This lecture explores gender in modern British sculpture through the lives and times of Barbara Hepworth and Elisabeth Frink. Hepworth is often overshadowed by Henry Moore and other male artists, which does a disservice to her work, where she took abstract sculpture to new levels of expressiveness and lyricism. Born a generation later, Frink ranks alongside Hepworth as a great British sculptor of the 20th century. The subjects for her work were usually birds, horses and men.

Ray studied Social Sciences at the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies. These studies led to a career in health and social care, with art being an evening and weekend passion. But all that changed in 2011, when Ray became a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Then from 2014 to 2017, he studied art history at the Open University, and then at the University of Buckingham. Ray also knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of lectures as he is a member of his local Arts Society in Blackheath.

The 'Night Watch' of 1642 is Rembrandt's greatest painting and the most famous painting in the Netherlands. But why is it so special? It has become an icon of the Golden Age and of the modern Dutch Nation. Why? How was it commissioned and constructed?  How did Rembrandt paint it and where has it been hung throughout its life? Who are the characters represented? Why is there a lone woman and what is meant by the dead chicken trussed up in her waistband?

Hilary Williams was formerly a curator and Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, and is now an Art History Education Officer in the Department of Learning & National Partnerships at the Museum. She lectures for BM and Wallace Collection and is a founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society of North Kent Evening.  She specialises in 17th century art and has published on Rembrandt.

This lecture will examine the provocative and often beautiful work of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in the context of dissident art in China, Europe and South America, and examine some of his sources of inspiration, including the Russian Constructivist, Vladimir Tatlin and the leading Dada artist, Marcel Duchamp.

Frank Woodgate is a Lecturer and Guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, for the Art Fund, the National Trust, U3A and other organisations. He has lectured for Dulwich Picture Gallery, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester and on cruises on behalf of Tate. Previously he was a script-writer for The Living Paintings Trust (art for the visually-impaired).

Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary in 1923 that she longed to escape ‘the damned egotistical self’ in her novels. Woolf’s own theories of elusive character in fiction suggest that it is harder to pin this iconic writer down than critics often make out.

Benedict Morrison is a lecturer in Literature and Film at the University of Exeter. He has recently published a book entitled 'Complicating Articulation in Art Cinema' with Oxford University Press and is now producing works on post-war British comedy films, the response by the arts and humanities to Covid-19, and cultural narratives of extinction.

This lecture will showcase many of the most important works by these two great artists, who from 1508 both worked in Rome for the great renaissance pope Julius II. We will look at the Pietà and Moses sculptures before focusing on Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Raphael’s decoration of the papal apartment.

Stuart is a “History and Art Communicator” of 30 years experience. He is a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide and also a Guida Turistica Abilitata della Provincia di Roma. He has worked in educational tourism since 1992, leading study tours all over Europe. Living in Rome since 2003, Stuart has developed a great love for the Eternal City and its many treasures.

The Alhambra of Granada, the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Alcazar of Seville are the three most impressive monuments to the architectural creativity of the Moors in Spain, but there are many other examples worthy of mention too. The classical origins that influenced the Moorish style are less well-known, but fascinating to explore, as too is the unique interior decorative style developed by the Moors, which gives their architecture its beauty and exotic appeal.

Ian Cockburn is an Art Historian with a BA (Birkbeck College) in art history and an MA (Courtauld Institute of Art) in medieval Spanish art history. He is a specialist in the nearly 800 years of Moorish occupation and Christian reconquest of medieval Iberia.  Besides lectures for The Arts Society, he also gives occasional lectures at institutions such as the V&A, SOAS, Christies Education, and the London Art History Society.  He was formerly a Chartered Accountant and senior manager in multi-national IT companies.

Klimt was one of the most prominent figures in the Viennese fin de siècle, creating paintings whose sexual themes and bold use of colour and gold shocked an unsuspecting populace. Less is known about his early years as a muralist for the grand municipal buildings and royal and aristocratic palaces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A writer and broadcaster, Gavin Plumley appears on BBC Radio 3 and 4, contributes to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide and lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe. Recent appearances include Klimt and The Kiss in cinemas worldwide, and talks for the Hay and Cheltenham Literature Festivals, the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery.

This 2022 film, directed by Margy Kinmonth, is the first major feature length film to be made about Eric Ravilious, the much loved but vastly underestimated landscape painter who became the first British War Artist to die in the Second World War.  The film features conversations with Ravilious admirers Ai Weiwei, Grayson Perry, Alan Bennett and Robert Macfarlane.

Many Impressionist artists were well known for their images of female figures engaged in contemporary everyday activities, and a number of critics reviewing their exhibitions regarded Impressionism as a quintessentially ‘feminine’ style. But what can these images tell us about nineteenth-century lived experience and the choices and processes involved in image-making?

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.

Picture - Berthe Morisot 'Woman at her Toilette' 1875-80 Oil, 60.3 x 80.4cm

(The Art Institute of Chicago, Stickney Fund)

From those gorgeous 1930s travel posters, through nationalisation of the railways in 1948, with their bright regional colours, to the creation of the famous BR Double-Arrow symbol in the 1960s...it's surprising how British railways have led the way in terms of design.

Mark Ovenden is a broadcaster and author who's sold a quarter of a million books and appeared on many TV and radio programmes. He specialises in the subjects of industrial design and architecture - especially in the world of public transport. His first book (a New York Times "Bestseller") was a guide to the maps of Transit systems across the planet and it's been re-issued many times. His works include two books about the Paris Metro and others about: Railway Maps, the New York Subway; the London Underground; typeface design; Manchester's Metrolink; Airline Maps; Underground Cities and Cartography design.

What is the place of the artist?  What is the role of the art critic?  How should we think about the arts?  How can we discuss the arts in a productive and creative way?  

Mark Fisher is a freelance theatre critic and has written about theatre since the late 1980's.  He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor for The List magazine and a contributor to publications all over the world.

Roosevelt's response to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 was the 'New Deal' that gave employment to milliions, and importantly, 5,300 artists.  We explore some of the key artists of the era including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Dorothea Lange and Ben Shahn, all to the era's soundtrack of Woody Guthrie and Jimmie Rogers.

John Francis: He is an inspirational speaker who has delivered lectures in the US, Beijing, Malaysia and the UK.  He initially trained as a painter and was awarded the Max Beckman Memorial Scholarship in painting in Brooklyn, New York, and went on to be painter in residence for the state of Texas.  Later in his career he directed and produced several short films and animations.

Three composers who revolutionised opera in the 20th century.  Romantic heart breakers, mystery and magic, and breath taking melodramatic tear jerkers from masters of theatricality.

Jamie Hayes After training at RADA Jamie graduated as a Stage Manager and subsequently worked for Glynebourne Festival Opera, Bristol Old Vic and the BBC.  He has directed many new opera productions in the UK and abroad.

The 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 of these new 'Cathedrals of Desire'.

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. 

Decoding old paintings alongside the work of modern historians we will look at hidden worlds in the Renaissance.  We discover wonder and drama in ordinary lives and look at complexities of religion and politics, the senses and appetites of body and soul.

Sarah Dunant: Novelist, broadcaster and critic.  Sarah read history at Cambridge and 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/Free Thinking (BBC Radio 3).  She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's A Point of View. Her last 5 novels have been set in the Renaissance.

Almost everyone has played Monopoly at some stage of their life.  We look at the origins of the game, and the renowned London version, including properties that do not exist and many other surprises.

Roger Mendham: A keen and accomplished photographer, Roger has gained Distinctions from the Royal  Photographic Society and is currently the President of the Surrey Photographic Association.  His artistic taste is predominantly 20th century and he is particularly interested in the visual aspects of art.

Richard Dadd started as a promising artist but became forgotten to the world for the last 40 years of his life.  At the age of 26 he stabbed his father to death and was imprisoned for he rest of his life in Bethlehem Hospital and Broadmoor.  He continued drawing and painting, developing a style of fantasy and fairy pictures which has influenced many later artists.

Nicole Mezey studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Higher Education Academy

This lecture looks at Banksy's story from his origins in Bristol to becoming one of the best known names in the art world.  We look at his stunts, his influence and his potential legacy - if any.

Ray Warburton has been an accredited lecturer with The Arts Society since 2017.  He lectures on a range of subjects - from Turner and Constable, to the Bloomsbury Group, to Street Art.  He is a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and has a MA in Art History.

The mass migration of French Protestant Huguenots in the 16th and 17th Centuries impacted (amongst other things) the arts sectors of the countries in which they settled.  This lecture focuses on three areas of the arts in the UK that came in with the Huguenots - the Baroque style of Versailles, the growth of the silk weaving industry and the French Rococo style in silver and in ceramics

Viv Lawes is an Art historian, curator, author and joournalist with over 25 years' experience in the art market.  She teaches at several Higher Education institutions including the university of the Arts London, Sotheby's Institute of Art, the City& Guilds of London Art School, SOAS and Imperial College.

There were Three Gifts - Gold, Frankincense and Myrhh.  But were there really Three Kings?  Were they really wise, given that they advised Herod of Jesus's birth!!??

Tony Rawlins started his career in advertising in 1965 with J. Walter Thompson.  He graduated through the training system there to become an account director and subsequently worked in a number of agencies before setting up on his own in 1985.  He remains active as a consultant in the industry, but more recently has concentrated on more philanthropic projects. 

This lecture will be held at Bourne Hall as the Epsom Playhouse is not available due to the annual Christmas Panto

This lecture traces the history of the Cartoonist from early practitioners such as Hogarth to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz.  We will be brought bang up to date with cartoons from that morning's media, and we will learn a few tricks of the trade.

Harry Venning is a cartoonist, comedy writer and performer based in Brighton.  His cartoons have appeared in publications as diverse as Mathmatics Today, Radio Times, Music Teacher and The Stage.  For 20 years he provided The Guardian with the weekly strip cartoon Clare in the Community, about an unaware and empathy free social worker.

Thre fascinating lectures focussing on :

Curves, Colour and Cool

Frank Thrower and Dartington Glass

Hot Stuff - the Birth of Studio Glass

In 1925 sixteen 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?  How did this Exhibition play such a major role in the developmant of the global style now known as Art Deco?

Pamela Campbell Johnston has over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts. 

