As the world emerged from WWII and French couturier Christian Dior introduced his revolutionary ‘New Look’ in 1947, fashion illustration was to play a pivotal role in the success of fashion houses which had struggled to survive the war years in Europe , while new designers who were about to step onto the international stage.

With a background in fashion and broadcasting, Connie Gray is a leading art specialist on 20th-century fashion illustration, with a special interest in the history of French haute couture. As a curator, writer, presenter and lecturer, she advises internationally on museum exhibitions and writes on the evolution of fashion illustration, haute couture’s influence on visual culture, and the legacies of key illustrators. She collaborates with institutions on acquisitions, conservation, and exhibitions, including Pioneers of Fashion (Lee Miller Archives), Crown to Couture (Kensington Palace, London), and 100 Years of Fashion Illustration (Society of Illustrators, New York).

 Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

Image: Sporting Around Illustrated by Robert Melendez (1944 - ) for WWD 1969 © R Melendez Archive

This lecture will be preceded by the AGM at 7pm (see the relevant documentation on this website under Our Society)  followed by a slide presentation roundup of the Society's year and presentations to the winners of  this year's Young Arts competion winners.

PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS BY 7PM FOR THE AGM AND 7.15 LATEST.

British sculpture enjoyed a renaissance in the 20th century, with the likes of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Anthony Caro and Elizabeth Frink leading the way. But who came afterwards and with what effect? Among the new generation of British-based sculptors were Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley, Maggi Hambling, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long and David Nash. These days all six are world-renowned and are still working as hard as ever. Each in their own way is innovative, inspirational and deeply human. They have produced sculptures that are glorious, challenging and moving in equal measure.

Ray Warburton has had a life-long love of art but followed a career in health and social care, with art being an evening and weekend passion. That all changed in 2011, when Ray became a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern which encouraged him to study and gain a masters in art history which led to him becoming an Arts Society lecturer.

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

Image: Maggie Hambling A Conversation with Oscar Wilde Photo ©Ray Warburton

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? This lecture explores these questions through a close engagement with artworks by Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas. 

Dr Lois Oliver studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and writing her PhD thesis on The Image of the Artist, Paris 1815-1855. She is a professor in art history 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 one on Berthe Morisot at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lois is also a keen violinist, playing regularly with two orchestras.

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions.

Image: Mary Cassatt, The Child's Bath (1893), Robert A. Waller Fund, Courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago.

The lecturer, Alison Bevan, has kindly sent a link to the images shown in her lecture: 

Click on the link below for the Birmingham Boys handout 

https://www.theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk/DocumentStore/Birmingham%20Boys%20handout.pdf

Birmingham watercolorist, Walter Langley is generally dubbed the pioneer of the Newlyn School, as he was the first of the group's artists to settle in the village, setting up his studio in 1882. Although an accomplished painter in oils, he mainly painted in watercolour, often on a large scale. Using this medium, he portrayed scenes of everyday life in a small fishing village, highlighting the hardships and tragedies that were commonplace during that period. He divided his time between Birmingham and Newlyn, and fellow artists of the Birmingham Art Circle, co-founded by Langley, also started to make the trek to Cornwall, including Edwin Harris, William Wainwright, William Banks Fortescue, William Breakspeare and Frank Richards.

Alison Bevan

Since graduating in History of Art from Nottingham University in 1986, Alison’s career has been focused on working and curating exhibitions in public art galleries; while at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea, she presented a weekly arts news feature on BBC Radio Wales, 1995-6.

In 1999, Alison took up the role of Director of Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance. Here she became an acknowledged expert on the Newlyn, Lamorna and St Ives artists colonies (1880-1940), a subject on which has widely lectured. For raising the profile of this area of art, she was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to cultural heritage in Cornwall.

Alison has also been Director of the Royal West of England Academy – Britain’s only regional Royal Academy of Art.

Alison now works as a freelance lecturer, curator and consultant,  taking on other roles including that of Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Bristol.

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

This talk focuses on the extraordinary contribution Brazilian artists made to 20th century modernism. Brazilian artists infused international influences with distinctive and vibrant visual culture, fuelled by diverse identities and the unique landscapes of South America's largest country. Join Cindy on a journey exploring a hundred years of Brazilian art.

Cindy Polemis is an art historian, independent lecturer and art guide. In an earlier career, she was a radio producer and presenter for the BBC World Service working in news and current affairs. She lectures as an art guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Her art historical knowledge ranges from 18th European and British art to the contemporary international art scene. Cindy is keen to show links between art and social history; her lectures draw out stories of art and artists which are steeped in human emotions and experiences.

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

Image: Tarsila do Amaral, The Lake,1928, WikiArt.

Dutch art is quite different to anything else at that time. It dealt with the real lives of its people: whether ordered, bawdy, self-important or tragic. This talk examines why this is so and covers Holland’s newly-acquired independence; the new Protestant mentality which allowed advances in science, how its merchant wealth was reflected in art, and its civic pride. Richly illustrated with portraits by Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Vermeer; seascapes by Van de Velde and Van Goyen and more.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time, he has given over 8000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. Among his more improbable lecture venues are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. He has lectured widely overseas and led tours around Europe. He wrote and presented the Omnibus programme on Whistler and the exhibition video on William Morris. A painter himself, exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. His book on Monet, River of Light, has sold 30,000 copies in England,

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

Image:The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer, 1660, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The art of beating gold leaf and gilding dates back to ancient Egypt.  Traditionally craftsmen pounded gold for hours to create sheets thin enough to cover the most finely detailed surfaces.  For over 22 centuries from Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus to Rachel Whiteread’s gilded frieze for the Whitechapel Gallery, skilled artisans have exploited paper-thin metal leaf to enrich materials such as wood, metal, marble, leather, paper, glass, porcelain and textiles – even food and drink.

Joanna Mabbutt is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and Freeman of the City of London.  Jo is a decorative artist who gilds antique lace and crochet; she trained in wood graining, marbling, gilding, specialist paint finishes and interior design and was awarded the City & Guilds Silver Medal for Excellence in 2000.  She now divides her time as a designer/maker, lecturer and tutor running workshops for specialist groups.

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

For more information about the Arts Society Southampton and to enquire about annual membership please visit www.theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk or email info@theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk

Image: Gustave Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, 1907, held at Neue Galerie, New York

The story, as told by their son, of Roland Penrose, British Surrealist artist, and Lee Miller, American  photographer, who shot fashion and combat with equal talent. This talk looks at how their early lives formed their motivations and how they strove to use art to make the world a better place. The last decades of their life together were at Farley Farm, their home in Sussex which was frequented by many prominent Surrealist and Modern artists.(Contains some war time images which may be disturbing.)

Antony Penrose has conserved and disseminated the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose for thirty years. 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, The National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery and other high profile galleries. He has lectured at museums and universities around the world, and made tv documentaries. He has written a range of publications including The Boy Who Bit Picasso.

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

For more information about the Arts Society Southampton and to enquire about annual membership please visit www.theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk or email info@theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk

Image  © Lee Miller Archives, England 2025. All rights reserved. leemiller.co.uk

In this first talk of the 2025-26 season, speaker Steve Carroll, finds links between Rococo, an early 18th century style of painting -often considered frivolous -with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. He compares and contrasts the life and work of Anton Watteau (1684-1721) with that of Andy Warhol (1928-1987). He will argue that the spirit of Rococo is very similar to the philosophy of Pop Art and so reassesses both movements.

Steve Carroll is speaker on art history. He has taught courses on a whole range of subjects, across different countries and across different time periods. This has given him a broad appreciation of global art, which he uses to create lectures on themes that spread across all cultures and across different times. Steve also teaches practical art and is an award-winning artist.

Doors and the bar at Thornden Hall Arts Centre open from 18.45; talks start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the signing in desk: card only.

For more information about the Arts Society Southampton and to enquire about annual membership please visit www.theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk or email info@theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk

Image copyright: Lasse Olsson / Pressens bild, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsPhotograph of the American artist Andy Warhol in Moderna Museet, Stockholm, before the opening of his retrospective exhibition. Brillo boxes in the background.

Before this month's talk, The Society's AGM will be held at 7pm and all are invited. Documents appertaining to this, including a summary of the year's activities and the annual accounts, can be found by clicking on Our Society/Documents. A  Power Point show of highlights from the Society's year will be followed at 7.15 by a presentation to the three winners of this year's GCSE art student awards as chosen by our May audience.

Morris took a lot of inspiration from the Cotswolds and the surrounding area. He was first introduced to the west as a schoolboy at Marlborough, escaping into the Downs whenever he could. He took his young family to Broadway, and while travelling, discovered the damage being done to local buildings in the name of restoration, and led to the founding of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Then, in the 1870s, he took on Kelmscott Manor near Lechlade, which became his 'Old House on the Thames'.

Kirsty Hartsiotis is currently a curator at Swindon Museums, prior to this, she was the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham for many years where she looked after the Arts and Crafts Movement collection. She has curated many exhibitions on the Arts and Crafts movement. Passionate about sharing her deep love for and knowledge of the arts, she's the editor of the Journal of William Morris Studies and writes for diverse other publications on art history and folklore.

Photograph of Kelmscott Manor, Gloucestershire.

Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk: card only.

The story of modern art as conventionally told inevitably runs from Monet and Cezanne through to Picasso, Kandinsky, Duchamp and Dalí. This programme of lectures paints a new picture of avant-garde experimentation before and after WW1 by showcasing the lives and careers of the many unsung female artists who also contributed to the European Modernist movement.  They include Berthe Morisot, Hilma af Klint, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Helen Saunders, Sonia Delaunay and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

 Rosamund Bartlett is a writer, lecturer and translator whose work ranges across the arts, and across the cultures of Europe, from Italy to Norway.  Her background is in the art, music and literature of Russia and Ukraine, on which she has written widely. She began her career as an academic.  In 2024 she will become a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford.The author of several books, including biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, she is also a translator.   She is currently writing a book about the revolution in the arts in early 20th-century Russia.She contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts on the BBC.

Image: Olga Rozanova, Self-portrait, 1912-15

Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk: card only.

After the Franco Prussian War, artists such as Monet, Whistler, Tissot and Pissarro fled the barricaded city of Paris and went to London hoping to sell their stunning images of the city. Often disappointed, they missed France, and many returned as soon as possible but not without creating some of the most memorable and beautiful records of an atmospheric city.

Jacqueline Cockburn is managing director of Art and Culture Travel, running residential courses in Andalucía, Southern Spain in the art and culture of the region as well as curated tours to Madrid, Tangiers, Barcelona, Paris and Venice. Jacqueline is a course director and lecturer at the V&A and also lectures at The Royal Academy,  She has toured New Zealand and Australia for The Arts Society. Her specialist field is Spanish Art, but she also lectures on European Art 1790-1950. She is currently working on a Monograph on Goya .

Image: James Tissot, The Captain’s Daughter (The Last Evening), 1873, Southampton City Art Gallery

Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk: card only.

