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The antiques market has changed dramatically and now pieces that were made during the 1970s can fetch many times more than a piece made in the 1770s. Why has the teak sideboard you threw out become so desirable? Who is this Eames guy? Drawing a blank with Timo Sarpaneva? Who’s buying what and what are they doing with it? This practical and inspirational lecture looks at furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and metalware, identifies key designs and designers, and the examines the revolutionary design movements they began.

Mark studied History of Art & Architecture (BA Hons), and began his career as a porter and Junior Cataloguer at Bonhams, before moving to Sotheby's where he was a Specialist in the Collectors' Department. Became director of an internet company forming and running a ground-breaking deal with eBay Live Auctions. Was co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-17. Founded his own publishing company in 2005 and has published over 15 books on emerging specialist subjects in the decorative arts. A Miscellaneous expert on the BBC 'Antiques Roadshow' since 2007 and an expert on the BBC's 'Antiques Roadtrip', has also co-presented five primetime TV series on antiques and collecting for BBC2. A member of the British Antiques Dealers' Association (BADA.org). Senior Vice President at a company offering digital solutions to the antiques industry. Has lectured across the world, including at the V&A in London, and contributed to many newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programmes. A Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Freeman of the City of London.

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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.

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. Publications include illustrated histories of Marine Painting (1995) and yachting art Yachts on Canvas (1998).

He 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.

The speaker donates fees for talks to charity.

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It was once thought that art did not exist in any form until around 30,000 BC when the Cro-Magnons took over from the Neanderthals in the Palaeolithic period. However a carved and painted figurine found in Morocco in 1999 is now said to be at least 400,000 years old. Throughout this lecture we will look at some of the very earliest examples of art from across the pre-historic world. From carvings to cave paintings, the innate skills of our ‘uncivilised’ ancestors will amaze you. This lecture can be extended as a study day. 

Geri Parlby's career spans across diverse fields. She started as a news and investigative reporter via Mirror Group newspapers before becoming Head of Press for United International Pictures, handling major blockbuster publicity campaigns from Paramount, Universal, MGM & UA studios throughout the 1980s. She then set up her own London based film and video PR agency which she ran for 8 years before retiring to start a family. 

Driven by her passion for art she studied for an MA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute before gaining a theology PhD from the University of Roehampton. 

Geri's extensive knowledge and engaging speaking style led her to become an accredited NADFAS/Arts Society lecturer and she has been lecturing both across the UK and internationally for the past 18 years.  

Henry Purcell has been described as England’s Orpheus and ranks alongside the greatest of this country’s composers. His rise to the position of Organist of Westminster Abbey at the age of 20 saw him lauded above the talents of his predecessor, John Blow and his teacher, Pelham Humfrey, both of whose music we will hear in order to place Purcell in context. His family home was just round the corner from the Abbey and for a while he turned his back on the theatre music he had been pursuing to focus on this job.

Patrick Craig is a Vicar Choral at St Paul’s Cathedral. For twenty years he combined this with an international career singing over a thousand concerts with the world-renowned early music consort The Tallis Scholars. He also sings with the award-winning group The Cardinall’s Musick. He founded and conducts this country’s leading all-female professional choir, Aurora Nova. He has conducted concerts for the BBC Proms, the Brighton, Lichfield and Aldeburgh Festivals, and with the City of London Sinfonia.

illiam Hogarth is one of the major 18th artists representing the Golden Age of British Art. He was not a man to flatter his sitters, so he was never too successful at portrait painting and instead turned to what became very popular paintings and prints exploring political and social issues, in which he criticised and poked fun at anyone and everyone. He was very proud of being English and his worked both incorporated and generated new stereotypes of what ‘being English’ meant, some of which still exist today. He was also a major promoter of British artists which helped a younger generation of English artists achieve greater successes than had been seen before. 

Sarah Ciacci has an MA in History of Art (Late 19th century French Painting and 20th Century Art) from University College London. She has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries, so relevant tours and visits for talks can be arranged. Since 2008 she has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and for a period the National Portrait Gallery.

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DUE TO A LAST MINUTE INABILITY TO TRAVEL THE LECTURER WILL BE DELIVERING HER LECTURE FROM HOME, ONLY ON ZOOM

The mass migration of the French Protestant Huguenots in the 16th and 17th centuries impacted the arts, the military and finance sectors of the countries to which they fled after suffering Catholic persecution in their homeland. It is estimated that upwards of 50,000 people settled in the British Isles, and that perhaps one in six of the country’s current population descends from Huguenot lineage.

