The remarkable and fascinating story of the life of Larry Adler, the harmonica maestro and raconteur who was a personal friend of the photographer, Gary Italiaander.

Gary’s talk is illustrated with many images (some taken by him), recordings, video extracts and many anecdotes about Adler’s friends and associates such as Chaplin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Billie Holliday. Includes some live performance on the harmonica.

Gary Italiaander is author of ‘Reflections, A Tribute to Larry Adler’ with additional reflections of their own by Sting, Sir George Martin, Cher, Itzhak Perlman and many others.

“Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money,” remarked Joseph Duveen. It was a simple enough observation, but there was only one man who was perfectly positioned to combine his quintessential English charm with an unparalleled gift for creative salesmanship, allowing him to convince the tight-fisted titans of Wall Street (Frick, Morgan, Mellon etc.) that there was indeed one thing more important than money - art - and, “when you pay high for the priceless, you’re getting it cheap”. Without Duveen, two of America's three most highly rated museums - the Met in New York and the National Gallery in DC - would struggle, perhaps even fail, to be considered world-class today. But was he just a charismatic crook milking millionaires, or was he indeed truly deserving of the title, ‘world’s greatest art dealer'?

Bruegel, the Seasons and the World

In 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was commissioned to create a series of paintings for a dining room in Antwerp. The images, charting the course of a year, changed the way we view the world through art. Landscape had previously been a decorative backdrop to dramas both sacred and profane. But in Bruegel's hands the landscape and our interaction with it became the focus. Looking at paintings such as The Return of the Herd, Hunters in the Snow and The Gloomy Day, this lecture explores how Bruegel pioneered a whole new way of thinking about the environment and our individual places within a shifting cosmos.

 The Overshadowed

Lecturer: Chantal Brotherton-Radcliffe 

Have you had this experience? You go to a gallery, an exhibition and are stopped dead by an unknown picture: you look at the label and find you have never heard of the artist. How does it come about that there can be such wonderful painters of whom we have never heard? This lecture will consider some of the many reasons for a good artist’s obscurity, from the brevity of his life to the misfortune of his being born and working in the shadow of a larger reputation, such as Leonardo or Rembrandt. But above all it is an excuse to spend an hour gorging on beautiful paintings, finding hidden treasures.

In this lecture I review the life and works of Paul Klee and the impact of his unfortunate mysterious illness. The talk will show Klee as a poet, a writer, an accomplished musician, a teacher as well as being one of the most prolific artists of the 20th century. His work covered several 'isms' of post first world war German art. He also had a wicked sense of humour in his caricatures. Shortly after escaping from Nazi Germany, as one of the so-called 'degenerate artists', Klee developed the very rare auto-immune disorder, scleroderma. This is a disease that has been the subject of much of my research career.

The Arts and Crafts of John Piper.

3 lectures covering: Youth, War, and Drama & Glass.

Booking Form in the Documents section of this site

Special Interest Day of three lectures.

Many people are familiar with the national designers of the 19th century Arts and Crafts Movement such as William Morris and Charles Ashbee. But the Midlands made a huge contribution to the movement as well. Designers at The Bromsgrove Guild of Handicrafts for example produced the exquisite wrought iron gates for Buckingham Palace. This lecture sets the work of these Midlands designers in the context of the national Arts and Crafts Movement using examples of jewellery made by Arthur and Georgina Gaskin, stained glass by Florence Camm, ceramics from the Ruskin Pottery and more.

In this amusing lecture I will talk about the seemingly happy world of professional, family pantomime - and what it’s really like. I’ll recount the bouquets and the brickbats. I’ll look at the famous names, the greatest Dames and the old routines that we all remember – and I’ll look at when it all works – and when it doesn’t.  And I’ll talk about why this most precious of British traditions will always endure, and why, surprisingly, every actor wants to do it. This is a revealing look at professional panto, from someone who was born into it. 

From an Indian river bed thousands of years ago to the Tower of London – the fascinating story of the ‘Mountain of Light’. The story of this celebrated diamond is not only intriguing but also full of surprises; it has been the subject of desire, jealousy, intrigue, passion and political chicanery. This lecture follows the journey of this fabulous diamond from the depths of early Indian history through the bloody history of the Mughals to the power and politics of the British Empire, illustrated by extraordinary artists who were committed to describing the events and emotions of their time. 

Brancusi was the son of a peasant from a mountainous province of Romania, yet he became an internationally famous artist and is now seen as one of, if not the, most important sculptors of the 20th century. How did this happen and what is so special about his work? Brancusi combined the Romanian wood working tradition with a Belles Arts fine art training. He also had an intuitive an understanding of the significance of engineered products. A great friend of the inventor of Conceptual art Marcel Duchamp, Brancusi is an enigmatic contradiction, and this will be explored in this lecture, along with his relevance to 20th century sculpture.

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

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

Learn how one company came to control the world's flow of diamonds into the marketplace for over a century.  The De Beers Diamond Cartel convinced diamond miners & traders to only buy or sell via their single market channel, forming a bond so tight it was impossible to move diamonds without them.  At one time, De Beers held 40,000,000 carats of rough diamonds in a 3 story basement vault in London- a 20 year supply of gemstones.  De Beers took the jewellery market by storm with the slogan "A Diamond is Forever" voted the advertising slogan of the century.  Come learn how De Beers really did "Romance the Stone".

Bold publicity stunts, statement architecture, suave dining: the 1930s was a supreme era for London’s great emporia. Starting on Piccadilly with Joseph Emberton’s Moderne masterpiece, Simpsons, we’ll explore the capital’s department stores through an Art Deco lens – from Selfridges’ fabulous elevators, whizzing us up to roof garden fashion shows, to the jaw-dropping interiors of D.H. Evans, ready in time for the 1937 Coronation, to the live flamingos atop Derry & Toms. Then off to the suburbs where superb Deco buildings were springing up in surprising locations: Shinners of Sutton, Holdrons of Peckham, Bodgers of Ilford… 

Throughout all of human history eating together has in form, function and purpose.  Elaborate rituals were developed particularly in ancient Persia and Rome, finally culminating in the glitteringly opulent State banquets at the courts of Versailles and Imperial St Petersburg.  In the talk, Andrew illustrates how these powerful occasions were intended to display the taste, wealth, influence and political power of the host, together with the creation of some of the most beautiful objects ever designed.

The Gulbenkian Museum is Lisbon's finest museum, yet the man behind this collection, Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955) was an enigmatic and publicity-shy figure. Gulbenkian was known as "Mr Five Per Cent", on account of his personal holding of five per cent of Middle East oil production. This talk weaves together the history of a great European collection (featuring Rembrandts bought from The Hermitage, as well as Lalique glass, carpets, Iznik ware and Renaissance paintings) with that of the emergence of the modern oil industry. It is based on my award-winning biography of Gulbenkian, published in 2019: "Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, the World's Richest Man".

The Wool Road...The Silk Road...The Cotton Road.

See SID List in this website

Art Deco has the reputation of being the most glamorous and popular style of the 20th century which was prevalent during the 1920s and 1930s. We will review the development of the style within the context of its social and economic environment and look at specific examples of objets d’arts, including silver, jewellery, furniture, ceramics, clocks and architecture.  

The range of designers, craftsmen and artists that we will contemplate will include, but not limited to, E-J Ruhlmann, René Lalique, Tamara de Lempicka, Jean Dupas, Georgia O’Keeffe, Eileen Gray, Romain de Tirtoff (Erté), René Vincent and English ceramicist, Clarice Cliff.In addition to some examples of domestic and civic Art Deco buildings in the UK, we will also touch on certain architectural buildings in New York, Miami, Mumbai, and Napier, thus confirming Art Deco’s full global reach and appeal. 

This is the gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians saved Britain’s national heritage during our Darkest Hour. As Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel to threaten these islands, men and women from London’s national museums, galleries and archives forged extraordinary plans to evacuate their collections to safety.