The ancient Egyptian Pharaoh was by definition male; the embodiment of the god horus on earth.  So, could a woman become king?  She could...but not many did.  We learn of the rise to power of the 18th dynasty queen Hatshepsut (C1479 - c1458BC), of her extraodrdinary achievements as pharoah and why her name was later removed from monuments and her depictions excised.  The art of her reign is intriguing - Hatshepsut is sometimes represented as a woman and at other times as a strong bare-chested male ruler.

Lucia Gahlin: Egyptologist who works in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but mainly lectures.  Honorary Reserch Associate at University College London's Institute of Archeology.  She has taught Egyptology at several UK universities and works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology in London and also leads tours to Egypt.

Shrines, stupas, cave temples, grandeur and modernist architecture - a look at the history of this beautiful island through its intriguing art and architecture.  For much of Sri Lanka's past, Buddhist and Hindu have lived alongside each other peaceably, and much of its culture is evidence of this spirit of tolerance and generosity.  This talk examines the fascinating story of Sri Lankan art and the original minds, talents and spirits that created this unique visual world.

Georgina Bexon: She is an art historian specialising in South Asian art and has lived and worked in the UK, the USA and Singapore.  Her practice includes lecturing, writing, consulting and collecting, and she has developed a network of gallery and artist connections in Europe, the USA and India.

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 events such as the State Opening of Parliament, State Visits, National Day of Remembrance, Royal Weddings or even a State Funeral?

Graham Jones: Dr Graham Jones started his professional life as a musician in the British Army and over a glittering career spanning nearly 40 years he retired as the Senior Director of Music, Household Division, and Director of Music, Coldstream Guards, a position unequalled throughout military music in Great Britain.  In 1993 he was made a Member of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen for outstanding service to military music.

Best known for his appearances as his feminine alto ego, Claire, Grayson Perry is now a core part of the establishment, a Turner Prize winner, Royal Academician, popular broadcaster and colourful character.  We examine Grayson Perry's work, his excititing and thought-provoking exhibitions, and the unique character inside the flamboyant frocks.

Ian Swankie: A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, he is an official guide for Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul's Cathedral.  Since 2012 he has led a popular independent art lecture group in his home town of Richmond, West London.

This lecture looks at paintings from the 14th to the 20th centuries and examines the way artists have used signs and symbols to give deeper layers of meaning to their work.

Val Woodgate: She is currently a Lecturer for Tate Britain, Tate Modern, The Art Fund, the National Trust, U3A, City of London Libraries (Barbican and Guildhall) 

A favourite of King James 1 and later, chief minister to King Charles 1, Bucking surrounded himself with beautiful things and was not just a collector, but a discerning patron of boldly innovative new works.  Contemporary inventories allow us to reconstruct his collection that was scattered upon his murder, aged 35.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett: She is a cultural historian and biographer and an award-winning author of both  non-fiction and fiction.  A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literarure and the Historical Association, she has written on books, theatre and the visual 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.  

Jan van der Heyden's reputation pales in comparison with the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci, but his career at the height of the Dutch Golden Age was no less extraordinary.  He was a briliant painter and draughtsman, producing wonderful views of Amsterdam and other cities.  But he was also an inventor, entrepreneur, administrator and marketing genius.  We will take a close look at his career from his meticulous cityscapes, through the detailed drawings of his inventions to the surprising vanitas still-life paintings he produced at the end of his career.

 Rupert Dickens is an art historian with a special interest in Dutch and Flemish 16th and 17th century painting.  He studied art history at Birbeck College before undertaking a Masters in Dutch Golden Age Studies at University College London.  He now works at the Wallace Collection as a guide, conducting public and private tours and lecturing on aspects of the collection.

The Nutcracker ballet has delighted audiences at Christmas for many decades, yet it was deemed a failure at its initial performances.  Based upon the current Royal Ballet production by Sir Peter Wright, this lecture takes a close look at how this well-loved ballet now takes its rightful place on stage and how the music of Tchaikovsky along with story-telling, design, dance and a little bit of stage ingenuity, all come together to make the most magical escape for young and old alike.  

Nigel Bates has been a performer for more than forty years in and out of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, including seventeen years as Principal Percussionist with the orchestra and eight years as the Music Administrator of the Royal Ballet.  He has worked with many of the leading figures of the classical music industry.  He is a regular contributor to the printed and online content of the ROH.

Ealing studios is often hailed as the most quintessentially English of all film studios.  The studio reached its zenith in 1949, releasing Passport to Pimlico, Whiskey Galore! and Kind Hearts and Coronets.  Now most celebrated for these and the similarly magnificent comedies that followed, Ealing's films have a reputation for cosiness, whimsicality and an ever-so gentle subversiveness.  This talk revisits these films and reads them again, this time in the light of the post-war new waves that were beginning to emerge across Europe.  Ealing films - like the masterpieces of italian neo-realism - are films set among the ruins, documenting the lives of citizens in bombed cities.  Viewed as comedies of rubble, they take on a far more serious set of meanings than their whimsical reputation suggests.

Benedict Morrison is a lecturer in Literature and Film at the University of Exeter.  He has recently published a book, entitled Complicating Articulation in Art Cinema and is now producing works on post-war British comedy films, the response by the arts and humanities to Covid 19, and cultural narratives of extinction.

At this Special Interest Day, Charlie Foreman will lead us through 1000 years of the history of our Royal Palaces, before introducing us to John Nash's grand plans for the thoroughfares of the West End.  Finally he will reveal how the Regent's Canal linked the inland waterways, railway termini and the Thames dockyards. Three richly coloured lectures will connect us with the rich and vibrant history of London for the past millennium.

Lecture 1.  One Westminster, Six Royal Palaces

Lecture 2.  How the West (End) was Won.  A John Nash Production

Lecture 3. The Regent's Canal

See the Special Interest page for more details

Bulgaria's rich and varied cultural history deserves to be better known.  The lecture illustrates the Christian history of the country through its monasteries, concentratiing on their fascinating frescos and icons and explaining their religious significance.  The lecture includes prehistoric Thracian tombs, Roman public buildings and beautifully conserved vernacular archirecture from the Ottoman period.  This lecture will suit those who appreciate religious art in it cultural context.

John Osborne  Graduated in classics at Cambridge University.  Worked for the British Council in Iran ansd Turkey and lectures in Islamic civilization.  Leader of numerous study tours to Bulgaria, Romania, Iran, and Turkey and to other countries in SE Europe and the Mediterranean.

Introducing the craft and art of glass making from 2500BC to Renaissance Venice.   This exquisite art form is traced through the centuries from Mesopotamia in the 3rd milllenium , through the Egyptian and Roman Empires to the glass houses of Byzantium, and finally to the island of Murano where glass-making was developed into a high art for 400 years from 1300-1700 

CAROLINE MACDONALD-HAIG is a Design and Decorative Arts journalist and author. A London Blue Badge Guide, specialising in themed tours for American Museums and Art Galleries. Her specialist subjects include the history of glass and London's history, galleries, museums and architecture. She is a freelance lecturer for Adult Education Groups. Enjoys devising tours, lecturing and study days based in and around London.

From the 1880's the work of Stanhope Forbes, Walter Langley, Frank Bramley and others began to be recognised as a discrete school.  Examining the process of that recognition, there will be a discussion of how the work of the Newlyn-based artists responded to international movements and ultimately how they came into conflict with trends elsewhere in British art.

Alan Read, who holds Master's and First Class honours degrees in History of Art from Birbeck College, University of London, is a gallery guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery.  He is also a London Blue Badge Guide and City of London Guide. 

This is a narrative approach to the revival of 15th century carpets in Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan.  Illuminations on vellum - containing the only surviving representations of textiles from this era - flourish, despite the Islamic prohibition on representative art - and are all we had left of Timurid Carpets, until Chris Alexander's workshop began to work them to life again. The lecture will examine the traditional role of carpet weaving and embroidery in the social lives of Central Asian women and how the social and political influences led to the decline of textile production.  How do the constraints of gender inequality, corruption and the sourcing of natural dyes from neighbouring Afghanistan continue to challenge attempts at reviving the rich textile heritage of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand?

Chris Alexander (Aslan) was born in Turkey but grew up in war-torn Beirut.  After studying at Leicester university he moved to Khiva, a desert oasis in Uzbekistan where he established a UNESCO workshop reviving fifteenth century carpet designs and embroideries.  He spent several years working in the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,and Kyrgystan before returning to study at Oxford. He has written a number of books - both fiction and on travel and textiles, and he also leads tours to Central Asia.

'Oh, modest, pliant clay, where would Mankind be without clay?'

No cities of brick or concrete; no tablets with written ancient records; no pots for harvest storage or transport; no amphorae for shipping of wine and oils across the Med.; no terracotta armies, nor the funerary offerings escorting dead warriors into the hereafter; no art Society talks; no space-shots; no new hip joints or replacement molars; no germ-free wares for dining or drinking; no pristine white paper..... through all the many steps of Civilization clay continues to play its part.

Since his debut in 1986 on the Antiques Roadshow (and all series since), Lars Tharp has spoken widely within and beyond the UK.  With over 40 years of experience in ceramics and other areas, he delivers compelling lectures with enthusiasm and humour.  He was born in Copenhagen and studied Archaeology at Cambridge.  He joined Sothebys and as a director and auctioneer, he specialized in Chinese and European ceramics.

Three lectures exploring the lives and deaths of the people who lived in and around Pompeii 2,000 years ago.

Lecture 1: Digging Deeper in Pompeii

Lecture 2: Welcome to Pompeii

Lecture 3 The Big Picture - a 2,000 year Old Way of Life and Death.

Please refer to our Special Interest Day page for full details of this event.

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.  This lecture tells the fascinating story of how painting and architecture went their separate ways, exploring the complex reasons behind their dramatic divorce.

Embracing the likes of Michelangelo, Watteau, Whistler and Matisse, this broad-ranging survey culminates with the Bauhaus and its legacy in the USA - and ends by asking whether the partnership between art and architecture might be revived in the 21st Century.

Richard Whincop is a professional artist who graduated in English and Art History from York University in 1986.  He was a lecturer at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities from 1988 - 1994 and then went on to be a full-time figurative artist, executing large-scale public commissions and exhibiting widelly throughout the UK.

In 1565, Pieter Breugel 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 backdrop to dramas both religious and profane, but in Breugel'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 leccture explores how Breugel pioneered a whole new way of thinking about our environment and our place within a shifting cosmos.

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster, who has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and has contributed to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries.  His first book, 'A Home for All Seasons' was published in June 2022.

