The British Museum is well known for treasures of Egyptian and Greek antiquity. However, this world-class museum also holds the treasures that tell the story of the British Isles. I will explore the archaeology and antiquities of the British Isles from the Palaeolithic to the early Medieval period. The journey begins far from Britain with the first stone tools from Africa and ancient hominids.   We will look at the artists development of Stone Age hand axes and explore the people who created Neolithic monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury before we enter the Bronze and Iron Ages to investigate the beautiful objects that could have been offerings to their gods

Aaron is a professional scientist and researcher with the University of Cambridge and a prize-winning London Blue Badge Guide, a Green Badge Guide for the City of London and Oxford, and a City of Bath Mayor's Guide. As a palaeontologist, he is an expert on fossils and prehistoric life from the first animals to appear on our planet to the evolution of early humans. He has published research on the origin of marine animals 480 million years to the Jurassic World. After degrees in Geology & Palaeobiology, he gained his PhD from the University of London and went on to pursue an academic career working first as a research fellow in France, Germany and Japan and then as a Senior Lecturer in Malaysia and Western Australia. He has a passion for archaeology, history, architecture and the history of art. He gives lectures that encompass these subjects looking at the interface between the arts and sciences.

Some of the most iconic images of the 20th century were created, not for galleries or private patrons, but for record sleeves. The zebra crossing immortalised on the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road is the site of a pilgrimage for people traveling thousands of miles to recreate this famous scene. Album covers have been adorned by Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Salvador Dali, Richard Hamilton and a host of lesser-known artists and designers. We will explore the art of the album cover and reveal the close connections between visual and musical creativity in this vibrant period of popular culture.

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 has accompanied 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

Gwen John is one of the most alluring as well as one of the most elusive of twentieth century British artists. Long hidden in the shadow of her famous brother, Augustus John, and her equally famous lover, Auguste Rodin, she has gradually emerged as a significant artist in her own right, with new books and exhibitions looking at her work. This lecture explores Gwen John’s life, from her childhood in south-west Wales and her education at the Slade School of Art through her time in Paris studying under James McNeill Whistler to her years of seeming isolation in France up to her early death in 1939

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

Every book has a story to tell beyond its text. From the moment it is printed, a book embarks on a unique journey through time, passed from one owner to another and from place to place. While it is the fate of some books to remain unread and forgotten, others bear the marks of centuries of ownership and use. The clues to such stories can often be found in the books themselves. Bindings, bookplates, signatures, inscriptions, annotations and marginalia reveal the private histories of books – who owned them, who read them and why.

Based on the collections of Exeter Cathedral Library, this talk reveals fascinating stories of the past lives of books, including a 13th century Psalter that continues to bless the soul of its scribe centuries after it was written and a ca. 17th century manuscript of the Koran discovered on a battlefield in Madras by John Coleridge, a surgeon in the East India Company and relative of the English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Emma is  an experienced and energetic lecturer with a passion for telling stories to diverse audiences, both large and small.  She has lectured widely in the UK for various heritage organisations, at conferences and exhibition openings, and as a visiting lecturer at universities.  She has also presented talks overseas, including in the USA, Canada, Japan and South Africa.  

As the Frederick Warne Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum for over 20 years, she managed the Museum's collections of children's books (about 100,000 dating from the 16th century) and book illustrations, including the Museum's important Beatrix Potter Collection of around 5000 drawings and manuscripts.  She curated exhibitions of Beatrix Potter's art for many years, including a major V&A exhibition, "Peter Rabbit: the tale of The Tale" (2010).  Her V&A career culminated in co-curating the international touring exhibition, "Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic" (2017) and co-authoring the accompanying book (V&A Publishing, 2017).  

Emma relocated to Devon in 2018 but have continued my interests in Beatrix Potter, co-authoring the V&A's recent exhibition monograph, Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature (V&A Publishing, 2021), and publishing research on Beatrix Potter's connections to the West Country.  In 2024 she accepted an invitation to be President of the Beatrix Potter Society, an international charity dedicated to promoting the life and work of Beatrix Potter.  

She is an Associate of the Museums Association, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. She was Director of Collections and Research at the Devon and Exeter Institution from October 2019 to December 2021 before moving to her current role as Cathedral Librarian at Exeter Cathedral. She works freelance for the Libraries of the National Trust and is a Trustee of Topsham Museum.

Money or rather currency has a vibrant and multi-faceted history which, as a social tool gives far more than the means to buy a loaf of bread. This lecture will explore the histories and meaning of money from pieces of eight, to bit coin, to a cashless society.

Dr. Emma Watts is an Art Historian with specialist interest in the economics of art, British art and material culture. Her career began in the fine art auction world and she has since had a successful academic career in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong. 
Emma,  is passionate about access to the fine arts and its education. She has developed National, tertiary and adult education curricula and been active in policy, planning, education and advisory boards for Heritage, Arts and Museums and curatorial and collection management in Australia and the UK. 
She is currently enjoying the diversity of consultancy, with Watson Strand fine art valuation specialists, lecturing with the Open University and writing.

