including Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 (2015; Military History Monthly Illustrated Book of the Year 2017); and most recently Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust (2018). Toby also appears regularly on television, most recently on A Stitch in Time (2018; BBC4); as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III. In 2015 Toby had the unusual honour of serving as one of the two fully armoured horsemen escorting the remains of King Richard III, from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral.

Leni Riefenstahl was undoubtedly one of the most creative women of the twentieth century. From her early days dancing on Berlin’s stages, to becoming an actress and then producing her own films that attracted Hitler - she was always difficult and uncompromising in what she wanted to achieve. Her iconic films of the 1934 Nuremburg Nazi rally and the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were exceptional using techniques that were way ahead of their time and still used in documentaries today!

After the war she was ostracised and faced three Nazi tribunals - being cleared by all of them. She then went to live with a remote african tribe filming stunning documentaries. At 87 she learnt to scuba dive and filmed coral reefs. Over her hundred years, her legacy is fascinating, exciting, unbelievable and brought to life in this lecture, with many films clips, photographs and ephemera.

Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century is the theme of a series of lectures by retired graphic designer Howard Smith. All are possibly in living memory or near living memory. Each lecture is an in-depth fully researched exploration of extraordinary creativity sometimes in unbelievable circumstances. Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International advertising agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury. His lectures mainly cover an extraordinary fifty- year period which saw immense change, ingenuity and creativity.

 A personal account by the landscape painter and art historian, Lydia Bauman, of her journey through New Mexico in search of the iconic motifs painted by American painter Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986). Hear about her own adventures and misadventures, insights gained into the legendary painter's life and work and see how New Mexico's magnificent landscape inspired new directions in her own mixed media paintings which led to a major exhibition at the Mall Galleries in 2019. 

Lydia Bauman

Born in Poland and studied for her BA in Fine Art at University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (John Christie Scholarship and the Hatton Award), and an MA in History of Art from Courtauld Institute of Art, London, (19th-20th century art - Distinction for thesis on Matisse's Illustrations to Poetry).

She has since divided her time between painting and exhibiting as well as lecturing widely to adult audiences. She has taught at London's National Gallery for more than 35 years, and intermittently at Tate Gallery and National Portrait Gallery as well as collections such as Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Hermitage and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the latter as a guest speaker for travel companies. Since the pandemic began in March 2020 Lydia had devised and delivered a programme of upwards of 180 online lectures to her own group Art For The Uninitiated. 

I wandered lonely as a cloud/That floatson high o’er vales and hills…
Wordsworth’s Daffodils is one of the most famous poems in the English language. Frequently anthologised and oft quoted, it’s the poetic equivalent of Constable’s Hay Wain; it is instantly recognisable, even by people who don’t like poetry. Its life beyond the page includes being used to advertise a famous beer and being performed as a rap by a giant squirrel. This lecture takes us back in time to tell the true – and often surprising - story of Wordsworth’s best-known poem. We begin by exploring its creation; how the poem challenged its first readers and explore the story of its increasing fame, including the role the poem has played in Lakeland literary tourism. Finally, we consider the poem’s relevance to our lives today, at a time when we are increasingly turning to nature for consolation and delight.

Following a career in teaching, Annalie spent several years working on education programmes at museums and literary houses across the UK, including the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere; Wordsworth House in Cockermouth; Jane Austen’s House in Hampshire; and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. At Jane Austen’s House, Annalie won 2 Sandford Awards for Excellence in Heritage Education; she also worked with the British Library, the Bodleian Library, and Chawton House Library in promoting Austen’s work to young people. Annalie’s lectures focus on aspects of Romantic and Victorian literature. She uses her knowledge and personal experience of literary houses - and their collections - to offer a unique perspective on writers and their works.

The Reformation of the 1530s, in which the religion of England changed from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism under King Henry VIII, transformed painting in England. We will examine how and why painting from the 1500s to the late 1600s transformed from a realistic, Renaissance style as seen in the work of Hans Holbein, to an odd, stiff and at times ‘primitive’ style in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Then in the 1600s King Charles I, a great patron of the arts, came to the throne and painting transformed again when he invited to England the superstar portrait painter Anthony Van Dyck, who can be seen as a catalyst for the coming of the Golden Age of British 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.

Not only was Peggy Guggenheim ahead of her time, but she was the woman who helped define it.  She discovered and nurtured a new generation of artists producing a new kind of art.  Through collecting not only art, but the artists themselves, her life was as radical as her collection.

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

Art History tutor, Steve Carroll, presents Rococo – a style of painting that dominated Europe during the earlier part of the 18th century – comparing it with Pop Art in the 1960s.

After the sobriety of the art of the Counter-Reformation during the 17th century, Rococo seems full of light and relaxation. Artists turned to the entertainment of their current age, rather than the subjects of the past. For this reason, there is a parallel in the world of Pop Art that emphasized low-culture and consumerism.

We shall be considering the work of Boucher, Watteau, Hogarth, Reynolds and Gainsborough alongside Warhol, Peter Blake and Rosenquist.

Steve Carroll appreciated art from an early age – his mother was a painter and his father a photographer. He fell in love with art history aged 15, seeing art as a unique window on humankind’s past.

In his late 40s he studied teaching and has been teaching both practical art and art history in colleges since 2007. He is a popular speaker at art societies in Alresford, Barnham, Chichester, Midhurst and Worthing, combining a passion for his subject with humour and creativity.

He is also an industrious painter and printmaker, being awarded Overall Winner of the Worthing Open 2021.

Darling’s daring rescue of steamship passengers off the Northumberland coast in 1838 brought her international fame and celebrity, and she became the ‘poster girl’ of the RNLI. 

Discover more about her bravery and short life (died aged 26) and other dramatic rescues and life-saving inventions by Captain Manby and John Dennett pictured by diverse artists.

For the first time this talk reveals the full extent of the artistic contribution in keeping Darling in the public eye. It is part of the national events marking the RNLI’s bicentenary across the years 2023-2024. 

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.

He is a published author and lecturer and ships' historian on board cruise ships. 

James 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.

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 men's 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 trained and worked as an actor, writer, puppeteer and theatre maker for 15 years.  In 2015 he qualified as 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 of London such as The National Gallery, Tates Modern and 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.

Please note that this lecture will be via Zoom.  The link will be sent out on the morning of the lecture.

This lecture introduces some of Japan's famous gardens and provides a context for understanding the principles of Japanese garden design.  The Japanese love of nature and the changing seasons has manifested itself in the subject matter of paintings and in the intimate and grand-scale gardens surrounding aristocratic palaces and Buddhist temples as well as Zen-inspired dry landscape gardens.  This lecture will also draw upon wider examples to illustrate the distinctive qualities that the Japanese have brought to garden design, an approach that has been successfully adapted to modern domestic settings and to Japanese gardens abroad.

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 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 was awarded and 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.

The art of the late Middle Ages can give us a vivid picture of life at the time, which is depicted with detail and striking realism as we move into the Renaissance era.  Many paintings of the period also recreate the atmosphere of the popular festivals, religious processions and mystery plays that were regular events in the lives of the ordinary people.

Illustrated with rare medieval manuscripts as well as the work of renowned artists such as Bruegel, Dürer and Botticelli, this lecture offers a fascinating glimpse into a typical year as it unfolded in late medieval Europe - and explores the world view that underpinned the seasonal calendar.

Richard Whincop is a professional artist who graduated in English and Art History from York University in 1986.  From 1988-1994 he lectured in the adult education department 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.

"One of the most talented fellows I have ever come across" wrote a fellow student of John Singer Sargent, who became a much sought-after portrait painter of the great, the good and famous both in Europe and the States.  Although his work fell out of favour after his death, in recent decades it has excited renewed admiration with major exhibitions in 2015 and 2017.

The painter of sensitive landscape watercolours as well as portraits this lecture will survey his versatile range of subjects and styles and attempt our own assessment of his work.