Vienna, at the turn of the last century, was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world. It produced painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, architects like Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the composer Gustav Mahler and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Looking at these and others figures in the context of the society in which they worked, this talk asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed around 1900. 

 Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster. He had broadcast on BBC Radio and contributes to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He 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, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum and the V&A. His first book, A Home for All Seasons, is out now.

Photograph of Vienna Secession Building © Gavin Plumley

Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk: card only.

Botticelli is one of the best-loved artists of the Florentine renaissance. This lecture looks at his career and at the city that shaped his art, putting his paintings in their historical context, and showing how they reflect Botticelli’s world. From The Birth of Venus and Primavera, painted during the golden age of the Medici, to the Mystic Nativity, redolent of the religious fervour of Savonarola, who dominated Florence after the expulsion of the Medici in 1494, Botticelli’s paintings are not only stunning works of art, but visual testimony to one of the most eventful periods in Florentine history.   

Paula Nuttall 

Specialist in Renaissance art, both Italian and northern European, on which she has published widely, notably From Flanders to Florence: the Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400-1500 (Yale, 2004). Has collaborated on major exhibitions including Jan van Eyck: an Optical Revolution (Ghent, 2020). Former Director of the V&A Medieval and Renaissance Year course, and lecturer at – among others – the Courtauld Institute and the British Institute of Florence.

Image: Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, Wikimedia Commons

 Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk: card only.

In the years leading up to the First World War, the Slade School of Art in London was the leading establishment in England for teaching of drawing and painting. Its students included some of the most important British artists of the first half of the twentieth century, including David Bomberg, Dora Carrington, Mark Gertler, Paul Nash, C.R.W. Nevinson, William Roberts, Stanley Spencer and Edward Wadsworth. Based on his book, A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War (2009), this lecture explores the fascinating story of these artists’ interlocking lives, and their artistic education and development. 

David Haycock

Dr. David Boyd Haycock is an established freelance art historian and curator. He is best known for his 2009 book, A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War, and the subsequent exhibition he curated at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Educated at the University of Oxford, and a former curator at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, he is a specialist in British art and culture in the period 1860 to 1940. His latest books include a new biography of the young Augustus John, and a new biography of the equestrian painter Lucy Kemp-Welch. An Arts Society lecturer since 2011.

Image: Mark Gertler, Family Group,1913, Southampton City Art Galley

Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members; visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk card only.

Mark is doing an identification and valuation before the talk. Dig out your  20th Century glass or ceramics ONLY for Mark to appraise he’ll be in the foyer from 7pm
Please note there will be a limit of ONE item per person.

“Antiques. I don’t understand them and they’re beyond my budget. They’re not for me.” A persuasive introduction to buying antiques and integrating and using them in today’s homes. The state of the antiques market and the different meanings of the word value are considered, and we take a look at what current and future generations of collectors are buying, why they are buying it and how they are displaying it.

Mark Hill

After gaining a BA in History of Art & Architecture, Mark began his career as a porter and junior cataloguer at Bonhams, before moving to Sotheby's where he was a specialist in the Collectors' Department. He co-authored the internationally-published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller before founding his own publishing writing books on emerging specialist subjects in the decorative arts. Well-known as a miscellaneous expert on the BBC’s 'Antiques Roadshow' and the 'Antiques Road Trip', Mark has lectured at the V&A as well as world-wide. He delivered a Special Interest Day for teh Society in 2021.

Photograph ‘Eclectic’ © Mark Hill

Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk: card only.

James Taylor introduces the subjects, themes and styles of marine painting and focuses on the development of the genre in Britain. Subjects include dramatic sea battles, ship portraits, ports and harbours, fishing, a brief introduction to Captain James Cook, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, royal yachts and races, clipper ships and ocean liners, as well as official war artists. The historic buildings of the National Maritime Museum are also featured as they were instrumental in the development of maritime art. 

James Taylor

A former curator at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Has written many published works including illustrated histories of Marine Painting , The Voyage of the Beagle: Darwin’s extraordinary adventure aboard FitzRoy’s famous survey ship),  and Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art. His PhD on the voyager artist William Westall who sailed with Commander Matthew Flinders aboard HMS 'Investigator' the first ship to circumnavigate Australia.

Image: Christopher Clark, Aquitania in Dazzle Paint, 1919, oil on canvas © Maritime & Local History Collection, Southampton Cultural Services 

Doors and the bar open from 18.45; lectures start at 19.30 and last an hour with additional time for questions. Free for members: visitors please pay £8 on the day at the welcome desk: card only.

The first talk of our 2024-25 series examines John Constable’s work during the later period of his life. Against a background of significant personal and professional challenges Constable tackled familiar themes afresh whilst also diversifying his practice with new subjects. In pursuit of naturalism in landscape he evolved a freer and more expressive style in oil, and more fully explored the possibilities of and printmaking. The final years of his life can therefore be seen as some of his most varied, exciting and radical, and are crucial to understanding his overall legacy. 

Nicola Moorby

Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian, lecturer and curator, specialising in British art of the nineteenth century. She has curated a number of exhibitions including one recently at The Arc, Winchester. She has published widely and regularly teaches at the Courtauld: TV appearances have included Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr’ and ‘Art on the BBC’. Her book about Turner and Constable  is due for be release  next year (2025).

Image John Constable: Hadleigh Castle 1829; Yale Centre for British Art 

Doors/bar open at 6.45: talks start at 19.30

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

David Worthington has been drawn to abstract sculpture since seeing a Barbara Hepworth in a school history book aged 10. A  sculptor himself and fellow and previous vice-president of The Royal Society of Sculptors; he curates and writes about art. He has carried out public commissions and has had private shows in the UK and abroad. His work is on display in the museum the Creative Cities Collection, Beijing, China. David gave a Zoom lecture to TASS members in June 2021 on Constantin Brancusi and 20th Century Sculpture.

Illustration: The Thinker, Augustine Rodin, MET Museum. New York

How contemporary work by artists such as Turner, Monet, Rothko, Jackson Pollack evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden should look like. In 1882 the gardener Gertrude Jekyll wrote a seminal article urging gardeners to “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”.  As an accomplished watercolour artist, she was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she believed that in gardens these principles had been neglected.  This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border, but it also looks at the ways in which a border is different from a painting. 

Timothy Walker read Botany at University College Oxford. After graduation, he worked at gardens including the Royal Botanic Gardensin Kew, and the Oxford Botanic Garden which won four gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show under his directorship and was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its provision of imaginative educational programmes.  A Master of Horticulture and a Fellow of the Linnaean Society, he presented a three-part film series on the history of botany on BBC4. Since 2014, Timothy has been a tutor in Plant Biology at Somerville College, Oxford.

Diverse artists have used the humble chair as a conduit for expressing ideas on themes such as protest, absence and memory, everyday life. In Europe, Egon Schiele, René Magritte, Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys used empty chairs for personal expression, while in America, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Kosuth and Bruce Nauman took the same theme to develop new artistic movements in the sixties. The Palestinian artist, Mona Hatoum, adapted chairs to explore female identity and the Columbian artist, Doris Salcedo, stacked 1,550 between two buildings to remember anonymous victims of war. 

Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer who has taught art in prisons in Germany and England. Angela has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art, a Diploma in Artistic Therapy (specialising in colour). Angela’s Anglo-German roots led her to research Germany’s largely unknown post-WW2 process of remembrance and site-specific artworks that emerged to express national shame and apology. Her book - In My Grandfather’s Shadow - expands on this subject.

Illustration: Thoughts Can Fly, Angela Findlay, copyright the artist

This colourful lecture on Georgia O’Keeffe explores the relationship between an extraordinary American painter and an equally remarkable place: the picturesque US state of New Mexico.  The artist was fascinated by the mountains and desert, adobe churches and sun-bleached bones, and above all by the brilliant light and vast skies of the state, O’Keeffe eventaully moved permanently to New Mexico. She was a fearless explorer, setting off alone into the empty landscape in a battered old car. Drawing on the speaker’s own 20-year experience of New Mexico, along with his archive of personal photographs and reminiscences, this lecture brings to life one of America’s greatest artists, and one of its most beautiful places.

James Russell  studied History at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He enjoyed a lengthy stint selling contemporary paintings and sculpture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an experience that inspired him to begin writing and lecturing on 20th century art. Of his dozen or so books, one was a Sunday Times book of the year. James has curated major exhibitions at Dulwich Picture Gallery and for museums around the country.

Georgia O’Keeffe: Memories of Drawings

Exhibition at the Arc, Winchester

20 August – 15 November 2023

The Society has a talk next March on this artist’s painting, but you can see 21 of her drawings at this exhibition. None of O’Keeffe’s work is held in public collections outside the US so this is a rare chance to see her work. Catch it before it closes.

https://www.arcwinchester.org.uk/event/georgia-okeeffe

Illustration: Abiquiu Lake and the Surrounding Red Rocks, by the Casita del Lago

Stonehenge is the most celebrated and sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the British Isles. This lecture explains why Stonehenge must be regarded as architectural in its layout and construction, embodying techniques that for centuries convinced antiquarians that it could not have been built by ‘primitive’ ancient Britons but must be a product of ‘sophisticated’ Romans. Julian will explore how this iconic structure has inspired painters, potters and poets including Blake, Turner, Constable and Henry Moore, resulting in a diverse catalogue of images and impressions. He will look at how Stonehenge has become a global icon.

Julian Richards studied archaeology at Reading University and has since worked as a professional archaeologist for English Heritage, for the BBC and as an independent. A fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London with an honorary doctorate, as a broadcaster he presented Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings for BBC2, and Mapping the Town for Radio 4. An exhibition of his own extensive collection of 'Stonehengiana' is on display at the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre. Julian visited TASS in 2022 with a talk on Passionate Potters - from De Morgan to Leach.

NB Visitors are very welcome but tickets cannot be bought in advance, payment (£8) is on the night at the visitors’ desk (card only). There is always plenty of space for everyone.

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The Glasgow Boys - young Scottish artists who looked to France for their inspiration- revolutionised painting in Scotland by bringing it into the mainstream of European art. Frequent visitors to France, some painted together there, other members of the group came together through old friendships – Paterson and MacGregor had known each other at school, while Guthrie and Walton were old friends. They soon established a vigorous style of oil painting using large square brushes and thick paint with bold colours. Watercolour also played a major part with works by Walton, Lavery, Henry and  Arthur Melville. Japanese prints were an important influence. The work of the Glasgow Boys is surprisingly fresh and modern.

Julian Halsby studied History of Art at Cambridge. He has written several publications on Scottish art including Scottish Watercolours 1740-1940. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics Circle. A practising artist, Julian was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010. In 2013 Julian gave a talk to TASS on Toulouse-Lautrec and the Golden Age of Cabaret.

NB Visitors are very welcome but tickets cannot be bought in advance, payment (£8) is on the night at the visitors’ desk (card only). There is always plenty of space for everyone.