Vivienne Lawes  is an art historian, curator, author and journalist with over 25 years’ experience in the art market. I teach at several Higher Education institutions, including Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, where I lead the professional certificate in Art History, as well as the University of the Arts London, Imperial College, SOAS (University of London) and the City & Guilds of London Art School. In 2021 I received the Geoffrey Bond Bursary for Art, an annual prize awarded by the Worshipful Company of Educators to an “outstanding educator” nominated by their institution. 

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For those interested in architectural and garden design of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, the names of Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll are inseparably linked together. Lutyens’ buildings are the most individual of their time, blending respect for materials, a natural sympathy for the site, and an endlessly inventive set of practical and aesthetically pleasing solutions.  Equally inspired are the gardens designed by Miss Jekyll. Her work remains a constant source of inspiration to gardeners to this day, with her endlessly inventive planting schemes where colour, pattern and texture shape the gardens which she designed. 

Lutyens owed his career to Jekyll as she employed him when he was just starting out introducing him to many of his early clients.  Both were in turn inspired by the great changes stimulated by the Arts and Crafts movement and this source united them from the start.  It is a story of kindliness, mutual support and artistic cross-fertilisation.  They inhabited a golden age in late Victorian and Edwardian England, a world, which in some respects ended for both of them in 1914.

Amongst the schemes to be discussed, their work at Munstead Wood lies at the beginning of their long association. Deanery Garden is perhaps their finest early collaboration where they created a mini masterpiece for Edward Hudson, the founder of Country Life (the magazine which did so much to establish both their reputations. Hestercombe, near Taunton, was their finest work before World War I altered their world for ever.

After a generation in University life, Tom has now retired from teaching to concentrate on lecturing to a wider public, and to leading tours to his major areas of interest: the architecture and archaeology of Ireland, and the Mediterranean basin.

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Avant-garde painter, designer, decorator, inspired colourist, mother and muse, Vanessa Bell was the warm heart of the Bloomsbury Group, a set who Dorothy Parker once described as “living in squares and loving in triangles”. Navigating the tides of sexual and artistic revolution with tolerance, irreverence and wit she had a central role in the social and aesthetic life of Bloomsbury; alive to their love affairs, romances, passions and pleasures, and refreshingly uninterested in politics. She was the sister of the writer Virginia Woolf, wife of the critic Clive Bell, and counted the painter Roger Fry and the artist Duncan Grant among her lovers. Her Bloomsbury Group connections and their associated scandals have perhaps lessened the fame of her work – this lecture asks the question was Vanessa Bell the painter as radical as Virginia Woolf the writer?

Julia Musgrave is a freelance accredited Art Society lecturer in the History of Art. As an art historian she gained her first degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art, her MLitt from the University of Glasgow, and her PhD from the University of York.  She also has a degree in Chemical Engineering. Her research interests range from British Modernism to the Renaissance. She is a lecturer in Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit), and Co-Director of The London Art Salon.

Before the British arrived in India, the Indian subcontinent was ruled by the Mughal Emperors. The stunning buildings and gardens they constructed from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century have left an indelible stamp on India’s architectural and cultural landscape. Mughal architecture fused elements from Islamic, Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural traditions, and gave rise to some of the most beautiful and iconic buildings in the world.

Dr John Stevens gained his PhD in History from UCL, before going on to teach British Imperial History, Indian History and Bengali Language at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London). His biography of the Indian guru Keshab Chandra Sen – Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet - was published by Hurst and Oxford University Press in 2018. He is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh and has lectured at numerous Indian universities. He also works as a consultant on Indian affairs and teaches the Bengali language to private students. He has appeared many times in the Indian media, and was a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore. 

Rome’s art and architecture were some of the finest of man’s creations, and have had a lasting effect on our own art and culture. In this talk we look at beautiful buildings and works of art - sculpture, mosaic, wall-paintings, silver and jewellery - to trace the history of this mighty city.  We follow Rome’s rise from its semi-legendary mud-hut origins to the dazzling splendour of the capital city of the Emperors.  The talk focuses on Rome’s golden age – from 30 BC to AD 200, when Emperors such as Augustus, Nero and Hadrian reigned, and filled the city with palaces, temples, theatres, libraries and other incredible monuments.

Dr Paul Roberts is Research Keeper in the Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford University.  Paul has been a lecturer with the Arts Society/NADFAS for over twenty years, has travelled extensively to societies across the UK, and has also lectured on numerous cruises in and around the Mediterranean. Like all of us, he enjoys the immediate contact of face to face meetings, but is happy to provide online lectures if desired. 