Katy Brown read History at Bedford College, University of London, and gained a PhD in 16th century Florentine History.  She has taught at the Universities of London, Edinburgh, Sussex, Surrey and the Open University.  She has lectured on a wide range of art historical subjects for local groups including the National Trust, the Arts Society and the WEA.  She has led study tours to Italy for the University of Surrey and the Arts Society.

The mansions built during America's "Gilded Age" came in all shapes and sizes, but a significant number of them were inspired by - some may say copied from - a varied selection of classic English houses.  They were resurrected and lived in by an eclectic mix of millionaires, all with their own aims and ambitions staked within: the man dubbed 'The American Prince of Wales';  the woman who swapped a necklace for what is now a flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue;  and, both the victim and accused of one of the most highly publicized crimes of the 1980s.  Their counterparts in England were no less colourful, and include the real-life Squire Allworthy.  Through the splendour of the architecture on both sides of the Atlantic, we'll delve into the characters, quirks and frequently amusing stories behind these truly international treasures.

Mark is a writer, the founder of HouseHistree.com, and lectures regularly at societies, festivals and clubs in both Europe and the United States.  After leaving Stowe School, Mark worked for twenty years as a plumber in London.  However, his real passion has always been for history, particularly the history behind houses through the characters that conjoin to create them.  His special interest lies with the great American houses and their relationships with those in Europe. both socially and architecturally.

Horace Walpole said, in 1783, that 'No man ever went to the East Indies with good intentions' and George Chinnery was certainly that man.  Running away from debt and his wife, who he charmingly described as 'the ugliest woman I have ever seen', he settled in India for 23 years before running away from debt again to China.  This talk covers his portraits of many of the leading figures of the East India Company, most notably Colonel James Kirkpatrick, his 14 year old Indo-Persian wife and their children, key figures in William Dalrymple's White Mughals, as well as his beautiful scenes of everyday life and landscapes.

Clive studied on the Southeby's Works of Art course and has now been working in the fine art world for 47 years.  Until recently he was Director of Woolley and Wallis, 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.  He also lectured on cruise ships as well as for many other groups, and recently published a major article in the Journal of the Decorative Arts Society on Betty Joel.  He is now an independent art advisor.

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

Tessa is the author of two books of social history:  The Housekeeper's Tale - The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House and Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather - Fashion, Fury and Feminism, Women's Fight for Change.  Her interest lies in uncovering stories of invisible women of the Victorian and edwardian eras, revealing how they drove industry, propped up high society and manipulated politics.  Tessa has an MA in English Literature from Oxford University, a diploma in Art History from the British Institute of Florence, and has enjoyed a long career in journalism for national newspapers and magazines.

N.B.  This lecture will now be on Zoom only at 2pm on Thursday 23rd June and not live in the church, due to the rail strike.

You may not have heard of her but from the early 1960s a young student called Margaret Calvert began working with designer Jock Kinneir and their work utterly transformed the entire face of modern Britain.  They designed the road sign system from the typeface to the colours and shapes.  They created the look of British Rail.  Their signage was used by every hospital and NHS building.  They created the yellow and black wayfinding system of British airports.  And all of their ideas were copied around the world.  Celebrate Calvert & Kinneir in this revealing lecture and you'll never look at the UK the same again.

Mark Ovenden is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit.  His first book, Metro Maps of the World published in 2003, is a guide to the diagrams, plans amd maps of underground rapid transit systems, including images ranging from photos of the systems to rare and historic maps.  Various other books have followed and in July 2017 Mark fronted a television documentary for BBC Four on the subject of Johnston and Gill and in November 2018 he presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4 on skyscrapers.  Other works on graphic design and transport systems are in preparation.

The cathedral church of Hagia Sophia (an UNESCO World Heritage Site) was built in the sixth century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian 1 at the heart of the empire's capital Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).  The emperor spared no expense for its interior decoration from its enormous dome (56 metres from floor level), to the use of expensive and rare materials - multi-coloured marbles, monumental bronze doors and sparkling mosaics.  A main focus of the lecture will be an examination of the church's world famous mosaics which offer an insight into the secret world of powerful emperors and empresses.

Helen is an art historian with a BA, MA and a doctorate (DPhil) from the University of Sussex who has published on Late Antique and Byzantine ivory carvings and 19th century plaster cast collecting.  Since 2007  she has worked as an associate tutor delivering regular lectures.  An experienced speaker who has delivered lectures at many universities and art institutions, such as the Wallace Collection and the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Commissioned by the Bishop of Bayeux who fought at Hastings, executed by skilled English craftsmen, the Bayeux Tapestry is the last survivor of a vanished art form.  Rupert Willoughby presents a lively introduction to the tapestry - so much more than the story of Hastings - in which he unravels some of its mysteries, places it in the context of its age and firmly establishes it as a landmark in the history of Western art.  With its lively illustrations of languid, party-loving, moustachioed Englishmen, of the cavalcades of noble huntsmen and of the snorting Norman cavalry poised to charge into battle, the Tapestry is the next best thing to a moving picture from the time.

Rupert is a prize-winning historian who specialises in the domestic and social life of the past.  He is a graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London, he is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, of guides to castles owned by English Heritage and Hampshire County Council, and a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen's Village and Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture.  He contributes regular obituaries to  The Times and The Daily Telegraph,  writes privately-commissioned histories of houses, and is an experienced lecturer - and occasional broadcaster - on a broad range of topics, with a particular interest in architecture, interior decoration and costume.

Inspired by the bicentenary of the birth of John Ruskin in 2019, this lecture celebrates the extraordinary life and work of this visionary Victorian.  As a writer, teacher, artist, collector, patron and critic, Ruskin was perhaps the most complete polymath of the 19th century.  Perhaps most famous today as a champion of Turner and admirer of Venice, Ruskin's impact ranged far and wide.

Alongside the international reach, Ruskin became deeply concerned by what he saw as the negative impacts of the industrialisation of 19th century England, and, as a teacher, thinker and philanthropist he initiated projects that aspired to give the working man access to beauty, art, craft and the land.  In 1871, he founded what became the Guild of St George, the charity for arts, crafts and the rural economy, and gave it a sizeable collection of art, books and minerals for public display and education in Sheffield.

This lecture explores what links Ruskin's love of Venice and his gift to Sheffield to paint a portrait of this singular visionary.

N.B. This lecture will be on Zoom only.

Simon studied art and architectural history at Warwick University, including a semester in Venice.  Also Graduate of the Attingham Summer school.  From 1991 until 2010 he worked at Chatsworth, the Devonshire Collection and associated topics, throughout the UK and on several US tours (including the Metropolitan Musuem and the National Gallery of Art).  He gave numerous public presentations and interviews with the late Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.  Publications include written or edited guidebooks and articles for and about Chatsworth.

Unfortunately Lars Tharp is unable to deliver his planned lecture for this session.

Instead, it is with great pleasure that we welcome back Katy Brown to the society.

Katy will deliver a lecture on Vincent Van Gogh: the man and the artist.  This lecture will complement the current exhibition being held at the Courtauld Institute in London entitled Van Gogh:Self Portraits which runs until May 8th.

Katy read history at Bedford College, University of London, and gained a PhD in 16th century Florentine History.  She has taught at the Universities of London, Edinburgh, Sussex, Surrey and the Open University.  She has lectured on a wide range of art historical subjects for local groups including the National Trust, the Arts Society and the WEA.  She has led study tours to Italy for the University of Surrey and the Arts Society.

The Wallace Collection, a national museum containing an outstanding array of paintings, furniture, porcelain, arms and armour, and other works of art, was brought together by five generations of one family between about 1780 and 1880.  All the Founders were remarkable - and sometimes rather strange - men in their own right, but the greatest collectors were the 4th Marquess of Hertford and his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace, who lived most of their lives in Paris.  It is their French upbringing which largely explains the strong, but by no means overwhelming, French emphasis to much of the Collection.  This lecture tells the fascinating story of the Wallace Collection's formation, and also presents many of its finest treasures.