Illustration: A Cabbage Garden, Arthur Melville1877, National Gallery of Scotland

Please note: This talk is on a Tuesday evening

We are taken  behind the scenes of famous Parisian ‘high jewellery’ houses such as Cartier, Boucheron, and Chaumet which have created jewels that have adorned royalty and the world’s rich and famous. These jewellery houses have continued their quest to create jewels that are innovative in design and beautifully crafted. Joanna was invited to Cartier’s workshops in Paris to discover the stories behind the commissions; she will share these tales to help us understand what makes Paris the centre for jewellery luxury and excellence.

Joanna Hardy is an independent fine jewellery specialist with over 35 years’ experience working in the jewellery industry. Beginning as a goldsmith, she later became one of the first women polished diamond dealers and was a senior jewellery specialist and auctioneer for Sotheby’s. Joanna now lectures, writes for publications worldwide and curates contemporary jewellery exhibitions. She is a is regular specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow and some may have seen her commentating on the televised Royal Coronation. Joanna previously visited TASS in 2013 with her lecture Jewellery as an Art Form 1960-2013.

Pre-talk evaluation 

Dig out your diamonds! Joanna Hardy, will be appraising your treasured jewellery pieces in the Thornden Hall foyer before her talk. Please note there will be a limit of ONE item of jewellery per person.

NB Visitors are very welcome but tickets cannot be bought in advance, payment (£8) is on the night at the visitors’ desk (card only). There is always plenty of space for everyone.

Illustration:Van Cleef and Arpels sapphire and diamond ballerina brooch, courtesy of Albion Arts

This talk will examine the provocative and often beautiful work of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in the context of dissident art world-wide, and examine some of his sources of inspiration. This international artist has been twice imprisoned and subjected to mental torture, the second time while his Sunflower Seeds installation was on display in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. His provocative work includes a series of photographs Study in Perspective, in which he made an offensive gesture in front of famous locations.

Frank Woodgate has lectured at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, for the Art Fund, the National Trust, U3A and other organisations. Formerly a guide at both London Tates, he has lectured for Dulwich Picture Gallery, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester and on cruises on behalf of Tate. He last visited TASS with a lecture in 2017 on John Singer Sargent.

NB Visitors are very welcome but tickets cannot be bought in advance, payment (£8) is on the night at the visitors’ desk (card only). There is always plenty of space for everyone.

Georgia O’Keeffe: Memories of Drawings

Exhibition at the Arc, Winchester

20 August – 15 November

The Society has a talk next March on this artist’s painting, but you can see 21 of her drawings at this exhibition. None of O’Keeffe’s work is held in public collections outside the US so this is a rare chance to see her work. Catch it before it closes.

Illustration: Iron Tree, Ai WeiWei, Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) was a key player in early twentieth century avant-garde art, design and literary/theatrical circles in Paris. A widely-travelled polymath, Dufy's charismatic personality and curiosity about the world was infectious. His imagination and technical virtuosity - across a range of media including painting and lithography, posters, book illustration, theatrical set design, textiles and fashion, ceramics and large murals - cut across all conventional boundaries.

Dufy defies categorisation, constantly innovating and experimenting with new materials and effects. Perhaps this goes some way to explain why some later critics fail to grasp its complexity and pigeonhole him a 'decorative artist', or misunderstand the irony in his witty yet gentle caricatures of elegant social life.

Mary Alexander has over thirty years' experience as a lecturer, with a BA in History and History of Art and a MA History of Art. She has lectured in museums, tutored for the Open University, was a visiting lecturer at Christie's Education in London, and a museum curator the Gallery of Costume, Manchester. Mary is returning to TASS following her lectures on Gainsborough in 2008 and John Singer Sargent in 2010.

Illustration: Raoul Dufy, Regatta at Cowes, 1934, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The role of sculpture has changed substantially in recent times. This lecture considers how the concept of monument and memorial, familiar since classical antiquity, shifts towards other concerns. It discusses how sculpture plays a vitally important role in the city; how the sculpture park came into being, how water has attracted artists to make exceptional works in or alongside it; and how sculpture has become a challenging space for social encounter. Artists include among others, Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long, Claes Oldenburg, Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread.

 Anna is a lecturer and writer specialising in contemporary art.  During the 1990s, she oversaw the development of the first British Master’s Degree in the subject at Sotheby’s Institute. She has taught at the City Lit, the Royal Academy and the Tate and lectured across the world. Her books include Abstract Art and Sculpture Now.

Please note change of date as Monday 8th is a bank holiday

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

 Brian Stater lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography. He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

Ever since the emergence of the avant-garde in the nineteenth century, art and controversy – not to say, scandal - have often gone hand in hand. This  lecture will examine the complex reasons for this phenomenon, and grapple with the important issues of freedom of expression, blasphemy, censorship and taboo. Sex, religion, politics, morality and money – either by themselves, or in combination - lie at the heart of most of these controversies – as does the power of modern art to challenge and subvert the social and aesthetic status quo. We will consider the significance of landmark exhibitions, court cases where legal proceedings have been brought against artists and/or galleries and controversies provoked by individual works of art. Prepare to be both entertained and challenged!

Monica is a London-based freelance lecturer, writer and exhibition organizer, who has lectured for Tate, the National Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Open University, Sotheby's Institute of Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art, Birkbeck College and has led many tours. She has published widely and is the initiator and Creative Director of the nationwide Insiders/Outsiders arts festival.

With an occasional gap, monarchs have reigned from a Westminster base since the 1030s. Six palaces have been their home. Yet, only the Palace of Westminster was purpose built to house the monarch. Parliament still occupies that palace, but by 1530 the monarch had moved to the largest palace of its time: Whitehall. Almost burnt to the ground in the 1690s, the Banqueting House is still with us today. But that fire left monarchs cramped in St James’s palace for a century. In the 1820s, George IV and two brothers commissioned a palace each by St James’s Park and a major upgrade to Buckingham House. Today, despite fire and one demolition, the best elements of five palaces are there to explore.

 Charlie is a walking tour guide and lecturer who highlights the social, architectural and artistic history of London. A member of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association, his talks focus on the forces that have shaped and changed this multi-faceted metropolis and its artistic and cultural heritage.

Annalie uses her knowledge and experience of literary houses to offer a unique perspective on writers and their works. She is particularly interested in the material culture of writers’ lives, including the quirky and interesting; from the collar worn by Emily Bronte’s dog to William Wordsworth’s ice-skates. This lecture gives us a history of literary tourism in the UK. Beginning in Stratford, we move north to Scotland and end with the museums dedicated to Wordsworth, the Brontes and Jane Austen. We will learn about the people who’ve played their part in this history; including enthusiast collectors, custodians, literary pilgrims – even forgers!    

Annelie Talent has worked on education programmes at museums and literary houses, including the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere; Wordsworth's House; Jane Austen’s House  and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Annalie won two Sandford Awards for Excellence in Heritage Education. She also worked with the British Library, the Bodleian Library and Chawton House Library promoting Austen’s work to young people. 

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

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

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. It includes several performance video clips.

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

William Morris led a revolution against the products of the machine age. William de Morgan, rediscovered the secrets of Near Eastern lustre glazes. The eccentric and argumentative Martin Brothers created a range of elaborate salt glazed pots unparalleled in their imaginative breadth. Sir Edmund Elton, the ‘potter baronet’, made pots which combine startling glazes with exotic forms. Finally, Bernard Leach, the father of English studio pottery, married the arts of Japan and England and created a legacy that is still alive today. This lecture explores the lives of these truly passionate potters and celebrates their extraordinary and beautiful creations.

Julian worked as a professional archaeologist, for English Heritage, for the BBC and as an independent. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1992. His career in broadcasting involved researching and presenting Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings for BBC2 and Mapping the Town for BBC Radio.

BRING IN YOUR ARTS & CRAFTS, STUDIO OR COUNTRY POTS FOR APPRAISAL
 

Julian has kindly offered to appraise any historic pots you may have before his lecture.
 

Youre inivted to bring in your items to his table in the Thornden Hall foyer from 6.45pm for an informal evaluation of any treasured pottery (excluding porcelain and Oriental ware).

Julian Richards has worked as a professional archaeologist, for English Heritage, for the BBC and as an independent. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1992. His career in broadcasting involved researching and presenting Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings for BBC2 and Mapping the Town for Radio 

Grant Ford was responsible for Irish art auctions at Sotheby’s from 2001-2016. The talk cover the huge rise of interest in Irish art from the mid-1990s (The Celtic Tiger) and dramatic changes in the market place in 2007. This will include incredible paintings by Jack Butler Yeats, William Orpen, John Lavery, Paul Henry, Roderick O’Conor and many others. Grant will talk about some of the iconic images he has handled over the years and discuss the many stories behind some of the major consignments and sales he has been responsible for.

Grant is an Independent Fine Art Advisor, Private Curator and Representative and is a senior paintings specialist for BBC's Antique Roadshow. He spent 30 years at Sotheby’s, where he was a Senior Director and Head of British & Irish Art Post 1850 and he now represents a number of prestigious family collections.

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

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

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

 Jacqueline is Managing Director of an art tours company, running residential courses in Andalucía, Southern Spain in the art and culture of the region. Jacqueline is a course director and lecturer at the V&A and also lectures at The Royal Academy, Christies Education, The Art Fund, The London Art History Society and has recently toured New Zealand for The Arts Society and Australia for ADFAS, where she will return next year. Her specialist field is Spanish Art, but she also lectures on European Art 1790-1950. She has recently published A Taste of Art, London.

18th century England saw the flowering of the Industrial Revolution and also that of the self-made man; who came not from money but from industry.  It was a time when like-minded men would meet and discuss the latest innovations of the day.  Joseph Wright of Derby would document in art the extraordinary individuals associated with one of these clubs: The Lunar Society. 

 This lecture will feature the works of Joseph Wright of Derby in this context, along with paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Nathaniel Dance, and men who were on the periphery of this club but achieved great things, such as Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks.  It will explore the lives, achievements, common interests and connections between a unique group of individuals from this period who either attended the Lunar Society or were associated with it; men such as, James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, Richard Arkwright, Joseph Wright of Derby and others. The industrialists amongst these men would be, in their time, referred to as philosophers practicing what we would now call joined-up thinking, eventually we would invent a new name for them: scientists.

 Leslie Primo:  Was Visiting Lecturer in Art History at the University of Reading in 2005 and 2007, gave lectures and guided tours, plus special talks, at both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery for 18 years. Currently he lectures at the City Literary Institute, Imperial College, London, and has presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute. Leslie has been to our society before talking about Leonardo & Michelangelo in 2010

This lecture may take place on ZOOM if Covid numbers are high. Do check on this website for details. Members and visitors who have given us their email address will be sent the link. Otherwise you will have to email us to request it.

In Greek legend, Pandora was created with the express purpose of causing trouble to men which, by opening her box, she achieved. This lecture looks at the original sources for the story, draws parallels with both Eve in Genesis and Galatea in Ovid before showing how ballets, operas and plays from Coppelia to My Fair Lady and The Winter’s Tale to Educating Rita have developed the theme of a creation that runs out of control.