Renoir liked to describe himself as a ‘natural’ painter – an artist who painted life as he found it, without wasting time on reflection or doubt. His work was designed to appeal to the senses rather than the intellect, to show the world, not as people construct it in their minds but as they see it with their eyes. But Renoir’s apparent simplicity belied the very real difficulties he encountered in deciding what truth in art meant. This talk concentrates on Renoir’s work during the 1890s, an important period of transition, when the artist sought to draw together all he had learned in previous decades. Above all, he wanted to integrate the vitality and spontaneity of his Impressionist period with the timeless classicism of his 1880s work – to create something that was at once eternal and true. 

Kathy McLauchlan is a lecturer specialising in 19th-century art history, Kathy is currently a course director at the Victoria & Albert Museum, organising courses and study days on the history of art and design. She teaches at several institutions, including Art Pursuits. She is a graduate of Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute, with a PhD on French 19th-century painters in Rome. 

We trace the history of the Temple of Athena Parthenos, from is historic beginnings in 447 BC through to its tragic demise under cannon fire from a Venetian galleon in 1687. The temple expresses the intellectual and religious beliefs of a people devoted to beauty, excellence, order, power and prestige. The meaning of the Frieze is still highly debated, and we discuss new research and the new interpretation it brings. Raised on the Acropolis, 511 feet above the sea, this glittering and highly coloured temple was built in only fourteen years entirely by human hand, and with no cement. It stood dominating the cultural landscape until it was destroyed in minutes. It was the defining work of the people of Athens and the most beautiful Greek temple ever built and its ruined sculptures have never been surpassed.

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

Patrick will explore the rich musical traditions of Venice. Claudio Monteverdi not only transformed the music at the Basilica of San Marco but also led the way in the creation of a new art form - opera. We shall look at and listen to works from the other musical geniuses who developed the musical life of San Marco such as Gabrieli and Lotti, as well as tracing Monteverdi’s successors in the creation of Venetian opera, including Cavalli and Albinoni. We shall also examine and hear music from Antonio Vivaldi, the other towering figure of Venetian music, who created music both for the opera stage and the female musicians of the Ospidale della Pietà.

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. As a Cambridge history graduate with a lifelong interest in the arts, he has gone on to lead choral workshops for amateur singers across the world, where he places music in its historical and cultural context. He regularly lectures for the St Paul’s Adult Education programme and for John Hall’s Venice Courses, which have allowed him to incorporate his interests in theology, art and poetry.  In 2020, when his singing and conducting work disappeared overnight as a result of the Covid pandemic, Patrick poured all his experience into online presentations which have raised vital funds for the Help Musicians Charity.

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.

The literary work of the Brontë sisters is known throughout the world. Their domestic environment is less familiar. A small village in an industrial landscape of mills and bleak moorland was ‘home’ to this extraordinary family. The lecture concentrates on places known to the Brontës and how these inspired their work. Once her siblings had died, Charlotte was left alone but who was the man who won her lonely heart?  Mr. Nicholls appeared briefly in her work – and is now the subject of Juliet’s new book.

Biography:

Juliet studied History of Art at London University. For thirty years she lived in France where she became a lecturer on art and architecture in the Midi-Pyrenees area and gained a Masters degree in English Literature at Toulouse University. She has devised and led art study tours in some seven areas of France. As a writer, she has published many books - folktales, fiction and art - of which her History of Western Painting for Young People was translated into twelve languages. Returned to England she continues to write and hosts informal art history classes as well as lecturing widely for organisations including The Arts Society and the Ashmolean Museum. Her most recent book is Van Gogh: A Life in Places which led her to take part in the television series Art on the BBC.

Cathedrals are monumental constructions, representing the greatest effort of Christian dedication in our landscape. They also house the most important objects associated with Christianity. In Janet Gough’s lecture accompanying her recent Scala paperback, 50 of these astonishing artefacts on display in the cathedrals of England and Wales and selected by the cathedral deans are brought to life. Ranging from sundials and astronomical clocks to stained glass, and pilgrims’ boots to Early English books and the first Welsh Bible, the National Churches Trust describes the treasures covered as ‘simply mesmerising’. 

For eight years the Church of England’s Director of Church Buildings and Secretary of the Church Buildings Council and Cathedrals Fabric Commission, Janet has written three illustrated paperbacks to encourage wider enjoyment of these amazing buildings, Director's Choice, Churches of the Church of England, Director's Choice, Cathedrals of the Church of England and most recently (2022) Deans' Choice, Cathedral Treasures of England and Wales. A Cambridge graduate in History and History of Art, Janet worked at Sotheby’s for nine years, was a trustee at the Churches Conservation Trust, the Museum of Fulham Palace and the Friends of the V&A and guided and lectured at the V&A. Janet set up and ran an architectural history course of London around visits to significant buildings. Janet has also given tours and lectured on secular architecture and fine and decorative arts. Janet received an OBE for services to heritage in 2017, and in 2021 was made one of the first lay Canons of Bangor cathedral. Janet is happy to speak and develop talks on a whole range of matters relating to England's and the UK's ecclesiastical heritage.

Fine tea has long been prized in China: according to Lu Yu in c.780, it should ‘unfold like mist rising out of a ravine’. By 1750 tea was China’s principal export to Britain, valued as a remedy for indigestion, amnesia and excess of alcohol. But what would China accept in return? Only opium - from the British-owned poppy fields of India - found a ready market in China. Following the ‘Opium War’ of 1839-42, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain. Blending Chinese and Western elements, Hong Kong developed in dramatic fashion. The story is illustrated with vivid paintings by Chinese and Western artists. 