When we walk into any gallery, why do we see so many depictions of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, but not Viking ones? This lecture explores how Norse myths and legends have been portrayed in the decorative and fine arts over more than 1,300 years and reveals quite how few depictions we have (although some are superb) and how varied they can be. In order to explain key themes in the artworks, the talk begins with a brief overview of the pantheon of deities, the Norse creation story and Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods.

Image attribution: Mårten Eskil Winge, Thor’s Fight with the Giants, 1872, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. 

Even though ‘work’ was the bedrock of Victorian progress and improvement, Queen Victoria’s reign saw the greatest upsurge in leisure pursuits ever witnessed. People earned more money and worked shorter hours than ever before and with the birth of the Railways and a desire to be health conscious it was a golden age for the art of entertaining oneself and being an amateur in the true sense of the word. This talk celebrates a pre-television age when the ability to amuse and entertain was paramount.

Why are there so few women artists before the 20th century? Were they less talented, less inspired than men?  The lecture explores the background of this fascinating subject by looking at the policies of the teaching academies in the eighteenth century and at the women who succeeded despite the obstacles. The discussion suggests how sexual equality and equal opportunities may have enabled women to achieve artistic recognition.

Special Interest Day:

1. Lacquer: Design and Technique

2. Ceramics: Domestic Taste versus Export Market

3. Contemporary Crafts and Living National Treasures

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

Almost everyone has played Monopoly at some time in their life.  It is one of the world’s most popular and enduring board games.  But, how well do you really know it? This talk starts with the original Landlord’s Game of 1903 and its evolution into the game as we know it today.  Based on the classic 1936 London version we then take a photographic journey around the locations on that Monopoly board.   Expect some surprises as we explore the relationships between the various properties, look at the ones that don’t actually exist and uncover the story behind the game we all know so well - or do we?

Immerse yourself in a world of carnations, tulips, hyacinths and roses as you discover the history of the famous Turkish Iznik ceramics. From its origins imitating Chinese porcelain to its 16th-century heyday and subsequent decline. The focus on flowers makes this an ideal subject for spring but it works equally well at any time of year.

Mario Testino and David Bailey may be household names that spring to mind when we think of the great fashion and portrait photographers of the 20th century. But where does Jorge Lewinski’s reputation lie amongst these significant individuals? Have you heard of him? 

The avant-gardes in Latin America that developed during the 1920s delved into the paradox of pursuing an artistic language that addressed universal concerns whilst striving to realise a national artistic identity. Despite their paradoxical aim, this tension allowed artists to explore a new spectrum of styles, mediums and languages that separated them from the European avant-garde that most of them had previously studied. This lecture will focus on four nodes of their investigation, looking at Mexican, Argentinean, Uruguayan and Brazilian artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frida Kahlo, Joaquin Torres Garcia, Anita Malfatti & Tarsila do Amaral.

The ever changing sky and sparkling Seine estuary where sky, sea and earth seem to fuse, attracted the 19th artists, writers and musicians. Through the guidance of the “Master of the Skies” Eugène Boudin, Monet took his first ever painting lesson in the open air here. A new way of approaching art was opened up resulting in Impressionism. This lecture will look at the host of artists who flocked to the picturesque harbour of Honfleur and its surroundings to capture, in Baudelaire’s words, “this green and rose vastness which goes to my head like an intoxicating drink”.

The Arts and Crafts Movement was one of the first art movements to recognise the artistry and skills of women artists and designers – but they are still today not as well-known as their male counterparts. Women such as May Morris, Veronica Whall and Georgina Gaskin all stand in the shadow of their male relations, and few have heard of designers such as Margaret Rope and Louise Powell. This talk seeks to put right this situation, explore embroidery, ceramics, metalwork, stained glass, bookbinding and other ‘suitable’ crafts, and look at the perceptions of female designers and makers at the time they were producing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Michael Praetorius’s music was celebrated again in his anniversary year of 2021, and thanks to a wonderful 1994 disc from the Gabrieli Consort, his music for Christmas has become his most loved calling card. Paul McCreesh describes it as “Lutheran music at its most beguiling” as well as “community music at its best’, allowing amateur singers, congregational input, children’s choirs and local instrumentalists to join in.

Through his settings of the great carols Von Himmel hoch, In dulci jubilo, Puer natus in Bethlehem, Quem pastores laudavere and Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, we will be able to travel through the entire Advent, Christmas and Epiphany stories, whilst exploring contemporary art and history.

Blue and white tin-glazed earthenware has long been admired and collected for its attractive appearance, but this lecture goes further by examining English delftware with a pharmaceutical purpose. Drawing on examples from collections at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England, this talk will provide a beginner's guide to these beautiful yet practical vessels. By placing them in their wider historical context, Briony will also demonstrate that delftware drug jars have an undervalued role to play in understanding medical practices in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Tamara de Lempicka's story is one of self-invention. From her early beginnings as an aristocratic fugitive from the Russian Revolution, to later taking Paris by storm as a successful artist living on her own terms, she has become an icon of the Roaring Twenties. Her unique style reflects the shifting morals of the age, representative of the wealthy and decadent European elite, and boldly celebrating female sexuality. Few artists sum up an epoch quite as completely - a true art deco diva.

Lecture One: Photography as Fine Art
As an artistic discipline, photography is most often compared to painting.
Brian will offer an analysis, looking at the work of some outstanding photographers and
how photography can equal, and sometimes exceed, painting in the classic genres of:

Lecture Two
Within artistic photography circles there are several areas of debate which Brian will
explore. These may include such things as black and white versus colour and why one is
often considered to be more sincere or aesthetically valid than the other, the impact of
digital photography and the fragmentation of disciplines, with some practitioners going
back to 19th century methods (such as daguerrotypes and cyanotypes) while others move
in the opposite direction by employing Artificial Intelligence.

Lecture Three: Great Photographs That Make Us Smile
The camera has given us some of the most vivid images of modern times. This lecture
examines a series of brilliant photographs and explains what makes these images so
special. In particular we look at photographs which explore the depth of human experience
in a spirit of optimism and compassion.

A very wide range of photographers’ work will be discussed, including Ansel Adams, Henri
Cartier-Bresson, Ernst Haas, Bill Brandt, David Bailey, Dorothea Lange, Fay Godwin,
Arnold Newman, Terence Donovan, Mika Horie, Jane Bown, Binh Danh and Andreas
Gursky.

Speed! Technology! Destruction! The battle cry of the Futurists WWI heralded the appearance of the car as a powerful symbol in avant-garde art. Soon the Art Deco masterpieces of the great car builders came to epitomise style, luxury and craftmanship, works of art in their own right. 

The romance of speed continued to be a major theme in how cars were depicted in art, but, since the 1950s the car has become art, used as a canvas for artists as celebrated as Peter Blake, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst.  

This lecture will showcase the beautiful and the bizarre, celebrating the dynamic, creative, and sometimes unsettling relationship between cars and art.

By 1960 interest in rock ‘n’ roll had started to fade, its biggest star was moving on and a new generation of teenagers were seeking something different. It came in the form of the Beatles, who broke all the rules and all the records. This is the story of the first five years of the 1960s, one of the most creative and innovative periods in the history of music, featuring all the major artists, important songs and principle musical genres.

Our discussion of the House of Fabergé’s British enterprise will delve into Edwardian appetite for objects of fantasy prized by Tsarinas.  Most of the firm’s Russian sales ledgers disappeared but those of the London branch, opened in 1903, document royal patronage and a ‘Who’s Who’ guide of Edwardian prosperity.   American heiresses and other prominent visitors flocked to the London salerooms while the branch supplied periodic trunk shows to delight buyers on the Continent and as far as Siam and India.  The role of the London business cannot be overstated and provides us, today, with insight into a society that was forever altered by the world events that followed.

