The AGM will be held before the lecture

Discover the mysterious and enchanting world of witchcraft through captivating artworks that reveal the hidden stories and symbols of ancient and not so ancient practices. We will be transported to a realm where art and magic intertwine, leaving you spellbound and eager for more.

Arantxa Sardina is an official volunteer guide at Tate, covering the permanent collection and some of the temporary exhibitions at both galleries, Modern and Britain. She completed her MA in Art History at the Open University in 2019, where her dissertation focused on fellow Spaniard Joaquin Sorolla, the master painter of Mediterranean light and a friend of John Singer Sargent. She is also an enthusiastic amateur musician, playing the cello and the piano and a lover of opera and ballet. A member of The Arts Society in Bromley, she takes every opportunity to learn about art and to find out more about the stories behind artworks. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and continuously learning from others. 

In the mid-1820s Constable added the newly fashionable seaside resort of Brighton to his familiar motifs of the Suffolk countryside and the skies of Hampstead Heath. He adapted his painting methods to the challenges of the new subject matter, developing striking techniques such as ‘slapping’ paint on with a palette knife and ‘tickling’ it about with the point of a brush handle to create movement and texture in some of the most fabulous depictions of the British coast and sky ever painted. This lecture is illustrated with recent research and also touches on Sarah’s examination of A Sea Beach, Brighton for BBC1’s Fake or Fortune? Constable in 2014. 

Sarah Cove ACR, FIIC, FBAPCR is an Accredited paintings conservator-restorer, technical art historian and lecturer with almost 40 years’ experience working on paintings for the heritage and private sectors. She lives and works in Falmouth, Cornwall, but also has a permanent base in London. As a conservator, she specialises in British portraiture, 19th-20th century British landscapes and oil sketches on paper and board. Alongside her conservation practice, in 1986 Sarah founded the Constable Research Project and she is now the leading authority on Constable’s oil painting materials and techniques. 

In 2026 we celebrate 250 years since Constable's birth on 11th June.

Gustav Klimt and his colleagues broke away from the imperially endorsed art institutions in Vienna in 1897 and founded the Secession. That was the same year that Gustav Mahler arrived to take charge of the Opera House in the city. Comparing these two totemic fin de siècle talents, this lecture places Klimt and Mahler in context, asking what fundamentally links and, indeed, divides them.

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster. Appears on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and contributes to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. 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. 

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

Official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the Guildhall Art Gallery. Qualified Guide to the City of London, offering walks, talks and tours 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.

The 17th century is known as the Golden Age of Spanish Art, a period in which the country was able to use its vast wealth, accumulated during the 1500s following the expansion of its territories in Europe and the Americas, to fund extravagant and ambitious programmes of building and painting. At the helm of the country’s artistic patronage was King Philip IV, one of the greatest collectors of art throughout Europe. His well-honed instinct for talent drew him to the young, brilliant Diego Velázquez who would become his court painter, recording his likeness and that of his family for over 30 years. Velázquez soon became internationally recognised as the greatest artist of his generation, praised for his ability to capture a sitter’s personality or mood and admired for his mysterious, varied and often provocative subjects and interpretations. Many of his paintings are deliberately enigmatic, creating heated debate even today. This lecture will trace the rise of his glittering career at one of the most illustrious courts in Europe.The 17th century is known as the Golden Age of Spanish Art, a period in which the country was able to use its vast wealth, accumulated during the 1500s following the expansion of its territories in Europe and the Americas, to fund extravagant and ambitious programmes of building and painting. At the helm of the country’s artistic patronage was King Philip IV, one of the greatest collectors of art throughout Europe. His well-honed instinct for talent drew him to the young, brilliant Diego Velázquez who would become his court painter, recording his likeness and that of his family for over 30 years. Velázquez soon became internationally recognised as the greatest artist of his generation, praised for his ability to capture a sitter’s personality or mood and admired for his mysterious, varied and often provocative subjects and interpretations. Many of his paintings are deliberately enigmatic, creating heated debate even today. This lecture will trace the rise of his glittering career at one of the most illustrious courts in Europe.

Come and meet the curious beasts, intriguing figures and uncanny monsters hiding at the edge of the page in this stunning and fascinating lecture exploring the imaginations of medieval book illustrators. 

Though religious and practical subjects were the order of the day for most work for medieval manuscript illuminators, in the margins at the edge of the page, artists had the freedom to have fun. 

Anna Bianco (née Harnden) is a freelance curator, writer, lecturer, tour guide and art historian. She has been an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society for 11 years. She has a BA History of Art and an MA in Curating from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has curated exhibitions and displays at The Wallace Collection, The British Museum, The Embankment Galleries and The Southwark Art Collection. 

Christmas is historically a time for feasting and celebrations, in large part because it occurs in the middle of the dark and cold days of winter, so a mid-season celebration with lots of food and drink helped spur people on towards the spring. In this talk we will look at how food and feasting is depicted in paintings, and hopefully help us through the dark days of winter as well!

Sarah Ciacci has an MA in History of Art (Late 19th century French Painting and 20th Century Art) from University College London. She has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries. Since 2008 she has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and for a period the National Portrait Gallery. From 2008-2023 she was Adjunct Faculty at Richmond University teaching the History of British Art, the History of Museums in London and the History of London. She is a gallery educator and runs regular courses and independent lectures on a variety of art historical periods.    

Whenever a radical building  appears, someone, somewhere, insists: “Christopher Wren would be turning in his grave.”

That barb was certainly endured by Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, who embraced modernism, building in steel, glass and concrete, while Wren designed in the classical style, using timber and stone.

But when Rogers was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the citation observed that he was “the rightful heir to the traditions of Wren”. And the same might very well be said of Foster.

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. 

This lecture celebrates a great artist who, although born in Switzerland, went on to become a great British Neo-Classical artist, with a reputation equal to her male contemporaries in an age that rarely recognised women in this field.  She was one of two female painters among the founding members of the Royal Academy.

Art historian, Leslie Primo is an author and broadcaster, graduating from Birkbeck, University College, London with an MA in Renaissance studies. He specialises in early Medieval Art and Architecture, Italian Renaissance art, German art in the age of Reformation, Medici & Patronage, and mythology in the work of Peter Paul Rubens.  Leslie lectured at the National Gallery, London for 18 years, and has appeared many times on the BBC. 