1970-71 Teacher at Marlborough College. 1975-86 Keeper of Fine Art at the Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery & Museums, Brighton. Since 1986 Director of the Martyn Gregory Gallery, London. Author of several books including Savage Ruskin, Oriental Architecture in the West and George Chinnery, artist of India and the China Coast.

Whether drawing duchesses or portraying princes, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was high society’s leading portraitist. Flaunting a consummate technique, his luxurious canvases mirrored his subjects’ wealth. Yet beneath the dazzling veneer of works such as Madame X, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw lurks a much rawer world by far. Sargent certainly scandalised Parisian society and the city’s Salon with his frank depictions of human sexuality, yet he was even more modern than they might have feared. This talk charts the artist’s life and his prolific output, showing that, like the era he came to represent, Sargent was always on the cusp of seismic change.

A writer and broadcaster. Appears on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and contributes to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes. Lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. 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.   Please contact Gavin to discuss online lectures.

The High Renaissance saw the seamless integration of art and architecture, the pinnacle of a tradition extending back thousands of years.

Richard is a professional artist who graduated in English and Art History from York University in 1986. From 1988-1994 he lectured at the adult education departments of Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, and then went on to become a full-time figurative artist, executing large-scale public commissions, and exhibiting widely throughout the UK. He now lives and works in Chichester, West Sussex. 

After the great success of our first evening lecture held in conjunction with the Queens Hall, we are delighted to tell you that there will be a second one on Sunday, October 27th at the Queens Hall.  It will start at 6.00 p.m. (doors and bar open at 5.30)

The subject will be Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense and the speaker is John Francis, who, as a former lecturer at the Art Institute, Bournemouth and Exeter University, has made a career out of educating students on film and animation.

After moving to Hollywood, Hitch created several masterpieces of cinema including Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). Vertigo has been recently voted by critics as the best ever film, overtaking Citizen Kane. Together we will explore Hitchcock’s dark film about sexual obsession. Taking a shower still fills many people with dread and foreboding thanks to the Hitchcock modern Horror classic of 1960.

A full analysis of Hitchcock’s masterful technique and influences will be the central focus of this lecture. The French New Wave critics of Cahiers du Cinema argued that Hitchcock’s films should be regarded as artistic masterworks. Alfred Hitchcock remains by far the most studied and revered film director of all time.
 

Tickets will be £10.00 each and are bookable directly with the Queens Hall, on-line at https://thequeenshall.org.uk/events/alfred-hitchcock-master-of-suspense or by phone on 01834 861212.

We look forward to seeing you there.

In the aftermath of World War II art, architecture, fashion, film, music and theatre changed radically. Through the Abercrombie plan to remake London and create new towns, architects remade cities in modernist, brutalist ways. Angry young men and new forms of musical theatre emerged. In Soho, rock’n’roll was born and artists flocked to the Colony Rooms. After the gentle Ealing comedies came social realism. The Festival of Britain highlighted the artistic communities and showcased a brighter future for every citizen. In fine art, Hepworth and Heron, Bacon and others were forging bold new directions.

Russell trained and worked as an actor, puppeteer and theatre maker for 15 years. He also spent time as a journalist, jewellery business owner and writer. In 2015 he qualified a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. Around this time he rekindled his love of art and art history. He now regularly guides the major art galleries and museums in London including the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tates Modern & Britain and the British Museum. He has delivered lectures for institutes and museums, as well as numerous U3A groups and other societies.

This lecture looks at the enormous changes in our homes over a hundred year period, encompassing aspects of household taste from Victorian clutter to the psychedelic ‘throw away’ furnishings of the 1970s. Although in many ways light-hearted, the lecture examines how social upheaval, War and technological advances transformed our houses. From the 1880s, when each interior was governed by strict convention and the home was regarded as a shrine to family life, we look at how change gradually came about. The coming of electricity and central heating altered appearance and comfort and other major developments in design all changed our interiors

Matthew holds degrees from the Universities of Nottingham and Manchester and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. A recognised expert on the work of the Victorian designer William Burges, Matthew was Curator of Cardiff Castle for nearly 30 years. His most recent  publication is a major book Cardiff Castle and the Marquesses of Bute, published in 2019. A long-standing member of The Arts Society, Matthew has been a programme secretary and a chairman before becoming an accredited lecturer in 2001.

The Georgian era stretches from 1715-1830, and during that time the theatre was the main place of entertainment in London and other English cities. Georgian theatre, both spoken and sung, produced masterpieces of plays and operas by Sheridan, Handel, Arne, Gay and many others, and was the showcase for the skills of actors like Kean and Garrick, and singers like the castrato Farinelli and the soprano Mrs Billington. Caricaturists adored using the London stage as a subject for often cruel satirical prints, while painters from Hogarth to Reynolds captured the image of the stage. The buildings and decorations of the theatres were notable in themselves, and some survive to this day.

Simon Rees Studied at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a BA and an MA in English Literature. Taught in Italy and Japan, exploring the art and architecture of both countries. From 1989 to 2012 was Dramaturg at Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, working with set, costume and props designers and giving lectures on their work in opera production. Now a freelance writer and lecturer, lectures widely on opera, art history and literature, travelling extensively with travel companies. He has published several novels, including the award-winning The Devil's Looking-Glass, poems and opera librettos.