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

The flower paintings of Cedric Morris (1889-1982) capturing plants around the Mediterranean, the Canaries and beyond reveal him as a consummate botanist. After a fire in 1940, Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines were forced to relocate their East Anglia School of Painting and Drawing to Benton End near Hadleigh, in Suffolk. Not just a School but a vibrant eclectic artistic hub in a setting of Morris’s horticultural genius. He lived at Benton End until his death, enjoying national stature as artist and plantsman whose legacy included over 90 new irises.

The National Trust’s collection of some 600,000 books in 170 locations is cared for by property staff, volunteers and freelance conservators, working together to maintain the libraries in good working condition. Managing the environment, tracking down pests, creating conservation techniques that are discreet, and stabilising the collections for use are the main elements. Conservation evolves as the books’ use evolves, e.g. the catalogue is now available on-line and more researchers require access. The increased wish to use the books for visitor engagement projects provides further challenges. Given that most of the books have not been restored, the collection provides a physical history of the book trade and of the interaction between books and their owners/readers that is difficult to match elsewhere, so the conservation of books as objects is as important as preserving their texts.

This lecture will consider the artistic output of one of the leading textile designers of the 20th Century; Marion Dorn. Dorothy Todd, the influential journalist, but somewhat flawed Editor of the magazine British Vogue, first brought Dorn to the public attention in 1925 and christened Dorn the ‘architect of floors’. Renowned for her ’sculpted rugs’, this lecture will reveal Dorn’s various commissions from the 1920s to the 19060s, which included amongst others, designs for the Savoy Hotel Group in London, Eltham Palace (the former Tudor royal residence that was transformed by the millionaires Stephen and Virginia Courtauld), the London Underground and the White House in Washington DC. In addition to her designs of wall hangings, carpets and rugs, Dorn also produced wallpaper and graphics, having studied graphic design at Stanford University prior to coming to live and work in London.  We will explore her extraordinary career and position her place as a designer whose name should be for ever enshrined in the history books of British 20th century Art Deco.

E H Shepard loved Christmas, and this lecture describes, including his own words much of the magic and joy of successive festive seasons, from those of his own childhood to others throughout his long life. We see a range of artistic styles from full colour images to pen-and-ink personal Christmas cards, with cartoons, drawings and watercolours, some featuring the iconic images from the Wind in the Willows (the snow in the Wild Wood…) and Winnie-the-Pooh (Pooh and Piglet from The House at Pooh Corner). Many of the images have not been published for over fifty years.

Across a thousand years of manuscripts and over five hundred years of publishing, English recipe books have reflected the eating habits of Kings and courtiers, the merchant classes, inn-keepers and restaurant owners, as well as home cooks and even the paupers who visited the soup kitchens of Victorian London. Cookbooks are full of extraordinary food but also extraordinary illustrations from medieval illuminated manuscripts, via the engravings of the eighteenth century and the colour lithographs of Mrs. Beeton, to the high-end life-style images of the modern TV cook. This lecture tells the story of the development of the cookbook and along the way will tempt you, or indeed disgust you, with a few choice recipes.

While Joseph Wright of Derby painted fine portraits, and some very interesting ones of himself, he is best remembered as a painter of the new technologies and scientific discoveries that arose in, and transformed, Britain in the 18th century. His memorable works include A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, 1766, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768, The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone, 1771, and his Blacksmith and Iron Forge paintings of the 1770s. This lecture will describe his involvement in the industrial scene and the enlightenment, and how it affected his relationship with the Royal Academy. It will also explain how he achieved his dazzling effects of light and shade, and how the women, children and old men who populate these paintings might be interpreted. While he lived most of his life in Derby, the importance of his short stays in London, Liverpool, Italy and Bath will be explained. The lecture will be jargon-free with audience engagement, backed by high quality images.

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. 

3 Lectures on Gilbert and Sullivan

Lecture summary to come.

This presentation is a visual and practical demonstration of the ways mechanical music has been vital to itinerant performers for more than two centuries. As a practitioner, Tony uses authentic acoustic and mechanical music to attract a passing crowd – whether that be a Georgian peepshow, or a Victorian flea circus. The lecture will show slides from Tony’s unique archive of buskers and al fresco performers, as well as offer live musical demonstrations of a barrel piano, barrel organ, banjo and gramophone.  The origins of such mechanisation covers a period that stretches from the exotic playthings of the rich in the 17th & 18th centuries, to the democratisation of technological advances in the streets of Britain (through waits bands, buskers, black-face minstrelsy and concert parties) in the 19th century, to the evolution of mass media in the 20th century with recorded music, personal hi-fi systems and ultimately digitisation and the iPod.

The Impressionists were an innovative and radical group of artists whose took Paris by storm in the 1870s. Using new colours and techniques, they created paintings of modern life which shocked and horrified the art establishment. From the start the group included women artists but their contribution to Impressionism has often been overshadowed by their male contemporaries. Marie Bracquemond, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt all exhibited regularly at the Impressionist exhibitions alongside artists such as Monet, Renoir and Degas. In 1894 they were given the title “Les Trois Grandes Dames d’Impressionisme” by the art critic Gustave Geffroy. This lecture will discuss the lives of each of these artists and their work, revealing their skill and originality as well as their willingness to take risks, despite the additional obstacles they faced as women.

Stephen rescued us when the scheduled lecturer came down with Covid the day before our lecture.  The rave reviews mentioned his knowledge and humour in describing the Founders' lives and collections which form the Wallace Collection that so many of us love.

Sir Christopher Wren, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Inigo Jones, Joseph Paxton....all these outstanding architects began with modest buildings which give glimpses of their future accomplishments. This lecture traces the little known and highly entertaining story of how Rogers and Foster struggled to complete a terrace of three beautiful houses in 1960s north London. We look also at a charming brick pavilion attributed to Jones and the bizarre use to which it was put in the 20th century. And we examine Wren’s first commission, a beautiful college chapel, and a tiny glasshouse by Joseph Paxton, who went on to build the mighty Crystal Palace. 

The UK provides some of the biggest Ceremonial Events in the world and arguably the best in the world but why is that? How do the military prepare for major events such as State Opening of Parliament, State Visits, National day of Remembrance, Royal Weddings or even a State Funeral?

The most beloved American illustrator of the 20th century always portrayed life as he wished it would be. And so it was that Norman Rockwell was most at home portraying the ideal family Christmas often with direct connections to Dickens and the English Yuletide Tradition. A bounty of Christmas posters, magazine covers, cards and even Norman Rockwell Christmas gifts will keep you entertained throughout. Your American-born lecturer shares his own experiences of the ideal American Christmas from sleigh rides and ice-skating in the woods to trimming the tree and wondering how Santa got down the chimney. Light and lively Christmas fair! 

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

The glitz and glamour of the ocean liner, from its 1910 and ’20s heyday to modern times. Early ship design and décor was often utilised to resemble a British stately home or an Italian palazzo and intended to imbue passengers with a sense of high comfort, status and luxury. Designers embraced different artistic styles, from neoclassical and baroque to art nouveau and art deco to create ever more impressive and beautiful interiors.

This talk takes in exquisite gilded ballrooms, grand balustraded staircases and sumptuous panelled smoking rooms whilst examining the fascinating social and design history of these ‘floating palaces’.

Wallpaper is often regarded as the Cinderella of the Decorative Arts – the most ephemeral and least precious of the decorations produced for the home. Yet, the history of wallpaper is a long and fascinating subject that dates back to the 16th century and encompasses a huge range of beautiful patterns created both by anonymous hands and by some of the best-known designers of the 19th and 20th centuries. This lecture explores the history and development of this product from earliest times up to the present day. It includes a discussion of the changing ways in which wallpaper was made and a survey of designs from the first black and white patterns, the creation of elegant flock hangings, the fashion for Chinese hand-painted papers, the introduction of machine-printing, the designs of Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the taste for Modernist and Contemporary designs in the 20th century. It also includes a discussion of the ways that wallpapers were used within grand and more ordinary homes and hopes to justify the claim that they were indeed a truly Decorative Art.