2024 marks the bicentenary of the founding of the National Gallery.This lecture tells the story of the establishment of the NG collection beginning in 1824 when Lord Liverpool’s government purchased 38 paintings for £57,000 from the collection of businessman and philanthropist John Julius Angerstein. The paintings were initially displayed at 100 Pall Mall, Angerstein’s townhouse and by 1838, it was decided that a purpose built building was required, giving us the William Wilkins designed building we know and love on Trafalgar Square. During the course of the lecture we examine some of the high (and low) points of the early years of the gallery including suffragette sabotage, bombs and theft. We also take a close up look at some of the original "Angerstein 38” paintings.

Simon is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique and voice teacher and award winning London Blue Badge guide. He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery guiding both public and private tours. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature. Simon’s specialisms and passions are theatre, literature, fashion and art history but whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it. 

One of the most celebrated artists of her time, French painter Rosa Bonheur had an extraordinary gift for painting animals that brought her international fame and recognition. Her works fetched exceptionally high prices on both sides of the Atlantic, and in 1865 she became the first woman to be awarded the légion d’honneur, France’s highest of merit. Defying convention, Bonheur obtained official police permission to wear men’s clothing, so that she could study animal anatomy in the male-only spaces of livestock sales. Her most famous work The Horse Fair displays such dynamism that when it was exhibited at the 1853 Paris Salon, one critic wrote that he had to suppress the urge to jump out of the way of the galloping horses. Such was its fame, that Queen Victoria requested a private viewing at Buckingham Palace. Bonheur’s commercial success enabled her to buy the Chateau de By, near Fontainebleau, where she lived with her lifelong companion Nathalie Micas, establishing a studio and menagerie, that included sheep, gazelles, monkeys, and three lions. This lecture offers an in-depth account of her extraordinary life and work.

Dr Lois Oliver is Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute. She has worked as a Curator at the V&A, the National Gallery, and the Royal Academy. Her recent exhibitions include ‘Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism’ at Dulwich Picture Gallery and ‘Jock McFadyen: Tourist without a Guidebook’ for the Royal Academy. She has created audio and multimedia tours for many of the UK’s leading arts institutions and has appeared on BBC Radio and TV. Also a keen violinist, Lois plays regularly with Kensington Chamber Orchestra and the Endellion Festival Orchestra. Lois studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and writing her PhD thesis on The Image of the Artist, Paris 1815-1855.

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE FROM FEBRUARY

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

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

In the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders in London, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, the great conflagration destroyed Parliament's glorious old buildings and their contents. No one who witnessed the disaster at Westminster would ever forget it.  

Based on the acclaimed book of the same name, this talk takes the audience through the gripping hour-by-hour story of the fire with a particular focus on the oils and watercolours produced by Turner.  It will be the 250th anniversary of Turner's birth in April 2025.

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2017, has appeared at the Cheltenham, Hay and Henley literary festivals and on BBC radio and TV. In 2023 she was appointed by the government to the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA).

Ten iconic dresses within ten famous portraits from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Portraits that have shocked and delighted audiences in equal measure - the scandal of Sargent’s little black dress, Whistler’s ghostly women in white, Klimt’s golden visions fit for a queen to the swirling dreamlike drapery of Leighton’s Flaming June. Fashion and art has long been entwined and in the same way that every picture tells a story so too does every dress!

Alexandra is an Official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the Guildhall Art Gallery and a Qualified Guide to the City of London, offering walks, talks and tours 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.

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE FROM MAY

Simply the word "Faberge'" conjures up images of jewelled art linked to Russian Royalty.  This talk explores the relationship between a ruler and a jeweller - The rulers- Romanov Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II, and the jeweller- Carl Faberge'.  The Imperial Faberge' Eggs were delivered every Good Friday to the WInter Palace, for Russia's Tsars to give as Easter presents to their Tsarina's.  The talented House of Faberge' became the sought after jeweller to the "Glitterati" of the time.  Come explore the crafting of several Imperial Easter Eggs, and learn of the hunt for the missing Faberge' Eggs.

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

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

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

Harry Venning has been a professional cartoonist for thirty years, during which time he has provided cartoons for several high profile UK publications (The Guardian, Radio Times) as well as for countless more obscure titles (British Journal Of Wound Care). He was awarded UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year for his Guardian strip Clare In The Community, which he adapted into a Radio 4 sitcom. In 'The Art Of The Cartoonist' Harry will be tracing the history of his profession with examples from early practitioners like Cruickshank and Hogarth, to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz, bringing events right up to date with cartoons produced fresh on the page that day! Yes, Harry will be drawing live. Prepare to hear some tricks of his trade, learn where to put eyebrows for maximum effect and discover exactly what the eskimo brothers said in The Funniest Joke Ever (possibly).

In the roughly three hundred years during which the British constructed buildings in India, there persisted an unresolved dialogue about the creation of an authoritative British style. The questions - as to whether the British should impose a British style, fuse a British style with Indian or even adopt the Mughal style for their own – were never satisfactorily answered in India … That is until Edwin Lutyens penned his designs for New Delhi. This lecture gives consideration to the several styles of Indian architecture – not least the Mughal, before celebrating the masterpiece, and innovative stylistic triumph, that is New Delhi. 

He is a freelance historic buildings' consultant, educated as an Architectural Historian at Manchester University and trained in building conservation at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, York. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Deputy Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Society.

The Wanderers was a movement of painters and others who rebelled against the neo-classical constraints of art in the Russian Empire, including Ukraine, in the 1860s. They sought to depict, for the first time, the real life of the majority of the population. Beginning in the relatively reformist period under Tsar Alexander II they dominated the art scene of the Russian Empire for the rest of the century. Although painters such as Ilya Repin, Grigory Miasoyedov, Konstantin Savitsky, Isaac Levitan, Valentin Serov and Vladimir Makovsky are not well known in the west, they are artists of a high order who between them produced a panorama of society including the peasantry, the rising middle class and the great literary and musical figures of the day. As innovators they were parallel in some ways to the Impressionists but focused more on social comment at a time when there were wide hopes of democracy. Copiously illustrated, the lecture outlines their rise, achievement and eclipse.

Gabriel Chanan took up lecturing on art history in 2015, building on his lifelong interest in the arts during a career as a social researcher and policy analyst. He was the founding Chair of Windsor Community Arts Centre (now The Old Court). His study of the visual arts focuses mainly on realist painting, especially on points of transition between different periods and styles. Following publication of his book on Shakespeare and Democracy (2015) he also ran a small theatre company performing at arts centres and festivals till 2020. He was awarded an MBE for services to community development in 2009.  