When Augustus John died in 1961 he was described in The New York Times as ‘the grand old man of British painting and one of the greatest in British history.’ He was only in his mid twenties when, in the early 1900s, he was widely acknowledged as one of the most talented and promising young British artists – a Welsh rival, perhaps, to Gauguin or Picasso. This lecture explores John’s extraordinary life, including his early achievements, his position as one of the most exciting and outrageous young British artists before the Great War, his slow decline after it, and his troubled status as ‘the last Bohemian’.

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

A first-hand insight behind the nation’s most popular antiques programme by Marc Allum - specialist on the show for 26 years - featuring some of the most notable and interesting finds from over four decades of this flagship show. 

Marc has decades of experience in the auction world and his natural insight into the working of the markets gives an accompanied tour of an auction house viewing a whole new light! What is it? Is it a fake? Is it restored? What are the pros and cons of buying at auction? Marc's knowledge will enthuse and advise on all areas of the auction world, so why not tailor a day out?

He was Hollywood’s first black superstar. In the 1950s when Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and James Dean were the rising stars their number was swelled by a handsome Black man for whom the phrase “Black is Beautiful” might have been created. By 1963 Sidney Poitier was well enough known, admired and liked to overcome decades of prejudice and be awarded the Best Oscar actor. He then went on to make the two films for which he is still remembered – In The Heat of the Night and To Sir With Love.  Inevitably he was drawn into the ongoing struggle for civil rights and as the movement became more aggressive after the death of Martin Luther King, Poitier felt himself losing touch with a black audience that wanted him to be more radical. His career in front of the camera ended with dramatic suddenness.

Colin Shindler has been lecturing on American and British social and cultural history for over 20 years. He was awarded his PhD at Cambridge University and subsequently lectured on film for their History Faculty between 1998 and 2019 exploring its relationship to modern British and American social and cultural history. He also teaches a variety of adult education courses at Madingley and Higham Hall in Cumbria and has lectured on cruises.

Between 1975 and 1999 he pursued a wide-ranging career as a writer and producer in television, radio and film. He won a BAFTA award for his production of A Little Princess. His production of Young Charlie Chaplin was nominated for a US Prime Time Emmy. He wrote the screenplay for the feature film Buster and was the producer of various television dramas such as Lovejoy and Wish Me Luck. He has written three novels as well as numerous television scripts and radio plays but regards his greatest cultural contribution as choosing the title music for the police series Juliet Bravo.

His most recent radio play Leni Goes to Hollywood, about the German film director Leni Riefenstahl, was broadcast on Radio 4 in August 2021. Other radio plays for R4 included How To Be An Internee (about P.G. Wodehouse) and one on Private Eye & The Profumo Affair (Rumours). Both were selected by the BBC as Drama Podcast of the Week

He is the author of Barbed Wire and Cucumber Sandwiches: The Controversial South Africa Cricket Tour of 1970 which was short listed for the MCC/Wisden Cricket Book of the Year in 2021. He is best known for his childhood memoir Manchester United Ruined My Life which was short listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.

His other publications include Hollywood Goes To War: Films & American Society 1939-1952 and Hollywood in Crisis: Films & American Society 1929-1939. I'm Sure I speak for Thousands of Others (2017) was a history of unpublished letters written to the BBC and his non-fiction novel Garbo & Gilbert in Love was an imaginative reconstruction of the infamous relationship of the two MGM stars. He is currently working on the television adaptation of his novel Hollywood Nazis. His next book is titled Granada Land: Coronation Street and the Emergence of the North 1960-1970. 

For many people, Kashmir conjures up a beautiful valley surrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas, for others it is a land of conflict. But what is less well known is that it has been of historic artistic importance for nearly 2000 years. This lecture introduces the astonishing diversity of arts and crafts produced in this tiny area, influenced by Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic cultures. It explores Buddhist sculptures, Hindu temples, great Islamic gardens, paintings, calligraphy, Moghul carpets and Kashmir shawls. Despite its troubled history, Kashmir has fostered a unique environment of artistic diversity and religious co-existence.

Zara Fleming, Freelance lecturer, art consultant and exhibition curator specialising in the art and culture of Tibet, the Himalayan areas and Mongolia. Initially based at the V&A, but also worked with the Central Asian Department of Bonn University, the Orient Foundation, the Royal Academy, Tibet House, the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and Asia House. In addition to lecturing for The Arts Society, she lectures for museums, universities, Asian art societies, and private associations. Guest lecturer and tour guide on numerous trips to the Himalayas. Edited Masterpieces of Mongolian Art: Vol 1 and has published many articles in the field of Buddhist art and culture.

1685 was an extraordinary year for music. Two of the world’s greatest composers were born 130km and just one month apart. Much of their childhood development mirrored the other – including the tragedy of losing their fathers at the age of ten. Their careers took very different directions, and they never met, despite several near misses. Patrick will reunite these two giants, tracking their lives across six decades, with a special focus on their vocal music, which has inspired his career as both a countertenor and a conductor. 

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.