24 June 2021   New Dawn: A Memorial for Women’s Suffrage, Houses of Parliament         

New Dawn is a contemporary light sculpture by artist Mary Branson.  She created the work to reflect the historic campaign for women's suffrage.  It is sited at the entrance to St. Stephen's Hall in the Houses of Parliament and is a permanent addition to the Parliamentary Art Collection, as well as the first piece of abstract art commissioned for permanent display in the historic Palace of Westminster. This talk informs people about her artist process and what was involved in making this public work of art.

Mary Branson

Mary Branson is best known for her large scale conceptual light installations, particularly the iconic New Dawn 2016 sculpture in the Houses of Parliament, which celebrates the centenary of the Suffrage movement and is the first permanent piece of contemporary abstract art in the Palace of Westminster.

She has created works for the London 2012 Olympics, The Magna Carta Memorial at Runnymede, Royal Holloway University and more recently Harvest a huge site-specific installation at Box Hill Surrey in collaboration with the National Trust. Her latest work is Ladders of Light, a piece for Sky Arts 50, that fills Salisbury Cathedral.

She is an award-winning print maker, a choreographer for performance and dance events, and a mentor and public speaker, having lately returned from a lecture tour to New York and Washington DC.  

Mary has held a number of artistic residencies, including for Parliament, the British Council, Crisis, the National Trust and HM Prison service, where she led an art group for women prisoners. Currently she is artist in residence at Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey.

27 May 2021   The London Underground by Design
Covers surprising attempts to create some graphic unity, even in the 1860s and 70s, expansion of the Underground and the need to create some cohesion between the different operating companies, Leslie Green's architecture and the Arts & Crafts movement, Frank Pick, Edward Johnston's typeface, Charles Holden's architecture and the Streamline Moderne/Art Deco movement, the New Works Programme, post war austerity/design, Victoria Line, loss of Johnston & rescue by Kono, Jubilee Line Extension/architecture, creation of TfL, recent schemes and future works including the Elizabeth Line/Northern Line extension to Battersea etc..

Mark Ovenden

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 and maps of underground rapid transit system including images ranging from photos of the systems to rare and historical maps. Paris Metro Style in map and station design was published November 2008. Railway Maps of the World was published in May 2011 in the USA, a British edition was produced in September 2011. London Underground by Design was published by Penguin Books in January 2013. A celebration of the Johnston typeface centenary and 90th Anniversary of Gill Sans was published in 2016, 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. Others works on graphic design and transport systems are in preparation.

22 April 2021          Aboriginal Art:  Recording the Dreamtime

The Australian-born gallerist, Rebecca Hossack, gives a personal introduction to the history of Aboriginal Art by discussing some of the pictures in her own collection. She shares stories about Albert Namatjira, Clifford Possum & Emily Kame Kngwarreye - and describes her encounters with many of the leading figures in the Desert Painting Movement, which began at Papunya in the early 1970s. 

Rebecca Hossack has a long association, and close connection, with Aboriginal Art and aboriginal artists. Her eponymous art-gallery, established in London in 1988, was the first in Europe to exhibit Australian desert painting. She continues to work with indigenous communities and individual artists across Australia, and to promote their work through the gallery's annual Songlines season of exhibitions. (Bruce Chatwin - author of the celebrated novel Songlines  - was a close friend, and a great supporter of the gallery’s aboriginal art programme.) 

In her talk Rebecca Hossack provides a vivid account of the spread and development of the movement. Its cultural origins in the distant past and its ongoing importance in the present. 

Rebecca Hossack

The Director of two galleries in central London and Miami, Rebecca Hossack was born in Melbourne in 1955. 

Following degrees in Law and in History of Art, Hossack studied at Christie's and at The Guggenheim in Venice. She set up her own gallery in Windmill Street, Fitzrovia, in March 1988. (She signed the lease only three days before the great stock-market crash on 'Black Monday').

 Hossack's business, despite the economic climate, has not only survived, but thrived. In 2007 she moved the main London gallery to a three-storey building in 2a Conway Street, off Fitzroy Square, while keeping a second space at nearby 28 Charlotte Street.

 From 1993-7, Hossack served as the Australian cultural attaché in London, initiating literary links between Australian and British writers and organising a series of exhibitions of Australian art in London. Her 'unworthy predecessor' Sir Les Patterson saluted her as 'one beaut sheila'. Hossack's portrait was included in Australians, an exhibition of photographs by Polly Borland at the National Portrait Gallery (with an accompanying book) celebrating 'the contributions of 55 famous Aussie "ex-pats".

 Hossack is a Trustee of Resurgence, the periodical of alternative thought. Hossack was the first Conservative Councillor in Bloomsbury for over 20 years, during which time she ran the New York Marathon to raise £20,000 to plant trees in central London. She also writes regularly in the national press and lectures internationally on Aboriginal art as part of NADFAS, the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, an international organisation with around 450 local societies and 80,000 members across the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. She has worked closely with the British Museum, the Barbican Centre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Horniman Museum and the De Young Museum in San Francisco. Hossack also campaigns to preserve rock art in Western Australia’s Burrup peninsula. 

8 April 2021  

How Raphael became the ‘Prince of Painters’

Lecturer:    Helen Oakden

2020 was meant to be the year of Raffaello Sanzio, better known as Raphael. It marked the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death and art venues across Europe prepared bounteous exhibitions to commemorate the Renaissance virtuoso. Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale hosted Raffaello 1520-1483, which sadly opened just three days before Italy closed all museums to the coronavirus outbreak. The National Gallery, likewise, had plans in October 2020 to exhibit his paintings and will instead present this show in Spring 2022.

Most people know Raphael for his celebrated paintings found on the walls of all major art galleries. Indeed, Vasari dubbed him the ‘Prince of Painters’. However, he was also a designer of architecture, sculpture and tapestries. Although he died tragically young Raphael left behind some of the most iconic images of divinity and civilisation, which perfectly capture the essence of Italy in the fifteenth century.

Biography of Lecturer:

Helen has been Head of the History of Art Department at St Mary’s School Ascot since 2008. Her previous positions include teaching at the Whitworth Museum in Manchester, Somerset House in London, and across Italy with Art History Abroad and Cox & Kings. She was an editor of the Burlington Magazine. Her specific interests lie in the art of Rome, where she first came across Raphael. In fact, Helen visits Raphael’s tomb every single time she visits the city!

THE CORSICAN ADVENTURER: IMAGES OF NAPOLEON

Inspired by the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, this lecture examines competing images of Bonaparte by those who loved him, and those who did not. Napoleon, a master of self-publicity, used an array of great artists to create and disseminate an image of himself as a semi-divine leader; military inspiration, thoughtful statesman and omniscient Emperor. For the English, however, Bonaparte was the “bogey-man”, and caricaturists used scorn and laughter to spread defiance to the mass market This lecture considers the experiences on both sides of the military divide, in a war of the arts almost as fierce as that on the battlefields.

Nicole Mezey

Nicole studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris. She was Senior Lecturer at Queen's University until 2009, working primarily with adults, managing and teaching on both the Part-Time degree and Extra-Mural programmes and conducting annual, international study tours. She also established the Department of Art History, the first in the north of Ireland. Nicole now lives in central London and is a freelance lecturer, working for organisations including National Museums, the National Trust, Queen's University and private cultural bodies. She is a guide lecturer for tours and will shortly embark on her second lecture tour of New Zealand for The Arts Society and ADFAS in Australia. Her publications focus on adult education and the arts.