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

This lecture may take place on Zoom if Covid numbers are high. Do check on this website for details. Members and visitors who have given us their email address will be sent the link. Otherwise you will have to email us to request it.

A fully illustrated talk with in excess of 60 images exploring the relationship between the making of an image and the way in which it is perceived by the viewer. Further discussion around the eye and the brain being an extraordinary double act made up of visual references and intellectual interpretation. 

Charlie is one of the world's leading landscape photographers, he has lectured for 25 years throughout the UK, Europe and the US. Has held numerous one-man exhibitions in London, exhibited twice in Tokyo, and was awarded the prestigious honorary Fellowship of the British Institute of Professional Photographers, as well as a Direct Fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society. In 2007, he launched LPOTY - UK Landscape Photographer of the Year. Amongst many publications, the most recent includes Landscape; the Story of 50 Photographs (2005), and Arc & Line (2011). He was invited by the Royal Academy to exhibit in 2015's summer exhibition.  This is Charlie’s first visit to our society

This lecture will take place on Zoom to keep us all safe from Covid. Members and visitors who have given us their email address will be sent the link. Otherwise you will have to email us to request it.

Artists were never far behind the explorers who opened up the west of America in the 19th Century. Sometimes they painted what they saw. Sometimes they painted what they wished they saw. Either way, painters like Alfred Miller, Frederick Church and Albert Bierstadt have left us a powerful, if romanticised, record of the country and people that the settlers found. Now we can use their pictures to chart the history of the opening of America’s west - the arrival of the railroad, the confinement of native Americans into reservations, and the extermination of the buffalo.

This is a story on a big scale and it seems appropriate that among the pictures illustrating the lecture are some of the largest and most grandiloquent paintings of the era. After a period of deep neglect, they are now very much back in vogue, but whatever one thinks of their artistic merits, I hope audiences will agree with me that they are, above all, great fun. 

 Toby Faber is an experienced lecturer and public speaker who has been accredited by The Arts Society since 2012. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. He is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music and a director of Liverpool University Press. Toby has written three narrative histories: Stradivarius – Five Violins, One Cello and a Genius; Faberge’s Eggs; and Faber & Faber – The Untold Story, as well as a novel, Close to the Edge. Of these, only the obvious one is published by the family firm. This is Tony’s first visit to our society

Gate Code to enter school grounds is 643209. The school are asking us to use the Wilton Road entrance as visibility is poor at the Kellett Road entrance. The lecture starts at 7.30 pm. Please allow time to park and sign in. 

For centuries Venice had been an inspiration to artists and writers. At the peak of the Republic’s power, the rich Venetian light warmed the paintings of Titian and Tintoretto. Then, as the city’s influence began to ebb, its intricate architecture provided the backdrop for the works of Canaletto and Guardi. And finally, as it slipped away into obscurity, its rotting remains attracted artists, poets and writers from all over the world. Ruskin measured and recorded every mosaic and crumbling arch of the city. Henry James and Thomas Mann found stories in the sad remains of its past. Lord Byron led a life of inspired dissolution above the Grand Canal. Turner dissolved the city in the lilac light of the lagoon, Monet tracked the reflections of the canals across the disintegrating facades of ancient palaces and John Singer Sargent painted in the shaded back streets where the traditions of Venetian life still thrived.

  This lecture is a purely personal tour of 19th century Venice in search of these painters, poets and authors, the strange and often bizarre lives they led in the city, the customs and rituals they found when they arrived and the rich and varied succession of images, they created that ultimately transformed the hard city of the Venetian Republic into the romantic legend it is today.

 Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time, he has given over 8000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the director of The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at The Study Centre, Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe. He has written and presented various TV documentaries. Three exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels & his book on Monet, River of Light, has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France. Douglas has lectured to our society many times.

Gate Code to enter school grounds is 643209 . Lecture starts at 7.30pm - please allow time to park and sign in. 

This lecture will explore the sacred architecture of Laos, particularly in Luang Prabang, in the mist shrouded mountains of the north. The natural setting of the town, in an amphitheatre of steep, verdant mountains, enhances its jewellike identity. In this remote spot there are 32 Buddhist temples, some dating from the 16th century, superbly gilded and frescoed, with tiered roofs that sweep to the ground. The ornate shrines and golden Buddhas found in Laos are unique to this artistic culture. Inhabited mostly by saffron robed monks, Luang Prabang is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This status extends to the French colonial architecture of the town as well. The lecture examines the French legacy of elegant wooden houses with Lao motifs, built during the late 19th century, which blended harmoniously with Lao secular architectural traditions, a unique fusion of EastWest influences. Finally, there is reference to contemporary art, especially the shimmering silkweaving, once the preserve of the Lao monarchy, and an ancient, traditional craft of intricate designs and exceptional beauty that has recently been revived.

Denise Heywood: Art historian, author, lecturer, photographer and journalist. Worked in Cambodia in the 1990’s and has been a scholar of Southeast Asian art ever since. She writes for many art, literary and travel publications and has appeared on television and radio. She has led cultural tours to Southeast Asia and France for the Royal Academy, the Art Fund, Asia House and many more. Denise has been to our society before talking about The Sacred Art of Angkor in 2011

Gate Code to enter school grounds is 643209 Lecture starts at 7.30pm but please allow time to park and sign in. 

This lecture explores Kandinsky’s journey from figurative landscape painter to modernist master, as one of the first artists to develop a radically abstract language. It examines how, from his early landscapes inspired by the Bavarian countryside and folk imagery from Russian fairy tales and legends, Kandinsky’s style evolved after he moved to Germany and co-founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group. The lecture looks at how Kandinsky came to see painting as an alternative pathway to spiritual reality, increasingly stripping away descriptive detail by reducing recognisable elements. At the same time, he began to include large areas of vibrant colour to stimulate emotions associated with classical music, pursuing his interest in synaesthesia.

Rosalind Whyte: BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. Experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. Lectures at Tate, Dulwich Picture Gallery, to independent art societies and on cruises. Leads art appreciation holidays. Rosalind has been to our society before talking about Anthony Van Dyck in 2013 

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

David Worthington has been drawn to abstract sculpture since seeing a Barbara Hepworth in a school history book aged 10. He graduated from Oxford University in 1984 with a degree in Philosophy and Theology, then studied fine art in London, Barcelona and New York. A maker he also curates and writes about art. He was shortlisted for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2009. David is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Sculptors, and was Vice President in 2010-13.

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

Members & visitors on our email list will receive details by email.

Other visitors should email us at :info@southamptonartssociety.org.uk

Joan Miro is one of the most important names in twentieth-century art, and he is mostly associated with Surrealism. He was an enormously prolific artist, and had a very long career, so this talk focusses on three specific periods when his work was particularly closely related to the difficult times in which it was made. The first is the ten years following the First World War, when he was identifying himself and his work very strongly with the Catalan culture, followed by his first contact with Surrealism. The second covers the incredibly distressing and violent period from 1934 when Spain was descending into Civil War, and then the early years of the Second World War. The final part is the much later period from 1968 to 1975, covering the final years of Franco’s regime in Spain.

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

Members & Visitors on our email list will receive details by email. Other visitors should email us at:info@southamptonartssociety.org.uk

Woodblock printing technique, first developed in China, was introduced to Japan at least by the 8th century to create multiple Buddhist texts. Woodblock printed books of secular stories with illustrations began to appear in the 16th century, followed by the single sheets with just images from the 17th century. This form of cheap and affordable art was supported by the populace during the Edo period (1615 – 1868), and came to be known as Ukiyo-e, literally “pictures of the Floating World” for their ephemeral nature. When Japan opened its doors to the west in the mid-19th century, many of these prints were introduced to Europe for the first time and received with a great enthusiasm by the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists in Paris.

Dr Meri Arichi studied Art History in London and Florence, and worked at Christie’s in Kings Street, London, from 1989 to 1993. She returned to university to study Asian Art at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1993, and completed a Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art (1994), MA (1996) in History of East Asian Art, and PhD (2003) for her thesis on Shinto-Buddhist syncretic Art. She has been teaching History of Japanese Art in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS as a Teaching Fellow since 2007. She has also run courses at the Birkbeck College, V&A, British Museum, and the Courtauld Institute of Art Summer School. She has led tours to Japan and lectured on cruises.  

Members & Visitors on our email list will receive details by email. Other visitors should email us at :info@southamptonartssociety.org.uk

This lecture will now be online by Zoom. Visitors wishing to attend should contact us & arrange to pay the vistor fee by bank transfer. 

Discover the eclectic collection and awesome seaside home of Sir Merton and Lady Annie Russell-Cotes situated on the East Cliff of Bournemouth. Funded by their ownership of the Royal Bath Hotel and astute art dealing they acquired remarkable Victorian and Edwardian artworks partly inspired by their world travels. After their deaths in the 1920s curators acquired Modern British Art, and additional paintings from the C19th including Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s masterwork Venus, turner of hearts. In fact, the museum features an exceptional range of female subjects that underpin this talk

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

18 February Roger Butler on “Birmingham – More Canals than Venice!”

This lecture will take place on-line at 11 am on Thursday 18 February and be availble as recording for 3 days. 

It’s often said Birmingham has more canals than Venice and today the city’s waterways are a fascinating mixture of traditional and contemporary design, architecture and engineering.

This tour looks at the distinctive features of Birmingham’s canals and, with archival maps and images, also tells the 250-year-old story of their unique industrial heritage – wharves, warehouses, locks, bridges, tunnels and, of course, boats.

All Arts Society Southampton members, visitors and friends are invited to join us on this virtual tour.

 If you like to join in, please email us at  info@theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk and send your payment of £6 via bank transfer not later than Wednesday 17th February, qiving your name as the reference, to:

Name: The Arts Society Southampton

Sort Code: 602003

Account Number: 34552936

 This event has been organised by the Arts Society Romsey who are kindly allowing us to join in.

 Roger is a specialist in canal history, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society. 

This lecture will now take place online by Zoom. Visitors wishing to attend should contact us & arrange to pay the vistor fee by bank transfer. 

Few countries in the world offer such a rich and varied cultural heritage as Mexico. Before the Spanish Conquest of 1519, numerous civilisations rose and fell. Their great cities were peopled by muralists, sculptors in stone, ceramic artists, feather- and gold-workers, jewellers, weavers, and painters of sacred books. Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957) helped to shape the cultural identity of twentieth-century Mexico by fusing pre- Conquest and European traditions. Today countless folk-artists create splendid weavings, rich embroideries, shimmering beadwork, jewellery of silver and gold, fine pottery and dance-masks for religious festivals.

Chloé Sayer: Freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Has curated exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. Has made collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum, and is Research Associate in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture. Her many publications include Mexican Textiles (British Museum Press, 1990), Arts and Crafts of Mexico (Thames & Hudson, 1990),  Focus on Aztecs and Incas  (Watts Books, 1995), The Incas - The Ancient World (Wayland, 1998), Textiles from Mexico  (British Museum Press, 2002), and  Mexico: Clothing and Culture (Royal Ontario Museum, 2015). Has also published articles in travel guides, newspapers and magazines.