He studied Classics at the University of Cambridge, and Classical Archaeology at the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford.  He then lived in Italy for several years, teaching and researching.  He has travelled throughout the former lands of the Roman Empire, from Britain to Syria, and has excavated in Britain, Greece, Libya, Turkey and in particular Italy, where he is currently working on a Roman Villa in the Molise region of the Central Apennines.

His research focuses on the daily life of ordinary people in the Greek and Roman worlds, and he has written books and articles on Greek and Roman daily life, Pompeii and Herculaneum, Sicily, Roman Emperors, mummy portraits, and Greek and Roman ceramics and glass. He is now writing a history of Rome through its monuments and the Emperors who built them.   From 1994 to 2015 he was Senior Roman Curator in the Greek and Roman Department at the British Museum, where he curated the exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum (2013). Arriving in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 2015, in 2019/20  he curated Last Supper in Pompeii, a tribute to the Roman love affair with food and wine.

This really is a fascinating insight into the history of one of our greatest ever institutions - our great British public park. We have all enjoyed them at some time in our lives but what do we really know about them? their origins? did they really start in the Victorian period or do they go even further back? This talk illustrates their origins, talks about the need for parks, the Victorian heyday, what makes a great park, with examples of lodges, lakes, bandstands, fountains and floral displays, to their great decline in the sixties and seventies. However, the subsequent revival has led to a major shift in interest in our parks and once again we are much in love with them. This is also a highly illustrative talk accompanied by slides with examples of parks from across the UK and their designs and architecture. This is a particularly popular talk and always goes down well as we can nearly always recount our own experiences with our own local park.

Exuberant, topical, lively - and just a little rude - English caricature has always depicted 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.

Andrrw is an 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

This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever hear. There is a universal delight in being deceived and in this lecture Bertie Pearce takes his audience on a whistle stop tour of art which fools, surprises and amuses the viewer. Beginning and ending with the Belgian surrealist, René Magritte, it encompasses Trompe L’eoil, Banksy, Bridget Riley, Arcimboldo and Escher to name a few. Hold on to your seats and get ready to be visually fried.

Bertie 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.

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

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

Many of Britain’s best-loved country houses were created in the ‘Baroque’ period (c. 1660-1720). Visiting some of the most iconic houses of the period, including Chatsworth, Petworth, and Blenheim, we will meet the patrons who created them, and look at some of the highlights of their sumptuous interiors, gardens and collections, addressing the question: what is ‘Baroque’? 

Dr Amy Lim is an art historian and curator, specialising in British fine and decorative arts from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. She is curator of the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, and of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham. She is also an exhibition researcher at Tate, contributing to British Baroque: Power and Illusion (2020) and  'Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain, 1520-1920' to be held at Tate Britain, 16 May-30 October 2024. Amy has degrees in History and Literature & Arts from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. She runs an online art dealership, and has published articles and essays on a variety of art-related topics from gothic garden monuments to female patronage.

We've been told supernatural tales at midwinter for a very long time. In this talk Kirsty Hartsiotis takes us back to the earliest winter tales of the Middle Ages and the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe. We then explore the lost years of the 17th and 18th centuries, where it’s often thought that Christmas wasn’t celebrated much – but ghost tales at Christmas-tide were very part of the season.  In the 19th century many traditional Christmas ghost tales were collected, and even now it’s considered one of the spookiest times of the years.

Kirsty Hartsiotis was the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham from 2008 to 2023. She is currently a curator at Swindon Museums, where she also worked prior to 2008.  At Cheltenham she looked after the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection, which includes the important private press archive, the Emery Walker Library. She’s curated many exhibitions on the Arts and Crafts and Private Press Movements, including Ernest Gimson: Observation, Imagination & Making.  Passionate about sharing her deep love for and knowledge of the arts, she’s also a freelance researcher, currently researching Arts and Crafts war memorials and the work of Arts and Crafts designers in churches in the South West. She’s also been an oral storyteller for over 20 years, and has published a number of collections of stories. She's the Editor of the Journal of William Morris Studies, and was the newsletter editor for Society of Decorative Art Collections. She is a regular columnist for Cotswold Life, and writes for diverse other publications on art history and folklore.

The twelfth-century Winchester Bible, still in the cathedral there, is a candidate for the greatest work of art ever made in medieval England and it is unquestionably one of the finest and most astonishing of all illuminated manuscripts.   It has recently been installed in a permanent exhibition in the north transept.   This richly-illustrated lecture, which brings together new and unpublished material, suggests who actually commissioned it and made it, and why and when, and how the manuscript has survived in Hampshire for almost 900 years. 