WOMEN BEHIND THE LENS: OUTSTANDING FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY

The work of women photographers has often been unfairly neglected. This lecture seeks to correct that by examining the contribution of three outstanding British practitioners; Julia Margaret Cameron, a Victorian pioneer; Jane Bown, a brilliant portraitist; and Fay Godwin, who excelled in landscape photography. We also explore the work of two highly influential Americans: Dorothea Lange, who produced brilliant documentary images and Annie Leibovitz, who continues to both surprise and delight her audience.

Brian Stater

Brian Stater is a Senior Teaching Fellow at University College London, where he has lectured since 1997. His principal academic interest lies in the appreciation of architecture, while a strong personal enthusiasm is for photography. He therefore explores both business and pleasure by offering lectures on each of these subjects.

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

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

Deceiving the eye: Trompe l’oeil painting

The term trompe l’oeil was not used until the 19th century (in order to refer to illusionistic painting in general) but the intriguing game of simulation designed to foster the illusion of reality can be traced all the way back to the Classical era. The most famous written example comes from Pliny the Elder with his charming description of a competition between two well-known Greek painters Zeuxis and Parrhasius, who attempted to fool each other with the brilliant realism of their works, an anecdote which continue to inspire artists for hundreds of years. We trace the history of the technique and define what exactly constitutes a trompe l’oeil painting (not as easy as it might seem), looking at many extraordinary and entertaining examples from the masters of illusion in Flanders such as Memling and van Eyck, through Italian portraitists and Dutch still life specialists. We define and explore a number of specific techniques including anamorphosis and quadratura, as well as variations on a theme, such as the quod libet still life and peepshow, with particular reference to works in the National Gallery, London.

Siân Walters

Studied at Cambridge University. Lecturer at the National Gallery and The Wallace Collection and taught at Surrey University, specialising in 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish art & architecture, and the relationship between dance and art. Also teaches private courses, and organises lectures, study days and art holidays abroad. Has lived in France and Italy, where she worked at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

This Lecture will start at 2.30 p.m.

In 1791 Mary and William Bryant, their two children (one a baby in arms) and 7 other prisoners stole the governor's boat and escaped from the penal colony of New South Wales. They successfully completed a journey in distance (over 3000 miles) similar to Bligh's to West Timor. On Mary's return to London she became quite a celebrity with the assistance of the most famous barrister of his time, James Boswell. A lot has been written about Mary Bryant although she has lapsed into obscurity from time to time. John Apps will explore the legend that has grown up around Mary Bryant using a lot of art, particularly naval art from the period. 

John Apps

John was brought up at the mouth of the Clarence River in northern New South Wales. His first degree was in History and Economics but later went on to study Organisational Development and Industrial Psychology. He worked mainly with blue collar workers increasing job satisfaction and productivity. His main interest since retiring is sailing and in particular long distance single-handed voyaging in small basic boats.

10 December 2020           Music in Art

So many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art. Not only can these windows into the past show us what the instruments looked like but also the social context in which they would have been played. Music and different instruments also play a strong role within symbolism in art. Sophie explores the instruments in selected works and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted.

Sophie Matthews

Sophie is a musician well-known for her prowess on the English border bagpipes and has become one of the foremost players of the instrument in the UK. She also plays a variety of early woodwind instruments such as shawm, rauschpfeife, crumhorm and recorder. She’s also one of a handful of British players of the baroque musette, an 18th century French bagpipe similar to the Northumbrian smallpipes.

When not touring with GreenMatthews, Sophie also makes instruments (she made her own baroque oboe) and works with respected luthier Tony Millyard on his flutes. Sophie is self-taught on all of her instruments.

Giles:  His life, times and cartoons  

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

Barry Venning - Lecturer

Barry is an historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely, including the volume on Turner in Phaidon's Art & Ideas series, and several catalogue essays for exhibitions in the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland. He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and has recently taken part (2013) in a BBC documentary called The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution. He has also published a study of John Constable's paintings. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art. He is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for The Arts Society, Christie's Education and other organisations.

Passionate Potters   from de Morgan to Leach

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

Lecturer Julian Richards

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. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1992 and is being awarded an honorary doctorate. Julian 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. He is an author of a number of English Heritage publications on Stonehenge, including the previous and current guide books to the monument and landscape as well as being 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. Julian has recently curated an exhibition for the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Vienna.

THE VANDERBILTS: THE GLAMOUR OF GILDED AGE EXTRAVAGANCE

Until her death in 2019 Gloria Vanderbilt was the most celebrated heiress of this extraordinary family, whose founders during their lifetimes had been the richest living Americans. Their astonishing residences designed by leading architects of the day were filled with art treasures and exemplify the long-lost gilded age of East Coast America.

Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Newham is central to the London sewer system. Created in the mid 19th century and masterminded by the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the architect of Abbey Mills Pumping Station was Charles F. Driver.

The pumping station has an ornate cast iron interior which in the 1860’s, when the pumping station opened, had been decorated in an extravagant polychrome scheme. In 2011 Thames Water commissioned research to investigate the colour scheme and in 2018 work started on recreating the decoration to reveal the full splendour of the Victorian colours.

Saskia Huning  will talk about this exciting project and introduce us to the fantastic interior of Abbey Mills Pumping station. She will show the progress of the project through to the completion of the colourwork on the central octagon.

Join Saskia for this fascinating online talk via Zoom. A link to the talk will be sent out closer to the date 

Thursday 27 August 2020 at 10:30am

A link to the meeting on Zoom will be sent out closer to the date.

You can join the meeting from 10.00am to see the other members and check that all is set up

Celebrate some of this summer’s silliness with a light-hearted lecture on Garden Gnomes!

What do you know about gnomes? Are they different to dwarves? Or to Elves? Goblins? Pixies? Leprechauns? Boggarts? Or any of the other small folk who live in our imagination and stories…and maybe are out there in real life too if only we knew where to look?

Why did they become such popular ornaments despite being considered ‘vulgar’ by many people? And why are they banned at the Chelsea Flower Show?

This talk tells the story of the garden gnome and the two wealthy but eccentric gardeners who introduced them to their grand estates – Sir Charles Isham and Sir Frank Crisp.

Thursday 13 August 2020 at 10:30am

A link to the meeting on Zoom will be sent out closer to the date.

You can join the meeting from 10.00am to see the other members and check that all is set up

Treasures of the Fan Museum : An introduction to the world's first Fan museum and its extraordinary collections

Occupying a pair of early Georgian townhouses nestled in historic Greenwich, the story of how The Fan Museum came to fruition is interwoven with the fascinating biography of its founder, whose personal collection forms the basis of the Museum’s holdings. From an especially rare Elizabethan-period embroidered folding fan to contemporary examples decorated by street artists, discover some of the key objects within the Museum’s collection of 5,000+ fans dating from the tenth century to the present day.

Jacob Moss

Having obtained a postgraduate degree in Fashion Curation from London College of Fashion in 2010, Jacob took up a position at The Fan Museum, Greenwich, the UK’s only Museum dedicated to the history of fans and craft of fan making. As the Museum’s Curator, he is responsible for co-organising its temporary exhibition programme and overseeing loans from the Museum’s extraordinary collections to organisations such as the Palace of Versailles and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Looking ahead, in 2020 Jacob had hoped to curate an exhibition of The Fan Museum’s treasures at SCAD FASH, Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently working with the National Trust on a landmark exhibition to be staged at The Fan Museum in 2021, the year in which it celebrates its thirtieth anniversary.

The history of English garden design can be told in different ways, but rarely can it be told "through the lens" of one garden.  The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and its design bears all the hallmarks of 17th century design. Through the next 400 years successive Horti Praefecti (head gardeners) changed the features reflecting the art of gardening, and very occasionally the science of botany. This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed, or perhaps has not, in four centuries in Oxfordshire and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century. The title of the talk refers to the fact that one of the motivations for garden design remains the desire to create paradise on Earth. The meaning of paradise may now be less rooted in the Biblical account of the rise and fall of man, but there is still a clear vision of what we would like the world to resemble.