As a Cambridge history graduate with a lifelong interest in the arts, he has gone on to lead choral workshops for amateur singers across the world, where he places music in its historical and cultural context. He regularly lectures for the St Paul’s Adult Education programme and for John Hall’s Venice Courses, which have allowed him to incorporate his interests in theology, art and poetry. 

In 2020, when his singing and conducting work disappeared overnight as a result of the Covid pandemic, Patrick poured all his experience into online presentations which have raised vital funds for the Help Musicians Charity.

Elizabeth I is one of our greatest monarchs. By the time of her death, in 1603, few in England could remember a time when they were not Elizabethans. Her very long reign provided peace and stability, allowing the arts to flourish so that her era would prove to be a Golden Age. The cult of ‘Gloriana’ revered her as a virgin goddess, while her image increasingly relied on glittering jewels, gowns, and accessories. In this lecture we will view Elizabeth’s queenship through paintings by artists including Hans Eworth, Lucas de Heere, Nicholas Hilliard and Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. Art was a powerful device for royal magnificence and propaganda and Elizabeth knew how to use it.  

Siobhan Clarke BA has worked for Historic Royal Palaces for 20 years delivering tours and lectures on Hampton Court, Kensington, the Tower of London and the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace. Her experience includes education sessions and tours for schools, universities, corporate and private clients.  

She has lectured for the British Museum, National Trust, U3A, Arts Society and Smithsonian and featured on BBC Radio Women's Hour and Television's Secrets of Henry VIII's Palace. Her published work includes: A Tudor Christmas, in collaboration with Alison Weir, (2018), The Tudors: The Crown, The Dynasty, The Golden Age with Linda Collins (2019), King and Collector: Henry VIII and the Art of Kingship (2021) and she is currently working on Gloriana: Elizabeth I and the Art of Queenship.

The lecture will consider the similarities and differences in the work of these two iconic twentieth century American artists who have both focused on landscape as a way of conveying spirituality and isolation. Wyeth and Hopper whether capturing the Eastern seaboard coast of Cape Cod or Maine or the undulating farmland of Pennsylvania imbued their work with a sense of quiet strength that continued to engage with the legacy of the great nineteenth century Transcendentalists captured in the evocative writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Tricha Passes​ has a  BA from the Courtauld Institute and MA from Bath Spa University; her thesis examined the work of Roger Fry and Roland Penrose. Research posts include work on 150 years of the Bristol School of Art (2003), Peace Gardens of the 1980s (2005) and Stanley Spencer: Journey to Burghclere (2006). Taught in the Art History Department at Bristol University since 2005 and in 2009 won the Teaching and Learning prize for the Faculty of Arts. Has also taught in the Visual Culture Department at the Faculty of Creative Arts at Bristol UWE since 1998, the Department for Continuing Education at Oxford University since 2008, and for American Studies Programmes in London since 1999. In 2019, Tricha won a Best of Bristol Lecturer Award for the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol. 

How was Napoleon such an excellent self promoter? What was it that drove him? What on the other hand drove his wife? And what was it that made Napoleon and Josephine 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 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 is an experienced guide and lecturer on combined history and art tours in France with 20 years experience. Having lived and worked on a number of bespoke river vessels and converted barges there she has used them as a platform from which to research her lectures. She uses art in all its guises to explore the characters who shaped France and likes to delve behind the scenes to discover hidden truths.

She also acts as a guide for a privately owned ancestral home in her native Chilterns.

The National Trust’s collection of some 600,000 books in 170 locations is cared for by property staff, volunteers and freelance conservators, working together to maintain the libraries in good working condition. Managing the environment, tracking down pests, creating conservation techniques that are discreet, and stabilising the collections for use are the main elements. Conservation evolves as the books’ use evolves, e.g. the catalogue is now available on-line and more researchers require access. 

The increased wish to use the books for visitor engagement projects provides further challenges. Given that most of the books have not been restored, the collection provides a physical history of the book trade and of the interaction between books and their owners/readers that is difficult to match elsewhere, so the conservation of books as objects is as important as preserving their texts.

Caroline Bendix is a library conservator, accredited through the Institute of Conservation, who has worked on over 500 collections in the UK and abroad, including St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, advising on all aspects of books’ care in situ. She has written three of the British Library’s guides on preservation and in 2019 was awarded the Plowden Medal for her “outstanding work in developing in-situ library conservation”. Since 1992 she has been the National Trust’s Adviser on Libraries Conservation, the adviser and trainer for The Arts Society’s Heritage Volunteers projects and is on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s advisory panel for Lambeth Palace Library.

Out of the academy and on to the road – the people’s picture gallery. Artists such as Paul Nash, Vanessa Bell and Graham Sutherland were commissioned by the Shell Oil Company to create brand images for the growing market in motoring. In this lecture we will explore a range of adverts which were granted the seal of approval as ‘art’ by Sir Kenneth Clark, then, Curator of the National Gallery, London. 

How much did these famous images of British people and landscapes represent British art, culture and values in the 1930s?

John is an inspirational speaker who has delivered lecturers, workshops in the US (Texas, California, Massachusetts), Beijing, Malaysia and the UK. Initially trained as a painter, John was awarded the Max Beckmann Memorial Scholarship in painting in Brooklyn, New York and went on to be artist in resident for the state of Texas.