Stephen Duffy was educated at New College, Oxford, and was formerly Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection where he had particular responsibility for exhibitions and nineteenth-century paintings.  He has given countless tours of the Collection for visiting groups and many lectures on its art and other related subjects.  His latest publication, The Discovery of Paris, is a book on early nineteenth-century watercolour views of Paris by major British artists.

There have been pictorial representations of the Magi from as early as at least the 6th century.  However, these depictions have been anything but consistent.  Leslie Primo seeks to unravel the myth and the iconography behind the story of the adoration of the magi from its Eastern and pagan roots to its current Christian interpretation.

Often considered a daunting read, the Divine Comedy can more approachably be studied through its illustrations.  Patricia Erskine-Hill will consider a selection of the many artists who have attempted to portray the Otherworldly.  Botticelli, Gustav Doré and William Blake attempted all three realms, but many others have dipped in and out of the story, each imprinting his own century and beliefs on the finished art.

Please note that this lecture will be delivered live in the Reigate Baptist Church Centre at 2pm and not available on Zoom.

The High Renaissance saw the seamless integration of art and architecture, the pinnacle of a tradition extending back thousands of years.  So how was it that by the mid-20th century, mainstream Modernist architects saw painting and sculpture as anathema to their designs?  Richard Whincop tells the fascinating story of how painting and architecture went their separate ways, exploring the complex reasons behind their dramatic divorce.

Karen Fernald tells the story of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.  The teenage Fanny Mendelssohn composed and played prolifically.  Persuaded by her banker father to take a back seat, she married Wilhelm Hensel, an impoverished artist,  She continued to play and compose music, publishing works under her brother's name, and after their father's death, under her own.  The lecture is accompanied by music and paintings.

We've selected another stunning Seventh Art Production film for members to view at the end of August.  This film explores the colourful life and works of Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. It will be available for members to watch at home for the last 2 weeks of August.  Click on the link below to view the film.

N.B. this film is available to view from 15th to 29th August

https://vimeo.com/583296343/7fdaad8fb

Hidden canvases is a beginner's guide to the biggest art movement since pop art.  From train writing in New York to interactive technology that brings murals to life, the concept of uncommissioned public art is a very different beast to that which once it was.  Doug Gillen's Hidden Canvases explores the key stages in street art's growth, examining the different elements and styles that comprise the scene with no rules.

Sarah Lenton's lecture charts opera's close connection with the society that is paying for it.  The talk moves from the 17th and 18th century preoccupations with princely patronage, classical plots, courtly manners, high voices, enormous costumes and happy endings.  It travels through the gear change of the war and revolution, to the 19th century concerns of nationalism, epic themes and doomed heroines.

Carl Giles once said that he loved his creation Grandma Giles: fearsome, black-clad, gambling and drinking battle-axe that she was.  She allowed him to say things through his cartoons that he was too polite to say in person and to poke fun at authority in all its forms.  Barry Venning's lecture will tell the story of the humane satirist and war correspondent that was Carl Giles.

Nebamun, an Ancient Egyptian accountant working at Karnak Temple in Luxor in 1350 BC, was granted the royal privilege of a rock-cut tomb with the most beautifully painted decoration.  Lucia Gahlin will explore some of the most exquisite art to survive from Ancient Egypt.  This lecture will explore the techniques of the artist, and the complexities of what appears at first glance to be a rather simple canon of art.

Caravaggio's paintings inspired many artists during his lifetime and would go on to influence many more, from Orazio Gentileschi to Peter Paul Rubens, Gerard van Honthorst and Rembrandt.

Each absorbed a different aspect of his work.  His style spread across Europe and gave rise to the international movemnet known as 'Caravaggism'.  Yet for many, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is famed as much for his art as for his criminal record.  Was it the violence of his times or his own violent spirit that inspired the dramatic lighting and intense naturalism of his work?  This lecture follows the dramatic incidents of the artist's life and looks at why and how his influence spread so far.

Julia Musgrave gained 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 is currently working towards her Ph.D. at the University of York based on the involvement of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group in the development of the Comtemporary Art Society from 1910-1937.  She is a lecturer in Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit).

For centuries Russian art followed closely in the wake of European artistic currents and there was little innovation.  From the mid-19th century all this changed when Russian art came into its own.  Jane Angelini will lecture upon this very exciting and nostalgic period, a wistful vision of past glory and the increasing interest in the role of music, dance and art combined, leading up to the Ballets Russes, which took Europe by storm.

Best known for his outlandish appearance dressed as his feminine alter ego, Claire, Grayson Perry is now a core part of the art establishment.  Often controversial, he tackles difficult subjects in a unique way, holding up a mirror to society.  Ian Swankie's talk will examine Grayson Perry's thought-provoking exhibitions and the unique character inside the flamboyant frocks.

Peter Medhurst celebrates Christmas by performing and discussing a range of Christmas music from the Middle Ages down to the 20th Century.

Peter 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 at Salzburg.

Like its name, the Roaring Twenties was a loud and boisterous decade, marked by novelty, modernity and huge social, technological and economic change. Jo Banham's lecture aims to conjure up the energy and originality of the decade and to explore the lives of its leading figures and examples of its most innovative art and design.

Jo Banham is a freelance curator, lecturer and writer. From 2006-2106 she was Head of Adult Learning at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and before that Head of Learning and Access at the National Portrait Gallery, and Head of Public Programmes at Tate Britain. She has also been Curator of Leighton House and Assistant Keeper at the Whitworth Art Gallery. She has published on many aspects of Victorian and early 20th century decoration and interiors. She is currently curating an exhibition on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement for the Juan March Fundacion and the Museu Nacional d'Art Catalunya in Barcelona. She is also Director of the Victorian Society Summer School.

2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael, who is often referred to as one of the three giants of the High Renaissance in Italy, alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Sian Walters explores how Raphael achieved this extraordinary rise in status, tracing the development of early works and influences to the masterpieces created in Rome.

Sian Walters studied at Cambridge University and is a lecturer at the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection and taught at Surrey University, specialising in 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish art and architecture, and the relationship between dance and art. She also teaches private courses, organises lectures, study days and art holidays abroad. She has lived in France and Italy, where she worked at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

Formed in 1873, the new capital was the focus of resurgent Hungarian nationalism, finding expression through architecture, art and music and economic and social change. Placing these endeavours in a historical context, Gavin Plumley explores how the Hungarians came to understand national identity through cultural means.

We are pleased to present this lecture in an exciting new film format, narrated by our lecturer Gavin Plumley. This film is available for one week from 24/9/20.  Just click on the link below and use the password Reigate (with a capital R) when prompted.

 https://vimeo.com/460137013 

Chopin's grave in Paris remains a place of pilgrimage and his music continues to  sell out concert halls worldwide - but who exactly was this astonishing man?  He  was terrified of public performances; he fled his Polish homeland for Paris never to return; took up with the most notorious transvestite in France and, despite a life of ill-health, wrote some of the deepest and most powerful music ever written.  How exactly did a young Polish boy rise to such heady heights?

In this film, Phil Grabsky brings us the music and life story of Fryderyk Chopin, considered one of the greatest composers of all time.

Please click on the link below to view the film from 18th August 2020 for 2 weeks

https://vimeo.com/446438814/6835fe0d10

You don't have to go into many churches right across Europe, or look at many manuscripts made at any time during the Middle Ages to notice fabulous monsters, mythical beasts and grotesques, rampaging through the carvings and pages.  Some are funny, some downright disrespectful, but all show a strange mixing of devotion with deformity, piety with profanity, reverence with roguishness.  Were our ancestors bonkers, or did these images have a purpose?  What inspired them?  Did they come from travellers' tales or were they made to make moral points?

This lecture explores these questions and more.  If nothing else, the medieval monsters are fun.  Some are terrifying, but many others are utterly adorable.

The Wallace Collection, a national museum containing an outstanding array of paintings, furniture, porcelain, arms and armour, and other works of art, was brought together by five generations of one family between about 1780 and 1880. Stephen Duffy tells the fascinating story of the Wallace Collection's formation and presents many of its famous treasures.