Timothy Walker

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

WOMEN BEHIND THE LENS: OUTSTANDING FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Brian Stater, lecturer

The work of women photographers has often been unfairly neglected. This lecture seeks to correct that by examining the contribution of three outstanding British practitioners; Julia Margaret Cameron, a Victorian pioneer; Jane Bown, a brilliant portraitist; and Fay Godwin, who excelled in landscape photography. We also explore the work of two highly influential Americans: Dorothea Lange, who produced brilliant documentary images and Annie Leibovitz, who continues to both surprise and delight her audience.

PARADISE LOST & RESTORED: 400 YEARS OF GARDEN DESIGN IN OXFORDSHIRE

Timothy Walker, lecturer

The history of English garden design can be told in different ways, but rarely can it be told "through the lens" of one garden.  The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and its design bears all the hallmarks of 17th century design. Through the next 400 years successive Horti Praefecti (head gardeners) changed the features reflecting the art of gardening, and very occasionally the science of botany. This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed, or perhaps has not, in four centuries in Oxfordshire and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century. The title of the talk refers to the fact that one of the motivations for garden design remains the desire to create paradise on Earth. The meaning of paradise may now be less rooted in the Biblical account of the rise and fall of man, but there is still a clear vision of what we would like the world to resemble.

To mark the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Sandy guides us through the life of this brilliant, cantankerous visionary and astonishingly original composer, a man who tore up the rule book of classical music. With visual images and examples of his music, Sandy will show us why Beethoven described himself as a ‘poet in sound’.

Sandy Burnett

Sandy is one of the UK’s most authoritative broadcasters in the field of classical music. His varied career has seen him as author, bassist, conductor, broadcaster and presenter, sharing his passion for music.

After studying music at St Catharine’s College in Cambridge, Sandy worked as music director for the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and in London’s West End.

Following this Sandy became a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3, where he stayed for more than a decade. His 26-part radio series for Irish radio station RTÉ Lyric FM, Great Moments in Classical Music won silver in the Specialist Music category of the PPI Radio Awards.

When he is not on our airwaves, Sandy is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, and presenter of a related online course covering a thousand years of classical music from the medieval to modern eras. He also devises and leads cultural lecture holidays across Europe to flagship events such as the Leipzig Bachfest and the Sibelius Festival in Finland.

Sandy became an accredited lecturer with The Arts Society in 2017. His lectures deconstruct and analyse some of the greatest works in the classical music repertoire, while placing them firmly in the cultural context of their time.

The exploration of one year capsulates its many aspects of decorative and fine art, demonstrating how these artistic forms reflected the period.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston

MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. Over 20 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Adult Education Department's programme of events. Also conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art. Over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register, National Trust. Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer. Recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

The lecture (11am) and lunch (12.45pm) take place in the Great Hall, Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre Bisham Village, Marlow Road Bisham. Marlow SL7 1RR.

The Bible gives us very little information about the wise men who came from the East bearing the famous gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. All reference to them is housed in the opening chapter of St Matthew's Gospel and what information is given is surrounded by ambiguity and approximation. However, by contrast, there is no shortage of music, poetry and art that has been inspired by these men, and this lecture examines the impact of the Three Kings on the culture of later generations.

Music performed includes: The Three Kings - Cornelius, The People that Walked in Darkness from Messiah - Handel, The Coventry Carol - Traditional, I Saw Three Ships - Traditional, Where is He that is Born King of the Jews? from Christus - F Mendelssohn.

Peter Medhurst

Peter is well-known in the world of the arts as a singer, pianist, scholar and lecturer, who in addition to his appearances on the concert platform and in the lecture hall, sets aside time to devise and lead tours abroad for small groups of art and music connoisseurs.  His particular interests are centred on the music, art and history of Vienna, Salzburg (with its strong Mozart link), Berlin, Halle (Handel’s birthplace), Dresden, Venice (Vivaldi’s birthplace), Rome, and Delft (with its Vermeer and 17th century Dutch School connections) and over the years Peter has been associated with a number of companies including Travel Editions, Cox and Kings, Success Tours, Heritage Travel, Tailored Travel, and Voyages to Antiquity.  Peter did his training at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

In the Elizabethan age, these exquisite miniatures capturing transient expressions (‘these stolen glances’) were regarded as jewels, to be held in the hand. Only about 1-2 inches in size, they were painted on vellum mounted on playing cards; the pleasurable symbolism of the hearts suit was chosen for pictures of spouses or lovers.

Miniatures provide a portrait of the age, from its monarchs and courtiers, to grand ladies, city merchants and military men. The tiny miniatures reproduce excellently on screen, showing every detail of the astonishingly elaborate costumes: even down to ruffs, which were worn ever larger, so that in the end even eating became difficult. 

'History painting’ was a special genre for a distinct clientele in the Dutch Republic. It depicted stories from especially the Bible and Antiquity with the aim of moving the viewer. However, it could also provide an excuse for depicting the female nude. Trained in history painting by Pieter Lastman, Rembrandt gradually developed his own interpretations of such stories as Bathsheba and David or Susanna and the Elders with greater emphasis on inner conflict and personal drama. His visions can still move or disturb us in ways quite different from depictions of the same stories by his contemporaries.

Sophie Oosterwijk 

Born in Gouda (Netherlands). Has an MA and PhD in English Literature (Leiden), an MA in Medieval Studies (York) and a PhD in Art History (Leicester). Has taught at the universities of St Andrews, Leicester, Nottingham and Manchester, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, National Trust, V&A, U3A, WEA and other organisations, and organised many study days, tours and visits. Also a regular lecturer for Cambridge University and Martin Randall Travel, and Honorary Research Fellow with the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews. Numerous publications. 

The Sainte Chapelle is a gem of beauty and technical innovation in the heart of Paris, possibly the most perfect surviving medieval ensemble. It was designed not only to celebrate France and its kings, but as a life-size reliquary, a worthy shrine for some of the most significant and talismanic of Christian remains, including the Crown of Thorns. Built in a mere 5 years (1243-1248), this extraordinary survival captures the best of the arts at a precise moment in time, summoned up by all the resources available to a king. This lecture looks at the architecture, the sculpture but, above all, the exquisite stained glass, setting Louis IX in the company of the blessed and turning the interior into a floating vision of heaven on earth.

Nicole Mezey

Nicole studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris. She was Senior Lecturer at Queen's University until 2009, working primarily with adults, managing and teaching on both the Part-Time degree and Extra-Mural programmes and conducting annual, international study tours. She also established the Department of Art History, the first in the north of Ireland. Nicole now lives in central London and is a freelance lecturer, working for organisations including National Museums, the National Trust, Queen's University and private cultural bodies. She is a guide lecturer for tours and will shortly embark on her second lecture tour of New Zealand for The Arts Society and ADFAS in Australia. Her publications focus on adult education and the arts.

10.30AM

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Originally designed for the Great Exhibition of 1851, then transported to Sydenham and rebuilt and enlarged, the Crystal Palace was Joseph Paxton's masterpiece, and was the largest iron and glass building ever constructed.  It dominated the south London skyline for over 80 years until its tragic destruction by fire in 1936.  This is its story.

Ian began his career as an engineer, designing extensions to the London Underground. However, most of his working life has been spent in the theatre,  mainly in opera and musical theatre, as a director, set designer and opera translator. Ian has also worked in television, music publishing, travel and tourism.

10.30AM

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Fine Art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their creative campaigns.

Tony Rawlins describes some of the processes by which these advertisements have been created with the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo being a particularly rich source. From the Renaissance, through to the present day, fine art continues to provide opportunities to enhance Brand imagery with admiration, humour, satire and irony.