Princess Ksenia's father, King Nikola, was nick-named 'The Father-in-Law of Europe, having successfully married off his daughters to the royal houses of Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and Russia.  His eighth daughter - Ksenia - chose a different route, as secretary and valued advisor to her father She was the first woman in Montenegro to drive and had a particular talent for photography (she. was also described by a contemporary as a 'courageous and skilled shot with a pistol'!). The lecture shares the photographs she took in the brand new Montenegrin capital of Cetinje, where the royal family had their palace before being exiled to France in 1916. Despite Ksenia's life of privilege of garden parties and tennis, it is also a photographic record of ordinary life in Montenegro among its schools, soldiers, fishermen, horses and villages.  This lecture gives a face and human narrative to the history and culture of a part of the Balkans, just beginning to be visited by British travellers.

Elizabeth Gowing studied at Magdalen College Oxford before training as a teacher. She moved to Kosovo in 2006 where she worked on education and cultural heritage projects.  She speaks fluent Albanian and has translated and written a number of books about Kosovo. 

The lecture looks at the contributions made by artists of African, Caribbean or Asian origin to British art since the SS Empire Windrush arrived from the West Indies in 1948.  It considers the work of Frank Bowling, Francis Newton Souza, Eddie Chambers, Yinka Shonibare, Sonia Boyce, Rasheed Araeen, Lubaina Himid and the Singh Twins, all of whom have achieved international recognition and respect.  They may not be household names but their work is eye-catching and thought-provoking and they have set much of the agenda for British art of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries 

Barry Venning is an art historian whose interests and teaching range from the art of late medieval Europe to global contemporary art. He has published books and articles on Turner and Constable but also has an ongoing research interest in post-colonial art and British visual satire. He works as a consultant and associate lecturer for the Open University.

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. Our 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! 

Charles Harris is a 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. Charles has also written and produced several hundred TV and Radio commercials and corporate video programmes.

The iconic 'New Dawn' sculpture created by Mary Branson celebrates the centenary of the Suffrage movement and is the first permanent piece of contemporary abstract art in the Palace of Westminster. We learn of Mary's artistic process and what was involved in creating this public work of art.

Mary Branson is an award-winning print maker, a choreographer for performance and dance events, and a mentor and public speaker. She 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.

Across three lectures, we will consider the influence of ‘new money’ on art patronage and track the relentless move of fashionable society uptown using the 'voices' of Henry James in Washington Square, Edith Wharton in Gramercy Park, or F Scott Fitzgerald exclaiming that 'New York had all the iridescence of the beginning of the world'.  We will explore the people, ideas and fortunes that created the great art collections, buildings and visual environment of the city.

Please refer to the entry under Special Interest Days for details of this meeting.

As a pioneer of literary modernism, TS Eliot inevitably influenced his counterparts in the visual arts. He was friends with several artists. Edward McKnight Kauffer and David Jones illustrated his work; Patrick Heron and Wyndham Lewis painted him; Jacob Epstein sculpted him. There are paintings inspired by his poems. And the reverse is also true; The Waste Land famously employs techniques borrowed from modern art. This lecture will explore some of those connections, while also taking the chance to display some of Eliot’s own artistic creations: the jokey little sketches he included in letters to children.

Toby Faber has been accredited by The Arts Society since 2012. His wide ranging career includes five years as managing director of Faber and Faber, the publishing company founded by his grandfather, where Tony remains on the board. He is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music and a director of Liverpool University Press.

Established in 1984 and causing controversy almost every year since then, the Turner Prize is regarded by many as a great showcase for British avantgarde art, and by others as conceptualist rubbish. Nevertheless, the exhibitions each autumn continue to draw larger and larger crowds. This lecture looks at great winners (and losers) from the past and clarifies the ideas behind the annual competition.

Frank woodgate is a lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, lecturer for the Art Fund, the National Trust, U3A and other organisations. He also lectures and runs courses at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. 

Throughout history, travelling and journeys have been used as a way to display wealth, power and status, along with being a useful tool to control over mighty subjects.

Today, we take a journey as a matter of course, not thinking really much of a distance of a hundred miles or more. In the past however, things were very different. On a journey, an aristocrat had to take not only clothes, but food, furniture, cooking facilities, tents horses and the like, not just for himself and family but for his travelling household as well.

In this talk, Andrew shows the many lavish and opulent modes of transport used by monarchs, aristocrats and plutocrats that eased travel while on their seasonal “progress” to and from each others estates. He also illustrates how diplomatic meetings between rival Kings were turned into a contest, to see who could out shine each other in displays of the finest silver, jewels, silks, accommodation, and court retinue.

Andrew Prince has held a life long passion for jewellry. After initially working with renowned jewellers handling rare and precious stones and private collections, Andrew evolved his skills into the design and production of fine costume jewellry. Over the past 20 years he has undertaken many private and commercial commissions, including creating pieces for productions such as The Young Victoria and Downton Abbey.

PLEASE NOTE: This meeting will be preceded by our short AGM commencing at 10.10 am.

Bomberg was one of the most talented artists associated with the Vorticist movement (1914-15) but his style changed many times over the course of his life. From his early avant garde work the experience of the First World War brought about the first of many major shifts in his style; a style which continues to exert influence on some of the most important British painters working today. 

In a change to our published programme, our speaker will be Alan Read and not Dr Kate Aspinall.

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

Technical Art History describes an investigation where art historians, conservators and conservation scientists work together to build a ‘profile’ of an artist or a painting that helps us to understand how, why and when they used certain materials and techniques and whether or not a work is authentic.

This lecture will look at the most common scientific and technical methods used, such as x-rays, cross-sections and pigment analysis, and explain the kinds of information we can gain from them. It is illustrated with amazing detailed images, startling discoveries and examples from the 16th-20th centuries paintings from Sarah Cove’s work and research as a professional paintings conservator-restorer and technical art historian.

Sarah Cove is an accredited paintings conservator-restorer and one of the world’s foremost technical art historians with more than 35 years working on paintings for the heritage and private sectors. She is a specialist in British portraits, 19th-20th century British landscapes and oil sketches on paper and board, and Sarah is now the leading authority on Constable’s materials and techniques. 

A Special Interest Day being held at Epsom College will hear three lectures on Tutankhamun.

1. The Pharoah behind the Tomb: The name Tutankhamun conjures up wonderful imagery and mysterious tales of the pharaohs, but what do we really know about this intriguing boy-king? This lecture explores his childhood and reign (c1336 – 1327 BC); other members of his royal family; his achievements and the significance of key officials and military commanders of the day, two of whom went on to rule Egypt after Tutankhamun’s death.

2. Tutankhamun's Tomb: its design, decoration and discovery - In 2022 we celebrate the centenary of the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922. We study the design and decoration of this famous tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The lay-out of this tomb and the art on its walls are both unusual for a pharaoh’s tomb, hinting at suspicious circumstances surrounding this young pharaoh’s death

3. Tutankhamun's Treasures: "Everywhere the glint of gold" - In 2022 the entire collecition of treasures buried with Tutankhamun will be displlayed in Egypt's new Grand Egyptian Museum. Highlights of these iconic treasures include 3 golden inlaid coffins, 4 gilded wooden shreines and the solid gold funeral mask.

London’s Tite Street was one of the most influential artistic quarters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A staggering amount of talent thrived in just this one street in Chelsea, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Oscar Wilde, John Singer Sargent, Robert Brough, Glyn Philpot, Augustus John, Romaine Brooks and Gluck. Throughout its turbulent history it remained home to innumerable artists, writers, suffragettes, strange characters and madmen. Here Whistler was bankrupted, Oscar Wilde imprisoned and Frank Miles went mad. Jennifer's lecture ties together the private and professional lives of its inhabitants to form a colourful tapestry of art and intrigue.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a change to our published programme. Our original speaker, Marie-Anne Mancio, is unable to attend and present Peter the Great of Russia: building St. Petersburg.

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? As well as giving an overview of Turner and Constable, the subject provides an enjoyable overview of the British art world during the nineteenth century.

Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner.

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

Tony Rawlins will describe some of the processes by which these advertisements have been created and why the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo have been 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.

In an entertaining and informative lecture Tony uses a wide range of visuals and video to show examples of the original works, the creative process and the (not always entirely successful) advertisements that are the end result.

Tony Rawlins began his career in advertising in 1965 as a mail boy in J.Walter Thompson, rising to become an account director and subsequently working in a number of agencies before setting up on his own in 1985. He has produced many commercials and print ads and remains active as a consultant in the industry.

PLEASE NOTE: To address the current situation with the Omicron variant, this meeting will only be available to members online via Zoom. Do not go to Epsom Playhouse.

One of the greatest artists of the rococco period, Tiepolo created shimmering images to decorate churches and palaces of 18th century Venice. His remarkable illusionistic frescoes can be found in Wurzburg and Madrid as well as the villas and houses of the Veneto.

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

The figure of Mary’s husband Joseph is familiar from Christmas cards, carols, cribs and nativity plays, yet in the Bible he never speaks a word. It took many centuries for the quiet carpenter to emerge from humble obscurity and for artists to make his image visible. This lecture explores the many legends and faces of Joseph through the ages, from wizened old man to powerful guardian. Discover the hidden depths in that simple bearded figure on your Christmas cards; but remember, Joseph is for life, not just for Christmas.

Amina Wright is a curator of historic art collections and exhibitions.  She has produced several major exhibitions on eighteenth-century British Art and Old Masters and published and lectured widely in these areas. Amina has also worked as a collections and interiors curator for English Heritage and for the National Trust, among others and is now Senior Curator for the Faith Museum in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

The Crimean War took two years of Nightingale’s life. Much of the rest was spent writing, vividly and with black humour, on tough issues - the health of the army, sanitation, hospital construction, the nature of God and - toughest of all - Florence Nightingale. She was both musical and artistic, affected for life by Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling. “Imagination and poetry begin life. A child will fall on its knees on the gravel walk before a white cherry in bloom, to thank God for it.” (From Notes On Nursing, Florence Nightingale, 1861.) This lecture deals with aspects of Nightingale’s life before and after the Crimean War. With paintings, sketches and portraits from the Nightingale Museum at St. Thomas’ Hospital, by artists including Julia Smith (Florence’s aunt); Parthenope, Lady Verney (Florence’s sister), and cousin Hilary Bonham Carter. 

Karin Fernald lectures on writers and diarists connected with the arts from the mid-18th to 19th century, and moving forward in time with Virginia Woolf. Her extensive research into diaries and letters bring lectures to vivid life.