Stephen Duffy was educated at New College, Oxford, and was formerly Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection where he had particular responsibilty for exhibitions and nineteenth-century paintings. He has given countless tours of the Collection for visiting groups and many lectures on its art and other related subjects. His latest publication, The Discovery of Paris, is a book on early nineteenth-century watercolour views of Paris by major British artists.

Hogarth brings pots, crocks and all manner of chinaware onto his stage as bit-part players in his social dramas. Lars Tharp, veteran of The Antiques Roadshow, will delve into the stories, reveal and even identify particular ceramics and show how Hogarth's images themselves became sources for the ceramic workshops of Eurooe and China.

Lars is a Ceramacist as well as a Hogarth specialist. Most of his current talks focus of the European and the East-West China trade and the material world of the 17th and 18th centuries. He is a regular lecturer and broadcaster and leads occasional tours to China. Born in Copenhagen, he read Archealogy at Cambridge, was at Sotheby's for sixteen years, and is today London's Foundling Museum's 'Hogarth Ambassador'. He holds an Honorary Doctorate in Art, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and sits on the court of The Company of Weavers, London's oldest guild.

He has serves twice on the Art Fund's Annual Prize to Museums and Galleries. He has presented numerous programmes on TV and radio, he writes on many subjects, is passionate about music and shares Archie (a black Labrador) with his wife and their two grown-up daughters.

With our April and May lectures cancelled, we have teamed up with Seventh Art Productions to offer the film 'Painting the Modern Garden - from Monet to Matisse' free to our members.  This is available from 20th April to 4th May.  To view the film, simply click on this link:  https://vimeo.com/407594349/a2cef88cf6  

In partnership with Seventh Art Productions, and specially for our members, we are showing the film 'Painting the Modern Garden - from Monet to Matisse' for 2 weeks from Monday 20th April.  To watch the film, just click here:- https://vimeo.com/407594349/a2cef88cf6  

Built in the sixth century by Byzantine emperor Justinian l in the heart of the empire's capital, Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), no expense was spared for its interior decoration. Helen Rufus-Ward will examine the church's worled famous mosaics, which offer an insight into the secret world of powerful emperors and empresses.

Helen Rufus-Ward is an Art Historian with a BA, MA and a doctorate (DPhil) from the University of Sussex who has publised on Late Antique and Byzantine ivory carvings and 19th century plaster cast collecting. Since 2007 she has worked at Sussex as an associate tutor delivering regular lectures. An experienced speaker who has delivered lectures at many universities and art institutions, such as the Wallace Collection and the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Since its foundation in 1925, Faber and Faber has built a reputation as one of London's most important literary publishing houses, employing some of our most celebrated artists as cover illustrators. Peppered with personal insight and anecdote, Toby Faber's lecture traces the history of Faber and Faber through its illustrations, covers and designs.

Tony Faber has written two works of narrative history, Stradivarius and Fabergé's Eggs, published by Macmillan in the UK and Random House in the US, and given lectures associated with these two subjects at venues including The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Library of Congress and the Huntington Library, as well as a number of literary festivals. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. He is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music and a director of Liverpool University Press and the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Modestly successful during his lifetime, and almost entirely forgotten for two centuries, Vermeer is one of the best loved artists of all time. Lucrezia Walker will examine the quiet interiors of this artist of the Golden Age of Dutch art, and consider what makes great artists and how posterity treats them.

Lucrezia Walker is a regular lecturer at the National Gallery both in front of the paintings and in the lecture theatre. For the Tate Gallery's Development department she speaks to their corporate sponsors in their offices and at their private receptions in both Tates. She also teaches US undergraduates on their Study Abroad semesters in London. She was Lay Canon for the Visual Arts at St Paul's Cathedral from 2010-2014.

The origins of our English Christmas stretch far back into European history, combining the pagan traditions of the Roman and the Scandinavian winter festivals. Only in the 4th century AD did the Christian Church start to celebrate the birth of Christ. Since then these different cultures have co-existed, changing as the social and political landscape changed. Music, art and folk customs associated with the season have all evolved, producing a rich tapestry of imagery and events that appealed to every strata in our society. Roger Askew's lecture explores in words, images and music the various strands, pagan and religious, that have created the one festival in our country that touches everyone.

Roger was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scolar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in English. He combined a teaching career with professional singing in London, and after obtaining a further degree in Music became Director of Music at Daniel Stewart's Melville College in Edinburgh.

After retiring in 2003 he returned to the south of England . He is President Emeritus of The Stoke Poges Society and Chairman of The Arts Society Windsor. 

The late antique emperor Diocletian saved the empire from collapse by instituting a new system of government. However, his most enduring legacy was probably his wide-ranging building schemes which incuded renovation work at Palmyra, Luxor and the existing Senate House in the Roman Forum. Dr Bella Image's lecture looks at his monumental palace at Split (modern day Croatia) including the domed mausoleum and the southern facing facade along the sea front. We will also consider the impact on the young artchitect, Robert Adam, leading to him publishing illustrations of the building and subsequently to its influence on neo-classicism and 18th century architecture.

Bella studied classics at Cambridge and many years later took her doctorate on Late Antiquity at Oxford. She writes and teaches free-lance, including tutoring with Oxford and lecturing on Late Antiquity / Early Christianity for the St. Alban's Study Centre. She has also written or taught on Late Antique history and philosophy including Constantine, Ambrose, Augustine and the Sack of Rome.

Since it was founded in 1961, Caithness Glass has become renowned across the world. For fifty years, the company fulfilled the founders' original aims of providing employment in rural Scotland and producing high quality, modern glassware for the home. Although much is known about their paperweights, until now little has been known about the designer and influences behind the decorative and tableware designs that built and maintained the company's reputation.

Mark Hill, a Miscellaneous expert on the Antiques Roadshow since 2007, studied History of Art and 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. He became a director of an internet company forming and running a ground-breaking deal with eBay Live Auctions and was a co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-2007. Having founded his own publishing company in 2005, he has since published over 12 books  on specialist subjects in 20th century design and decorative arts. In addition to the Antiques Roadshow, he has co-presented three primetime factual TV series on BBC2. An auctioneer running 20th design auctions in partnership with Dawsons Auctioneers, he has lectured across the world, including the V&A in London, and contributed to many newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programmes. He is also a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scolars and a Freeman of the City of London.

David Rosier's lecture focuses on the costume and dress accessories that would have been worn for formal occasions (Regulated Court Costume), or informally, at the Imperial Court or in Provincial Government during the Quing Dynasty (1644-1911). He will first consider formal, mandated, Court Costume and Insignia of Rank worn by the Imperial Family plus the Civil and Military Officials. The focus will then move onto to a review of the full scope of the Emperor's wardrobe from State Robes and regalia, through to informal wear. Consideration will also be given to robes and dress accessories, worn on a day to day basis or for special occasions by other members of the Court either in their official capacity or in their private lives. He will also examine the highly decorated clothing of high ranking Chinese Ladies and consider the design of such items such as informal robes, outerwear, headwear and ornamental accessories.

A Chartered Insurer by profession and a Fellow of the Assurance Medical Society, David has extensive international experience as an author and lecturer in Medical Risk Assessment and lived and worked in Asia for more than 25 years. Whilst living in Hong Kong (1991-2004) he assembled a collection of approximatley 700, predominatley Quing Dynasty, Imperial and related textiles and costume accessories. He is a Past Committee Member of the Hong Kong Textile Society and frequent speaker on Imperial Insignia and Badges of Rank.

What other family in the twentieth century managed to amass such extradordinary art collections, and design or purchase such outstanding buildings to display their collections? Compared to the Frick and the Gulbenkian, individual collections displayed in single museums, the Guggenheim name was transformed in the late twentieth century into a brand, some would say a chain. With celebrated museums in New York, with the flagship Solomon R. Guggenheim landmark on Fifth Ave., 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, which opened in 1997, and which is now considered a masterpiece of modern architecture and design. Other expansion plans have not fared so well, with outposts in Las Vegas and Berlin closing after some years and new building projects in Vilnius and Helsinki have been abandoned after opposition by residents, who were not persuaded that they needed a Guggenheim in their city. Andrew Hopkins will look 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, by which time their name became synonymous with some of the most inspiring art and museums in the world.