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

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, Ian is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives tours around each venue. He is also a qualified and active freelance London guide and leads regular tours for various corporations and organisations. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.

From the start, the Impressionists included women artists but their contribution to Impressionism has often been overshadowed by their male contemporaries. Marie Bracquemond, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt all exhibited regularly at the Impressionist exhibitions alongside artists such as Monet, Renoir and Degas. In 1894 they were given the title “Les Trois Grandes Dames d’Impressionisme” by the art critic Gustave Geffroy. This lecture will discuss the lives of each of these artists and their work, revealing their skill and originality as well as their willingness to take risks, despite the additional obstacles they faced as women.

Sarah Burles studied History of Art at Cambridge University before doing a master’s degree at University College London. She went on to have a career in museum and gallery education, establishing new services in three different museums before working at the Fitzwilliam Museum for many years.  

Sarah is the founder of Cambridge Art Tours, which runs tours and courses in and around East Anglia. She is also a Tour Director for a travel company and has led tours to Italy, France, Germany, Belgium and America. 

The Alnwick Garden was inspired by Jane Northumberland with Wirtz International as designers in the 1990s, it showcases traditional and cutting edge designs.

At the base of the Great Cascade, fenced, walled and gated, lies The Poison Garden where Caroline was commissioned to devise a fatal attraction of plants. After tracing the history of the site to set the scene, the lecture will focus on the history and sources of the living poisons behind the ornate inner gates.

Caroline has lectured in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe and Japan as well as for cruises crossing the Baltic, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Red Seas, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She lectures for the Royal Horticultural Society, museums and online for The Gardens Trust and organisations worldwide. Author of 12 books. 

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

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

Worshipped by Aesthetes and cultivated by Impressionists the sunflower casts its golden rays across art and culture. A personification of the divine and the regal, we trace its history from classical myth to twentieth century painting via Van Dyck and Van Gogh, Clytie and Klimt, Monet, Rivera, Wilde and Watts. Green and gold, human and divine, the adoring and the adored, the Sunflower.

Twigs Way is a professional researcher and writer fascinated by the past and intrigued by the role of flowers, gardens and landscape in art and culture of all kinds. 

Her work explores themes of symbolism and meaning, class and gender, art and literature...and she enjoys following lesser known paths in garden history towards the unexpected. 

Cleopatra, the woman for whose love’s sake Antony is imagined to have given up the chance to rule the Roman world, has been inspiring painters, poets and (more recently) film-makers for over two millennia. Their gorgeously voluptuous depictions of her offer insights into changing concepts of beauty, and into the racial and sexual assumptions underlying them.  Showing images ranging from Roman portrait busts, through medieval illuminations, the glorious works of Renaissance masters like Michelangelo, the splendour of Tiepolo and the exoticism of Gustave Moreau to 20th century film stars (Theda Bara, Claudette Colbert, Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and the Carry On team’s Amanda Barry), I will show how Cleopatra became a screen onto which artists have projected their wildly differing fantasies about exotic danger and erotic bliss.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is a cultural historian, biographer and fiction writer.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association and was Chair of the Judges for the 2021 International Booker Prize. 

For a great many Arts Society members, the cartoonist Carl Giles was as much a part of the festive season as the Christmas tree, crackers and the Queen's Speech. So popular were the Giles annuals as Christmas presents that they helped to make him Britain's best loved, most successful and wealthiest cartoonist. The talk looks at Giles's life and work with a particular emphasis on his seasonal cartoons, particularly those featuring Grandma and the Giles family. 

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

Following her Royal Academy début in 1897 Lucy Kemp-Welch rapidly became Britain’s most successful and popular painter of horses.  This lecture explores her life and work, and coincides with both a new biography and an exhibition curated by the lecturer at the National Horseracing Museum in autumn 2023.

Dr. David Boyd Haycock is an established freelance art historian and curator.  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.

René Lalique was the 20th century's greatest glass designer and entrepreneur.  This talk is a visual feast, covering Lalique's early work in jewels and furniture before he dedicated the remainder of his life, c1905-45, to glass.

Andy has dealt in antiques since adolescence, but served an apprenticeship in journalism. After working in music, film and television, he returned to writing in 2004 as the author of the acclaimed tome The Decanter, An Illustrated History of Glass From 1650. He followed this in 2006 with Miller's' 20th Century Glass. He is best known as the distinctly humorous glass specialist on BBC's evergreen Antiques Roadshow.

While plein-air painting came into its own with the art of the Impressionists, the tradition of making images of landscapes outside is one that can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries.

Born in Paris in 1976, Aliki Braine studied at The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, The Slade School of Fine Art, London and The Courtauld Institute where she was awarded a distinction for her masters in 17th century painting. Aliki has been a regular lecturer at the National Gallery since 2001 and also teaches at the Wallace Collection, Courtauld Gallery and for The Arts Society. She is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Fine Art Photography for the University of the Arts London. Aliki is also a practicing artist who regularly exhibits her photographic work internationally.

Chinese wallpapers were an absolute status symbol among the aristocrats and upper classes. A room or more decorated in ‘China Paper’ was a must in the late 17th century and 18th century. The imported painted Chinese sheets were auctioned in London and were extremely expensive. Each sheet had either exotic flower and bird patterns or scenes of ‘life in China’. Many English stately homes have wonderful rooms decorated with exquisite ‘China papers’ such as: Harewood House, Temple Newsham, Erdig, Chalke Manor and the Chinese Pavilion in Brighton and many more. They all have outstanding exotic China paper rooms. There are tales to tell on how they arrived in the first place.

Hanne Sutcliffe lectures extensively to museums, art and historical societies. Art Societies and the Art Fund. She has also been a guide on nine tours of China. 

This lecture aims to give an overall impression of the nature of Royal patronage of silver and silver-gilt, focussing on some of the pre-eminent pieces of silver within the Royal Collection, in order to examine the particular significance of individual members of the Royal Family in the history of building one of the most important collections of plate in the world. 

Christopher Garibaldi is an Independent Researcher. Until 2019 he was Director of the National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art. He has been Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum. He has catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester presented a host of fascinating questions. The skeleton confirmed that Richard III had severe scoliosis. But how could a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have become a skilled practitioner of the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn armour and fought in three major battles? What would his armour have looked like? How might it have disguised the King’s condition, presenting him as a powerful warrior? In the case of a king whose royal legitimacy was questioned by many people, how were the visual trappings of knightly kingship used to solidify his claim? Toby Capwell will cover some of these questions in his lecture.