A Special Interest Day being held at Epsom College will hear three lectures taking us though the wonders of the Silk Road.

1. The Silk Road: Introduction to its History and Cultures - illustrated with maps and artefacts, giving an outline of what is meant by the Silk Road, we learn of some of the major events and cultures along it in the first millennium AD.

2. The Silk Road: Exploration and Discovery - we hear the story of the early 20th imperial archaeologists of the Silk Road, concentrating on the British/Hungarian, Sir Aurel Stein, and how he uncovered forgotten civilisations of the Silk Road from the desert sands of the Taklamakan. His finds are now mainly in the British Museum and British Library.

3. Silk Road Art - introduces several wonderful pieces of art exemplifying the transmissions and interactions of peoples, faiths, technologies, materials and designs along the Silk Road. The objects include a gilt silver flask, a glass bowl, and a patterned silk.

Dr Susan Whitfield is a writer, scholar, lecturer and traveller of the Silk Roads. During 25 years curating the collections of over 50,000 medieval manuscripts from central Asia at the British Library, she also helped found and then developed an international collaboration working on the art and artefacts of the eastern Silk Roads. Susan has lectured and written widely on the history and arts of the Silk Roads and also curated several major exhibitions.

This lecture will cover surprising attempts to create some graphic unity, even in the 1860s and 70s, the 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 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.

Guernica is one of the most famous paintings in the world and probably Picasso’s best known picture. It was prompted by events in the Spanish Civil War, and specifically the fascist destruction of the ancient Basque capital on a market day in April 1937.

This talk considers the circumstances surrounding the painting's creation and charts its development through Picasso’s surviving drawings and the photographs taken by his mistress, the Yugoslavian photographer, Dora Maar. Furthermore, Guernica is examined alongside other art and photography created during the war, including celebrated images by the painters Salvador Dali and Joan Miro, as well as photomontage by John Heartfield, photographs by Robert Capa and a range of other graphic work. 

Our speaker, Barry Venning, makes a return visit to Epsom. He is an historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely. Barry is currently an Associate Lecturer with the Open University and he lectures on a freelance basis for The Arts Society, Christie's Education and other organisations. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art.

Our programmed talk on glass artist Dale Chihuly has been cancelled on account of the speaker being taken seriously ill . We wish Charles Hajdamach an early and full recovery.

Her Life as Radical as her Collection:

The story of the 'poor little rich girl' who changed the face of 20th century art. Not only was Peggy Guggenheim ahead of her time, but she was the woman who helped define it. She discovered and nurtured a new generation of artists producing a new kind of art. Through collecting not only art, but the artists themselves, her life was as radical as her collection.

Rock, Bark, Ochre: the story of Aboriginal art in the culturally distinct communities of the north of Australia; an extraordinary story of continuous artistic endeavour from rock-paintings dating back 50,000 years to modern work done on bark in natural ochres.

Writing Furniture from the 16th to 18th Centuries.

The rise in importance of writing furniture from the 16th to 18th centuries reflected the economic as well as social need for greater literacy and numeracy as mercantile trade developed across the globe. This lecture traces the development of the bureau-bookcase and other writing furniture from the humble "writing slope" or "Bible-box" through to magnificent symbols of status and power. Computers may have "hidden files", but lack the intrigue and mechanical craftmanship of secret drawers and compartments which this lecture will reveal.

A moving, informative and very original talk where we examine the role of art in breaking the cycle of crime, prison and re-offending and hear how creating art of any discipline helps offenders confront their crimes and develop key skills for a positive life.

Angela Frindlay has spent many years working as an artist within the Criminal Justice Sytem in England and Germany, and has gained a deep understanding of the minds, lives and challenges of offenders.  Using extraordinary slides of art projects and prisoners' art she will demonstrate the vital, hugely relevant and potentially life-changing impact of art.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a man out of step with his time. Scorning the traditional idealised interpretation of religious subjects, he took his models from the streets, painting them realistically and heightening the emotional intensity by his dramatic contrasts of light and shade. Such a revolutionary style was condemned by many as was his equally dramatic personal life and uncontrollable temper which involved him in endless brawls and even murder. This lecture will study the life and works of this enigmatic man and of his influence on later artists.

Shirley Smith graduated from the University of East Anglia with a first class honours degree in the History of Art, specialising in the Italian and Northern Renaissance. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a part-time lecturer for the University of East Anglia and for the Department of Continuing Education of the University of Cambridge.

Details of how to register for this online lecture will be issued to members a week beforehand.

We consider a little-regarded alternative viewpoint of life in English medieval castles: that of the ordinary folk. Using archaeological evidence gleaned from historic building survey, contemporary literature, artistic representations, graffiti and architectural history James Wright will present the story of the masons, carpenters, cooks, clerks, servants, stable-hands and lower status visitors to great castles. Instead of studying towers, gatehouses and great halls, here he delves into the kitchens, stables, staircases, cellars and garderobes to uncover evidence of the non-elite response to elite buildings.

James Wright FSA is a buildings archaeologist with over twenty years of professional experience and a particular interest in how we can use the evidence of physical structures to understand the realities of the everyday existence of ordinary people living in elite buildings.

Details of how to register for this online lecture will be issued to members a week beforehand.

The history of this enduring and peculiarly British institution, from its origins in 16th century Italian commedia dell’arte through the influence of 19th century music hall, to the family shows that are still much loved today. On the way we examine the origins of some of the stories used in pantomime as well as such traditions as the (female) principal boy and the (male) pantomime dame. The talk is interspersed with personal anecdotes from the speaker’s years of working (and appearing) professionally in pantomime.

Ian Gledhill has worked in travel and tourism, music publishing, television, and especially the theatre, where he has been an actor, director, set designer, stage manager and opera translator.

Details of how to register for this online lecture will be issued to members a week beforehand. 

Christmas celebrations have always been heightened by the presence of music and perhaps the reason for this stems from Luke’s Gospel where traditionally the angels sang their glad tidings to the shepherds at the moment of Christ’s birth.  Over the centuries, each generation has contributed to the Christmas musical repertoire, whether this has been in the form of carols, songs, oratorios or even keyboard music.  Join us as Peter Medhurst celebrates Christmas by performing and discussing a range of Christmas pieces drawn from the Middle Ages down to the 20th century.

Details on how to register for the link required to access this lecture will be circulated to members a week before the lecture date.

Please Note: This lecture is a late change from that originally planned with Peter and advertised as 'We Three Kings: Music, Art and Legends inspired by the Magi.'

It seems that many peoples over many centuries have wanted to live in and claim England as their
own. Why? For some incoming settlers, England can’t have been the most obvious choice as richer
pickings might have been had by heading southwards or eastwards. Here we will see not only who
came, but also why. We will look at the many great attractions of England, not just the varied and rich pastures and natural wealth beyond belief today, but also - perhaps surprisingly – unparalleled
education, justice and hierarchy: it was a good place to settle upon your heirs.

Note: Details on how to register for the link required to access this lecture will be circulated to members a week before the lecture date.

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

In this special on-line lecture we have the opportunity to enjoy the Playhouse lecture cancelled in April.

The bed has been the site of multiple encounters in art from Titian’s stunning mythologies through Manet’s Olympia, Picasso’s nudes, and the object of Tracey Emin’s infamous ‘My Bed.’ But if the bed has been linked to passion, it has also been linked to death and this lecture explores its manifestations in the art of Caravaggio, Munch, Klimt, and others.

Note: Details on how to register for the link required to access this lecture will be circulated to members a week before the lecture date.

Dr Marie-Anne Mancio trained as an artist before gaining a PhD in Art and Critical Theory from the University of Sussex. She has lectured in art history for the City Lit, Tate Modern, the Course, Art in London, London Art Salon, Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Nth Degree Club and many private art societies, Marie-Anne also runs art history study tours abroad.  

In this special on-line lecture, Ian Swankie will take us on a virtual tour of The Guildhall Art Gallery.

The Gallery sits adjacent to the Guildhall and is one of London's lesser known, but delightful, galleries. The City of London has been commissioning and acquiring art for nearly 350 years and now owns a vast and diverse collection. We will view paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries as well as the sparkling Victorian collection and some impressive contemporary works. We finish this virtual tour with a trip beneath the building to the Roman amphitheatere which was discovered by chance in the 1980s.

Details on how to register for the link required to access this lecture will be circulated to members a week before the lecture date.

Ian Swankie is a guide and a lecturer with a special interest in art and architecture. An accredited lecturer for The Arts Society, Ian is a fully qualified City of London tour guide, a City of Westminster guide and a green badge holder from the Institute of Tourist Guiding. He is an official guide at Tate Modern and Tate Britain, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Guildhall Art Gallery.

This on-line lecture replaces the original 'in-person' lecture on Florence Nightingale from Karin Fernald that was due to conclude our 2019-20 Programme, but has been cancelled on account of the meeting restrictions imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Please Note: This will be a special on-line lecture at 10.30 am. Details of how to register for and access the lecture will issued to members a week in advance.

Gardens have been, and continue to be, a great source of inspiration for artists. Looking at imagery from diverse centuries, we'll explore how portrayals of gardens have given us insight into our relationship with the natural world and helped us to define what it means to be human. This talk will explore beautiful, symbolic and sensual paintings, including Hieronymus Bosch’s shocking ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’, Fragonard’s erotic ‘Swing’ and John Singer Sargent’s enchanting ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose’.

Stella Grace Lyons is a freelance Art History lecturer, speaker and writer accredited with The Arts Society. She gained her BA in the History of Art from the University of Bristol and her MA in History of Art from the University of Warwick. 

Stella runs her own Art History lectures and is a regular lecturer in the UK and Europe for The Arts Society, ACE Cultural Tours, Hebridean Island Cruises, Saga’s Art Appreciation Tours, and the National Trust, amongst others. She is also a part-time lecturer for the University of South Wales and has written about art for several publications and her article on Norwegian art was recently featured on the front cover of the Arts Society Magazine.

Regrettably it has been necessary to cancel this lecture on account of Coronavirus

Throughout history, travelling has been used as a way to display wealth, status and power, as well as being a useful tool to control mighty subjects.  Monarchs and aristocrats had to take everything on their journey for themsleves and their household. Many lavish and opulent accessories and modes of transport were used to ease travel.  Meetings between monarchs turned into contests of who had the finest of everything.