Christopher de Hamel, FSA, is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.   He has doctorates from Oxford and Cambridge and several honorary doctorates.  He began work on the Winchester Bible in 1974.  For 25 years he was responsible for all sales of illuminated manuscripts at Sotheby's worldwide, before becoming librarian of the Parker Library in  Cambridge for 17 years, with custody of many of the oldest manuscripts in Britain.  His very many books include Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, which won the Wolfson History Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize, and was runner-up in the Waterstone's Book of the Year. 

Built on mudflats in the salt-water marshes at the head of the Adriatic towards the end of the Roman era, Venice became rich from trade with the Byzantine empire, but her power and wealth were consolidated by her savage sack of Constantinople in 1204, creating the richest city in Europe. The city grew over the waters of the lagoon, not just facing the sea but becoming part of it. The architecture of the new city reflected influences from the east, distinct from the buildings of medieval and Renaissance Italy. Justin discusses how trade with the Byzantines, Ottomans, the Hanseatic League and the merchants of the Silk Road created the powerful city-state known as La Serenissima – the Most Serene – and describes the great buildings of the Piazza San Marco and along the Grand Canal as well as some of the hidden gems in the beautiful but fragile city we know today.

Justin studied the History of Art and Architecture at Oxford, and later studied Islamic art at Oxford and classical culture with the university of Athens. While researching for a doctorate in naval history, Justin was invited to join the Bodleian Library as a senior academic manager, advising researchers and graduate students and editing manuscripts in the Bodleian's collections. He is a published historian. A qualified teacher, he is a tutor in the History of Art and Architecture and classical studies for independent colleges at Oxford and for private graduate students. He is a member of the AI & Arts Interest Group at the Alan Turing Institute, and is currently writing a university preparation course on the history of innovation and the impact of Artificial Intelligence on human creativity. A Fellow of two learned societies, and a member of the Walpole Society and the Arts Society West Oxfordshire, Justin is a frequent lecturer for The Arts Society with a wide range of talks and study days on art history, painting, sculpture and architecture across cultures from antiquity to the modern era.

In June 1520 Henry VIII and Francis 1 meet to ratify an Anglo-French alliance and celebrate the betrothal of Henry’s daughter Mary to the Dauphin. The two handsome ‘Renaissance Princes’ are in their 20s with similar reputations in military prowess, sport and patrons of the arts. Both have imperial ambitions and are eager to display themselves as magnificent nobleman and warrior kings. Each brings an entourage of 6,000 to a field south of Calais for 18 days of various events and entertainments staged to display the skill and splendour of each King and country. The logistics of transporting, accommodating, ordering, feeding and watering, protecting and entertaining the English contingent for this spectacular event is staggering and the supply chain, often through the City of London Guilds, is equally fascinating. 3,217 horses shipped across the ‘Narrow Sea’ to Calais; a vast quantity of wood sourced from Flanders and floated along the coast; a huge temporary palace is built on stone foundations with brick and timber-framed walls reaching to 40 feet. Royal palaces were virtually emptied of their silver, gold, tapestries and furniture to decorate the temporary palace, other principal tents and a chapel (with an organ); gold and silver cloth, velvet and sables, jewels and pearls were imported to ‘dress and impress’.

How was it all achieved?

2020 is the 500th Anniversary of this extraordinary event. 

Jo Mabbutt is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and Freeman of the City of London. Originally a trained singer, pianist and orchestra administrator, Jo is now a decorative artist who gilds antique lace and crochet.  She works to commission, sells through galleries and exhibitions and collaborates with other designers. 

Jo 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 taught in further education for 8 years on Art & Design National Diploma and Foundation courses then up-skilled at Central St Martin's College of Art & Design developing her own practice. She now divides her time as a designer/maker, lecturer and tutor running workshops for specialist groups.

Many art historians and critics have compared the work of Stubbs to that of Leonardo da Vinci, one even christening him the ‘Leonardo of Liverpool’ to reflect his humble origins as the son of a Liverpool leatherworker. The comparison can seem hubristic until one considers the intense scientific method and investigation that lay behind the production by Stubbs of his world-famous Anatomy of the Horse published in 1766 – a work which revolutionised the understanding and depiction of equine subjects.

This lecture looks at the life and work of this country’s greatest animal painter, putting Stubbs in the context of British sporting artists of the eighteenth century more generally. It focusses on his depiction of equestrian subjects such as the National Gallery’s Whistlejacket but also looks at the broader themes he addressed.