Dr Tobias Capwell is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons.   In 2015 Toby had the unusual honour of serving as one of the two fully armoured horsemen escorting the remains of King Richard III, from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral.

The Incas developed one of the greatest planned societies that the world has ever known. Their vast South American empire was achieved after AD 1200 through human mastery over almost incredible global extremes. Inca engineers and stonemasons created magnificent cities like Cuzco (their imperial capital) and Machu Picchu. The Incas inherited many of their cultural traits from their predecessors.

The Moche and the Chimú were great gold-workers. The people of Paracas, on the southern coast of Peru, created magnificent textiles:  preserved by the desert for well over 2,000 years, these display a wealth of woven and embroidered designs. Today, at the start of the 21st century, textiles are still a vital part of life in many regions. The modern Quechua carry on the textile traditions of their ancestors, giving Peru the longest continuous textile record in the world.

Chloe Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. She 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.

The Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) was a phenomenal international success in his own lifetime. His paintings of fishermen, his beach scenes, portraits and regional studies of Spain – all permeated by colour and light – were eagerly bought in his lifetime by European and American collectors. 

In 1909 Sorolla was invited to exhibit his work at the Hispanic Society of New York, which was an immediate success and visited by more than 150,000 each day.  He returned in 1911 to paint a large mural, Vision of Spain, for the Hispanic Society, depicting the customs, costumes and traditions of the country’s different regions.

Arantxa Sardina is an official guide at the Tate whose dissertation for her MA in Art History focused on Valencia-born Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923).  He is regarded as the master-painter of Mediterranean light but believed painters could never reproduce sunlight but “only approach the truth of it.”

The story of the Annunciation has inspired some of the most beautiful images in Western Art.  The earliest depiction of the Annunciation is thought to date back to the 2nd century AD. Since then, the narrative has been reimagined by numerous artists including Van Eyck, Botticelli, Dürer and Rossetti.

Sarah Burles studied History of Art at Cambridge University before doing a master’s degree at University College London. She went on to have a career in museum and gallery education, establishing new services in three different museums before working at the Fitzwilliam Museum for many years.  

Inspired by the Australian landscape and the major art  galleries in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide Caroline has created a lecture that explores its extraordinary climatic contrasts prompted by Dorothea McKellar’s celebratory poem My Country, the patterned hands of ancient Aboriginal cave paintings, the dreams of pioneers, the unique botanical treasures, the glorious light captured by the Heidelberg School, Australia’s own Impressionists, and, finally, the rediscovery of its indigenous art.  In 2008 Caroline presented a BBC Radio Four series called A Sunparched Country for which she researched and travelled around eastern Australia.

Caroline Holmes has lectured in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe, Japan and on cruises to the Baltic, Mediterranean, Caribbean and Indian Ocean.  In 2017 she returned to The Arts Society in New Zealand.  She lectures for the University of Cambridge ICE (Course Director for International Summer Programme), the Royal Horticultural Society, museums, and specialist travel companies.  

Edward Ardizzone, CBE RA (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work "DIZ", was an English painter, print-maker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children.

Irving Leonard Finkel is a British philologist and Assyriologist. He is currently the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia.

Despite his reputation as a still life master, few of Torrentius' paintings survive, as his works were ordered to be burned after he was accused of being a Rosicrucian adherent of atheistic and Satanic beliefs. The tortured painter was thrown into prison as a convicted blasphemer until being permitted to leave the country as a political gesture for England's Charles 1, an admirer of van der Beeck.

Rupert Dickens is an art historian based in south London with a special interest in Dutch and Flemish 16th and 17th century painting. He works at the Wallace Collection as a guide conducting public and private tours and lecturing on aspects of the collection. Rupert is also a tour director for a Cambridge-based company accompanying groups on art-themed tours to the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria and Italy. He has lectured to large audiences on subjects as diverse as the game of chess in art and Madame de Pompadour’s artistic patronage in 18th century France. He studied art history at Birkbeck College before undertaking a Masters in Dutch Golden Age Studies at University College London. Before that Rupert had a 26-year career as a BBC journalist ending as an editor in radio news. 

What did it feel like to be a woman in Paris from 1939-49? What were the choices women were forced to make in order to ensure their survival during the Nazi occupation? Anne Sebba attempts to answer these questions, and many more, in this lecture, using an impressive array of primary sources including interviews with surviving women. 

Anne Sebba is a biographer, lecturer, journalist and former Reuters foreign correspondent. She has written a number of books including Jennie Churchill: Winstons' American Mother, The Exiled Collector: William Bankes and the Making of an English Country House, Laura Ashley: A Life by Design, Enid Bagnold and Battling for News: Women Reporters from the Risorgimento to Tiananmen Square.

Princess Ksenia’s father, King Nikola, was nicknamed ‘The Father-in-Law of Europe’ having successfully married off his daughters to the royal houses of Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and Russia. His eighth daughter – Ksenia - chose a different route, carving out a place for herself as secretary and valued advisor to her father, becoming the first woman in Montenegro to drive, and developing a particular talent for photography (though a contemporary also described her as ‘a courageous and skilled shot with a pistol’).

Elizabeth studied at Magdalen College Oxford before training as a teacher and working in Lambeth, Hackney and Islington. She moved to Kosovo in 2006 and there worked with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina and co-founded ‘The Ideas Partnership’, a charity working on education and cultural heritage projects. She speaks fluent Albanian and has translated two books (the unauthorized biography of Yugoslavia’s longest-held political prisoner, Adem Demaci, and the memoirs of one of the leaders of the 1912 uprising). Elizabeth is also the author of four books about Kosovo.

This lecture will look at the extraordinary life and times of this charismatic leader. Charlemagne spent the early part of his reign on several military campaigns to expand his kingdom.  He introduced administrative reforms throughout the lands he controlled, establishing key representatives in each region and holding a general assembly each year at his court at Aachen. He standardised weights, measures and customs dues, which helped improve commerce and initiated important legal reforms. He also attempted to consolidate Christianity throughout his vast empire. He persuaded many eminent scholars to come to his court and established a new library of Christian and classical works.

Imogen served for nearly twenty years in the British Army retiring in the rank of Major in December 1994 having been posted in the UK, Germany and Hong Kong.