He has taught film, art and pedagogy at the University of Exeter, Arts University Bournemouth, University Sains Malaysia, Southwestern College, California, Brunel University, London and recently Kingston University.

As a young reporter working for the Lahore Gazette Kipling took a journey through Rajasthan during 1888 during which he produced some magical and evocative descriptions of the buildings he saw there. Nowadays he is overwhelmingly associated with the world of the Empire and the British Raj in India. But as the son of the Principal of the Bombay Art School and a talented artist himself, Kipling’s ‘seeing eye’ and his love of India provide a wonderful way in to the world of the Moguls and Maharajahs. In his company we explore some of Rajasthan’s magnificent architectural splendours and gain some insights into the rich cultural history of the ‘Land of Kings’. Also available as a half-study day.

Elizabeth Merry

Elizabeth has over 25 years' experience lecturing on a range of subjects including classical art and architecture, aspects of the visual arts and the links between literature and art. Has lectured for the WEA, the Universities of Bristol and Southampton Departments of Continuing Education, Royal Society of Arts, Dillington House, Jane Austen Society, Thomas Hardy Society, Brussels Brontë Society, Finzi Society, the Art Fund, Dorset County Museum and literary, historical and philosophical societies nationwide.

In 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was commissioned to create a series of paintings for a dining room in Antwerp. The images, charting the course of a year, changed the way we view the world through art. Landscape had previously been a decorative backdrop to dramas both sacred and profane. But in Bruegel's hands the landscape and our interaction with it became the focus.

Looking at paintings such as 'The Return of the Herd', 'Hunters in the Snow' and 'The Gloomy Day', this lecture explores how Bruegel pioneered a whole new way of thinking about the environment and our individual places within a shifting cosmos.

Gavin Plumley

A writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. Lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. Recent talks include the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum, the V&A, the Southbank Centre, the Tate and the Neue Galerie, New York. His first book, A Home for All Seasons, is published in June 2022. 

No matter where you are in Denmark you will never be more than 30 miles (50 km) from the Sea. With 4,500 miles (7,000 km) of coastline, and 400 islands, unsurprisingly artists have been drawn over the centuries to record its beauty. 

My particular interest grew out of the two journeys my artist relatives, Adrian and Marianne Stokes made to Jutland in the 1880s when the colony of Skagen was attracting many artists from all over Europe and the USA. Long before the railway reached this northern peninsular, the arduous journey by packet boat to Frederikshavn followed by 22 miles on a horse and cart with easels and canvases bought in the art-shops of Copenhagen, might have deterred less intrepid travellers. The Stokes made friends with fellow painters such as Peder.S. Krøyer, and Michael and Anna Ancher who followed in the footsteps of Martinus Rørbye, Laurits Tuxen and Oscar Björck, all of whom managed to convey how the harsh lives of the fishing communities and the extremes of weather provided a backdrop for a rich seam of Denmark’s art history.

The lecture will also include examples from the Golden Age of Danish painting and conclude with examples of some of the best modern art projects that draw their inspiration from the sea.

Magdalen Evans

Studied history of art at UEA and worked in London galleries for fifteen years; since then has been organising exhibitions and writing articles, concentrating on C19th/20th women artists. A contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and to BBC Woman's Hour, also works with charities that help ex-offenders through art and education. . She has lectured for the Art Fund, National Portrait Gallery, Pre-Raphaelite Society and Art Workers' Guild as well as to the Art Society of Budapest. A specialist in the relationshihp between the artists of the Cornish art colonies and those in Brittany and Skagen towards the end of the 19th century.  

In the aftermath of World War II art, architecture, fashion, film, music and theatre changed radically. Through the Abercrombie plan to remake London and create new towns, architects remade cities in modernist, brutalist ways. Angry young men and new forms of musical theatre emerged. In Soho, rock’n’roll was born and artists flocked to the Colony Rooms. After the gentle Ealing comedies came social realism. The Festival of Britain highlighted the artistic communities and showcased a brighter future for every citizen. In fine art, Hepworth and Heron, Bacon and others were forging bold new directions. From buttoned up deference to ‘fings aint wot they used to be’ this lecture will take you from the the end of WWII to the dawn of the Swinging Sixties. Unburdened by the expectations of the past, a new Elizabethan age was one of unlimited possibilities.locality of the lecture.

Russell Nash

Russell trained and worked as an actor, writer, puppeteer and theatre maker for 15 years. In 2015 he qualified a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide. Around this time he rekindled his love of art and art history. He now regularly guides the major galleries and museums in London such as the National Gallery, Tates Modern & Britain and the British Museum. He has delivered lectures for institutes and museums, as well as numerous U3A groups and other societies. During Covid lockdowns he devised and delivered more than 30 different virtual tours and lectures

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? What are their origins? This talk illustrates their origins from the great Royal Parks to the Pleasure Gardens of the eighteenth century, to their Victorian heyday. It discusses what makes a great park, it’s ‘parkitecture’ with examples of lodges, lakes, bandstands, fountains, lidos, palm houses and to their wonderful floral displays, to their great decline in the sixties, seventies and eighties. However, the subsequent revival has led to a major shift in interest in our parks and once again we are very much in love with them. This is a highly illustrative lecture accompanied by slides with examples of parks from across the UK and their designs and architecture and can be shaped to the locality of the lecture.