Independent Researcher. 2010–2019 Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art: www.palacehousenewmarket.co.uk). 2008–2010 Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections. 1998–2003 Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum: co-curator of Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art and Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000. 1994–1997 Catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

You will be taken on a journey beginning in Outer Mongolia in the 5th century BC and follow the 11th century migrations from Turkmenistan, the cradle of weaving, into the Caucasus, Persia and Afghanistan. You will be introduced to the nomadic tribes of these countries and their woven rugs, carpets and dowry bags, with particular emphasis on those of the 19th century and earlier. These tribal weavings illustrate the skill of the women who produced exquisite works of woven art, using vegetable colours and age-old designs whilst living and travelling in primitive conditions and hostile landscapes.

Brian MacDonald has been a dealer and consultant in antique oriental rugs and carpets since 1979 after his return from Iran. He is the author of 'Tribal Rugs - Treasures of the Black Tent' which was originally published in October 1997; re-printed in April 2010 and a completely new up-dated edition in the summer of 2016. Brian is one of few western dealers to have lived and worked among tribal groups in remote areas of Iran and Afghanistan during the 1970s and then again, after the Iranian Revolution, in the 1990s. In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for his work amongst the Persian tribes. He has lectured for The Arts Society since 1986.

Polymaths Mavericks and mathematicians.

A Brlef History of the Netherland's De Stijl Movement

The turn of the 20th century was rich with change in almost all aspects of life. Artists
and architects across the globe were more inspired than ever to bring
unprecedented works of art to life, many of which originated in the numerous
modernist movements that emerged during this period. Today, we're exploring De
Stijl, a celebrated Dutch movement formed partly as a reaction against Art Deco.

The History of De Stjl

De Stijl was founded in 1917 by a cohort of painters, sculpturs, architects and poets in
the Netherlands' largest city, Amsterdam. The art movement is also known as
Neoplasticism. However it is more commonly referred to by its traditional name, De
Stijl, which says it all for its direction. Meaning 'the style' in dutch. Nearly all of the
artwork and architecture stemmed from a simple vision and philosophy.
The principles of the movement set to ignore natural form and color. Instead it
simplified compositions to only vertical and horizontal lines and palettes to only black,

Music lovers generally regard JS Bach as the greatest of early 18th century composers. In fact, he is so important in the history of music that we close down the Baroque period with his death in 1750. However, Bach is also one of the most challenging of composers and rarely reveals the subtleties of his music on first or even second hearing, often causing his listeners to feel distanced from some of the finer moments in his output. Using the 1746 Hausmann portrait of Bach as a constant point of reference, the lecture goes beneath the surface of the composer’s music to decode aspects of his musical symbolism, tell the story of his life, and confirm his great importance in the history of music.

Peter appears in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Darling’s daring rescue of steamship passengers off the Northumberland coast in 1838 brought her international fame. Discover more about her bravery and short life (died aged 26) and the artistic contribution that has helped to keep her in the public eye. Grace became the ‘poster girl’ of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and was the first woman awarded their medal for gallantry. This talk coincides with the commemorations to mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of the RNLI in 2024.

James Taylor studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Manchester, and is a former curator of paintings, drawings and prints, and co-ordinator of various exhibitions and galleries, at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 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), Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art (2016) and Picturing the Pacific: Sir Joseph Banks and the Shipboard Artists of Cook and Flinders (2018). 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.

Few artists are as rooted in a place as Stanley Spencer and his beloved home village of Cookham. This Thames-side village was not only his birthplace, his home for most of his life, and even his nickname, but it dominated his imagination and was the inspiration and location for many of his greatest paintings. This lecture will look at Cookham’s place in Spencer’s art, and how it was central to his unique vision of English domestic and spiritual life.

Dr Amy Lim is an art historian and curator, specialising in British fine and decorative arts from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. She is curator of the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, and of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham. She is also an exhibition researcher at Tate, contributing to British Baroque: Power and Illusion (2020) and the forthcoming Women Artists in Britain. Amy has degrees in History and Literature & Arts from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. She runs an online art dealership, and has published articles and essays on a variety of art-related topics from gothic garden monuments to female patronage.

Join us for an illustrated talk on Lady Anne Blunt and her extraordinary life and legacy.
 
Peter Harrigan examines and reveals the extraordinary life of this remarkable woman: true polymath, adventurer, explorer of Arabia, saviour of the Arab Horse, accomplished author, artist schooled by John Ruskin, violinist taught by Jansa [her Stradivarius sold for £9.8 million ten years ago], and translator of Persian and Arab odes. She was the granddaughter of Lord Byron and her mother was Ada Lovelace the mathematician who helped invent the proto-computer. She married Sir Wilfrid Blunt the serial philanderer, anti-colonialist and poet. 