Tony Rawlins started his career in advertising in 1965 as a mail boy in J. Walter Thompson. He worked as account director in a number of agencies before setting up on his own in 1985, primarily to handle Guinness accounts in Africa and the Caribbean, where he produced many commercials and ads for them over a period of 15 years. He remains active in the industry, but now concentrates on more philanthropic projects, such as a sanitation project in Haiti after it was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. 

Please Note New Time - 10.15 am Earlier Start to allow time for the AGM

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Road and rail, sea and air, the infrastructure of travel has provided many architectural treasures from the thatched petrol station of Blashford Hampshire to the futuristic styling of Los Angeles airport. This lecture examines the art and architecture of travelling and includes often overlooked gems including as bus and railway stations, travel posters and tube stations. It examines leading artists and architects in the sphere of travel, including John Hassall, Fougasse, Leslie Green, and Richard Rogers. 

Sarah holds a First Class BA in Art History from Reading University, an MA in World Art Studies from the University of East Anglie and a PhD in Architectural History, also from Reading.  She lectured for 10 years at Reading and at the University of East Anglia and now works as a freelance lecturer and adult education provider.  She has published articles and a book chapter on the architect Francesco di Giorgio and is currently researching the development of the Riddlesworth estate with a view to future publication.

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Coleridge, Constable, Wordsworth and Turner lived and worked in many regions of Britain, thus becoming the Art Geographers of their time, so this is an opportunity to experience the excitement of intimate landscape discovery in their work. We explore how geology, place, weather and flora all played an active role in the work of Romantic painters and poets. The talk considers not so much how artists made landscape, but how landscape made artists. From this point of view, Cezanne was not the father of Cubism, but the child of Provence. The speaker, who is a landscape painter himself, uses his experience to throw fresh light on familiar paintings.

Stephen is ex-resident Artist Felsted School; post graduate work on John Constable at Essex University, visiting lecturer at the Inchbald School of Design, London and professional painter specialising in landscape.

Recent exhibitions: one man show at King’s College Cambridge 2002; Olympia (Mark Jason Fine Art) 2003; Art London (Vertigo Gallery) 2003. Bernarduccui Meisel New York 2005; Vertigo “Oak” 2006; OK Harris, New York, 2007. Pictures in private collections world-wide.

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For the series “Downton Abbey” Andrew was commissioned to make many jewels for the main characters and this inspired him to create a talk based on Downton and the changing styles of jewels and fashion portrayed.  

In his talk, Andrew will guide us through the extraordinary periods and events between 1890 and 1929 where the great Couturiers collaborated with the finest of jewellers to produce jewels of outstanding quality and glittering opulence.   Along with this, he discusses the clients and patrons who commissioned the jewels and shows how they were worn with sumptuous gowns.

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What other family in the twentieth century managed to amass such extraordinary art collections, and design or purchase such astounding buildings to display their collections? This lecture looks at the beginning of both Solomon’s and Peggy’s collections in New York City, with artists they acquired such as Kandinsky and Pollock, and traces the development and expansion of their collections over more than half a century, by which time the Guggenheim name had become synonymous with some of the most inspiring art and museums in the world.

Andrew 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 Architectural Historians (GB).

He was a Fellow at Harvard University's Villa I Tatti in Florence in 2003-2004, and in 2009 was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.  

Rosamund will help us explore the rich tradition of religious and folk customs associated with the Christmas period in Russia. How they are reflected in Russian arts, with musical illustrations. The lecture also discusses the secular Christmas celebrations introduced by Peter the Great, transformations by Stalin during Soviet times and what Christmas means to Russians today.

Rosamund is the author of several books, including biographies of Tolstoy and Chekhov, whose works she has also translated for Oxford World’s Classics. She has extensive experience lecturing in Russian cultural history at venues such as the V&A, the National Theatre and Covent Garden, and broadcasts regularly on the BBC.

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The story of one of the greatest theatrical collaborations: Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, whose team of dancers, choreographers and costume and set designers transformed expectations of what a night in the theatre could be, and the circumstances behind its most notorious stage work of all.

Sandy examines the build up to the premiere in Paris of "The Rite of Spring", takes a look at the original costumes, plays excerpts from this fascinatingly inventive score, and explores what divided opinions of that first night audience quite so dramatically. No, nothing could top the riot at the Rite in 1913……..

Sandy is one of the UK’s most authoritative broadcasters in the field of classical music. His varied career has seen him as author, bassist, conductor, broadcaster and presenter, sharing his passion for music.

After studying music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy Burnett spent a decade as one of the core team of music presenters on BBC Radio 3. 

His 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.

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Tasha's talk will provide a whistle-stop tour of the history of food as an artistic medium, starting with 16th century sugar sculpture and venturing all the way up to 3D dessert printing and beyond!

Tasha Marks is an award-winning food historian and artist, who explores the relationship between food, art and history. Her practice, AVM Curiosities, champions the use of food as an artistic medium, with projects ranging from museum-style exhibitions and sculptural installations, to interactive lectures and limited-edition confectionery.

Recent academic achievements include publication in the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, where Marks authored the entry on Mrs Beeton, one of the Victorian era’s most influential cooks.

The Great Western is the least known of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s three ships, being overshadowed by the later careers of the Great Britain and the Great Eastern. However, the Great Western was the first great success, confounding the critics in becoming the fastest ship to steam continuously across the Atlantic, and began the era of luxury transatlantic liners. It was a bold venture by Brunel and his colleagues, who were testing the limits of known technology.

This lecture examines the businessmen, the shipbuilding committee and Brunel and looks at life on board for the crew and the passengers using diaries from the United States and England. The ship’s first voyage made headline news in New York and London and involved a race with the small steamship Sirius. The Great Western’s maiden voyage was a triumph, and this wooden paddle steamer became the wonder of her age. She linked antebellum New York with the London of Charles Dickens and the youthful Queen Victoria. The ship continued to carry the rich and the famous across the Atlantic for eighteen years.

Helen Doe is a historian, author and speaker with a particular love of maritime subjects. It is people, often the ordinary and, sometimes unsung, heroes and heroines that attract her attention. Her latest book, The First Atlantic Liner, features the stories of the passengers and crew on Brunel’s first ship which linked Bristol, Liverpool and New York. She was co editor and major contributer to the award winning The Maritime History of Cornwall and her PhD research led to the groundbreaking Enterprising Women in Shipping in Nineteenth Century. She has appeared on many Radio 4 programmes and on TV. 

She is a Fellow of the University of Exeter, where she teaches part-time on a range of courses and supervises postgraduates. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Trustee of the British Commission for Maritime History.

Britain's oldest fine arts institution celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2018.  The Royal Acaemy has an illustrious history  and we contemplate its past and review its various homes before settling on its current Mayfairr home in Burlington House. The talk would not be complete without a behind the scenes look at the Summer Exhibition. The Summer Exhibition has been held without interruption since 1769. We also consider the influence of certain world-renowned Royal Academicians, exemplary artists in their chosen field and also the pivotal role played by the RA Schools.

To mark the centenary of women first getting the vote, this 2018 lecture will explore the story of the suffragettes through portrayals in art and their own artistic productions, and will look at how contemporary artists choose to portray female politicians in our own time and the controversies surrounding these depictions.

Pablo Picasso is the most famous artist ever. This lecture will trace the development of the artist's long life (1881 - 1973) and career from his highly accomplised beginnings in a traditional style via a variety of artistic experiments to the invention of a totally new way of seeing:- Cubisim, Painter; draughtsman, sculptor and ceramicist, Picasso revolutionised all hitherto accepted modes.  Twentieth century art cannot be understood without assesssing Picasso's important achievements.

This lecture by Hilary Williams will explore an era where collecting was at the height of fashion. and we will discover the personalities who helped form these famous collections and how the Wallace Collection in London influenced the connoisseurship which led to the formation of the Frick Collection, New York. How was that? Firstly, there was an international circle of collectors including Baron Ferdinand von Rothschild JP Morgan, the Astors, Isabella Stewart Gardner and others of the American ‘Gilded Age’. Secondly, an employee of the Wallace was hired by American industrialist Henry Clay Frick, to help make a superb collection. Then Frick left his fortune to the mother of Vita Sackville-West.