Imogen’s knowledge covers a wide range of medieval and artistic history and she specialises in the symbolism revealed in medieval art, whether in churches or paintings, and uses art – usually church art – as the evidence in her research as much as possible. She has lectured extensively on Anglo-Saxon and medieval subjects in Britain and Europe and is a lecturer for the Arts Society as well as being a speaker for the Kent Federation of History, U3A and the National Trust amongst other lecturing agencies.

Hendrick Goltzius,  engraver, print publisher, draftsman and painter, was one of the outstanding figures in Dutch art during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Goltzius was internationally acclaimed in his day; his enthusiastic patrons included sovereigns from all parts of Europe, most notably the art-loving Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. One of the most important engravers and print publishers of his time, he is most widely known today for the Mannerist engravings that he and his workshop produced during the period between 1585 and 1589. 

Albert Godetzky’s research concentrates on Northern European art of the early modern period. He received his PhD from the Courtauld with a thesis on the political dimensions of the works of Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis van Haarlem in light of the Dutch Revolt. As Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld and Visiting Lecturer at the Victoria & Albert Museum, he teaches on topics related to sixteenth- through eighteenth-century art, including portraiture in Northern Europe, cultural legacies of the Reformation, imperialism and its sites of global exchange.

Andrea Mantegna was a remarkable artist; a brilliant painter and draughtsman, pioneering printmaker, portrait painter of rare acuity and devotee of all things classical. He was also quite capable of hiring thugs to beat up his enemies and taking anybody who annoyed him to court.

Despite the drawbacks of his character, he is one of the most compelling artists of the Italian Renaissance, developing new ideas about storytelling and perspective and bridging the gap between the linear style of Florence and the painterly colourism of Venice.

A job in a bookshop turned into a happy and successful twenty-year career in the book trade for Jo, eventually running a specialist art bookshop in London, and working with the auctioneers, Christies. She also thoroughly enjoyed teaching adult education classes in art history and, for twelve years, was a volunteer guide for Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Much of her work now is with The Art Society and The National Gallery, but she also lectures for The Art Fund and for local art groups and societies. 

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

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

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

This lecture will examine the life for the ordinary folk who served and worked in English medieval castles.

James Wright has worked in several areas of the heritage sector and has experience as a field archaeologist, conservation stonemason, community archaeologist, historic stone specialist, archival researcher, historic graffiti specialist and buildings archaeologist. His principle interest is buildings archaeology and he has led projects at sites including the Tower of London, Southwark Cathedral, Knole, Tattershall Castle, Palace of Westminster and Nottingham Castle.

An examination of English gardens; from the Arts and Crafts Movement to the present and looking at how garden design has  evolved, the influences and the emergence of newly discovered plants.

James Bolton was the Faculty Director for Design History at the Inchbald School of Design and since then he has lectured extensively for The Arts Society, the NACF (National Arts Collections Fund), The Oxford Italian Association and other groups

He specialises in garden history in England from 1600 and history of French and Italian gardens.

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

Georgina is an art historian, lecturer, writer and art advisor specialising in the modern and contemporary art of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. She is Consultant Art Historian at the Oriental Club, London and an official guide at Tate Modern.   

Having lived and worked in the UK, the USA and Singapore and travelled extensively, Georgina has experienced and learned from a wide geographic range of art forms, periods and genres including working at the National Museum of Singapore researching Indian temple sculpture and artefacts. Since then she has established a successful career as an academic and art advisor offering independent and impartial advice to the art collector, alongside building her own notable collection of modern and contemporary South Asian art.

Edward Lear’s “Book of Nonsense” has never been out of print, but he made his living from topographical watercolours.

“A man of original and versatile genius”, ornithologist, diarist, musician, traveller – this warm and delightful human being expressed his philosophy through timeless humour.

This lecture will focus mainly on the lesser known work of Lear – the exquisite watercolour landscapes, enlivened with his whimsical cartoons and verse. This illustrated lecture will focus on his biography with quotations from his writing throughout.

Tim Stimson was a professional painter and ceramicist before returning to University to study literature and the history of art and training to teach adults.  He is a freelance art historian and lectures widely at Universities and the Art Fund and Art Society.

THIS LECTURE WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE VIA ZOOM

One of the most original British artists of his generation, Spencer’s art was dominated by his personal life and his profound religious faith. Cookham, his birthplace, was for him an earthly paradise whose people and surroundings possessed a mystical quality. This was the setting for many of his great religious works and he spoke of “the rich religious significance of the place I live in.”

Despite the failure of his two marriages, he continued to believe in the power of love and some of his most important works were inspired by his feelings for the two women whom he married. The paintings inspired by his military service in World War 1, concentrating on hope and redemption rather than on suffering, reveal a similar basic optimism.

This lecture will examine the eccentric and visionary world of one of the most creative and imaginative British painters of the 20th century.

Val is a lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, also at many other London Galleries and for various art organisations.

Former member of the teaching team at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Lecturer to The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) throughout Britain, and to related organisations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Lecturer and runs courses at the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.

WIth musical illustrations ranging from the blues, ragtime and early jazz, our lecturer will shed light on jazz from the inside and touches on the disparate influences behind its emergence.

Petra, famous for its hundreds of rock-cut tombs, was a great trading centre of the ancient Arabs on the edge of the desert. This lecture will use the archaeology, architecture, and art of Petra to reconstruct the trade routes, the technology, the everyday life, the hybrid culture, and the death rites of the Nabataean Arabs who occupied the city. We will discover a city on the edge in every sense – standing between desert and sown, between nomadism and civilisation, between Middle Eastern culture and Graeco-Roman classicism: an exotic Oriental mix in a stunning mountain landscape.  

Neil Faulkner is an archaeologist, historian, and writer. He was brought up in the Weald and educated at The Skinners’ School, Tunbridge Wells, King’s College, Cambridge, and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UCL). He works as a freelance lecturer, editor, writer, excavator, and broadcaster.

THIS LECTURE IS AVAILABLE VIA ZOOM ONLY

The Healing Power of Plants is a talk highlighting the historical use of plants in medicine and how we can use plants to relieve pain and suffering. Timothy Walker will perform ‘live’ on Zoom on Monday 1st February at 2pm. Our speaker has a wealth of experience in the world of horticulture, both on a practical and academic level and has been lecturing all over the world for many years. After reading Botany at Oxford, he studied and worked in many illustrious places including Kew Gardens and the Windsor Savill Garden. Much of his more recent career has been spent researching and lecturing in Oxford. This promises to be a fascinating afternoon.

This online lecture is available at 2.00 pm.