Regrettably it has been necessary to cancel this lecture on account of Coronavirus

Discover the power of one of the most passionate, pugnacious and under-appreciated painters in 20th Cenury Britain, neglected for much of his lifetime.  Bomberg's passion and craft attracted a talented group of artists who studied with him, including Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and Dennis Creffield, and revived the Bristish tradition of expressive naturalism. 

Regrettably it has been necessary to cancel this lecture on account of Coronavirus

An Accredited Conservator, Sarah uses examples and illustrations from her own work on 16th to 19th Century paintings to explain common scientific and technical methods used to build a profile of an artist or painting and establish authenticity, sometimes with startling results.

Regrettably it has been necessary to cancel this event on account of Coronavirus

Whatever the historical context, clothing and fashion have been used to denote wealth and status, or to differentiate between social groups and to display disaffection or affiliation, often interpreted though complex and subtle visual codes.  Through a wide ranging selection of historical and contemporary examples of male and female dress, paintings, portraits, photographs and advertisements, this two lecture SID will encourage new ways of interpreting these codes.

Regrettably it has been necessary to cancel this lecture on account of Coronavirus

The bed has been the site of multiple encounters in art from Titian’s stunning mythologies through Manet’s Olympia, to Picasso’s nudes, and the object of Tracey Emin’s infamous ‘My Bed.’ But if the bed has been linked to passion, it has also been linked to death and this lecture explores its manifestations in the art of Caravaggio, Munch, Klimt, and others.

We explore the fashion for lacquer screens, furniture and exquisite porcelain plus luxury objects collected by Queen Mary II, Madame de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette.  Woodblock prints, silk kimonos, samurai armour and decorative works of art flowed from Japan and inspired jewellers, ceramicists and painters.

On the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, this lecture charts his meteoric rise to prominence. Raphael's early work is analysed alongside his commissions in Florence for the Papacy in Rome which demonstrate the genius of his extraordinary talent.

Les Parisiennes is a story about women’s lives during the dark years of Nazi occupation and beyond. The lecture starts with a magnificent circus ball in the grounds of Versailles and ends with Christian Dior’s lavish new look in 1947.

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?”  In his lecture Bertie Pearce reveals a Dickensian Christmas with readings, biographical details and conjuring tricks.

The life and times of William Hogarth as seen through his famous pugs and his many other dogs.  The Pug - a very different animal from today's 'best in show' breed - with its very human face and pugnacious jaw became Hogarth's famous 'familiar' and has continued to turn up in the works of several contemporary artists.

Sicily has been both a gateway and a crossroads attracting a long line of colonisers from the Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs to the Normans and Spanish. These lectures look at Sicily during the ancient and medieval periods especially the Greek temples and the beautifully preserved Roman Villa Casale, and the monuments from the Arab - Norman period when Palermo was the most intellectually active and artistically eclectic centre in Europe.

The history of wallpaper dating from the 16th century encompasses a huge range of beautiful designs – from the first black and white patterns, flock hangings, Chinese hand-painted papers through to Morris, the Arts and Craft Movement and Modernist and Contemporary designs. A truly Decorative Art.

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

David Hockney has become a ‘national treasure’.  He first came to fame in the early 1960s for his graffiti-like paintings. The late 1960s and early ’70s saw him painting in a number of different styles, from the precise naturalism of Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy to extremely unnaturalistic works paying homage to his great hero, Pablo Picasso.

With all his media and style changes, Hockney continues to delight and enchant people from all walks of life.

On Ernest Shackleton’s third Antarctic expedition in 1914 the Endurance was trapped and crushed in the pack ice. After camping for five months on the ice, Shackleton’s men rowed to Elephant Island. From there, Shackleton sailed for help to South Georgia over 800 miles away. He returned to rescue the crew of the Endurance.

Frank Hurley, the expedition’s official photographer, captured new and amazing landscapes within which a remarkable human drama is played out.

Illustrated with many wonderful works of art, this lecture tells the extraordinary story of Napoleon Bonaparte. His genius as an administrator and a military commander, his achievements and his failures, his strengths and his weaknesses; his marriage to Josephine de Beauharnais, his relationship with the Duke of Wellington, and his place within history. It focuses on one of the most remarkable men who has ever lived.

da Vinci is the most famous painter of the Italian Renaissance and through three lectures Caroline Brooke will put Leonardo's artistic production in context by explaining how his paintings, drawings, and scientific experiments are all governed by a quest to discover the underlying principles that he believed governed all forms.

Caroline will demonstrate how all of Leonardo's art can be understood as a form of science, and how his approach to science was governed by artistic concerns.

This lecture shows how the City grew upwards from Roman times to 21st century.  From a thriving Roman port through to the medieval cathedral of St Paul’s towering over the city, Victorian icons such as Tower Bridge, and on to the 20th and 21st century.  The new 21st century buildings, the first of which was the ‘Gherkin’, are now joined by the ‘Shard’, the ‘Cheesegrater’ and the ‘Walkie-Talkie’.

Hans Holbein’s ‘Ambassadors’ is recognised by the National Gallery of London as one of its greatest treasures. It dates from a tradition in the arts when no object was without meaning and symbolism. However, practically all of this meaning has been lost to the modern observer.

This lecture considers the tempestuous circumstances of its creation and the hidden messages concealed within it. 

In an age where women had little public power, Isabella d’ Este (1474 – 1539) stands out as a formidable figure.

Her court in Mantua was filled with writers and poets of distinction. Her voice sings out from thousands of letters which she composed in her meticulously designed study, and images – from Da Vinci to Titian – bring alive a woman whose eye for fashion was every bit as keen as her eye for art.

This lecture  will examine some beautiful and varied art from Picasso, Cezanne, Rembrandt, Modigliani, Klimt, Bacon and Pollock, all held together by the common thread of their extraordinary commercial value. Plus the buyers and sellers, and we’ll try to answer the question “Are they are really worth hundreds of millions of pounds?”

Christmas- wassail bowls and bobs, boars’ heads stuck with apples, carolling, mumming, riotous games in halls – all presided over by the Lord of Misrule.

Twelfth Night signalled an end to the merry anarchy with great pies and rich fruit cakes concealing a bean and a pea.

This lecture explores the sources and significance of these ancient customs and traditions. 

The vast canvases which cover the walls and ceiling of this elegant Renaissance building represent one of the most ambitious artistic projects of the 16th century and one of the greatest achievements of their creator, Jacopo Tintoretto.

2018 marks the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto’s birth.

Across three lectures, renowned expert James Bolton will guide us through the evolution of garden design in the 20th Century and explore the increasing role of women in horticulture.

First lecture: Lutyens & Jekyll and The Arts and Crafts Gardens

The last two decades of the 19th century reverberated with the row between William Robinson and Reginald Blomfield as to the pre-eminence in the garden of the architect or the gardener. At a stroke, the problem was solved by the partnership between Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens, so that a house by Lutyens with a garden by Jekyll became an Edwardian ideal.  Their partnership thrived in the brash, new-moneyed Edwardian era, but the First World War brought an abrupt end and gradually the gardens they designed together were fewer and farther between.

Second Lecture: Informal and Formal Gardens

Two styles of gardening run through the 20th Century, each springing from the influence of Lutyens and Jekyll. Informal gardens, from Hidcote to Great Dixter, where a passion for plants is the key following the centuries old English obsession with collecting plants and growing them well. Formal structured gardens, whose history runs from Sir George Sitwell’s Italianate garden at Renishaw to the contemporary post-modern gardens created by Geoffrey Jellicoe, Charles Jencks and Ian Hamilton-Finlay.

Third Lecture: Twentieth Century Women Gardeners

Gardening in 1900 was, for the majority of women, a polite affair involving little more than dead-heading roses and instructing the gardening staff. Great changes were made in the rôle of women in horticulture by great gardeners like Ellen Wilmot, Margerie Fish, Vita Sackville-West and Nancy Lancaster. By 2000, designers such as Penelope Hobhouse, Arabella Lennox-Boyd and a whole host of more or less well known, but no less professional, women are creating wonderful and challenging gardens.

One of the greatest stories ever told - the Trojan War, immortalised in Homer's epic.

This lecture tells the story using scenes from classical Greek vases, and follows in the footsteps of Heinrich Schliemann who searched for the lost city of Troy and found a great treasure.

Since the end of the 15th century, when Wynkyn de Worde set up England's first printing press and after 1702, when the first newspaper, the Daily Courant, moved in, the term "Fleet Street" has been synonymous with newspaper journalism. In this lecture we will be looking at the ups and downs of this notorious ‘Street of Shame’ via the art that illustrated its stories. 

Between the wars, Paris was the hub of cutting edge experiments in the visual and performing arts. The city became a magnet for international creative talent, including African-American musicians escaping the restrictions of racial segregation and Prohibition at home. The new 'jazz hot' brought together audiences from the artistic avant-garde, the music halls and the exotic cabarets of Montmartre. A vibrant modernist design style emerged from this dynamic cultural fusion. We will meet the artists, designers, musicians, dancers and impresarios and recreate how it felt to be in the middle of this exciting new cocktail of talent. 

Constable’s famous ‘six-footers’ include some of his most well-loved paintings: The White Horse (1819), The Haywain (1821), The Leaping Horse (1825) and Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831). Their compositions were derived from small pencil and oil studies and for each Constable painted a full-size sketch. These sketches are extraordinary creations for the early 19th century and were unseen by all but his closest friends during his lifetime. Based on extensive technical research for a detailed catalogue essay for the ‘Constable: The Great Landscapes’ exhibition, at Tate Britain in 2006, this lecture discusses Constable’s diverse painting methods and brings to life his dynamic personality and artistic temperament, revealing a ‘Jackson Pollock of the 1830s’. It is illustrated with Sarah’s own highly detailed, colour slides taken during studio examinations of the paintings in preparation for the Tate exhibition.

To mark the centenary of women first getting the vote which falls in 2018, this 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. 

This talk is dedicated to the food and etiquette of the Georgian dinner party, from the agony of the housewife, to the delight of the honoured guest. Ranging from the King’s dinners, through those of his subjects, and back to his most lowly servants, the beauty and elegance of dining in a era obsessed with ‘taste’ will be explored. The talk will unpack the hidden meanings in the laying out of the table, and show how servants were expected to behave. It will also showcase some of the food, illustrating how the tastes and textures of Georgian food contributed to the experience of dinner.

It has long been recognized that the worlds of the visual and aural arts link with extraordinary power when one medium inspires the other. This lecture, which spans over 600 years of the arts, analyses and discusses a range of related works, bringing together the music of Martinu with the frescoes of Piero della Francesca, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus with Respighi’s Trittico botticelliano, Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead with Rachmaninoff’s symphonic poem and Poet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie with the piano playing of Albert Ammons.