This lecture will now be offered online via Zoom. Visitors wishing to attend should contact us & arrange to pay the vistor fee by bank transfer. 

Raphael is often referred to as one of the three giants of the High Renaissance in Italy, alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, yet his fame and position in the canon of art history may seem hard to explain. He made no discoveries like those of his celebrated rivals: although undoubtedly a draughtsman of exceptional talent he made no great progress in the fields of anatomy, science and construction nor did he share the wide-ranging talents which Leonardo and Michelangelo demonstrated in so many disciplines. Furthermore, his career was short-lived as he died tragically young, aged 37. Yet in this relatively short space of time Raphael managed to move from humble initial commissions in and around his home town of Urbino to the covetous position of one of the leading artists at the court of the most important patron in Italy, Pope Julius II, for whom he created some of the most sublime and influential frescoes of the early 16th century. We explore how Raphael achieved this extraordinary rise in status, tracing the development of early works and influences to the masterpieces created in Rome.

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

This lecture will be held by Zoom & members will be sent a link. Visitors wishing to attend should contact us & arrange to pay the vistor fee by bank transfer. 

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

As part of this lecture, there will be a live music performance; faithfully reproduced solo lute music and/or accompanying the voice.

Adam Busiakiewicz is an Art Historian, lutenist and lecturer. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree in History at UCL in 2010 he held the position of Head of Historical Interpretation (curator) at Warwick Castle. He left the castle in 2013 after winning a full AHRC studentship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Fine and Decorative Art at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in Art History at Warwick University after winning a CADRE Postgraduate Scholarship in 2017

This lecture will be held by Zoom. Members will be sent a link & vistors should contact us & pay the visitor fee (£6) by bank transfer. 

Cinematic images are modern art forms. In the ‘golden age’ of cinema – before the development of CGI technology – film-makers had to construct sets to represent landscapes, townscapes, and interiors. Sometimes they used paintings and photographs, sometimes they built scale models, sometimes they constructed full-size replicas. In each case, they created an art installation they then captured in celluloid images.

Drawing on new insights from the archaeology of cinema, this lecture will use the films of renowned British director David Lean to explore the art of cinema. How do the ‘artists’ – in this case formed of large collaborative teams (directors, screenwriters, production designers, costume designers, camera crews, fixers, etc) – choose locations, construct sets, dress actors, and, more generally, ‘imagine’ the world they seek to represent? How much is authentic, and how much preconception and prejudice? What are the influences on the way the cinema depicts the world?

Neil Faulkner

Educated at King's College Cambridge and Institute of Archaeology UCL. Works as lecturer, writer, archaeologist and occasional broadcaster. Research Fellow, University of Bristol. Editor, Military History Monthly. Director, Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. Director, Great Arab Revolt Project. Author of The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, Apocalypse, Hidden Treasure, Rome: Empire of the Eagles, and The Ancient Greek Olympics: a visitor's guide. Author of forthcoming Lawrence of Arabia's War. Major TV appearances include Channel 4's Time Team, BBC2's Timewatch, Channel Five's Boudica Revealed and Sky Atlantic's The British.

Turner vs. Constable: The Great British Paint-off

Nicola Moorby

This lecture will be held by Zoom. Members will be sent a link & visitors should contact us to arrange to join in if they wish to. 

This is the story of the epic rivalry between the two giants of British art, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. As unlike in background and temperament as their paintings were in style, these two creative geniuses transformed the art of landscape. This lecture/study day 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: An independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain, she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner. She has been one of our members' most popular lecturers.

The Arts Society HQ is making monthly lectures available on Friday lunchtimes using the You Tube Channel. 

Watch these live lectures at home on your computer, ipad or smart TV at youtube.com/c/theartssociety 

!8th September at 1pm : Mary Sharp on The Fall into Knowledge: the story of Prometheus and how his plight has captivated and influenced writers and artists over the years

23rd October at 1pm:  Peter Ross on From the Saxons to Mary Berry: A Visual History of the English Cookbook

 November at 1pm: Georgina Bexon on The Story of Indian Modern Art

18 December at 1pm: Matthew Dewey on Exhibition History: The history of Great Exhibitions, Expos and World’s Fairs, 1851 to Present, the British Contribution

This lecture is regretfully likely to be cancelled due the coronavirus situation.  

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

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

This lecture is regretfully cancelled due to the coronavirus situation. 

This lecture explores Kandinsky’s journey from figurative landscape painter to modernist master, as one of the first artists to develop a radically abstract language. It examines how, from his early landscapes inspired by the Bavarian countryside and folk imagery from Russian fairy tales and legends, Kandinsky’s style evolved after he moved to Germany and co-founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group. The lecture looks at how Kandinsky came to see painting as an alternative pathway to spiritual reality, increasingly stripping away descriptive detail by reducing recognisable elements. At the same time, he began to include large areas of vibrant colour to stimulate emotions associated with classical music, pursuing his interest in synaesthesia.

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

This lecture will explore the sacred architecture of Laos, particularly in Luang Prabang, in the mist shrouded mountains of the north. The setting of the town, in an amphitheatre of steep, verdant mountains, enhances its jewellike identity. There are 32 Buddhist temples, superbly gilded and frescoed, with tiered roofs that sweep to the ground. Inhabited mostly by saffron robed monks, Luang Prabang is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the French colonial architecture of the town.

The lecture examines the French legacy & secular architectural traditions, a unique fusion of EastWest influences. There is reference to contemporary art, especially the silk weaving, an ancient, traditional craft of intricate designs and exceptional beauty.

Denise Heywood: Art historian, author, lecturer, photographer and journalist. Worked in Cambodia in the 1990s and has been a scholar of Southeast Asian art ever since. Lectures for the Art Fund, the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and for Madingley Hall (University of Cambridge); and the British Museum, the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Asia House, the National Trust, the Royal Geographical Society. She has led cultural tours to Southeast Asia and France for the Royal Academy, the Art Fund, Asia House and many more and lectures on cruise ships.

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

 Alexandra Epps

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

From romantic images of British architecture, to the windows of the new Coventry Cathedral, this lecture explores the work of John Piper – one of Britain’s most versatile 20th century artists.

An abstract painter in the 1930s, John Piper was also a writer, critic and typographer and his love of architecture – especially medieval churches and stained glass – made him a highly sensitive observer of his surroundings. During the Second World War, he became one of the best known Official War Artists, creating powerful images of the destruction of Coventry Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and of the city of Bath, as well as recording a wide range of buildings, from derelict Welsh cottages to the grandeur of Windsor Castle.

Piper’s friendships with figures from the worlds of literature, ballet and music led him in further creative directions. He worked on the Shell Guides to Britain with his close friend, John Betjeman and designed sets and costumes for the operas of Benjamin Britten. In his fifties he began to design stained glass, creating monumentally beautiful windows for the new Coventry Cathedral and the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool, as well as tiny, jewel-like lunettes for country churches near his home in Buckinghamshire. Piper’s love of architecture and landscape informed all his work, and in this lecture we’ll explore the many ways in which his interests and enthusiasms led to prolific creativity.

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

PLEASE NOTE: This lecture will be held in our usual venue in Building 46. 

Throughout history, travelling has been used as a way to display wealth, power, status, as well as a useful tool to control over mighty subjects. Today, we take a journey as a matter of course, not thinking much of a distance of a hundred miles or more. In the past it was very different as an Aristocrat had to take not only clothes, but food, furniture, cooking facilities, tents, and the like, not just for himself and family but his household as well.

 In this talk, Andrew shows the many lavish and opulent accessories and modes of transport that were used by Monarchs and Aristocracy alike, to ease travel while on their seasonal “progress” to and from each others estates, and where diplomatic meetings between Kings turned into a contest of rivals to see who could out do each other in the finest accommodation, jewels, silks, retinue and luggage train.

Andrew Prince is a jeweller who appreciates jewels for their design & craftmanship rather than value & started work in Bond Street aged 16. His designs have been worn by many celebrities & he has made jewellery for Judy Dench in Mrs Henderson Presents, Downton Abbey & The Young Victoria and the V & A exhibition: Tiaras, Past and Present

Please note that road closures on the University Site mean that the Physics building should be accessed from HIghfield Lane to Hawthorn Road & turn onto Chamberlain Road. 

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

Charles Dickens has often been proclaimed as “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and indeed on hearing that Dickens had died, a cockney barrow-girl said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?”  Dickens revived the Christmas traditions with his warm portrayal of Christmas in the domestic setting; with plum pudding, piping hot turkey, games, dancing and family cheer by the hearth. Although he celebrated Christmas in numerous works it is his enduring master piece, ‘A Christmas Carol’ published on 19th December 1843 which immortalises the spirit of Christmas Cheer. Dickens was a man of extraordinary energy and talent: literary genius, reformer, public speaker, actor and amateur magician.

Bertie Pearce: Has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. A member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. Has written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

In the centenary of the death of Auguste Renoir, this lecture will consider his early training and influences and his depictions of the city of Paris during the Impressionists' heyday. We will examine his extraordinary use of vibrant colour and loose brushstrokes as well as his flamboyant life style and warm sensual approach to painting a variety of different subjects. We will explore his exotic travels to Algeria, Spain and Italy and end with a consideration of his paintings in later life despite progressive deformities in his hands.

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

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

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

 Linda Smith, guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Dulwich Picture Gallery talks about artists like Holbein, Eworth and Gheeraerts  & the personal  and political symbolism in their art.  Holds two first-class degrees in Art History. Experienced guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Lectures to secondary school audiences and independent arts societies. Linda held a very sucessful study day for our society on the "Representation of Women in Western Art".

Art Deco architecture from the 1920s and 30s has an immediately distinctive style. At that time, modern precision machining could produce perfect straight lines and curves that enhanced these unique forward-looking designs for cinemas, hotels, theatres, offices, shops and homes. Popular features include streamlining, sunbursts, ziggurats, eyebrows, frozen fountains, Egyptian themes and nautical designs, depicted in pastel shades. This modernistic movement spread into the suburbs of our greatest cities, whilst the film industry used art deco design to attract cinema-goers into the surreal surroundings of the picture palaces. This unique architecture and art history is revealed by using the most impressive examples from around the world – South Beach Miami, Napier, Adelaide, Cairo and Mumbai as well as the best art deco from within the UK. 

 Christopher is a frequent visitor to our societry because his lectures & accompanying images are always rated outstanding. 

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) is one of the most influential and paradoxical of artists. He was enthralled by the art of the past but is widely regarded as the first great modernist painter; he craved success and social status but painted provocative, puzzling and confrontational pictures of the society in which he lived. He worked at a time when Paris was rapidly changing and aimed to represent the experience of modern life. In so doing, he produced some of the most widely admired paintings of the nineteenth century. The lecture looks at his work in the contexts of his friendships, his rivalries, his environment and his family. It concludes with a review of his admirers and of his importance within the history of modern art.

 Barry Venning: An historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely. He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and, in 2013, took part in a BBC documentary called The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art. He is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for The Arts Society, Christie's Education and other organisations.