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 an experienced public speaker to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. A medievalist by inclination, he is qualified to speak on a very broad range of historical periods and themes.

DUE TO THE COVID 19 RESTRICTIONS, THIS LECTURE WILL NOT TAKE PLACE

Mankind has exploited the medicinal properties of plants for thousands of years, yet the role of plants in modern medicine is still considered to be peripheral by many people.  This talk attempts to put the record straight and to show that plant products are used everyday by all of us to relieve pain and suffering, to heal wounds and cure diseases.

Timothy Walker is a British botanist. He was the Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum. He also holds a lectureship in Plant Conservation at Somerville College, Oxford and is a lecturer in Biological Sciences at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. He has won four gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.

IT IS WITH GREAT REGRET THAT, IN LINE WITH ADVICE FROM PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND, THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Wine has been part of our global society for over 7,000 years and the story tells of its origin and appearance in all societies across the Mediterranean and through Europe. There is rich evidence of the role wine has played in these societies. From the kwevris of Georgia in 5,000 B.C, the symposia in ancient Greece, the thermopolia of Pompeii, the hospices of Europe, to the dining tables of fine society, wine has been ever present. Drawings, paintings, decorative drinking vessels, buildings and wine labels all contribute to the story.

David has been a wine retailer, importer and distributor for 30 years. In that time, he has presented tastings and talks on wine to trade and private audiences. He has now developed a talk on the subject of wine full of rich evidence, going back 7,000 years, in the form of paintings, decorated drinking vessels, buildings and literature that contribute to the story.

Berthe Morisot was a trailblazer of the Impressionist Movement, yet her work has been overshadowed by that of her male counterparts. Now, against the backdrop of rising recognition for female artists, Dr Caroline Levisse reveals why it’s time for Morisot to be in the spotlight.

She undeniably had a central place in the Impressionist Movement. Monet, Renoir, Degas and Pissarro all held her in high esteem. She participated in seven of the eight exhibitions of the group, some of which she helped organise. 

Dr Caroline Levisse is an art historian based in London. She was born in France where she studied art history before moving to Copenhagen. In Denmark, she focused on research work and completed a PhD on the relations between art and religion in contemporary Scandinavian art. After graduating in 2013, she moved to London and started teaching art history with adult education providers. She has since developed a range of courses focusing on 19th and early 20th century Western art. She has published articles in French and English in academic journals as well as magazines and newspapers, such as Church Times and Arts Sacrés.

Stephen will play some of Chopin's piano works and Marguerite will narrate some of Chopin's words and will seek to paint a picture of Chopin, his life and times.

Stephen worked for many years as a music lecturer at Birkbeck College and is also a composer. He is Head of Piano at North London Conservatoire, a large Kodaly-based music school. He has taken workshops to a vast array of schools in the UK as well as the Amersham and Dumfries festivals.  Well-known as a solo pianist in UK, Belgium, France and Finland, Stephen has also recently expanded his career into accompanying instrumentalists and singers. 

Studied singing with Laura Sarti, Paul Hamburger and David Bacon. Marguerite has sung extensively in Germany, Austria, Italy and particularly in France, French being her second language.

Examining the history and the architecture of the Admiralty buildings and relating stories of some of the people involved there.

After officer training in the Royal Navy and a long career in business, Justin Reay studied the History of Art at Oxford, gaining the University’s Diploma with Distinction, and researched for his doctoral thesis on medieval naval weapons systems at the University of Exeter. For ten years from 2006 he was a senior academic manager for the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and is a qualified teacher.

An Accredited Lecturer for the Arts Society, he is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, and a member of several art or naval history societies. He is an advisor to the BBC, media companies, and history foundations and museums in Britain, Spain, France, Australia and the USA.

In the middle of the 19th century there was a revolt, led by William Morris, against what were seen as the soul-less products of the machine age. Passionate potters took up the challenge.

The first of the four we will be exploring is William de Morgan, a friend and colleague of Morris, who set out to re-discover the secrets of lustre pottery from the Near East.  

A little later the Martin brothers, four eccentric and inventive potters, unleashed their wild imagination on an unsuspecting public.

Sir Edmund Elton the ‘potter baronet’ is the third of our self-taught makers, and we end in the 20th century with Bernard Leach, the father of British ‘studio’ pottery and an enduring inspiration to the potters of today.

From clay and fire, mixed with a genuine passion, all produced some extraordinary pots.

Julian Richards studied archaeology at Reading University and has since worked as a professional archaeologist, in commercial archaeology, for English Heritage, for the BBC and as an independent.

Diane d'Andouins and her daughter c 1565 by Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba Anguissola was a talented and successful Italian Renaissance painter. Her lengthy career included fifteen years painting portraits at the court of King Philip II of Spain. Anguissola was celebrated in her lifetime: her work was admired and discussed by Vasari and when she was in her 90s, Anthony Van Dyck sought her advice on art. This lecture presents Anguissola’s life and career in its historical context and explains how her oeuvre is growing as she is now recognised as the author of paintings hitherto attributed to male artists.

Caroline Knight

From the late 15th century up until 1900, many of the prosperous upper and middle classes of London built much-loved second homes in the suburbs, some on riverside sites, others on high ground with extensive views. Though the owners often had country estates too, the pressure of city life led them more frequently to their suburban country house, its relatively smaller size being easier to manage, and where gardens and outdoor pursuits could be enjoyed without the owners losing contact with business and society. Moreover, the London country houses offered an opportunity to display wealth to their friends and other acquaintances

The Death of the Virgin 1604-1606 Caravaggio

Father to the Baroque movement, indispensable to the Renaissance, and best painter in Rome, are but a few descriptions linked to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. One of the essential traits that Caravaggio was known for, during his own time and in recent years, was his models: his realistic captures within his paintings, his relationship with them and the controversial reference between model and the painted person. Controversy or not, Caravaggio was and will remain a significant role in the field of painting.

Caravaggio was one of, if not the first, to begin working with models. This was easily seen in his paintings as his life-like representations set him apart from all his predecessor masters. His most well-known model, was claimed to be Fillide (Greek for Phyllis) Melandroni. Melandroni she was an upper class courtesan of Rome and one of the most successful, which explains why there is more information regarding her own life, compared to that of Caravaggio’s other models . Melandroni was the most consistent of his models, ranging over almost a decade of paintings.

The most contentious of all Caravaggio paintings was Death of the Virgin, modeled by Fillide Melandroni as the Virgin Mary. As she was a very famous courtesan, it was deemed unacceptable to use her as a model for the blessed Virgin.