Andrew Hopkins was previously 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 Architectectural Historians (GB). A Fellow at Harvard University's Villa I Tatti in Florence in 2003-2004, and in 2009 was the the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for the Visual Arts, National Gellery 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 Ventian Baroque (Spring 2012).

The Maya created one of the most sophisticated civilisations in the ancient world. Their achievements in the arts and sciences, along with their complex social, political and economic systems, make them one of the most remarkable cultural groups in the Precolumbrian Americas. These people brought us an intricate calendar system, complex hieroglyphic writing, some of the largest pyramids in the world, a form of ballgame that was like no other and most importantly chocolate! Dr Diane Davies will discuss the major achievements of the Maya as well as considering the common misunderstandings we have of this remarkable civilisation.

Diane is a Maya archaeologist and honorary research associate of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She completed her PhD at Tulane University, New Orleans. Little is known about the Maya in the UK and so aside from carrying out research in Guatamala and teaching, Diane is an educational consultant for schools giving workshops to both teachers and children on the Maya. She has created award-winning resources, organises trips to the Maya area and is also the Chair of Chok Education, a charity supporting the education of Maya children. Diane organises conferences on the Maya as well as lecturing to a variety of organisations, including the City Literary Institute, London and the Historical Association.

This talk tells the story of 20th century fashion design, tracing how clothes, textiles and accessories were influenced by contemporary history. It includes the elegant fashions of the Edwardian era, the glamour of the 1920's and 1930's, the austerity of the 1940's, the futuristic fashions of the 1950's, the liberating styles of the 1960's and the avant-garde fashions of the 1970's to the present day.

Dr Sally Hoban has lectured extensively on art, design and antiques throughout the UK and at the University of Birmingham. She has broadcast on BBC 2, BBC 4 and BBC Radio 4 and her publications include Miller's Collecting Modern Design. She has an Honours certificate in public speaking from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and is a freelance arts journalist for local, national and international media. Sally has a PhD in the history of art and design from The University of Birmingham.

Leonardo da Vinci, painter and draughtsman of the High Renaissance was an artist whose works were informed by scientific investigation. Leonardo observed the world closely describing nature as his teacher, studying anatomy and physiology in order to create convincing images of the human form. He understood that science was the systemic study of structure and function as representations of human gesture and expression. Science and art are different paths that lead to the same destination. This talk reviews Leonardo's approach to linear prespective, human proportion, emotion, light and shade together with the fashion in which his scientific investigations influenced his art.

Guy Rooker comes to The Arts Society not with a background in the arts but from a world of science in general, and surgery in particular. He describes himself as a retired surgeon with a lifelong passion, fascination and admiration for the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Guy considers that the contribution that Leonardo has made to both the world of art and investigation of scientific concepts to be quite unique and extraordinary in the way that so many of his pioneering investigations have contributed to the understanding of our world today.

Murder, posion, corruption and incest: all perfect ingredients for sensational popular culture. But in an age known for its brutality and church corruption were the Borgias really so bad? Sarah Dunant reveals the real family that dominated the Papacy and Italian politcs during the last decade of the 15th century: the charismatic figure of Pope Alexander VI, living inside his sumptuously decorated apartments, the career of his son, Cesare, cardinal general, employer of Da Vinci and the model for Machiavelli's The Prince, and the journey of Lucrezia Borgia from the "greatest whore in Rome" to a devout and treasured duchess of the city of Ferrara. Sometimes truth is more intoxicating than myth.

Novelist, broadcaster and critic, Sarah read history at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2) and Night Waves (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen novels, taught renaissance studies at the Washington University, St. Louis, is a visiting tutor on the MA in creative writing at Oxford Brooks and has lectured all around the world at festivals and conferences. Her last five novels have been set within the Italian Renaissance. Her next book, published in 2017, completes the story of the Borgia family and the remarkable period of Italian history in which they lived. Her recent series on history for BBC Radio 4, called When Greeks Flew Kites is available on podcast or listen again: 

Jonathan Foyle reflects upon Wolsey's magnificent creation, presenting reconstructions of its lost interiors. He will share the wonderment of visitors at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, using extracts from their contemporary diaries.

Dr Foyle was Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain for eight years, and a Curator of Historic Buildings at Hampton Court for as long, during which he took his PhD on reconstructing Wolsey's palace. He is a frequent writer for the Financial Times on issues of architecture, history and craft and is approaching his fourth published cathedral monograph: Canterbury, Lincoln, Litchfield - now Peterborough. A presenter of numerous television series including Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? and BBC2's Climbing Great Buildings, he lectures frequently on a range of art historical topics. He brings teaching experience as a former Course Director for the University of Cambridge Summer Schools and is Honorary Professor in Conservation at the University of Lincoln.

This is the story of the epic rivalry between the two giants of British art, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. As unlike in background and temperament as their paintings were in style, these two creative geniuses transformed the art of landscape. This lecture sets them head-to-head and examines their differences, their similarities, their battles and their shared triumphs. But who will ultimately be crowned star painter? 

Nicola, Moorby is an independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner, including contributions to the forthcoming online catalogue of the Turner Bequest. She is also co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010). In addition, she has published on Walter Richard Sickert and is co-author of Tate's catalogue of works by the Camden Town Group.

Charles Dickens created a staggering array of wonderful characters: starving children, misers and murderers amongst them. In his lecture, Bertie Pearce, looks at the life and places of Dickens through his vivid characterisation. The talk is interspersed with readings of his works.

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

To mark 2018's centenary of women attaining the right to vote, this lecture will explore the story of suffragettes through portrayals in art. Caroline Shenton will also consider how contemporary artists choose to portray the female politicians of our time.

Caroline is an archivist, historian and author. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives at Westminster and a senior archivist at The National Archives at Kew. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society and has appeared on national TV and radio and reviews books for The Spectator. Her first popular history book, The Day Parliament Burned Down, won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013. 

The enormous success of this television series has made Highclere Castle one of the most recognisable buidlings in the country. Matthew Williams reveals that truth is more interesting than fiction and tells the story of the castle and its family, the Earls of Carnarvon.

Matthew Williams lectures widely on the subject of design, and is especially interested in that of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A recognised expert in the work of the designer William Burges, he has been the Curator of Cardiff Castle since 1990 and has published widely in art and architectural journals. A long standing member of The Arts Society, Matthew has been a Volunteers Representative, a Programme Secretary and a Chairman. He has been an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society since 2001.

Our September speaker Andrew Hopkins, lecturing on the 'Guggenheims: A Dynasty of Art Collectors', has had to defer his visit until July 2019.  We now have Julia Musgrave with a lecture entitled 'Bloomsbury Group: The Art of Vanessa Bell'.  Here is a taster of what we can look forward to:

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?

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 is currently working towards her Ph.D. at the University of York the involvement of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1937. She is a lecturer in Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit).

There are many illustrious gardens on the shores of Lakes Como and Maggiore in the mountainous north of Italy. Steven Desmond's talk includes a 16th-century parterre and water staircase and a garden created by two Edwardian romantics for sharing their love of art and nature.

An independent landscape consultant specialising in historic gardens and architecture since 1985, Steven is a freelance lecturer, including Universities of Bristol and Oxford; specialist tour leader and lecturer in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. He also undertook a lecture tour of Australia in 2010. A writer and broadcaster on historic gardens and related topics, Steven's book Gardens of the Italian Lakes, with photography by Marianne Majerus, is published by Frances Lincoln.

Bridging the worlds of food, art and history, award-winning food historian and artist, Tasha Marks' work ranges from museum-style exhibitions to interactive lectures and limited-edition confectionery. Tasha considers her unique position in the cultural landscape.