Pop Art is a figurative, realist, brightly-coloured response to the modern world of consumerism, youth culture and the mass media in Britain and the USA.  Inspired by popular and commercial culture, Pop artists were fascinated with their own modern era - the post-war world of advertising, Holywood films, pop music, comics and the cult of celebrity.

The Inventors of Christmas.

Everyone knows the ingredients of a traditional Christmas gathering round the Christmas tree, pulling crackers, eating Christmas pudding and mince pies.  Those last-minute cards sent to people you've not seen all year.

These are the festive celebrations with which most of us grew up and the stoll hold a special magic as representing timeless Christmasses of days gone by.  But where did they start?

Please note the lecture and lunch will be at The Denham Golf Club. The address of the Golf Club is Tilehouse Lane UB9 5DE

The Heidelberg School shelters under its own unique umbrella taking their academic influences equally from the Royal Academy School in London and the French Impressionists.  Key members were Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin and Charles Condier and their art evolved from informal, evocative into naturalistic expression.  In 1901 McCubbin bought a cottage on Mount Macedon, its surroundings became the inspiration for some of his best known works. 

'Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall'. Bess of Hardwick is one of the most fascinating woman of the sixteenth century and her most famous building, Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, survives as a fine example of Elizabethan creatvity, magnificence and pride. We will examine Bess's story, her rising social status, her association with Mary, Queen of Scots, her many husbands and her royal aspirations.

Windows into the Colourful Roman World.

The Romans have left us with a remarkable artistic record of their lifestyle, beliefs, achievements and entertainment in the form of beautiful mosaics. This lavishly illustrated lecture uses only mosaics from start to finish, bringing the distant world of the Romans gloriously back to life with vibrant, colourful images full of action.

Christopher Bradley is an expert in the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa and has a broad range of lecturing experience, including to the Royal Geographical Society and the RIBA and has made televison documentaries.

Be prepared to be surprised at the amount of art and design involved with creating a passport in order to confound the forger.

Accomplished botanical painter and inveterate traveller, Marianne North led an unconventional life capturing the essence of rare plants. This talk will explore both the life and social context of Marianne North, including an examination of why her paintings troubled deeply conservative  Victorian society and the eventual creation of her gallery.

Dr Anderson, who has visited the Society previously, is currently an Hon. Associate Professor at Exeter University and a tutor at the V&A.

Her lecture covering Tallinn and Riga will give members a taste of the society’s cultural tour to these cities in September.  Tallinn is perhaps the prettiest of the Baltic capitals with its web of winding cobblestone streets and here the power of Russia is visible in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Riga is the “Little Paris of the North” with its boulevards and Opera House and is famous for its fantastical Art Nouveau apartment blocks.

There  is something incomparably romantic about a long-lost country house. A single ruined lodge or pavilion, an over-grown drive or group of mature trees are sometimes all that now exists to remind us of their existence. This lecture tells the story of just some of these losses to our National Heritage - destroyed for a variety of reasons; from neglect, arson, enemy action, incompetence, family rivalry, financial disaster or insanity.  Hundreds were demolished after 1945 - some beautiful, some ugly but each fascinating.

This lecture illustrates the book as a three dimensional object, from pop-ups, peep-shows, hidden compartments and intriguing surprises. Dominic will show work from his favourite book artists, including examples of experimental book structures he has collected and some he has made himself as part of his interest in the creative genre.

The library at Windsor Castle is used by the Queen to show to her guests after dinner parties, the great range of fascinating objects associated with the history of Britain and the Royal family. This lecture gives a tour of the Library similar to that experienced by the Queen's guests and constitutes a rare opportunity to see its rooms and treasures which include beautiful and rare books and manuscripts.

The talk will precede the lunch both of which will be held at Beaconsfield Golf Club.

This talk gives a behind the scenes look at The Antiques Roadshow.  It shows how the programmes are made with insights into the selection of particular objects for recording.

There will be anecdotes of some of the more amusing moments that have ended up on the cutting room floor.

Our lecture celebrates 300 years of Capability Brown who is an English landscape architect who is remembered as the last of the great English 18th century artists and England's greatest gardener.

There is more to Street Art than Banksy - Hidden Canvasses is a beginners' guide to the biggest art movement since pop art. It explores the key stages in its growth from the international superstars to the local heroes of the underground.  Doug Gillen is heavily involved in documenting the street art scene in London and abroad. 

The Story of Victorian City Parks and Gardens.

After the AGM and lecture at the Chalfont St. Peter’s Community Centre, the outgoing Chairman will host a Farewell Lunch. This event will conclude a three year period of office which included the CDFAS Golden Jubilee Year. Following members’ overwhelmingly positive response to last year’s visit to Glyndebourne arranged by the Chairman, it is planned to follow the Lunch with 40 minutes of popular opera. This will be presented by the trainees at the National Opera Studio, who everyone so much enjoyed at the Glyndebourne event.

Chairman’s Farewell Lunch 12.45 pm on 28th April 2016 at the Kings Chapel, Kings Arms Hotel, Amersham. Cost: £25.00 per person.

Download the PDF booking form - Flyer for Chairman’s Lunch - from the Documents tab on the About Us page. 

For all other associated AGM documents please click on the relevant links below.

CDFAS Chairmans Report on 2015 

Lecture.

To mark the 200th anniversary of The Parthenon Sculptures.

The Day Parliament Burned Down

Christmas at Covent Garden

The lecture will precede the lunch at The Kings Arms, Amersham

We have celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the ChilternDFAS by reproducing the very first meeting held by Patricia Fay in the Long Room at the Manor House, Chenies and in May with a grand lunch at Blenheim Palace in the presence of NADFAS Patron, HRH the Duchess of Gloucester. The principal objective of these events was to honour the fulfilment of an idea, the genesis of NADFAS.

The final celebratory event reflects the early founders’ determination that there should be a seriousness of purpose about our activities. Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford has agreed to give a lecture on: “The extent to which Museums can influence our understanding of the past and our place in the world today.” The recently elected National Chairman, June Robinson has accepted an invitation to attend and several Heads of Art Galleries, Academies, Colleges and Institutions have agreed to attend. This special lecture will be held at the Wallace Collection at 3pm on the 14th October and there will be an opportunity of speaking to our official guests afterwards over a cup of tea. Members should be away just after 5pm. Places will be allocated on first come first served basis.

Reflecting the last 50 years followed by an afternoon visit to the Gallery.

To Mark 800 years of The Magna Carta (Afternoon visit to the British Library)

A preliminary look at some of the recently revealed Mercian royal treasures from Staffordshire and their relation to other Anglo-Saxon artistic wonder-finds, such as those found aboard the ship berthed beneath Mound One at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Taken together, these discoveries illuminate a lost chapter in the history of art in Britain.

The traditional 2 course Christmas Lunch with coffee will take place at THE KINGS CHAPEL, THE KINGS ARMS, OLD AMERSHAM, HP7 0DJ on Wednesday 10th December 2014. Coffee:10.30am, Lecture: 11am, (Please note the Lecture is before Lunch), Lunch: 12.30pm. THE COST OF THE LUNCH IS £27.50. The booking form can be downloaded from the Documents section on the About Us page of this website.

Charles Hajdamach is a former Director of Bradfield House Glass Museum and one of the top authorities on glass in the country. He is a contributor to numerous books and magazines and lectures internationally to glass museums and collectors' societies. He is the President of the Glass Association which he was instrumental in founding.

In terms of international standing Danish design came to the fore in the 20th century. Anne graduated in Art History and Archaeology from Leicester University. She is currently Hon. Research Fellow at Exeter University and as well as lecturing on cruises has also been on BBC’s Flog It!