Controversies forever surround Caravaggio, in his art, personal life and every detail in between. The models used in his works tend to appear vulgar in nature and many of his works were rejected, not only by the general populace, but also by the patrons of their intended locations. It is known that the vulgarity of the models was not the only issue, but with his works and biography rising in popularity.

Paul D Jagger, is a  Freeman of the City of London and Court Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, that most ‘modern’ of ancient Livery Companies.

The City of London is home to no fewer than 110 Livery Companies and various other ancient institutions that are the source of many customs, traditions and ceremonies associated with the City. The talk will  explore some of those ancient ceremonies through the lens of the heraldry and regalia (treasures) of the Livery Companies and the City of London Corporation.

Portrait of a Gentleman ( Cesare Borgia ?)  c1513 by Altobello Melone

Murder, poison, corruption and incest: all perfect ingredients for sensational popular culture. But in an age known for its brutality and church corruption were the Borgias really so bad?

The Abbey of St Edmund at Bury

Today at Bury, bare, partly built-over ruins – mostly rubble cores from once great walls and supporting pillars – are all that is left of what was one of the richest Abbeys in England. Originally founded circa 633 by the first East Anglian martyr-king, Sigeberht (Liber Eliensis, I, 1), it later became the burial-place and shrine of the last East Anglian martyr-king, Edmund, one of the patron saints of England.

Despite a huge quantity of later legendary material, the near-contemporary entries in the A manuscript of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written in Winchester in the early 890’s, imply that King Edmund was probably killed in battle at or near Thetford by the Danish micel here, ‘Great Army’, led by the Ragnarrson brothers, Ivarr, Ubbe, and Halfdan, in the winter of 869.

Sarah Deere-Jones is a classically trained harpist with a huge variety of musical experience and interests. Whilst still performing on concert harp, she has in recent years been concentrating on traditional music, playing Celtic, English and her own compositions for gut strung and wire strung Celtic harps. She is known for her virtuoso playing on lever harp and her compositions are sold to harpists all over the world, and she is also in demand as a teacher and performer at harp festivals and for on-line coaching internationally.

Russia’s great 19th century painters presented Russian history with drama and intensity comparable to that of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. They tell deeply human stories and teach deeply political lessons. Sir Tony Brenton looks at their paintings and explores the world they set out to illuminate.

‘Unknown Woman’ by Ivan Kramskoi,
compellingly depicts a powerful, but somehow vulnerable personality.

It served for many years as the cover of the Penguin edition of ‘Anna Karenina’, and hung for a while on the walls of the building which is the backdrop to the picture and is now the residence of the British Ambassador in Moscow.

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The Boathouse on Blenheim Lake- Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill, The Artist

In 1915 Churchill was rescued from depression by the ‘muse of painting’. Churchill’s paintings record landscapes from the Riviera, to Blenheim, Chartwell and Marrakech. The most fascinating aspects of this exploration of a talent beyond the mere amateur is the role it played in his personal and political life, the restorative power of the process of painting, and the insight it allows us into the art of his age.

An introduction to buying antiques; vintage and modern and understanding the art market

How the art market and commercialism have impacted on what artists painted and how

A guide  to help you understand church architecture and interiors

Frederick Daniel Hardy (1827-1911)

The Dismayed Artist - 1866

Uncovering the nation's hidden oil painting collection

Frederick Daniel Hardy was a member of an extensive family of artists, many of whose work Art UK has catalogued.

In The Dismayed Artist (1866) Hardy describes the sort of problems encountered in recording English rural life. The artist appears at the door of a cottage, a half-completed canvas in hand. His intention was to continue his painting of the old-style hearth but in his absence the mother and children have started coating its antique features with lime-wash. The men, said to be the artist himself and his brother George, have just arrived from London, luggage labels on the easel and suitcase indicating they have travelled by train from Charing Cross to nearby Staplehurst. The artist’s look of surprise hints at the gulf between outsiders and locals. However, Hardy depicts the countrywoman sympathetically, providing an image of industry, sobriety and self-reliance that would have appealed to his industrialist patrons.

Christ and the Adulteress

Meegeren (Henricus van) was the most successful and the most influential art forger ever. The specialty of Meegeren was Vermeer. With his fakes after Vermeer he amassed a fortune worth more than half a billion dollars in today’s currency.

In 1945, some weeks after the conclusion of World War II, Van Meegeren was arrested because of another Vermeer; one he had sold to Hermann Goering,
For fear of being accused of collaborating with the Nazis he confessed that he had made this Vermeer himself. “It is a fake,” he told his interrogators.
At the same time he confessed having made the famous “Emmaus” as well and admitted several other fake-Vermeers, as well as fakes of other Old Masters of great repute.

After the Meegeren exposure a wave of self-criticism surged through the world’s art museums and many an Old Master or a Vermeer disappeared from their walls.

folio 49r : The adoration of the Magi

Medieval manuscripts are counted among the greatest glories of Western civilization. With their gold and painted decoration and their charming miniatures, they have always had immense appeal.Christopher de Hamel gives an introduction to the whole subject of the making of books from the Dark Ages to the invention of printing and beyond. He  describes the widely different circumstances in which manuscripts were created and many fundamental questions are answered - who wrote the books, what texts they contained, who read them, how they were made and what purposes they served. Illuminated manuscripts have alway been highly valued, and among them are some of the world's great masterpieces of art. 

 The theatre at Covent Garden has had a most chequered 300-year career.  Panto first saw the light of day here – popular Christmas entertainments put on, then as now, to pay for the serious plays and operas during the rest of the year.  Even in the 21st century, operas and ballets have echoes of those first Christmas shows:  Columbine and Harlequin still dance in The Nutcracker, the children still escape the witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella still sings (Rossini or Massenet) or dances (Ashton) her way to the happy ending.

Submarine crews shown at work in Ravilious' wartime work

Eric Ravilious has been described as the greatest English watercolourist of the 20th century and his images of the landscape and of everyday objects attract passionate devotees. A prolific painter, printmaker and designer, he became an Official War Artist in 1939, and was killed in 1942 but his legacy is a body of work reflecting deep delight in the world in which he lived. 

How signs and symbols are used to tell the story of a painting

This exceptional Japanese Six-Panel Late Edo Period byobu Screen is finely painted with a pair of cranes and an egret standing near a flowering cherry blossom tree on a gold gilt ground, surrounded with an obi fabric border and black lacquer frame. Age: Late Edo Period (1615-1868)

Artists and craftspeople have utilized gold leaf through the ages from ancient Egypt to the modern day all over the world.