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

 Rupert Willoughby is a prize-winning historian who specialises in the domestic and social life of the past. He is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England, of guides to castles owned by English Heritage and Hampshire County Council, and of a series of popular histories of places. He writes privately-commissioned histories of houses and is an experienced lecturer - and occasional broadcaster - on a broad range of topics, with a particular interest in architecture, interior decoration and costume.

In the last few years the amount paid for the three most expensive artworks would be enough to buy 5,000 brand new Bentley Continental motor cars or to pay the annual salaries of more than 25,000 nurses.  This lecture is about the top end of the art market and is an excuse to examine some beautiful and varied art, which only achieves sky-high prices becuse of it quality.  It includes paintings by Picasso, Cezanne, Leonardo, Rembrandt, Modigliani, Klimt, Bacon and Pollock, all held together by the common thread of their extraordinary commercial value.  It will also discuss the buyers and sellers, the back-story of the works & the reasons for their changing hands and try to answer the question “Are they really worth hundreds of millions of pounds?”

Ian visited our society in 2017 when he delivered a lecture on Grayson Perry rated as outstanding by our members. 

Emile Gallé was Europe’s finest master of glass during the Art Nouveau period also renowned for his ceramics and furniture. He was first and foremost a designer and chemist, constantly perfecting new techniques. Although Lalique is best known for his Art Deco glass of the inter-war years, his career began in the early 1890s as the designer of the finest Art Nouveau jewellery. Louis Comfort Tiffany’s name is synonymous with lamps and stained glass windows, his technique being likened to ‘painting’ with coloured glass. He was, like Gallé and Lalique, inspired by Japan with many key Art Nouveau motifs in his work: dragonflies, butterflies, peacocks and flowers of all kinds.

 Anne Anderson:Graduated in Art History and Archaeology from Leicester University in 1978 and worked as an archaeologist for 8 years, being elected to the Society of Antiquaries in 1997. From 1993 to 2007 , she was senior lecturer on the Fine Arts Valuation degree courses at Southampton Solent University, specialising in the Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau and Modernism. She is currently Hon. Research Fellow at Exeter University; a Fletcher Jones Fellow of the Huntington Library, CA; a fellow of the Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum and Library; Cumming Ceramic Research Foundation Fellow (2007 and 2010) and consultant for Lord Frederic Leighton's Studio-House, Kensington

NOTE: THIS LECTURE IS NOW TO BE HELD IN THE NIGHTINGALE BUILDING (BUILDING 67) See The NEWS tab & Campus map under the "OUR SOCIETY" tab. 

In May 1746, the great Venetian artist Canaletto moved to England.  European wars were increasingly preventing young Englishmen from embarking on their Grand Tours with the inevitable trip to pleasurable Venice so Canaletto reasoned that if the patrons would not come to him, he had better go to them. For the next 9 years he produced nearly 150 works of art portraying Georgian England, from the Lord Mayor’s Show and the construction of new Westminster Bridge to the pleasure gardens, Eton College and Warwick Castle. We will revel in the achievements of Canaletto’s stay until, in 1755; he retired to Venice for good.

Andrew Davies:Extra-Mural Tutor for London, Essex and The Open University; Author of 9 books, including The East End Nobody Knows; frequent contributor to radio and television; has lectured all over the world; organises walks to complement his lectures.

Nativity scenes or cribs as we know them today found their roots in the 1300’s. They started as display pieces for Italian churches. Often made out of terracotta, these early Nativity sets were displayed year round. Since then they have evolved into a wonderfully diverse variety of artistic scenes. In this lecture we will be looking at the art form of the crib from the carved masterpieces of the medieval era to the extraordinary semi-pagan variations of South America. Christmas will never be the same again! 

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

The fame of the Queen of Sheba has lasted across the many intervening centuries since she made her epic journey from her distant land to the court of King Solomon. A passage in the Bible’s Book of Kings has immortalised this Queen and the journey that she made with her camel caravan laden with gold and incense as gifts for the king of Jerusalem. Louise looks at how the Queen of Sheba has captured the imagination of great artists, inspired epic films and has led archaeologists to go in search of her land – a search that has led to discoveries of great temples, tombs and treasures in both the Yemen and Ethiopia. 

 Louise Schofield:

Having been Curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities in the British Museum, Louise now works on international archaeological projects. She has been working in Ethiopia since 2006, directing archaeological, conservation and development projects. Her current archaeological site, in Tigray province, North Eastern Ethiopia, is a temple, dating to the 5th century BC, when this area formed part of the kingdom of Sheba. Excavations undertaken recently have uncovered a rich cemetery which includes an extraordinary burial of a 2000 year old Ethiopian 'Sleeping Beauty'. 

Louise visited our society when she gave a highly rated lecture on Rescuing Zeugma forom the Flood Waters of the Euphrates. 

Caravaggio was the definitive bad boy of art history – determined and ambitious yet irascible and highly volatile. In 1606, his life was to change forever following a particularly violent and bloody brawl in which Caravaggio, himself badly injured, ended up killing a certain Ranuccio Tommasoni. This lecture will explore in particular the remarkable stylistic transformations that took place during the last four years of Caravaggio’s life, a period of restlessness and yet extraordinary creative activity when the artist was forced to leave Rome, with his own life on the line. 

 Siân Walters:

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

The ancient Egyptians created beautiful artefacts in a material that is known today as faience, but which the ancient Egyptians called ‘brilliant’ or ‘dazzling'.  They modelled or moulded a non-clay ceramic of quartz or silica combined with lime and natron or plant ash. Once fired, the result was a hard material combining the characteristics of pottery and glass. These were glazed a variety of colours, but usually a wonderful turquoise-blue that has come to be closely associated with ancient Egypt. This lecture explores how the ancient Egyptians produced faience objects and the range of object types & examine the developments in faience manufacture from the Predynastic Period (from c4000 BC) through to the Roman Period in Egypt (up to 4th century AD).

Lucy Gahlin:

Egyptologist who works in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but mostly lectures. Honorary Research Associate at University College London. Teaches Egyptology for the Universities of Exeter and Bristol. Works in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London. Leads tours to Egypt. Deputy Director of Bloomsbury Summer School. Chairs the Friends of the Petrie Museum. Publications include Egypt: Gods, Myths, Religion (2001). 

Picasso is one of the most famous and controversial figures of the 20th century. Even today his work triggers mixed reactions from art lovers. This lecture aims to calm those fears. It follows his early career from his childhood in Spain to the garrets and back streets of Paris where the poetic and wistful images of the Blue Period were transformed into the daring experiments with form and structure that became known as Cubism.  It examines the ideas and hopes that he nurtured, the friends and influences he met along the way, the technical problems he overcame and the single minded determination that enabled him to break every rule of painting, alter the course of modern art and yet remain a classical painter in the long tradition of western art.

 Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 4000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the Director of ‘The New Academy of Art Studies' for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at 'The Study Centre', 'Christie's' course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. He has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and taken numerous tours around Europe. He is presently cultural adviser to Ultimate Travel.   He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on 'Whistler' and the exhibition video on 'William Morris.' Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. 

The Dutch paintings of the 17th century which show musical scenes are among the most evocative and best loved of the period. However, the presence of music in the pictures of Vermeer and his contemporaries appears to carry hidden and complex meanings that the viewer must attempt to decode in order to get to the heart of the picture. Peter Medhurst discusses in great details Vermeer’s musical scenes and with music to complement the pictures.

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

 Doug Gillen:

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

 This talk will look at the important artistic change that took place in the second half of the 18th century with the development of the first period of Neo Classicism in England. Pointers will be given to dating pieces within this period without the use of hallmarks.   The radical developments which took place in the manufacturing processes of silver will be examined. In particular, the new ‘factory made’ silver of manufacturers such as Hester Bateman will be assessed and compared with those who continued to produce silver by more traditional methods.

 Ian Pickford:

Freeman of the Goldsmiths' Company, Freeman of the City of London. Lecturer University of London, University of Surrey, V&A, National Trust, The Art Fund. Broadcasts on both television and radio. Author & Editor 'Jackson's Silver & Gold Marks'. 

Sargent was the great society portraitist of the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, but he was much more than that. His art was extremely varied and the breadth of his work can still surprise people. As well as his wonderful portraits, the lecture includes examples of his landscape paintings, inspired by the Impressionists, his work as an official War Artist in World War I and his extremely beautiful and delicate watercolours.

 Frank Woodgate:

Lecturer and Guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and for Tate on cruises. Lecturer at Dulwich Picture Gallery and scriptwriter for the Living Paintings Trust (art for the blind and partially-sighted).

There were four major Frost Fairs held on the Thames between 1621 and 1814. They were depicted by distinguished foreign and British artists, sketched in prints and drawings, and described in great detail. They are also depicted in a modern mural, and described in a modern novel. A wide variety of remarkable, enjoyable or scandalous activities went on at the Fairs. Various winter sports were arranged, after which one could eat or drink at coffee-houses or taverns set up on the ice. Bonfires were lit on the Thames to roast meat, souvenir leaflets were printed and a rich variety of Christmas food was on offer. Now that Somerset House holds skating events in the quadrangle every Christmas, a look at previous Frost Fairs gives us an interesting glimpse of one of the most dramatic events witnessed by our ancestors.

 Nicholas Reed

An art historian and archaeologist. In the 1980’s, he became Founder- Chairman of the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe. He is the author of four books on the Impressionists in England, and one on the Frost Fairs on the Frozen Thames. His latest book My Father, the Man who Never Was features in his latest NADFAS lecture, War Artists, Spies and the Art of Deception.

The great illuminated Bible in Winchester Cathedral is one of the most famous and most spectacular manuscripts in Britain & is soon to be displayed in a newly-designed public exhibition centre in the Cathedral.   The profusely-illustrated lecture will look at what the manuscript comprises, how and why it was made, and will reveal new and unexpected information about its origins and patronage.    

 Christopher De Hamel:  

A Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was responsible for all catalogues and sales of illuminated manuscripts at Sotheby's for twenty-five years until 2000. He has doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge and two honorary doctorates, and has written well over a hundred books and major articles on medieval manuscripts, translated into numerous languages, including Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. Is probably the best-known expert on medieval manuscripts in the world, and has given public lectures extremely extensively in six continents.

J.M.W. Turner was arguably the greatest practitioner in watercolour the world has ever seen and his achievements still represent the benchmark for artists working today. Yet he left frustratingly few written records of his processes and was notoriously reticent about his methods. One brave soul apparently once asked him the key to being a successful artist and it is recorded that he rather grumpily replied ‘The only secret I have is damned hard work’! This lecture examines Turner’s watercolour practice in detail, unlocking the mysteries behind his exceptional effects. In addition to showcasing the diversity and richness of his achievements in the medium, we will look at his experimental approach to techniques and some of his tools and materials. 