Paul Rabbitts

Paul Rabbitts graduated at Sheffield with a BA Honours in Geography followed by a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh. He is a qualified landscape architect and celebrated park manager and has worked for several local authorities across the UK, currently Head of Parks, Heritage and Culture at Watford. He is a passionate advocate for public parks and in particular, the Victorian and Edwardian bandstand and is a prolific author on the subject.

Between about 1890 and 1930, Arts and Crafts designers built and contributed to hundreds of churches across England and Wales. Some are famous schemes including the church building and all its interior fittings, such as All Saints, Brockhampton in Herefordshire; St. Mark, Brithdir and  St. Andrew’s, Roker. Sometimes it’s just one commission – a stained glass window, a screen, a font cover. Discover how companies like Morris & Co. onwards changed the course of church furnishing in England, and how the next generation of Arts and Crafts designers revolutionised church design. The focus will be on the churches of the west, from the Midlands into the South West, and on the work of designers such as Henry Wilson, George Heywood Maunoir Sumner, and John Coates Carter in Wales.

Kirsty Hartsiotis

has been the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham since 2008, and prior to that was the curator and manager of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. At Cheltenham she looks 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.

Samuel Pepys loved fine clothing almost as much as he loved ‘wine, women and song’. His long-suffering wife had to play second-fiddle in the fashion stakes (her clothing allowance was only increased once she found him in a compromising position with her maid)! 

At the Restoration, Sir Peter Lely became the official painter to the court. Van Dyck’s legacy meant that ‘drapery’ rather than ‘dress’ appears in Lely’s work. The judicious addition of a prop or accessory could turn sitter/sinner into saint – as we discover by investigating portraits of Charles II, his Queen, courtiers, many mistresses and children.

Jacqui Ansell

Jacqui read History of Art and Theory at the University of Essex before going on to gain an MA in History of Dress from the Courtauld Institute. She continues to lecture regularly on the public programmes of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery and to publish on court dress, Grand Tour portraiture and Welsh Costume as well as dress as a cultural marker and indicator of class, gender, national and professional identity. Jacqui is a senior lecturer at Christie's Education, London.

Despite being labelled “Das Land Ohne Musik” in 1904, Britain has a rich operatic tradition. From its beginnings, with the works of Henry Purcell in the 17th century it enjoyed a golden age under George Frederick Handel in the 18th. After the uncertain period of the 19th century, the works of Benjamin Britten in the 20th initiated a vibrant rebirth, which has continued into the 21st Century. Composers like Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Ades and Mark-Anthony Turnage have broken new ground and kept the genre alive. This lecture, fully illustrated with musical examples, explores this fascinating legacy.

Roger Askew

Roger was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in English. 

After retiring in 2003 he returned to the south of England. He is President Emeritus of The Stoke Poges Society and Joint Chairman of the Arts Society Windsor.

Athens and Rome were two of the most beautiful, powerful and important cities of the ancient world, cities that have framed our modern lives more than any others. Each stood at the centre of its world: Athens the home of democracy, the cradle of the arts, Rome the eternal city, the capital of the world. 

In this talk we explore the art and architecture of these extraordinary cities at the height of their power. We wonder at their  monuments, from Parthenon to Pantheon, from stadium to circus and from theatre to amphitheatre. We admire the products of their craftsmen, from the bronze and marble masterpieces of the Greeks to the fine paintings and mosaics of the Romans, and from the Red figure vases of Athens to the silver cups and cameo glass of Rome.

We also look at the people who helped make these cities great. From slaves, who were the engine of both societies to statesmen such as Pericles, Augustus and Hadrian, and writers such as Euripides and Vergil.

Dr. Paul Roberts

is Head of 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 two decades, has travelled extensively to societies across the country, and has also lectured on numerous cruises. Like all of us, he enjoys the immediate contact of face to face meetings, but is happy to continue providing online lectures if desired.

Amongst those who stood on German streets and welcomed the declaration of war in 1914, were many artists. Some, like Otto Dix, set off for war with enthusiasm. 

Other artists like Ernst Kirchner, were reluctant participants. Many recorded their experience, sometimes in snatched moments at the Front; others whilst on leave. 

This lecture offers a survey of some of the many German painters and sculptors who had first hand experience of the Great War. Some were official war artists but most not; all have left a fascinating body of work that documents the varied responses to the events of 1914-18.

Angela Smith

PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. Author of numerous articles and several books including A Timeline of Art History (2013). Catalogued paintings in galleries for the National Inventory Research Project. Regularly runs courses of study days for The Arts Society on subjects including ‘Women artists down the centuries’ and English church art and architecture. Has contributed to television programmes, most recently an episode of Digging up Britain’s Past.

Shakespeare’s plays have had a chequered and lively history from the re-opening of theatres in 1660 until the present day. Throughout that history they have often been re-written to accommodate contemporary tastes. The plays were sometimes star vehicles for great actors or a means of creating spectacle onstage. In the 20th century Shakespeare’s plays returned to more authentic texts particularly at The Old Vic, although we are not without the odd controversial production today. 