Famed and still revered across the deserts of Arabia; Lady Anne, despite her achievements and legacy, remains relatively little known in the west outside the rarefied world of passionate breeders and enthusiasts of the Arab Horse.
 
Her daughter Lady Wentworth wrote:
“To the end of her life she had the heart of a child, the brain of a scholar and the soul of a saint.”
 
Peter Harrigan is the founder of Medina Publishing and director and editor in chief of Arabian Publishing. He was the commissioning editor of the first and only published biography on Lady Anne Blunt and has published books on prominent figures in the Middle East. He is contributing editor of Aramco World Magazine and the honorary secretary of the Saudi British Society.  
 
   

Bernini received commissions from an early age, designing architectural features such as the Baldacchino in St Peter’s Basilica, the colonnade of the Piazza, and large fountains across 17th century Rome. It is his figurative sculpture however which ensures his reputation as one of the greatest European sculptors, the equal of Michelangelo, Canova and Rodin. His works were famous in his lifetime, and are credited with introducing the dynamic form of the Baroque in sculpture. Justin discusses Bernini’s life and reputation, and describes several of his key works including Apollo and Daphne, the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, David, and the intriguing character studies of Charles I and of Louis XIV.

Justin was senior lecturer in post-graduate marketing at Oxford FE College and is a qualified teacher. For six years from 2004 he also delivered courses in the Oxford / UCal Berkeley accredited residential schools. In 2011 he was appointed as tutor in the History of Art and Classical Civilization at leading tutorial colleges in Oxford, and also privately tutors undergraduate and post-graduate art history students.

Formerly a senior academic manager at the Bodleian Library, Justin is a published historian, and among his impending works are an edition of Samuel Pepys’s naval papers in the Bodleian’s collections, and a study of the Admiralty buildings in London. He is frequently engaged as an enrichment speaker on art history for a European cruise line. Justin is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, a Governor of the RNLI, a Founder Member of the Grinling Gibbons Society, and a member of The Arts Society Cheltenham.

In October 1888 Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles to stay at the Yellow House with Vincent van Gogh. At first the friendship worked well and the two artists went out to paint in the countryside around Arles. They also painted side by side on the Alyscamps, an old Roman burial ground, and even shared a model, both painting Madame Genoux ‘The Arlesienne’. However divisions soon appeared. Gauguin tried to persuade van Gogh to paint from memory which van Gogh found difficult and unsatisfactory. Gauguin found van Gogh’s wild enthusiasms and constant talking about art and the future difficult to accept and disliked his impetuous way of painting.

Van Gogh became increasingly jealous of Gauguin’s success with the local women and the fact that he was selling pictures through Theo van Gogh, while Vincent could sell nothing. Everything came to a head on December 23rd 1888 when Gauguin fled the Yellow House fearing for his life, while van Gogh cut off part of his ear and delivered it in a box to the local brothel. Much has been written about this episode, but who was to blame and what really happened?

A fascinating lecture which discusses the two artists’ different approach to painting and surveys the results of this confrontation. 

 Julian Halsby studied History of Art at Cambridge. Formerly Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Croydon College of Art. Publications include Venice - the Artist's Vision (1990, 1995), The Art of Diana Armfield RA (1995), Dictionary of Scottish Painters (1990, 1998, 2001, 4th edition 2010), A Hand to Obey the Demon's Eye (2000), Scottish Watercolours 1740-1940 (1986, 1991), A Private View - David Wolfers and the New Grafton Gallery (2002). Interviews artists for the Artist Magazine and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics Circle. A practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.

Although it has been told and retold in books and films, no story in the 20th century has caught the imagination more powerfully and poignantly than the tragic life and execution of Nicholas II, the last of the Romanovs.  From his childhood where he stood sobbing by his grandfather’s bedside in the Winter Palace as he lay dying from the injuries inflicted by an anarchist bomb, Nicolas’s life seemed to be shadowed by the omens of disaster. At the celebrations for his coronation, the crowd of spectators ran out of control and thousands were trampled to death; when the people appealed to him personally during the strikes of 1905, he assumed the were rioting and had them shot down by the Imperial Guard.

Brought up by a powerful, iron-willed father, he was emotionally unsuited to rule the nation and allowed himself to be dominated by his wife who he loved with a passion that blinded him from her short-comings. Determined to produce the son and heir to the Romanov dynasty, Alexandra was easily misled by mystical cults and charlatans peddling spiritual cures so that, when the boy she had craved so long was discovered to be suffering from haemophilia, she fell completely under the spell of Rasputin. Hypnotised by the healing powers he appeared to possess, she allowed this peasant monk extraordinary influence in St Petersburg, encouraging Nicolas to follow his garbled demands as though they were heaven sent guidance. 