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

Based on the ideas of Impressionism, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) pushed the style from per- to conception, from appearance to experience, from an art of eye to an art of the mind. In order to achieve his new Post-Impressionism, Gauguin left the over-refinement of  Western civilization behind for the more “primitive” environments of the South Seas where he evolved a non-naturalistic, enigmatic vision of the world with a strong emphasis on colour, a powerful impact on Matisse. Which aspect of his teacher’s prediction is true then: “This boy will be either a genius or a madman”?

After studying at the Institute for Fine and Decorative Arts and at the Courtauld Institute Evelyn became a Nadfas lecturer in 1990 and has lectured and guided tours all over the world.

Guy Rooker FRCS comes from the world of science and, in particular, surgery. This talk explores the delineation of our anatomical knowledge through a world of art and, specifically, the remarkable contribution made to our understanding of the subject by Leonardo da Vinci. He believed that good art was based on scientific understanding of everything depicted.

“Exuberant, topical, lively – and just a little rude – English caricature has always shown up human beings as they were rather than as they would like to be. From William Hogarth to David Low via Rowlandson and Gillray, we will explore this fascinating and revealing world”

Andrew is an Extra-Mural Tutor for London, Essex and The Open University. He is also author of no fewer than nine books including ‘The East End Nobody Knows’. He is a frequent contributor to radio and television and as well as organising walks to complement his lectures, he has lectured all over the world.

Widely known for his appearances dressed as his alter ego, Claire, Grayson Perry RA is now a core part of the art establishment. Ten years after winning the Turner Prize he gave the brilliant BBC Reith Lecture in 2013. His works of ceramics, textiles and prints are highly sought after. Often controversial, he is able to tackle difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty way. This talk will examine Grayson Perry's works, his exciting and thought provoking exhibitions and we'll look at the character inside the flamboyant frocks.

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, Ian Swankie is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul's Cathedral and gives regular tours at each venue. 

The monumental frescoes of the Florentine artist, Giotto & the different styles of storytelling used by Italian artists.

Around 1300 a great shift took place in Italian narrative art. This is usually seen in terms of an increasing concern with naturalism. This new attempt to produce images that were ‘true to life’ has been associated with the monumental frescoes of Giotto. But what do we mean by ‘truth’ in visual storytelling? Should artists  pick just one moment from a narrative or show several consecutive ones? Should linear perspective always take priority? Religious stories can be understood on different levels, with theological and symbolic truths needing to be conveyed as well as literal meaning. This lecture contrasts the very different styles of storytelling adopted by Florentine and Sienese artists.

Janet is an independent art historian. Has lectured to the Courtauld, Birbeck University & Christie's Education. Published extensively on thirteenth and fourteenth-century Italian art. Has travelled and studied extensively in Italy, having held research fellowships at the British School at Rome and at Villa I Tatti (Harvard University) in Florence, and now divides her time between Assisi and London.

This richly illustrated lecture is about the history of opera from its birth in late Renaissance Italy to the 21st century. It takes into account patronage of the arts, the changing nature of the operatic profession, opera and politics, theatrical architecture and stage design and the impact of new technologies from gaslight to digital downloads. Today opera has truly global appeal but the question is: does opera have a future?

Daniel Snowman is a frequent lecturer for a number of academic groups, art festivals and cultural organisations. He has led over 50 music tours to major international venues for companies such as Cox and Kings, Martin Randall and ACE.

Please note that this lecture will be held in the EEE Lecture Theatre, Building 32 in University Road

In her lecture Jane examines the complex and fascinating story of how Pantomime developed out of its Greek and Roman roots through the religious plays of the Middle Ages to the Italian Commedia Dell'Arte.

She examines how the characters of the Harlequinade and how actors like Grimaldi, the most famous clown of all with his sausages and red hot poker, and Music Hall stars like Dan Leno and Vesta Tilley, through to today's television actors, have all contributed to the art of Pantomime.

This lively and entertaining account is illustrated with slides from Victorian prints and playbills to production shots of Pantomime and original paintings by Beryl Cook. 

Jane Tapley is currently Special Events Organiser, Theatre Royal Bath. She is also an author and researcher of theatre programme notes on Hamlet, Sheridan's The Rivals and Jane Austen's Emma and a TV consultant to various productions.

Should we accept that the very best photographs can be regarded as Fine Art?

This question is at the heart of a lecture which argues that photography can equal, not to say exceed, more traditional disciplines in the key genres of portraiture, landscape and still life. Photography, moreover, has carved its own area of excellence in depicting the human condition. All these ideas are discussed with reference to the work of some acknowledged masters of photography, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fay Godwin, Bill Brandt, Ansel Adams and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Brian Stater’s chief interests lie in architecture, photography and history and he combines all three in his lecturing career. He has taught architectural history at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, since 1997 and became a lecturer with NADFAS) in 2003. He is a member of the Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography and an exhibition of his own photographs has been staged at UCL. In an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the skills of some great photographers of the past he has begun to work with a pre-War Leica camera as used by, among many others, his great hero Henri Cartier-Bresson. 

In Spring 2000 an archaeological drama began to unfold on the banks of the Euphrates river in Turkey, close to the border with Syria. A small team of French and Turkish archaeologists found a Roman city on the banks of the river, with mosaics and wall-paintings finer than those of Pompeii. However, just beside them was the almost completed Birecik Dam, and the Turks had begun to flood the great reservoir behind it, taking the city under water. 
Louise Schofield was instrumental in setting up the multinational rescue excavations at the Roman city of Zeugma on the Euphrates before it was flooded for the Birecik dam. 
In her lecture she’ll talk about these magnificent ruins of ancient Roman villas with superb mosaics of the ancient city of Zeugma which have lain below pistachio groves in southeast Turkey for nearly 2000 years. 
Once Zeugma was on the Silk Road between Antioch and China, with a quay on the River Euphrates and an affluent population of 80,000. 
The race is now on to preserve Zeugma from the rising waters of a new dam build for irrigation and energy production.

Louise Schofield was curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities in the British Museum from 1987 until 2000. Today she writes, lectures and runs international archaeological projects, mainly in south-eastern Turkey, Greece, Albania and Ethiopia. 
Her latest book, The Mycenaeans, was co-published by the Getty Museum and the British Museum in March 2007.  

‘Alice in Wonderland’ transformed children’s literature with its originality and brilliant use of nonsense. We start with the origins of the book and its first illustrators –Lewis Carroll himself & Sir John Tenniel. A host of artists produced their own versions, including Arthur Rackham, Mabel Lucie Attwell and Charles Robinson. Throughout the 20th century, we see how illustrators reflect different aspects of the book as well as the preoccupations of their own times. Some of the most interesting portrayals including those by Willy Pogany, Mervyn Peake, Jonathan Miller, & Salvador Dali.  

Elizabeth has over 25 years' experience lecturing on a range of subjects including classical art and architecture, aspects of the visual arts and the links between literature and art. She has lectured for the WEA, the Universities of Bristol and Southampton, the Royal Society of Arts, Dillington House, Jane Austen Society, Thomas Hardy Society, Brussels Brontë Society, Finzi Society, the Art Fund, Dorset County Museum and literary, historical and philosophical societies nationwide. She has lectured on study tours to Rome, Aachen, Cologne, Brittany and the Dordogne & in Australia and New Zealand. 

 Years of working as an artist within the Criminal Justice System in England and Germany have given Angela unique insights into the destructive and costly cycle of crime, prisons and re-offending. This thought-provoking talk offers an understanding of the minds, lives and challenges of offenders. Images of art projects and prisoner’s art demonstrate how creating art gives vital opportunities for offenders to develop key life skills. It casts light onto areas of our society where the Arts are potentially life-changing. This talk is moving, informative and original, interspersed with personal accounts of humorous or slightly horrifying situations.

Angela is a professional artist and freelance lecturer with a long career of teaching art and murals in prisons and Young Offender Institutions in Germany and England. Former Arts Coordinator and founder of the Learning to Learn through the Arts Scheme at the Koestler Trust: arts by offenders in London. Angela's has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, a Diploma in Artistic Therapy (specialising in colour) and her paintings are widely exhibited both nationally and internationally.

This covers an intriguing period of artistic & political evolution in Russia, looking into major movements & artists in a wider cultural context, artistic creativity in Russia & cultural connections with Europe, the Imperial patronage of the Tsar, the evolution of artistic movements & the founding of the Imperial Academy. It will feature a variety of artists including Rublev & The Wanderers Group, including Ilya Repin & Ivan Shiskin looking at major examples of landscape & history painting along with portraiture.

Theodora Clarke is founder and editor of the online arts magazine Russian Art and Culture. She set up Russian Art Week in London. She is an art historian, lecturer and critic specialising in Russian art and European modernism. Theodora lectures widely to audiences across the UK at museums, galleries, universities and associations & conducts cultural tours to Russia. She has lectured at institutions including the V&A, Tate Britain, Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Theodora is popular commentator on Russian culture for numerous print, TV and radio outlets. She has worked at Christie's and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Ambitious, determined and stubborn, Monet was the driving force of Impressionism. In Paris, he met Renoir, Sisley, Pissaro, Bazille, and eventually Manet who asked them to join his friends at the Café Guerbois. They group became known as the Impressionists. Monet created images of such light and beauty that it is easy to forget that they are also the substance of one of the greatest revolutions in the visual arts.

One of our favourite lecturers, Douglas Skeggs has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe. He helped set up the Abercrombie & Kent “Private Label tours” and is presently cultural adviser to Ultimate Travel. He has written and presented various TV documentaries. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 foreign languages, and his book on Monet, 'River of Light', has sold over 30,000 copies. 

The Romans have left a remarkable artistic record of their lifestyle, beliefs, achievements and entertainment, in the form of beautiful mosaics. From museums and collections around the world we see how they developed earlier Greek designs; their cities; their Gods and myths & their exotic and indulgent lives - from Britain to Sicily, from Morocco to Syria. This lavishly illustrated lecture uses only mosaics, bringing the distant world of the Romans gloriously back to life with vibrant, colourful images full of action. This is the rise and fall of the Roman Empire as you have never seen it before.

Christopher is an expert in the history & culture of the Middle East & North Africa. He has led groups throughout the Middle East to Asia. He has written extensively on Arabia & is the author of many guide books to the Middle East & Nile cruising. He has his photographs represented by four photographic libraries. He lectures to many organisations including the Royal Geographic Society & the Royal Institute of British Architects. As a film producer & cameraman, he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV & Channel 4. 

 The beautiful city of Paris is a treasure house for the art lover.  Not only is it the birthplace of Renaissance art.  In this lecture we will look at treasures of The Louvre, the largest museum in the world, the Musée d’Orsay, with its unrivalled collection of nineteenth century French art, and some of the less well-known museums of Paris, including the Musée Cluny and the Musée Picasso.  We will also examine some of the external sculptures of Notre Dame and the magnificent interior of the Sainte Chapelle.

Remember this meeting is in the EEE BUILDINg - look under the "NEWS" tab for directions.

Valerie is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and for Tate on cruises. She lectures in other major galleries, including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and, on religious art, in churches and cathedrals. She is a script-writer for Living Paintings Trust (art for the blind and partially-sighted).