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 she authored the entry on Mrs Beeton, one of the Victorian era’s most influential cooks.

Borobodur is an earthly manifestation of the Buddhist vision of the universe, covered with 1,460 radiant narrative carvings. Denise Heywood describes its exciting discovery and also looks at other temples, including Prambanan, where carved reliefs illustrate ancient forms of sacred dance.

Art historian, author, lecturer, photographer and journalist, Denise 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 School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) on their post graduate Asian Art Course and for Madingley Hall (University of Cambridge) and also for organisations such as the British Museum, the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Asia House, the National Trust, the Royal Geographical Society. She has lectured worldwide for universities, museums, colleges, art institutions, literary societies and travel organisations. She writes for many 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. She is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Studies in the UK, Asia House and the Royal Geographical Society.

Image credit: ©2017Denise Heywood

Sandy Burnett's lecture covers the early years of jazz from its beginning through to the start of the Second World War and it ties in with The Age of Jazz exhibition, a collaboration between The Arts Society and The Bulldog Trust at London's Two Temple Place, which runs from January to April 2018.

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. He enjoys a varied career that 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. 

Covering the Golden Age of British Railways from 1923 - 1947, Charles Harris celebrates the most romantic period of our British travel history. You'll see how the best travel posters connect with your heart and your mind, and reflect the evolution of British holidays.

Focusing on the role of posters and poster artists in the history of advertising, this global-award winning Creative Director of international advertising agencies has lectured extensively on design, illustration and photographic styles as they have influenced the building of brands. He has himself created posters for major brands including British Airways, Nestlé, Sony, General Motors and Shell. His travel writing and photography has appeared in various airline magazines as well as Time. He has also written and produced several hundred TV and Radio commercials and corporate video programmes and is a member of Winchester DFAS.

The canvases which cover the walls and ceilings of this elegant Renaissance building represent one of the greatest achievements of the their creator, Jacopo Tintoretto. Sian Walters asseses how these works reflect the teachings and activities of their patrons and their influence on later generations of artists.

Sian studied at Cambridge University and is a lecturer at the National Gallery and Surrey University, specialising in 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish art & architecture, and the relationship between dance and art. She also teaches private courses, and organises lectures, study days and art holidays abroad. She has lived in France and Italy, where she worked at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

Antiques Roadshow specialist Marc Allum takes a look at forty years of finds on one of Britain's best-loved television shows. With twenty years on the production, Marc is able to give an in-depth view of the stories behind the objects, the people and the many wonderful places they have visited over the years, together with an interesting behind the scenes view of how the show works.

Marc Allum is a freelance art and antiques journalist, writer and broadcaster based in Wiltshire. He is shortly to begin his 20th year as a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes. Marc regularly writes for mainstream magazines and is an author, antiques consultant and lecturer. He also runs a fine art valuation and consultancy service. Marc has his own unique style with interests ranging from pre-history to modern design and is a self-confessed collectaholic. He has a passion and reputation for divining the unusual through ‘a desire to connect with history through the interpretation and pursuit of objects and their origins’. Marc has lectured widely for many years to a number of different organisations in both the public and charity sector, including travel companies, The National Trust, The WI and many literary festivals including Cheltenham, Bath, Wells and Petworth.

The Christmas Story has been the subject of many Stained Glass windows, beginning with the early jewels of coloured glass at Chartres, from the late 12th century. The extra light required to illuminate the sculpture around the altar resulted in more painted decoration and less deep colour after the Black Death of 1348. The magnificent Renaissance window at Leon, in Spain, shows the development in design by the 16th century, and the painted Nativity at New College, Oxford, the new ideals of the 18th century. The Victorians created a wealth of windows, and the damage of the Second World War gave artists like Chagall further opportunities. 

Diana is a freelance lecturer in ceramic, glass and the history of interior decoration in Europe, North and South America. Lectures at the Inchbald School of Design, the Interior Design School and for American University Groups, NT and Antiques Societies and Christie's Education. Guides groups through museum collections and country houses. Collects ceramics and glass. Diploma with Distinction in the Fine and Decorative Arts, Inchbald School of Design.

Rodin was the most celebrated sculptor of the French Romantic school and lived at the time when, in painting, Impressionism stormed the art world. Although he was professionally descended from Michelangelo, his work shows a preference for modelling and the expression of character and movement. Despite his great influence on subsequent sculptors, his name, in recent years, has often been associated with his pupil and mistress, Camille Claudel. Her own genius is believed to have disturbed or even threatened Rodin. The lecture looks at both artists’ work, their similarities and, above all, their depiction of human emotions.

Juliet has published twelve books, including The History of Western Painting, and recently books on mothers, lovers, children and self-portraits. Has lived for thirty years in France where she led many art study tours. She is now concentrating on her writing career, alongside lecturing.

Where did mixer taps and fitted kitchens come from? Angle-poise lamps and strip lighting?   The answer is The Bauhaus. This is the story of Germany's most  famous design school, bitterly attacked in its day during 1920s, but one which has had a profound effect on modern buildings and their interiors ever since.

The Bauhaus (translated literally as 'Building House') was founded in 1919.It was closed in 1933 on the orders of the Nationalist government. Its teaching promoted Modernism and, despite its short life, the school became one of the most influential sources of modern design. Leading modern painters from across Europe were attracted to teach at the Bauhaus, and with practical instruction from local craftsman too, the students received a thorough grounding in form and colour theory as well as the use of materials. The result of this in-depth teaching was the development of such iconic designs as tubular steel furniture, strip lighting and fitted kitchens, which we now take for granted yet which at the time, in the 1920s, were at the cutting-edge of design. In the years following the school’s forced closure, many of the teachers and students involved either fled abroad or were exiled.The result is that the Bauhaus has had a worldwide impact on art, architecture and design trends ever since.

Anthea studied the 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 she became interested herself 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. Special interest in the architecture and design of 20th century.

Stonehenge is the most celebrated and sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the British Isles. This lecture explains why Stonehenge must be regarded as architectural in its layout and construction, embodying  techniques that for centuries convinced antiquarians that it could not have been built by ‘primitive’ ancient Britons but must be a product of ‘sophisticated’ Romans.

We then explore how, over the last two centuries, this iconic structure has inspired painters, potters and poets. Blake, Turner, Constable and Moore are amongst those who have all been drawn to this magnificent ruin, resulting in a diverse catalogue of images and impressions. Finally, we will look at Stonehenge as a global icon and how it’s instantly recognisable stones now grace tea towels in Wiltshire, phone cards in Japan and stamps from Bhutan. 

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 in July of this year. 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. Guest curator of 'Wish you were here', an exhibition of his own extensive collection of 'Stonehengiana' which is currently on display at the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre. Also curating an exhibition for the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Vienna, opening March 2016. 

Until late in her short life, Jane Austen’s time was spent “no more regarded in society than a poker or fire-screen.” She was sustained by a crazy sense of fun; by a love of country life, of writing and reading; and by her sister Cassandra. “If Cassandra were going to have her head cut off, Jane would insist on having hers cut off too!” (Mrs. Austen). With slides of paintings, drawings, portraits, mementoes and silhouettes including Jane’s childhood copy of Goody Two Shoes, coloured by her own hand; illustrations by Cassandra for her young sister’s comic History of England; a patchwork quilt made by Jane and her mother and sister; fashion plates of the day from the magazine The Gallery of Fashion; topaz crosses given to Cassandra and Jane by sailor brother Charles; lively watercolour sketches by Jane’s contemporary, Diana Sperling, from the book Mrs Hurst Dancing; and a performed reading of 15-year-old Jane’s short story The Three Sisters, Karin Fernald will guide us through the art of this great writer.