With the war threatening to destroy the nation and the people on the brink of revolution, Nicolas was forced to sign his abdication, the only act of his reign he undertook without the advice of his wife. For a time he was allowed to remain in captivity in one of his own palaces but, with attempts to rescue him mounting, he was moved out east where finally, in one of the most moving and memorable images of the modern world, he and his family were shot in a cellar.

Douglas 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. He was the director of  The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at The Study Center, 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.

The history of English garden design can be told in different ways, but rarely can it be told "through the lens" of one garden. 

The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and its design bears all the hallmarks of 17th century design.  Through the next 400 years successive Horti Praefecti (head gardeners) changed the features reflecting the art of gardening, and very occasionally the science of botany.   

This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed, or perhaps has not, in four centuries in Oxfordshire and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century.  The title of the talk refers to the fact that one of the motivations for garden design remains the desire to create paradise on Earth.  The meaning of paradise may now be less rooted in the Biblical account of the rise and fall of man, but there is still a clear vision of what we would like the world to resemble.  

For 26 years Timothy Walker was the director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.  Since 2014 he has been a College Lecture & tutor in Plant Biology at Somerville College Oxford

If you think of St Pancras International or New York Grand Central you imagine long romantic journeys. You know they are special places promising excitement and adventure. But there are dozens of other glorious stations in the UK and abroad.

We will take a journey around some of the most evocative and splendid stations in the world. We will look not only at the magnificence of the architecture and the brilliant engineering but will discover numerous artworks within the stations and examine many depictions of stations in art – like Claude Monet’s Gare St Lazare or William Powell Frith’s Paddington. It may sound a bit anoraky, but it’s definitely not. It’s lavish, colourful and fun.

Ian is 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. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his home town of Richmond in West London. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.

David  and his family lived in Hong Kong for14 years. 
During this time David, and his wife Wendy, created a ‘World Class’ collection of in excess of 500 Imperial Qing Dynasty, and related items, of costume and dress accessories. This collection was acquired, in its entirety, in late 2019 by The Shanghai Museum, Peoples Republic of China.

Since returning to the UK David has lectured extensively on Chinese Court Costume of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) plus the history, culture, and arts of Imperial China. 

David is an Accredited Lecturer for The Arts Society and lectures regularly around the UK and Europe plus tours of societies in Australia, New Zealand, and SE Asia. Additionally, he has organised and led tours to China that focus on Imperial History, Art, and Culture.
David is also a regular contributor for publications such as China Eye, Oriental Art, and several textile related publications.

How was Napoleon such an excellent self-promoter? What was it that drove him? What on the other hand drove his wife?  2021 marked the  200 anniversary of Napoleon’s death; so after all this time what is it that makes them one of the most followed couples in history.

These questions can be answered giving a true insight into their character by exploring the collections at the Chateau de Malmaison. The Estate, which was bought by the couple as their private country retreat, away from the Pomp and Ceremony of the Official residences was made into a National Museum in 1905 amassing a huge collection of their possessions. Paintings, personal objects, complete room layouts, and some magnificent pieces of porcelain are just some of the things on display.

Carole Petipher is an experienced guide lecturer in and around Paris and was often to be found on a converted barge on the Rivers Seine and Oise.  She uses art in all its guises to explore the characters who shaped nineteenth century France.  For this particular lecture she has researched individual items housed at Chateau de Malmaison and uses them to delve behind the scenes to discover hidden truths about Napoleon and Josephine. 

This talk offers a comprehensive overview of the most significant and notorious cases of art forgery over the last 150 years. The lecture focuses on the core motivations of art forgers and explains how the majority of the most prominent art forgers started out as failed artists whose work was ignored by the dealers, auction house ‘experts’ and connoisseurs who function as the market’s ‘gatekeepers’.

In many cases, this rejection led to a desire on the part of the overlooked painters to exact a form of revenge against what they perceived as an elitist art world ‘club’ from which they were excluded. The talk also poses the question of whether we are taking fakes and forgeries sufficiently seriously given their negative impact on broader cultural values.

Are we punishing the fakers and forgers severely enough or merely turning them into celebrities and television personalities with lucrative book and film deals? Is art forgery a serious crime or not? And why do we express admiration and even love for a painting, only for that love to turn into bitter hatred and a sense of betrayal once we are told it is in fact a forgery? After all, the object itself has not changed. Is our aesthetic response to works of art more complicated than we realise? 