The Christmas Tree is arguably the most iconic aspect of our midwinter celebrations, yet how much do we actually know about its origins & history? Peter Medhurst delves into the past, as far back as the Book of Genesis, in order to find out about this remarkable ‘German toy’, as Dickens described it. Music performed includes: Adam lay ybounden, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (Elizabeth Postern), O Tannenbaum, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O holy Night (Adolphe Adam).

Peter Medhurst’s work as singer, pianist & lecturer- recitalist has taken him all over the world. Closer to home, he has presented events at the Barbican, the Royal Festival Hall, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery & the V&A, linking visual arts with the world of 17th & 18th century music making. He is well known to listeners of Classic FM, Radio 3 & Radio 4. 

This lecture will mark the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.. The decisive allied victory over Napoleon brought to an end a series of wars that had convulsed Europe. Most people of the time experienced these conflicts not on the battlefield but through art. This lecture explores the contrasting views presented by British and French artists, including such masters as J. M. W. Turner and J.-L. David. We also consider the insatiable public appetite for rather less elevated art forms, ranging from ladies’ fans illustrated with the latest military news, to full re-enactments of naval battles played out on real water at Sadler’s Wells Theatre.  

Dr Lois Oliver studied at Cambridge University and at the Courtauld Institute. She worked at the Harvard University Art Museums before joining the curatorial team at the V&A and then the National Gallery. Currently Assistant Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, she lectures for arts organisations throughout the UK, writes audio and multimedia tours for clients including the Tate, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy, and has appeared on the BBC and Channel 5. 

An exploration of Gothic design, attitudes to the Middle Ages & Pugin’s work and influence which transformed the Gothic revival. Pugin’s life was short (1812-1852) but his ideas were very influential. We will look at Gothic Design and attitudes to the Middle Ages before Pugin came along and then assess his work and the impact his work had on his contemporaries and the next generation. His influence was quicker and far more reaching than he could have imagined and how delighted he would be today that many people find it difficult to see the difference between a real medieval church and a Victorian one built according to his ideas.

Nicola Smith: After many years at the sharp end of conservation and heritage management of historic buildings, she became Senior Lecturer in the History of Art and Heritage management at the University of Buckingham. She is now a Director of Arts Pursuits UK, a company organising study days, visits and tours. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. 

The British seaside holiday started in the 18th century when wealthy people began going to coastal towns to partake in seawater cures. Sea bathing and promenading along seafront or pier became popular. Railways and steam boat excursions opened up seaside resorts to the masses. The ‘Bank Holiday Act’ and cheap rail fares enabled the working classes to flock to the seaside. This lecture takes a compelling look at how seaside holidays have evolved, helping to shape our lives and memories. Old photographs reveal the fashions and the styles of seaside architecture from elegant Georgian terraces to grand hotels and 1930s lidos. Not forgetting the entertainment, pleasure and amusements that are an important part of the British Seaside Holiday.

Jackie Marsh – Hobbs holds two first-class degrees in Art History. Experienced guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lectures to secondary school audiences and independent arts societies.

Linda Smith holds two first-class degrees in Art History. Experienced guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lectures to secondary school audiences and independent arts societies

Hilary Hope – Guise lectures in the main museums in London for American universities, and has toured widely in the USA and lectured for the Smithsonian Institution. Has also worked for the Art Fund, taught courses for Cambridge University , has been a guest speaker on cruises. Trained as a painter at Central St Martin’s, she exhibits abroad, most recently in Berlin and France. Lives in London and in Provence.

John Osborne graduated in Classics at Cambridge University. Taught Classics at Marlborough College. Worked for the British Council in Iran and Turkey, and lectures in Islamic Civilisation. Tutor, Marlborough College Summer School. Lecturer, University of Bath. Guide at Salisbury Cathedral. Lecturer on cruises and leader of study tours to Bulgaria, Romania, Iran, and Turkey and other countries in S.E. Europe and the Mediterranean. Lecture tours of Australia and New Zealand.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge. He was the director of 'The New Academy of Art Studies' for three years and is a regular lecturer at 'The Study Center', 'Christie's' course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. He has lectured in and has taken numerous tours around Europe. He helped set up the Abercrombie & Kent “Private Label tours” and is presently cultural adviser to Ultimate travel. He has written and presented TV documentaries, notably on 'Whistler'. Three exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels & his book on Monet, 'River of Light', has sold 30,000 copies.

Having read English at Magdalene College Cambridge and taken a doctorate at University College London, Michael enjoyed a long career as an academic at Lancaster University, where he masterminded the project to build the Ruskin Library, before moving to Hampshire, where he was co-Director of Chawton House Library. He is now a freelance writer and lecturer, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton. He is a former Lay Canon and Member of Chapter at Winchester Cathedral and has lectured in sixteen countries outside the UK. He is currently writing the official bicentary history of the Athenæum Club in London and is a Trustee of Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden. Michael’s books include Heaven, Hell and the Victorians; Ruskin’s God; The Old Enemies: Catholic and Protestant in Nineteenth-Century English Culture; and St John and the Victorians: the fourth gospel in nineteenth-century British culture, all from Cambridge University Press.

Bertie Pearce is a Member of The Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star. Equipped with a BA (Hons) in drama from Manchester University, Bertie went to the Ecole Internationale du Theatre Jaques Lecoq in Paris. He has performed all over the world. His ‘Soiree Fantastique’ Show at The Magic Circle in 1999 was a sell out and in 2003 he put on “All Aboard – The Comedy of Cruising” at The Bridewell Theatre which sold out. In 2008 he performed in ‘A Spoonful of Magic’ at The Polka Theatre in Wimbledon and this was followed by Bertie and Boo’s “Wonders of the World’ Show which played at the Brighton Festival Fringe. He is widely sought after for close up magic and cabarets for private parties and fundraisers. In 2003 he was awarded the Carlton Comedy Award by the Magic Circle and twice won the award for Originality from The International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Evelyn worked as a copy-writer in an advertising agency until her children were old enough for her to study art-history at the Study Centre for Fine and Decorative Arts and at the Courtauld Institute. She taught at Surrey University and now passes on her enthusiasm to art-lovers world wide as a lecturer and tour guide. She is the Chairman of The Dresden Trust which helps with the rebuilding of Dresden.

Valerie Woodgate: Lecturer and Guide in Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and for Tate on cruises. Lecturer in other major galleries, including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and, on religious art, in churches and cathedrals. Script-writer for Living Paintings Trust (art for the blind and partially-sighted).

Rebecca Hossack: Studied at Christies and worked at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice. She established the St James Sculpture Garden in partnership with Rio Tinto. Runs the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery in London and is credited with bringing aboriginal art to the U.K. The gallery shows work by contemporary British and Australian artists and indigenous artists from Australia and other countries. She promotes indigenous culture through international exhibition programmes and is a councillor in Camden Borough.

Julian Halsby: Read History at Emmanuel College Cambridge and the History of Art for another 2 years and also studied at the British Institute in Florence. Became Head of the Post-Graduate Conservation Department at Croydon College of Art and left to run Highgate Gallery with his wife. It was during this period that he began writing books and art criticism and also continued lecturing to adult audiences. Throughout this period he continued to paint in oils, exhibiting at a number of London galleries including the New Grafton and the Russell Gallery. He also exhibited regularly at the Mall Galleries with the Royal Society of British Artists to which he was elected in 1995, becoming Keeper in 2011. Image: Toulouse-Lautrec: Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris, 1893

Douglas Skeggs: Read Fine Art at Magdalene College and has lectured on paintings since 1980. He was Director of the New Academy of Arts for 3 years and is a regular lecturer at the Study Centre, to Christies and to other London Fine Arts courses. He helped to set up the Abercrombie and Kent ‘Private Label tours’ and is the cultural adviser to Ultimate Travel. He has written and presented TV documentaries, notable on Whistler and William Morris. There have been 3 one man exhibitions of his paintings and his 5 novels have been translated into 8 foreign languages. His book on Monet “River of light” has sold more than 30,000 copies. Image: Garden with Crucifix 2, 1911

Sam Moorhead, BA (H.Hons), PGCE, MPhil, FSA For many years, Sam taught archaeology and ancient history before joining the British Museum as Staff Lecturer in Archaeology. He is currently National Finds Adviser for Iron Age and Roman coins with the Portable Antiquities Scheme at the British Museum and oversees coin finds made across England and Wales. He is an honorary lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), was elected to the Society of Antiquaries in 2007, and was voted ‘Archaeologist of the Year’ by readers of Current Archaeology in 2011. Image: One of five silver denarii of Carausius (AD 286-93) from the Frome Hoard, showing the emperor, and his 'arrival' into London.

Clare Ford-Wille: Lectures at London University, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the V&A Museum and The Art Fund as well as taking study tours abroad Image: Gauguin Hail Mary, 1891

IMAGE: Hardmann’s Annum Diana Lloyd: Freelance lecture in ceramics, glass, and the history of interior decoration. Lectures at the Inchbald School of Design, the Interior Design School and for American University Groups, the National Trust and Antiques Societies. Guides in museums and country houses. Collects ceramics and glass.

Image: Ring by Sevan Bicakci Joanna Hardy: Studied at Sir John Cass College. Worked for De Beers valuing and grading rough diamonds and as senior specialist and auctioneer at Sotheby’s and lectures at Sotheby’s Institute. Launched a unique selling venture at Sotheby’s London Rocks. She has lectured on radio and is a regular jewellery expert on The Antiques Road Show. She recently appeared in a documentary Aphrodite’s Drop: the Power of Pearls and is a freeman of The Goldsmith’s Company and of the City of London and a Fellow of the RSA.

As principal painter at King Charles I’s court, he portrayed many of the leading characters of the period and his portraits have shaped our view of the Stuart monarchy. This lecture will look at his life and works, focusing particularly on works produced during his time in England from 1632 until his death in 1641. Image: Self Portrait with a Sunflower, Anthony Van Dyck Rosalind Whyte: Experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. Lectures at Tate, Dulwich Picture

Linda is a guide and lecturer at Historic Royal Palaces and for the National Trust, Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Tim has a private architectural practice in London and has taught at Oxford Brookes University School of Architecture and City University. He organises trips as well as leading regular walks in London.

Valerie is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain & Modern and in other major galleries, churches and cathedral. She is also a scriptwriter for the “Living Paintings Trust”.

James trained with the Direction des Parcs et Jardins in Paris, worked as a head gardener and garden designer, lectures extensively and runs a tour company to private English & European gardens.

Eveline is a free lance lecturer in Fine Arts for Surrey University and The Art Fund and a tour guide.

Jo is a freelance lecturer and guide at the Tate Modern & Tate Britain and has worked at Christie’s.

Christopher is an expert in the history & culture of the Middle East & North Africa and has lectured to the Royal Geographical Society & has made documentaries for the BBC & Channel 4.

Eric is a celebrated lecturer at the National, Tate and Clore Galleries and has written extensively about art and artists.

Dominic is a professional book binder who lectures widely, curates book binding exhibitions and has written extensively about the subject.