Karin is known for her entertaining lectures on writers and diarists from the late 18th and early mid 19th centuries, connected with the arts. Some subjects are artists themselves; others have strong family connections. Extensive research into diaries and letters bring them to vivid life. Lectures are illustrated by slides of contemporary pictures and portraits from a wide variety of sources. She has been lecturer for 25 years, and has lectured in Australia, New Zealand, Brussels and Germany and Japan. In January 2013 she gave a course of 3 lectures on Hans Christian Andersen's life, stories, papercuts and travels, at the University of Cape Town Summer School. Her most recently researched subjects are Perdita Robinson, poet, fashion icon and mistress of the future George lV; and Virginia Woolf. She began in the theatre, working as an actress with Sir Ralph Richardson and Robert Morley. On TV she played Anne Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga. On radio she compiled a programme on potter Bernard Leach for BBC R3, short listed for a Prix Italia. She has published a children's book on Queen Victoria's fraught childhood, The Dumpy Princess, which was short-listed for a Young Quills literary award.

As he approaches his 80th birthday, Hockney cotinues to change his style and ways of working, embracing new technologies along the way.  From his roots in Bradford and early London 'Pop Art' experiments to his famous portraits of family and friends, and then to images of hedonistic Los Angeles, through to his Yorkshire landscapes and most recent paintings - the talk hopes to show that no-one, since Picasso, has so excitingly taken on new styles, media and challenges.  It will relate to the big rerospective Tate Britain exhibition of early 2017 (which will then move on to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and The Metropolitan Museum in New York).

John is a Lecturer and Guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern. He  ran an MA course in Heritage Interpretation at St Mary's University College and has lectured 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.

The Alnwick Garden was inspired by Jane Northumberland with Wirtz International as designers. Reputedly Europe’s largest new garden, it showcases traditional and cutting edge designs. Green leaves serve many potent functions: some sound perilous but who would have thought of lettuces and Traveller’s Joy as harbingers of dangerous intoxication. At the base of the Great Cascade, fenced, walled and gated, lies The Poison Garden where I was commissioned to devise a fatal attraction of plants. The presentation will explore the designs and planting throughout the garden with special attention to the living poisons behind the inner ornate gates. 

Caroline has lectured in the UK, USA, Europe and Japan, and invited to lecture to ADFAS in 2012. Lectures for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, the Royal Horticultural Society, travel companies and the English Gardening School. Consultant designer specializing in evoking historical, artistic and symbolic references. Author of 9 books including Impressionists in their Gardens: living light and colour, Follies of Europe: Architectural Extravaganzas and Monet at Giverny. Theatre productions: How does your garden grow Mr. Shakespeare and Impressionists in their Gardens: living light and colour. Presenter and contributor on television and BBC Radio 4.

The city of Naples, from its foundation by the Greeks in 6th C BC through a succession of rulers to becoming part of a united Italy. This lecture will look at castles, palaces, monasteries and churches that make this chaotie city a vertiable treasure-house of history, art and architecture.

The city of Naples has a remarkable and fascinating history. It was founded by the Greeks (nea polis) in the 6th century BC before falling to the Romans some 300 years later. It then had a succession of rulers: Byzantine, Norman, German, French, Spanish and Austrian until the 18th century when, under the Bourbon kings, it became the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This was ended in 1860 when the forces of Garibaldi defeated the army of Francis II, an event that led to Naples becoming part of the united Italy in the following year.

All the ruling dynasties left their mark and in this lecture we will take a look at some of the castles, palaces, monasteries and churches that make this chaotic and once capital city a veritable treasure-house of history, art and architecture.

Mike had an RAF career involving twenty years flying duties worldwide as an anti-submarine warfare specialist followed by staff appointments, including nine years in a NATO post in Italy as a political adviser on Greek-Turkish issues. He was a founder member of the International Archaeological Society in Naples, lecturing, leading tours of Graeco-Roman sites and participating in excavations. He has lectured extensively on the Classical World and currently plans and leads cultural tours to Italy, Greece and Cyprus.

Degas’ unflinching studies of dancers, café singers and bathers have brought fierce criticism of him as a misogynist and voyeur, but is this really fair or has his artistic integrity and passion been misinterpreted?

Katy read History at Bedford College, University of London, and gained a PhD in 16th century Florentine History. She has taught at the Universities of London, Edinburgh, Sussex, Surrey and the Open University. She has lectured on a wide range of art historical subjects for local groups including the National Trust, NADFAS and the WEA. She has led study tours to Italy for the University of Surrey and NADFAS.

From the late seventeenth century to the modern period this lecture looks at the development of the sport of horseracing in England through its associated cultural material. Using the wealth of paintings, archive material and decorative art objects associated with and depicting the ‘Sport of Kings’, the lecture will take as its starting point the earliest origins of the sport including the development of Newmarket and the Jockey Club as racing’s ‘Headquarters’. Treasures of the Turf also explores other influential racing circuits and because of the national nature of the sport can be adapted to include links to the local area. 

Christopher is the Director of the National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket. Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum 1998-2003. 1997-1998 Curator for exhibition George Wickes of Bury St Edmunds, Royal Goldsmith. 1994-1997 Catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Speaker's Residence - The House of Commons.

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

Joanna trained as a goldsmith before working for De Beers valuing and grading rough diamonds, before becoming one of the few women diamond dealers, trading in Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Mumbai and New York. She worked as a senior jewellery specialist for Philips Auctioneers, and for Sotheby’s London, where she was responsible for jewellery sales in New York, Geneva and London. Is now an independent jewellery consultant, delivering seminars, jewellery masterclasses and lectures worldwide. She writes for the international press and is a published author with her book ‘Collect Contemporary Jewelry’: also curates Contemporary Jewellery exhibitions and is a regular jewellery expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. Is a Liveryman of the Goldsmith’s Company, a Freeman of the City of London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Is happy to provide digital equipment where necessary. 'She is a published author with her books ‘Collect Contemporary Jewelry‘ and ‘Emerald’ both published by Thames and Hudson, and a contributing author for ‘Cartier Panthère’ published by Assouline and GRAFF published by Rizzoli. 

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

After nearly 20 years in the British army, Imogen went to the University of Kent to study Anglo-Saxon & Medieval History and Art, graduating with 1st class honours. Currently studying for a PhD at the University of Birmingham. Works as a freelance lecturer across Britain and Europe as well as lecturing on small cruise ships and running study tours on land.

Orpheus could quite literally charm the birds out of the trees with his music - yet he failed to bring his beloved Eurydice safely out of the Underworld. All he had to do was to lead her up to the light without looking back at her… Not surprisingly the tale of how the legendary singer lost his lover through a single glance has inspired much great music (including the first masterpiece of opera, Monteverdi’s Orfeo), and visual artists too have responded to this tragic story of love and loss. Explore the wealth of art and music on the theme of Orpheus, with a rich array of paintings and musical examples from Monteverdi, Gluck, and Offenbach, even taking in the Can-Can!

Dr Lois Oliver studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and writing her doctoral thesis on The Image of the Artist, Paris 1815-1855. She worked at the Harvard University Art Museums before joining the curatorial team at the V&A and then the National Gallery where she co-curated the major exhibition Rebels and Martyrs: the image of the artist in the nineteenth century (2006) and a series of touring exhibitions. Currently Assistant Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, she writes audio and multimedia tours for clients including the National Gallery, National Maritime Museum, Royal Academy and Tate, and has appeared on TV programmes for the BBC and Channel 5, as well as broadcasting on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Also a keen violinist, she plays regularly with orchestras including the Endellion Festival Orchestra.

Van Gogh’s adult life was in grim reality a constant struggle against poverty, misery, ill health, both physical and mental, and loneliness. A man of conscience and self questioning, his early career and personal life seemed doomed to failure. Art provided his only outlet. Through it he was able to express himself; in his own words, “I believe that pictures will tell you what I am not able to express in words”. In this lecture, a selection of his paintings will take us through his short but prolific painting career and try to help us to understand the inner workings of Van Gogh’s mind.

Carole is a guide and lecturer on combined history/art tours in France, with over ten years' experience. Life aboard river vessels on the Seine, Oise, Marne and Rhone offered the chance to explore and further research certain riverside locations linked to art, which helped develop in-depth knowledge. Also has experience working with NADFAS groups through work as a private guide for a privately owned stately home in the UK.