The Happy Parents, Meissen, c.1770

Acier, Michel-Victor (1736-95); French. Medium: porcelain. Date: 18th Century. 

Exploring the taste and fashion for pocelain figurative sculptures

Salvador Dalí, Metamorphosis of Narcissus 1937

This lecture will explain many of the questions asked about modern art

Jean-Baptiste REGNAULT French 1754-1829 Empress Josephine (Portrait de laimperatrice Josephine) (c. 1810) oil on canvas

Looking at her cultural activities including her acquisition of a large and distinguished collection of art

Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, built by Timor in 1399

An introduction to the aspect of the rich Islamic World of Art

Virgin Mary with Eleven Angels (Wilton Diptych, right-wing scene) by the Master of the Wilton Diptych, ca. 1395

The story of blue takes us from the lapis lazuli mines of Afganistan to the studies of the great artists

Pietro Lorenzetti

circa 1340-1345

This magnificent enthroned Virgin and Child with four saints and two angels originally formed the center of a folding triptych, a three-part painting. 

Images of the Saints and Angels are everywhere in Medieval and Renaissance art - but what did they actually mean?

A Very Special Event

NADFAS East Anglia with      Gainsborough’s House

‘Jackson Pollock:

American Master'

Gainsborough's House in Sudbury on

Saturday 12 November 2016

A one-hour talk on Pollock's life and art

   by acclaimed lecture Ben Street,
                 followed by
 'Pollock'(Cert18)122minutes                                             Doors open 2pm Lecture: 2.30pm  Film: 3.45pm
 Tickets: £12 Numbers limited to 60

Booking forms on line at nadfaseastanglia.com

Or contact Anne Day

                NADFAS East Anglia ACE           annedee100@hotmail.com              07879 401969

 The 1892 oil painting, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), becomes most expensive artwork ever. 

Painting of two Tahitian women by an artist whose work won little or no acclaim in his lifetime is sold for nearly $300m (quote from the Guardian Saturday February 7th 2015)

Exploring the dynamics and economies of the Art Market and the fakes through history

XVI century. GIORGIO VASARI

Madonna and Child with Saints
Camaiani Altarpiece

Examining the various talents of this famous man of the Italian renaissance and the author of "The lives of the Artists"

A look at little known images in our churches and churchyards and the stories behind them.

Preceded by the AGM

A musical and artistic partnership

Celebrated and spell-binding presentation style with music and singing!

You are invited to step back in time to May 1877 when the Grosvenor Gallery in Bond St first opened its doors. Showcasing the best of modern art, it was here that Whistler displayed his Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket. A month later, when John Ruskin reviewed the exhibition, he accused Whistler of “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face” and of asking 200 guineas for the privilege. The allegation led to one of the most renowned libel cases of the 19th Century. This lecture explores the volatile personalities and intriguing stories surrounding the accusation.

Janusz has lectured here 3 times but over 15 years ago! He is an authority on English furniture and is an antique dealer.

Seduction has been one of the enduring themes of art since Eve offered Adam an apple. Lynne is a freelance lecturer and artist, whose work has been exhibited widely and used in a range of publications.

Art historian, critic and lecturer, she edits on line magazine – Russian Art and Culture. Studying for PhD at Bristol University. Widely travelled and educated. This lecture introduces us to Russian and 20th C Art through the work of Diaghilev and his internationally renowned ballet company. He was a leading patron of the Russian avant-garde in the West who interacted with major artistic figures of the day. Attention will also be paid to costumes and set designs by leading artists such as Benois, Matisse and Picasso.

Classics tutor for Oxford Univ. Dept of Continuing Education; spent much of last 30 yrs travelling / lecturing in the world of the Greeks and Romans.

This lecture looks at the life of one of the most important goldsmiths of the eighteenth century and examines his career from his birth in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (1698) to his role in founding the company that would eventually become Garrard, the Crown Jewellers. The unique survival of the Wickes ledgers, giving day to day accounts of his business and customers, establishes Wickes as one of the pre-eminent goldsmiths of this time and provide a fascinating insight into the goldsmith/silversmiths trade of the eighteenth century.

An exploration of the depiction of the Nativity in western art by a painter of national reputation named as a Woman of the Year 2008 for her contribution to art and society.

The lecture follows the factories’ development against the background of London in the mid-18th C. Anton is an internationally renowned specialist in British and European ceramics, a respected authority on Bow.

Dr Robson has published extensively on 13th/14th C. Italian art. This lecture is based on her book - The Pope, the Franciscans and the Painting of the Basilica, published 2013. She divides her time between Assisi and London. Janet has held research fellowships in Rome and Florence.

Using illustrations from carvings, wall paintings, pottery, mosaics, sculpture and stained glass, Sarah traces the history of one of the world's most ancient and beloved musical instruments. Using live music and songs, she demonstrates the significant developments and improvement during the Renaissance and 19th century.

As a young reporter for the Lahore Gazette, Kipling took a journey through Rajesthan during 1888, producing some magical and evocative descriptions of the buildings he saw. We explore the splendours of the India he so loved and gain insights into the rich cultural history of the 'Land of Kings'.

Charles Beauclerk is descended from 1st Duke of St. Albans who was the son of Charles II and Nell Gwyn

This lecture looks at garden features, beacons, cinemas, pumps and all manner of buildings, mausoleums and local examples too. A lecture to surprise!

An examination of the symbolism - spiritual, secular, vulgar and virginal, so we can red the paintings as did the people for whom they were intended.

A whistle-stop tour of the history of mystery and surprise from centuries bc to the 21st century. Prepare to be amazed and bewitched!

In 1619 a royal weaving works was established at Mortlake in Surrey by King James I. Within a few years remarkable sets of tapestries came from its looms, most notably sets woven to the Acts of the Apostles designs by Raphael and his studio. By the mid seventeenth century France once again took centre stage in all the luxury arts and crafts and when the young Louis XIV sought to use these arts as visual propaganda for his rule and his country, tapestry was an essential aspect of the decoration of his palaces. Central to this particular art policy was the well established weaving operation at the Gobelins in Paris.

This talk offers a survey of the work of Britain's most prestigious sculptor, whose work moved from realism to abstraction and whose war drawings captured the trauma of The Blitz

Dr Susan Kay-Williams is Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework and a Fellow of the RSA and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.