The study day is presented with digital images, video, recorded music and live examples sung and played at the piano.

Jan van Eyck is today renowned for the depth and luminosity of his paintings whether of the Virgin and Child, or the wealthy merchant Giovanni Arnolfini and the numerous men and women he met while working in the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. His ability to capture the gleam of the Virgin's crown or the reflective light of the Flemish landscape was largely due to his revolutionary techniques in his use of oil. However, he was not only a court artist but also a valued ambassador, sent by the Duke on numerous diplomatic errands. This lecture will study the paintings of van Eyck and of the people he painted both as works of art and as a reflection of the times in which he lived.

Today textiles for clothing or decoration are taken for granted, but it was not always so. This lecture unpacks the history of how cloth and yarn were coloured and how the different colours represented power, achievement and desire. Using a variety of illustrations it sheds a forgotten light on how important textiles have been in European history, but more than this, the history of textiles is not just a matter of fashion but is also a story of politics, money, war, trade, laws, the church, agriculture, exploration, science and even serendipity. 

The title is from Christina Rossetti's poem commissioned by a magazine for their Christmas issue. The lecture covers a very wide range of western artists and the theme is how winter and snow have stimulated them. There were two distinct periods when this was most evident - 17th century Holland and 19th century France - when snow provided a blank canvas on which the Impressionists could explore their revolutionary ideas on light and colour.

Modern art is often considered difficult, but it is much less so when seen through the eyes of some of the greatest cartoonists of the last one hundred and fifty years, who provide a humorous and sceptical but instructive guide to modern art from Courbet to the Britart of the 1990s. A chance to enjoy the insights and cartoons of (among others) Daumier, Larry, Thelwell, Matt, the wise guys at the New Yorker magazine and, of course, the immortal Giles. Collectively, they provide an absorbing, illuminating and, above all, a funny, revealing and sidelong view of 150 years of modern art. 

On November 20th 1992 the Great Fire of Windsor caused £40m of damage to the fabric of Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle is reputed to be the Queen’s favourite home, and this lecture focuses on its importance to the Queen and examines how the restoration of the castle after the Great Fire of 1992 has made the present reign, along with that of King Charles II and King George IV, a key period in the castle’s post-medieval development.

Part 1.   In the years leading up to the Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra commissioned a host of extraordinary items for the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo. Annually, this included the famous Imperial Easter Eggs by Peter Carl Gustavovich Fabergé (1846, St. Petersburg —1920, Lausanne). Discover the history behind some of the most famous eggs and other pieces of jewellery from their origins as royal family gifts to their subsequent fates during the Revolution.

Part 2.   The Russian Revolution was preceded by a revolution in art when students at the Imperial Academy of Art rebelled against the mythological subjects they were set and started painting the world around them, notably in Ilya Repin's Barge Haulers on the Volga. As artists returned from Paris, having seen the work of Picasso and Matisse, they created their own style: Cubo-Futurism. Explore it through the works of artists like Natalya Goncharova, Liubov Popova and Alexandra Exter.

Part 3.   In the early years of the Russian Revolution, the new government adopted the language of avant-garde art. Art education itself was being revolutionised with a battle between the Expressionism of Chagall and the Suprematism of Kasimir Malevich. But once painting itself was declared bourgeois, artists were encouraged to make art with functional applications which led to innovation in poster design, theatre design, and fashion. From the Black Square to Tatlin’s ‘monument without a beard,’ discover what made this period so fascinating and vital.

The question of fake decorative art has been in vogue for hundreds of years. However increasingly sophisticated methods are being used by criminals to generate vast profits. This lecture reveals actual case studies, demonstrating the lengths forgers will go to in passing off works as legitimate. Skilled forgers capable of imitating well known artists have provided the ability to dupe many at the highest level within the art market. Experts have estimated that a high percentage of all works within the art market are fake. These scams ultimately inflict considerable damage to collectors and the trade.

Following in the footsteps of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, we analyse what was new about Impressionist landscape paintings: their experiments with colour theory, new synthetic pigments and, most importantly, the distinctly modern landscape that they chose to depict. We’ll be travelling by train, in and out of the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris, with boating trips and balloon excursions thrown in. We’ll also consider the distinctively modern independent exhibitions mounted by the Impressionist group in Paris from 1874 onwards and, beyond that, Monet’s exploration of a new kind of modern landscape painting during the 1890s, epitomised by his series of Poplars, Haystacks and Rouen Cathedral culminating, at the end of his life, with his monumental Water Lilies. 

Jean, Duc de Berry was the son of the King of France and ruled over one of the most glittering courts of Europe. A great patron, he also commissioned some of the most beautiful works of art of the 14th C and early 15th C, the most renowned today being the illuminated manuscript of the Tres Riches Heures with its delightful religious and secular scenes by three Flemish artists, the Limbourg Brothers. The lecturer will set the commission into the context of the times in which it was executed. Its jewel like scenes are a real feast for the eyes. 

Although not always acknowledged nowadays, this 17th C Spanish artist is one of the most influential painters in the history of art. Born in Seville in 1599, where he made his name producing penetratingly observed scenes of everyday life, he moved to Madrid where his portraiture was so successful that by the age of twenty-four he was the only artist permitted to paint the King of Spain. After his death, the cool elegance of his style and daring treatment of the paint, his ability to discover the dignity and humanity in even the simplest subjects were widely admired by generations of artists from Whistler to Picasso, who famously described him as ‘the great magician of art’. 

Armour was one of the great Renaissance art-forms, but today it is usually overlooked by art historians and scholars. In the 15th C and 16th C most of the richest noblemen in Europe could be counted as dedicated patrons of this intensely personal, expressive and decorative art. Its essence was the creation of a living sculpture, which demanded not only great skill in the sculpting of iron and steel, but also the mastery of all decorative techniques available to the Renaissance metalworker. The achievements of virtuoso master armourers like Kolman Helmschmid, Konrad Seusenhofer, Filippo Negroli, Pompeo della Cesa and Jacob Halder were not however about splendour and richness. They also embodied more complex messages about status and the social order, divine power and attitudes and Identities.

Rachel Whiteread is a Turner Prize winner and one of the most important and respected British artists working today. In 2005 she provided one of the series of impressive site-specific sculptures for the enormous Tate Modern Turbine Hall. Her preoccupation with the hidden spaces in between things has resulted in an extraordinary range of objects which form a series of eloquent tributes to the silent and overlooked. The range in scale of her works is huge: from tiny objects derived from light switches or hot-water bottles to multi-component installations, to an entire house. In every case, the finished works reveal unexpected associations and can be extremely moving.

See information under Special Interest Days. Click here.

These antique bronze sculptures from the West African kingdom of Benin astounded critics when they were first seen in Europe in the late 1890s. The superb workmanship and outstanding aesthetic quality of Benin's royal sculptures rival the very best work of the Italian Renaissance. The lecture explains the sophisticated production processes, the symbolism and the ritual use of these bronzes. Avant-garde artists of the early 20th C, such as Picasso and Matisse, struggled to place them within their category of 'the primitive'. One of the richest collections of the Benin bronzes is in the British Museum, but many examples are on show in museums across Britain and Europe.

Continuing the theme set in January, this second lecture features Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.  Again, through images and discussion, we will focus on their mature art forms and techniques for which they are renowned, setting them in context with their relevant associations and their influences.  Also in these lectures, we will identify the importance of Peggy Guggenheim, Clement Greenberg, and Alfred H Barr Jr and the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

As the subject of Modern Art in New York is so vast, we’ve arranged for our lectures in both January and February to explore some of the dynamics of this theme.  This first lecture features Marcel Duchamp (as artist provocateur in the 1910s), Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.  The lecture gives an overview of the relevant movements or classifications with which these artists are associated.  We will explore each artist’s mature signature form, and consider how and why they worked in the ways they did.

Michael Harris was a key figure in the international studio glass movement of the 20th century. Through the examination of his pioneering work at Mdina Glass on Malta and, later, at Isle of Wight Studio Glass we will come to appreciate his innovative glass-making forms and styles, production techniques, major ranges and the heritage he left behind.

In Europe, in both religious and secular contexts, we are used to art that is representational.  It is commonly held that Islamic art is non-representational.  This lecture introduces Islamic art through its three most widely appreciated non-representational strands: Arabic calligraphy (the Islamic art form par excellence), geometry, and the arabesque.  Surprising to most, there is also a figural side to Islamic art and some examples even in religious settings will be shown.

See information under Special Interest Days. Click here.

This is a colour-filled exploration of the relationship between an extraordinary American Modernist painter and one of America’s most beautiful places.  Georgia O’Keeffe was fascinated by the mountains and desert, adobe churches and sun-bleached bones and above all by the brilliant light and vast skies of New Mexico.  A fearless explorer with tremendous character, she would set off alone in a battered old car to seek the empty landscape to paint – constantly.

Our lecture will coincide with a major exhibition at Tate Modern of over 100 of O’Keeffe’s most important works.  We have organised a curator lecture and self-guided tour of the exhibition on Thursday, 13 October. See Visits/Tours page.

Captain James Cook’s three extraordinary voyages of discovery provided unprecedented information about the Pacific Ocean and the people who lived on its islands and shores.  Observations were well documented by men employed to travel with Cook.  Sydney Parkinson’s exquisite drawings and watercolours recorded the flora and fauna collected by Sir Joseph Banks.  William Hodges’ paintings illustrated Tahiti, Easter Island and the Antarctic. Together with James Cook’s own cartography, their works contributed significantly to the development of European thought, art and science in the late 18th Century.

The Hanseatic League was established some time in the early Middle Ages to promote trade and was based primarily around the Baltic with its centre in Lübeck.  Bearing in mind that national boundaries at this time were ill-defined, the gradual rise in influence of this organisation far exceeded the parameters of a mere trading organisation. This wide geographical presence of the League had political and military ramifications.  However, it was the artistic ideas it helped to disseminate throughout Europe, as far south as the Iberian Peninsula and as far north as Bergen, which will command our attention.

N.B. This lecture will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting (AGM), which starts at 10:10am.

The patronage of Augustus the Strong of Saxony resulted in the most beautiful porcelain, influenced by Japanese Kakiemon and Imari designs, being created at Meissen in the 1720s.  By 1730 outstanding ground colours were being used alongside European decoration and the great Kändler figures dominated the second quarter of the 18th century.