Justine has studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute. Has lectured regularly for Tate Britain, Tate Modern, V&A, National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, as well as to Oxbridge and Bristol Universities, Christie's Fine Art, the Art Fund, and groups such as the Bradford on Avon Arts Association, Friends of Covent Garden and U3A. Publications include, amongst others, The Art of John Martin (2001), Michael Ayrton: A Biography (1994) and articles for Apollo Magazine and Modern Painters. Has also broadcast on Flowers in Art for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

The IW Arts Society’s new season will open with a visit from Marc Allum, famous from his many appearances on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. He has been a miscellaneous specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow since 1998 and has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes. Marc regularly writes for mainstream magazines and is an author, antiques consultant and lecturer.
 
Marc has his own unique style with interests ranging from pre-history to modern design and is a self-confessed collectaholic. He has a passion and reputation for divining the unusual; 'a desire to connect with history through the interpretation and pursuit of objects and their origins'.
 
Marc will take members and visitors on a behind the scenes look at the UK's most beloved Antiques show and talk about some of the most intriguing, enigmatic and valuable finds over the last few decades.

There has not been a lack of celebrated female artists in the history of art but, despite achieving fame in their time, they subsequently disappeared from the mainstream narrative. This lecture will remind us of the talent of these missing women; from Marcia in antiquity to Eva Gonzales in the 19th Century, Sofonisba Anguissola in the Renaissance to Michaelina Wautier in the 17th Century. Aliki Braine reintroduces these artists and asks why and how they disappeared.

Paul Gauguin’s search for the unspoilt took him to Brittany, Martinique and the South Pacific. This lecture concentrates on the work he produced in Brittany in the late 1890s. He rejected modernity and, in comparison to other artists of this time, he evolved a ‘primitive’ form of art experimenting with bold colours and shapes to express his simple vision.

We take it for granted, yet our capital's Underground railway system is the product of intense attention to detail. The world famous Tube map conceived by Harry Beck in the 1930s has influenced the design of almost every other transit system on the planet. Perhaps after seeing Marks lecture on the station architecture, the evolution of the famous ‘roundel’ logo, the effort put in to the signage and publicity, the ceramic tiles and the moquette (seat coverings)…you’ll never take a take a trip on the Underground for granted again. We’ll also hear how the Island itself still plays a crucial role in the look of London's Underground!

In the 16th Century dowries were expensive and only the very rich could afford to marry off more than one daughter. Many of the surplus women became nuns, whether or not they had a religious inclination. As well as horror stories of enforced incarceration it also gave women a space to be fulfilled both creatively and religiously. In the convents they produced art, became scholars, writers, dramatists and musicians. Sarah Dunant gives us an insight into the women’s lives behind the walls.

Around 1900 Vienna was a cultural hotbed. It was the capital of a vast empire and produced many painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Josef Hoffman, along with psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, composer Gustav Mahler and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Gavin Plumley looks at the society at that time and how it gave rise to new ideas.

The Dutch Golden Age, 1585-1685, is a remarkable part of world history – a small European country dominating commerce, trade and sea power across the globe. The legacy of this age is reflected today in the art which adorns all of the most prestigious galleries around the world. Mark Earp will discuss both famous and lesser known Dutch artists of the period. He will give us an insight into the over 1000 artists who were in the Netherlands at that time.

The Impressionist Movement of the late 19th and early 20th Century produced some of the finest snow paintings in the history of art. Monet, Pissarro and Sisley all painted snow scenes capturing the beauty, light and colour of snow scenes, along with the Norwegian artist Frits Thaulow and many American Impressionists. Julian Halsby introduces some wonderful artwork which combine images by both well-known and lesser known artists.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom as Northwood House had an existing booking for this date before we contracted to move there. Back to normal next month.

Charles Dickens is seen as “The Man Who Invented Christmas”. Dickens set the tone for the traditional Christmas with plum pudding, turkey, game and dancing in a family setting. A Christmas Carol, published in December 1843, immortalises the spirit and magic of Christmas cheer. In this lecture Bertie Price presents the Dickensian Christmas with readings, biographical details and conjuring tricks.

This lecture looks at the legendary Paris circus, from its beginning in 1875 until its closure in 1963. It was integral to Paris life and culture, attracting writers, painters and poets. Many artists, including Renoir, Lautrec, Degas and Picasso were inspired by, and captured, the magic of the circus. This is an intriguing journey of the Cirque Medrano’s history seen through the eyes of the Montmartre artists.