The Great Fire of London of 1666, which came only months after the Great Plague, devastated most of the City of London. 13,500 houses, 87 churches and 44 livery halls, as well as many public buildings, were destroyed within four days. This lecture examines the devastation wrought by the fire, looks at the inspirational plans put forward for the rebuilding of the City and explains how the reconstruction which followed changed the face of London for ever. The lecture can be linked to a guided walk following the path of the Fire, from its starting point in Pudding Lane to Pie Corner where it was eventually checked. Old drinking houses hidden in narrow lanes, delightful churches built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Fire, the Guildhall and St. Paul’s Cathedral are some of the features along the route.

Barbara is an historian and London Blue Badge Guide since 1988. Lecturer, Examiner and Course Director on Blue Badge Guide Training Courses and an acknowledged expert on Windsor Castle. A rota guide for the Albert Memorial, British Museum and Houses of Parliament. Has conducted tours for American museums and alumni groups for the past 25 years. Offers guided visits and walking tours linked to her lectures list.

Born in the small village of Kirkharle, Northumberland, Lancelot Brown rose to become the most famous landscape designer in England. Working with contours, water and trees, he created landscapes so breathtakingly natural the poet Whitehead commented that only Dame Nature could distinguish between his work and hers. At sites such as Stowe, Blenheim, Bowood, Luton Hoo, and Croome Court, Brown’s style gently echoed the Italian artists of the previous centuries, and was itself further popularised in contemporary paintings of landscape as fashions in late 18th century art turned from artifice to nature, or more correctly to artificial nature. In the 300th year anniversary of his birth this talk will consider the life and work of Brown, and examine the accolades and the charges laid at his feet - genius or vandal, artist or copyist? The talk is illustrated with images of Brownian landscapes both in reality and in painting.

Twigs is a garden historian, author, researcher and lecturer. She 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. Carries out freelance research in the history of specific gardens and parks for bodies such as English Heritage, the National Trust and various private clients, and has a specific interest in the portrayal of plants and gardens in art and literature and the social aspects of garden history. Her publications include A History of Women in the Garden, the highly illustrated A Nation of Gardeners, and a short biography of Gertrude Jekyll, as well as the quirky History of Garden Gnomes! Currently working on the Eighteenth Century Diaries of the Marchioness Grey of Wrest Park and is also involved in the 2016 tercentenary celebrations of one of our greatest landscape designers Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.

Come to the lecture and enjoy tea and cake as well as an opportunity to join a walk in the grounds of Gatton designed by Brown. 

Discover the regional variations of Indian textiles from the Punjab & Gujarat to Bengal & Coromandel Coast. Understand and appreciate the materials, production techniques and designs like the boteh or paisley motif in Kashmir shawls.

Old Roedeanian, Jasleen is Lecturer and Tutor of Asian art history and textiles for Oxford University's department of Continuing Education and contributing editor of Indian textiles for the Textiles Asia Journal. Formerly Curator of Asian collections at the University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology in Canada, she has also worked for the British Museum and the British Library in curatorial and research positions. An expert in the artistic heritage of South Asia for which she attended the University of California Santa Barbara Punjab studies programme having attained her Master's degree in Asian art history on scholarship from Sotheby's Institute of Art and her Bachelor's degree in Asian art history with Asian music from SOAS, University of London. She has extensive lecturing experience at museums, universities and art societies including University of Oxford's museum of art - the Ashmolean Museum, the University of British Columbia in Canada, the British Museum, British Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, Asia House, Fashion and Textiles Museum, SOAS-University of London, the Oxford Centre of Buddhist Studies, the Oxford Centre of Hindu Studies, National Museums Liverpool and the National Museum of Textiles in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She has published several academic articles in the field of Asian art and textiles including the Apollo, Burlington, Asian Art, Textiles Asia, British Museum magazine & Journal of Museums Ethnography. She is a first soprano and is proficient in playing the Javanese gamelan and Korean drums.

2016 will mark the 200th anniversary of the purchase of the so-called 'Elgin Marbles' from Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, by the British Parliament. This lecture, beautifully illustrated with specifically taken slides and video, will explore the aesthetics, the back-story, and the heated debates surrounding these fascinating and controversial works of ancient Greek art: what do we mean by 'the Elgin Marbles'? How and why were they originally created? Why are they so highly regarded? What happened to them between their creation and Elgin's time? How did he acquire them? Why are they now in the British Museum? And why are there such passionately held views both for and against their repatriation to Greece?

As a Classics Tutor for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, Professor of History of Art for the European Studies Program of Rhodes College and The University of the South, he has spent much of the last 30 years travelling extensively in the world of the Greeks and Romans both physically and intellectually. He has published A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths (Robinson, 2007) and A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization (Robinson, 2010) and is currently working on A Brief Guide to the Roman Empire.

Botticelli’s works are nowadays seen to be synonymous with the Renaissance. Indeed works such as The Birth of Venus and the Primavera are seen as the epitome of Renaissance art with their antique subjects. However, the life of Botticelli is one that has never really fitted comfortably into art history’s cannon of Renaissance art, because while his works are extraordinarily beautiful to look at, conversely his works have always been difficult to explain. These enigmatic works such as: The Calumny of Apelles, The Birth of Venus, the Primavera and the Mystic Nativity continue to this day to fuel debate regarding their true meaning. Not only because of their complex allegorical meaning, but also because from painting to painting his works seem to randomly choose to conform and not conform to Renaissance ideals of painting such as mathematical perspective. In this lecture I will be looking at the Botticelli’s early life and works and his training and influence under the early Renaissance master Fra Filippo Lippi. I will also be looking at the long and prolific life an artist unique in his approach to the Renaissance aesthetic, whose rapid rise and allegiances among the Florentine nobility in particular the Medici, which would put him at the heart of the city’s politics, literature and religion. I will also look at Botticelli’s unusual approach to anatomical structure and his supposed love for, or obsession with, the woman called Simonetta Vespucci that seems to appear in so many of his most well-known works. And at the end of this lecture I will explore how did this artist that practised the very latest techniques in Renaissance painting early on in his career come to personify the ideal of the Renaissance artist. Finally, I will seek to explain why by the end of his life his work fell from favour, only to be miraculously revived to the reputation that he still has to his very day of a unique Renaissance Enigma.

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

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

Caroline has lectured for many years to universities and art organisations in America and on cruise boats. She was an official guide at the British Museum and has published articles on samplers. Her lectures range from the role of the royal mistress in history to more scholarly lectures on Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Alan read Modern History at Merton College, Oxford (Scholar). Elected a Bodley Fellow of the College in 2001. During 40 years' service with P&O, his work took him around the world 42 times (twice by sea). Extra-mural lecturer on the History of Architecture for the Universities of London and Surrey 1963-present. NADFAS lecturer 1997-present, having already visited 240 Societies. Cruise lecturer. Author of 10 books on architectural and antiquarian subjects. Chairman Godalming Museum and Churchwarden Godalming Church.

In this lecture Charles Beauclerk argues that the Shakespeare authorship question grew out of the dramatist’s own identity crisis, which manifests itself through the principal themes and characters of his plays. These reveal Shakespeare to have been – like Hamlet – a disinherited prince who used the theatre to assert his royal right. Expressing his alienation through the figures of the fool, the bastard and the king without a crown, Shakespeare reworked the same key ideas and characters throughout his career. In exploring these to elucidate the author’s psychology, Beauclerk shows how Shakespeare used the chivalric romance tradition to present himself as the lost redeemer. In it he found an ingenious means both of celebrating his outcast status and shaping the literary persona of the Spear-Shaker, England’s hidden champion.

Charles holds an MA from Oxford. Has lectured extensively across Canada and the United States and widely at schools in the UK; has also lectured to heritage societies and historical groups. He is a vice-president of the Royal Stuart Society. Publications include Nell Gwyn: A Biography, Shakespeare’s Lost Kingdom and Piano Man: A Life of John Ogdon, as well as various articles.