The French Sèvres factory took until the 1750s to perfect its production.  However, with the patronage of Louis XV, Sèvres became the leading porcelain of Europe.

Chelsea, which used the same soft paste formula as France, depended for its excellence on the superb taste of Nicholas Sprimont.

The lecture focuses on English decorated cabinet furniture of the late 17th Century and early 18th Century and how decorative techniques changed after historical events brought to bear the influence of Dutch, Flemish and French tastes and craftsmanship.  Techniques such as ‘inlay’, ‘parquetry’ and ‘marquetry’ will be explained and shown so that the audience can gain a good understanding of the differences.

In the 1890s, these two artists were inspired to create a modern art that would suggest not just how things looked but how things felt.  They painted their friends, lovers, dogs, in the country and the city of Paris, catching the fleeting moment, the atmosphere of a room, the unconscious gesture that revealed so much, evoking a mood, a time, a place remembered.  The lecturer will bring for display some Bonnard and Vuillard lithographs and other materials from his own collection.

Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School in 1919 in Weimar with the idea of creating a total design approach in which all arts and design disciplines, including architecture, would be brought together.  Among its teachers were some of the greatest artists and designers of the 20th century – Paul Klee (art), Marcel Breuer (furniture), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (product design), Herbert Bayer (graphics) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (architecture).  Although closed down by its own leadership in 1933 under pressure from the Nazi regime, the Bauhaus design became inseparable from the ‘Modernist style’.

See info under Special Interest Day

Bosch (1450-1516) was long regarded as a  painter whose work had more in common with the overwrought imagination of Dali and the surrealists than with the work of his contemporaries. This talk will place Bosch in his contemporary context by describing how his fantastical imagery related to an unsettled period of wars and religious debates that prefigured the Reformation.

This lecture will coincide with the 500th anniversary of Bosch’s death and the holding of a major retrospective and cultural festival in his home town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, between 13 February and 8 May 2016.

Cathedral and church building in Europe and Britain had been largely characterized by the Romanesque style between the 6th and 11th centuries.  Within the 12th century, a new Gothic style developed and was applied relatively suddenly.  Was the change due to new technology, new ideas, or a new spirituality perhaps coming from the Middle East?  Through lavish illustrations, we will examine the progress of the change and learn about some of the people who inspired and built.

Giotto di Bondone (c.1266-1327) is generally considered to be the first great Italian artist to be celebrated in his own lifetime, yet legends abound about his life and work.  We will discuss the defining qualities of Giotto’s work and attempt to determine the true authorship of two fresco cycles attributed to him (the St. Francis cycle in Assisi and the Arena Chapel frescoes in Padua) and explore why he is so important in the history of western Art.

In 1881, in the wake of a court case that the artist James Whistler won against the renowned art critic John Ruskin, Gilbert and Sullivan created their opera Patience.  We examine the history, construction, reception and the contemporary satire found in Patience – arguably the duo’s most successful work.  There will be a chance to hear a number of the arias from the opera sung live from the piano. 

See info under Study/Special Interest Day

Would you like to develop your confidence in interpreting Art?  Do you want to discuss your opinions with insight?  This lecture is a must for anyone interested in visiting galleries, exhibitions and art museums.  It should help you discover a strategy for looking at Art.  The strategy is a flexible approach to interpreting any piece of artwork, and should give you the confidence to become an active rather than a passive viewer.

Of all the things the great Sun King created in the late 17th to early 18th centuries, he is best remembered for Versailles, his immense palace built on the site of his father’s old hunting lodge that became the seat of French government, and the setting for resplendent court ceremony.  The palace’s grand state apartments, vast gardens, spectacular entertainments and the whole etiquette of court life became the envy of all other European monarchs of the time.

Italian Decorative Painting and Its Influence on European Interior Design

Rembrandt’s work displays an extraordinary depth of human understanding and compassion that, combined with his complete mastery of light and technique, makes a study of his work immensely rewarding and stimulating. A wide range of subjects will be explored from tender portraits of his wife and family to biblical subjects and landscapes. Group portraits such as The Night Watch and dignified yet poignant self-portraits will be studied so that we may fully appreciate the versatility and genius of this great Dutch artist.

Lutyens (1869–1944) has been described as the greatest “artist in building” that England had ever produced up to his time. His breadth of designs and output exceeded all others. This talk examines his architectural styles from the depth of Old West Surrey to the classicism of Wren and beyond, his mastery of locations, his understanding of materials and his impish sense of humour.

The outstanding 20th century sculptor who achieved an international reputation for her monumental works depicting the human figure, birds and other animals. Her bronzes varied in scale and feeling, from small threatening birds to the life-size tranquil Walking Madonna in Salisbury Cathedral Close. Frink’s work will be examined in the context of great British and European predecessors such as Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti, as well as her contemporaries, including Reg Butler, Jean Fautrier and Germaine Richier.

French Berthe Morisot was considered by her male contemporaries (Manet, Degas, Renoir, Monet and Pissaro) to be the greatest woman exponent of the new style of Impressionism. Working in oils and pastels, her paintings reflected domestic life in the smart suburb of Paris where she lived. American Mary Cassatt freely painted at social gatherings, in oils, watercolours and pastels. The ouvre, subject matter and techniques of both women are compared with their male colleagues.

Heatherwick’s approach is multi-disciplinary, and with his team he blends architecture, sculpture and engineering to produce brilliant results – from large urban spaces to individual items such as the Olympic Cauldron at the London Olympics, the Zip Bag for Longchamp leather goods, and the new Routemaster bus for Transport for London. Heatherwick is now in demand all over the world, and the lecture will highlight the broad range of his imaginative designs.

The lecture traces the extraordinary stylistic development of El Greco, concentrating on the latter half of his career that was spent in his adopted city of Toledo. We examine many paintings such as The Burial of Count Orgaz and The Disrobing of Christ, explaining how their mystical and avant-garde appearance belies a wide variety of sometimes surprising influences, and to what extent these works can be seen as reflections of the cultural, religious and socio-economic climate of the city in the early 17th century.

“Food is an art”, declared Antonin Carême. ln this mouthwatering lecture, we trace his meteoric rise to becoming the first celebrity chef: cook to Napoleon, to The Prince Regent and to the Tsar of Russia. We take a culinary tour of the pleasure palaces of Britain and Europe in the ultimate age of gastronomic indulgence when, for the first time, food and art history became intimately linked, chefs became celebrities, and the modern restaurant was born.

In this lecture we argue that photography can equal (even excel over) painting in the genres of portraiture, landscape and still life. Also we propose that photography has carved out its own area of excellence in depicting the human condition. Images created by some of the acknowledged masters of photography, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams and Wolfgang Tillmans, will illustrate these proposals.

The Mexican Revolution of 1910 swept away the old regime and banished European influence in the arts. The Mexican mural movement (1920s) was destined to produce some of the greatest public art of the last century. Rivera’s panoramic images adorn the walls of public buildings, combining social criticism with a faith in human progress. Kahlo's work is small in format. Arguably Mexico’s most original painter, she created self-portraits reflecting her dreams, experiences, hopes and fears.

Particular emphasis will be on woven rugs, carpets and dowry bags of the 19th century and earlier. These tribal weavings will illustrate the skills of the women who produced these exquisite works, using vegetable colours and age-old designs including cosmic and talismanic symbols, whilst all the while living and traveling in primitive conditions and hostile landscapes. Our lecturer explains how the weavings were created and describes the traditional materials and dyes used. Comparisons are made with later mechanized design processes using chemical dyes.

Chris Bradley, our lecturer recommends the following reading if you are interested in learning more about the history, art and architecture of Ethiopia (Abyssinia):- ‘The Sign and the Seal’ by Graham Hancock (Heinemann 1992) ‘The Pale Abyssinian’ by Miles Bredin (Harper Collins 2000) ‘Into the Hidden Land’ by Len Shaw (John Gifford 1970)

Antwerp has been an influential centre, politically, economically and culturally, since the mid-16th century under Spanish Catholic Hapsburg rule. This lecture views Peter Paul Rubens as the great leader of the Antwerp School of Painting in the early 17th century. Here we look at his circle and his work for the City Town Clerk; the Jesuits at S. Carlo Borromeo; various ecclesiastical houses; the Plantin-Moretus Press and his international commissions. All of these are viewed in the context of his palatial atelier with its Humanist garden at the Rubenshuis on the Wapper, and the family that developed there. HW

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was a dominant force in world architecture, during the transition from the Arts and Crafts Movement to modernism. Born in Wisconsin, of Welsh lineage, Wright worked for Louis Sullivan in Chicago, then formulated his signature 'prairie house', updated over 60 years as a symbol of American living. His personal life generated nationwide scandal, and he thrived on hyperbole. He gained worldwide fame when his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo survived the great earthquake of 1923: in the 1970s he formed the Taliesin Fellowship at his country home in Wisconsin, and aged over 90 supervised construction of the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue New York.

A very welcome return for this very gifted & talented lecturer who has given us delight in the past with his entertaining presentations. Despite Handel’s German birth and his Italian musical training,he remains one of he most important composers that England ever nurtured. By exploring the works of the French sculptor Roubiliac, the paintings of Hudson and Denner, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the novels of Samuel Butler, the Crystal Palace, the chimes of Westminster, as well as compositions by Sullivan and Tippett, the lecture assesses the cultural influences Handel had on a nation, as he once wrote, "from whom I have received so generous a protection".

Antony has for the past 30 years been conserving and disseminating the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. He is the director of The Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection at Farley Farm House in Sussex and has seen his parents' work featured in major exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Whitworth.

John Opie RA was an important 18th century artist, the carpenter’s boy touched by genius, who was buried next to Reynolds in St. Paul’s. Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy, his legacy of paintings can be found across the world. He is in the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Collection, in reference books, encyclopaedias, lists of important portraits of great artists, great Cornishmen – yet most people have never heard of him. Viv Hendra tells a story which is improbable, extraordinary, funny, poignant and entertaining.

Phillipa Barton is a freelance lecturer in the fine and decorative arts for NADFAS, the V&A and other organisations. Her specialities are English architecture, interiors and furniture from the sixteenth to the early 19th centuries.

This lecture will give a fascinating insight into the life and work of Gustav Klimt. Eric Shanes is a painter, author, art historian and lecturer.

Mrs Tapley is a special events organizer at Theatre Royal Bath and a Blue Badge Tour Guide, whose specialist subjects are Austen & Dickens. As 2012 is Dickens’ bi-centenary it seemed appropriate to have a talk on ‘The Life and Times of Charles Dickens’

One of the greatest joys of our heritage must be the Luttrell Psalter. It was made in the early part of the C14th, commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell who owned considerable estates in Lincolnshire. Instead of going for what might be thought of as a more standard book of Psalms, he has chosen to have his decorated with the teeming life of rural Lincolnshire. From his book we learn how daily life was conducted from farming and cooking scenes to the man who delivered water. Monsters also romp cheerfully, mixed in with saints and biblical stories. The Luttrell Psalter doesn’t quite stand alone; comparisons can be made with other books, but the artists’ sense of the ridiculous and keen eye for colour and detail is second to none.

The late 1940s was a time of great economic expansion for Britain after World War II and the 1951 Festival of Britain was dedicated to showcasing the very best of new British industry and design. Gerald Barry, the festival’s director, described it as a riot of ‘fun, fantasy and colour’. It was held over five months at London’s South Bank on 27 acres of bomb-damaged land. This lecture will look at how and why The Festival of Britain had a huge impact on people’s perception of design (including graphics, textiles, ceramics and industrial design) and on design itself. It launched the careers of furniture designers including Ernest Race and textile designers such as Lucienne Day (wife of Robin Day). Examples of their work and that of other young designers included in the lecture tell the story of the Festival and its lasting design legacy.

Andy McConnell is one of Britain’s leading authorities on glassware of all types, and his books have covered the subject from 1650 to the present. He is the first glass specialist recruited to BBC TV’s Antiques Roadshow, for which he has now recorded five series. He lectures widely on glass and has written for journals as diverse as The Times, Country Life, BBC Homes & Antiques and Glass Circle News. His 550-page opus, The Decanter, An Illustrated History of Glass from 1650, covers the ‘antique period’, whilst the research for his new, best-selling 20th Century Glass led him on a voyage of discovery across Europe. This quest, involving visits to glassworks in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Venice, has resulted in his richly illustrated new book, 20th Century Glass. Andy is a witty, spontaneous speaker who is delighted to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject with the audience on the day. He says that his mission is to engage, entertain and educate. He has never delivered the same talk twice, doesn’t work from notes and rearranges his slides for every talk. ‘I am serious about my subject, but a lecturer’s primarily responsibility is to take the audience with him. By the end of a talk, nobody should be left regretting their decision to abandon a comfy fireside armchair for a hard seat in a hall’. Andy owns around 25,000 pieces of glass and 20,000 glass-related images. He has 15 prepared talks and willing to create new ones directed towards specific locations, events or themes. He also welcomes Study Day groups of up to 50 to Glass Etc, at Rye, East Sussex, the site of his shop/exhibition complex.

Oliver Everett, CVO, formerly Royal Librarian to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. This office, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of books and manuscripts owned by the Sovereign in an official capacity — as distinct from those owned privately and displayed at Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle and elsewhere. Everett was educated at Felsted School, the Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio and at Christ's College and he has a masters degree in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and did post-graduate work in international relations at the London School of Economics. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1967 and was 1st Secretary in New Delhi 1969 to 1973. Subsequent service in the Diplomatic Service included a posting as Head of Chancery in Madrid 1980 to 1981. From 1978 to 1980 he was seconded as Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales. After leaving the Diplomatic Service in 1981 he served as Private Secretary to the Princess of Wales 1981 to 1983, and as Librarian, Royal Library, 1985-2002 (he was deputy librarian 1984-1985). He is now a popular NADFAS lecturer, and Librarian Emeritus, Windsor Castle.

Bertie Pearce is a Member of The Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star and a Professor of Punch and Judy. He has performed all over the world and toured extensively as a speaker sharing his passion for illusion.

Geoffrey Toms is lecturer in the history & archaeology of London and the Eastern Mediterranean. Head of Education, Museum of London 1968-94.

Christopher Herbert was born in Lydney in the Forest of Dean in 1944. His father helped run the family road haulage business, but was also very proud of his roots as a foundryman in a local iron works. He was educated at Monmouth School for Boys and went on to read Biblical Studies and Philosophy at the University of Wales, Lampeter. He graduated in 1965 and went straight to Wells Theological College, and, at the same time, obtained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at the University of Bristol. He was ordained in 1967 and served as assistant curate at St Paul’s, Tupsley, Hereford. During this time he taught Religious Education (RE) and Social Studies in a local secondary school, and was a youth leader. In 1971 he became RE Adviser for the Diocese of Hereford and then, in 1976, Diocesan Director of Education, where he was responsible for developing a residential education centre as well as creating new church schools. He was made Prebendary of Hereford Cathedral in 1977. From 1981-1990 he was Vicar of The Bourne, near Farnham, Surrey. He was appointed Director of Post-Ordination Training and made a Canon of Guildford Cathedral, before becoming Archdeacon of Dorking in 1990. He became Bishop of St Albans in 1995. During his tenure as a diocesan bishop, he also served as Chairman of the Hospital Chaplaincies Council, Chairman of General Synod, National Chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews, and Chairman of the East of England Churches Network, He entered the House of Lords in 1999 established himself as a speaker in the areas of health and medical ethics. Bishop Christopher has an interest in and love for all forms of literature. He is a prolific author in his own right. Much of his writing is based on the themes of prayer and spirituality, for both children and adults. Among his best-known books are Ways into Prayer (Church House Publishing, 1987) and Pocket Prayers (Church House Publishing, 1993). In 2002 he completed a major piece of research into 'The Image of the Resurrection of Jesus in 15th Century Northern European Art', for which he was awarded an MPhil by the University of Leicester. He is currently involved in doctoral research, also at the University of Leicester, on 'The Origins of the Easter Sepulchre in Pre-Reformation England'. He has been a guest lecturer at the National Gallery, Westminster Abbey and the Courtauld Institute. In November 2003 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Hertfordshire, pictured above, and received his research P.hD from Leicester university in 2006 for his work on English Easter Sepulchres. He retired as Bishop of St Albans in 2008, having served 13 years in that position. He and Jan now live in Surrey.

Freelance lecturer and artist. Specialises in Critical Studies in Art (Understanding Art) and practical Drawing. For many years has lectured for Sussex and Bristol universities, including Lifelong Learning courses and Summer Schools. She also runs courses at Adult Residential Colleges., provides talks and consultancy work for the National Trust, Bristol and Whitworth Art Galleries, and various art societies. Her own artwork is in private and public collections, has been exhibited widely, and used in a range of publications.

In this engaging lecture, John Ericson tells the extraordinary story of the Shakers, exploring their beginnings in Manchester, what they believed and how they lived their lives before examining examples of their wonderful buildings and furniture. It is only with such an understanding of their devout faith and way of life that we can begin to appreciate the beauty of their intriguing legacy.

Painting rural subjects outdoors came to maturity in Britain in the 1880s, following Bastien Lepage's example, and then finding inspiration in the Impressionists. Laura Knight's account of these years, accompanying her spirited depictions of fisherfolk and country people, sets the scene for Tim Stimson to show us the works of Stanhope Forbes, Walter Langley, Harold Knight and others. Their lyrical yet realistic style is evocative of the world that changed forever in 1914.

Janet trained at the Royal Academy of Music, and was soon involved in the musical life of South- East England. She recently completed thirty-seven years as Conductor and Musical Director of the Ditchling Choral Society (later re-named Sussex Chorus) having performed most of the major choral works with them, together with prestigious orchestras and soloists including The Philharmonia Orchestra, Josephine Barstow and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson in a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Janet has been made Conductor Emeritus of the Choral Society. She lectures throughout the year for the Continuing Education Department of Sussex University, for the Workers' Educational Association, for the University of the Third Age and presents lectures for Cambridge University at Madingley Hall and for London University through Birkbeck College. In 1984 she was appointed lecturer for the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, visiting organisations in the UK and across Europe, touring Australia in 1994 and 2001, and South Africa in 1997. In 1984 Janet was appointed Guest Conductor of The First All Women Chamber Orchestra of Austria, giving concerts in Vienna. She continues links with the orchestra today, especially through her role as Deputy Secretary General of "Femmes Maestros", an organisation to promote women conductors based in Brussels. In 2009 Janet completed a second series of lectures entitled "Invitation to the Opera" organised by Birkbeck College, London University, and plans are being considered for another series this autumn. In June 2010 she gave two pre-performance talks before Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Former Director and head of European Ceramics at Christie's, London and course organiser for Christie's Education. Appeared on the first BBC Antiques Roadshow and broadcast with them for over a decade.

James Lindow First Renaissance PhD from Royal College of Art and V & A lectures widely in UK and overseas and is currently a fine art underwriter in the City. Successful 15th century merchants expressed their wealth in splendid palaces. Whilst facades survive, many interiors have been lost and their contents dispersed to museums. Using visual and written sources, James Lindow recreates this opulence, showing how paintings, sculptures and decorative objects were used within a domestic setting. This is a subject close to his heart – he was involved in the recent exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum 'At Home in Renaissance Italy'. A visiting lecturer at art colleges in London and Savannah, USA, Dr Lindow has been awarded research scholarships in London, the US and Italy, and has written several books.

Hilary Hope Guise MA Fine Art (UCT) MA (Lon) lectures in main London Museums for American universities. She also lectures at the National Gallery, the Courtauld, both Tates, the British Museum and at Cambridge University. In the USA she lectures for the Smithsonian and is a guest speaker with Swan Hellenic. She is a trained painter and exhibits mostly in Berlin and France

Nicholas Reed BA (Oxon) MA MPhil Author of several books (5 on Impressionism) and lecturer.

Frank Woodgate Lecturer and guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Linda Smith Holds two first class degrees in Art History, lectures at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Tony Tucker MA (Oxon) Chairman of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association, lectures extensively, leads walks for City of London Corporation.

Lois Oliver Extensive lecturing experience, Exhibition Curator at National Gallery, author of numerous publications and has appeared on television and radio.

Rosamund Bartlett D Phil BA Hons Extensive experience teaching at universities, now works as writer, translator and lecturer, has published widely on Russian cultural history, music and literature.

Roger Mitchell MA Oxon Lectures for University of Liverpool and Adult Residential Colleges.

Frances Hughes 38 years in education, lectures at National portrait Gallery and London Centre for Theatre Studies.

Valerie Woodgate BA Lecturer and guide in Tate Britain and Tate Modrn, on teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Peter Medhurst Musician and scholar, gives recitals and lectures on music and the arts.