Malcolm Jones

Malcolm was Workshop and Events manager at the V&A Theatre Museum in Covent Garden for 10 years where he was responsible for lectures, Study Days and workshops for adults and interviewed many leading British actors and directors including Kenneth Cranham, Zoe Wanamaker, Barry Cryer, June Whitfield and Don Black. 
He has worked with Age Exchange Community Arts since 2000 on many creative arts programmes with older people and intergenerational film and theatre projects.

Monet lampshades, Van Gogh wallpaper, Picasso mugs, Tracey Emin tea towels… it’s easy to think of modern art as an effortless lifestyle adornment. But as art historian Jacky Klein shows, each great leap forward in art has been accompanied by – if not a direct result of – conceptual and philosophical thinking of the most radical kind. She charts the rise of radical thinking in modern art, from its origins in the 1870s – sparked by the choice of a single word – to the revolutionary manifestos and movements of the early 20th century and the conceptual experiments of the sixties, finding radical thought in everything from an apple to a bicycle wheel. 

Jacky Klein

Jacky Klein is an art historian, publisher, writer and broadcaster, specialising in modern and contemporary art. After studying at Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, she worked as a curator at a number of leading galleries: Tate, the Barbican, the Courtauld and the Hayward. In 2008, she moved sideways into the world of art publishing, first as Commissioning Editor at Thames & Hudson, then as Executive Editor at Tate Publishing and subsequently as Director of HENI Publishing, a small independent arts publisher.

Wallpaper is often regarded as the Cinderella of the Decorative Arts – the most ephemeral and least precious of the decorations produced for the home. Yet, the history of wallpaper is a long and fascinating subject that dates back to the 16th century and encompasses a huge range of beautiful patterns created both by anonymous hands and by some of the best-known designers of the 19th and 20th centuries. This lecture explores the history and development of this product from earliest times up to the present day. . It also includes a discussion of the ways that wallpapers were used within grand and more ordinary homes and hopes to justify the claim that they were indeed a truly Decorative Art.

Joanna Banham

Jo Banham is a freelance curator, lecturer and writer. From 2006-2016 she was Head of Adult Learning at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and before that Head of Learning and Access at the National Portrait Gallery, and Head of Public Programmes at Tate Britain. She is currently curating an exhibition on William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement for the Juan March Fundacion in Madrid and the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya in Barcelona. She is also Director of the Victorian Society Summer School.

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 Hill

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 Was co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-17 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.

Raffles, whose name is synonymous with a luxury hotel rather than the greatest Buddhist temple in the world, was the enlightened colonal administrator of Java, Indonesia. He discovered the 8th century temple of Borobudur, hidden under volcanic ash, in 1804, acquired wondrous artefacts in Java, such as shadow puppets and textiles, now in the British Museum, and founded Singapore, the most important trading port in the East.

This lecture tells the story of Raffles, a scholar and polymath, looks at the art objects he collected, reveals the mystical temple in Java and its radiant carvings, and shows the architectural heritage of Singapore, inspired by his vision, and its revival today as innovative art galleries and museums

Denise Heywood

BoArt historian, author, lecturer, photographer and journalist. Worked in Cambodia in the 1990s and has been a scholar of Southeast Asian art ever since. She has led cultural tours to Southeast Asia and France for the Royal Academy, the Art Fund, Asia House and many more and lectures on cruise ships.

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

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

Neil Faulkner

Educated at King's College Cambridge and Institute of Archaeology UCL. Works as lecturer, writer, archaeologist and occasional broadcaster. Research Fellow, University of Bristol. Editor, Military History Monthly. Director, Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. Director, Great Arab Revolt Project.

Author of The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, Apocalypse, Hidden Treasure, Rome: Empire of the Eagles, and The Ancient Greek Olympics: a visitor's guide. Author of forthcoming Lawrence of Arabia's War. Major TV appearances include Channel 4's Time Team, BBC2's Timewatch, Channel Five's Boudica Revealed and Sky Atlantic's The British.

London’s Tite Street was one of the most influential artistic quarters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A staggering amount of talent thrived in just this one street in Chelsea, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Oscar Wilde, John Singer Sargent, Robert Brough, Glyn Philpot, Augustus John, Romaine Brooks and Gluck. Throughout its turbulent history it remained home to innumerable artists, writers, suffragettes, queers and madmen. 

Here Whistler was bankrupted, Oscar Wilde imprisoned and Frank Miles went mad. This lecture ties together the private and professional lives of its inhabitants to form a colourful tapestry of art and intrigue.

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes is an experienced guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and lectures at various art societies and institutions. She has a special interest in British and European art of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century. 

Having gained an MA in film and television practice, Jennifer had a long-standing career spanning twenty years as a television producer/director making documentaries and factual programmes for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. 

She was also a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck, University of London and a senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society.

Public Art is a contentious subject. It is the most visible art form and therefore is an easy target. But how do they come to appear in our public spaces? This lecture tracks the development of public art over the last century and looks at various examples to see why are some loved and others loathed. 

It also explains the process of procurement from the initial commissioning to the production and installation. Drawing from my own experience and using case studies I take the audience through this process and try to show why we are all richer with the presence of art on the streets.

David Worthington

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

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

The story of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain speaks of the important trade between East and West along both the overland and maritime Silk Roads. The cobalt blue mineral, or ‘Mohammedan Blue’, that provided the distinctive under-glaze colour of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain owed its origins to China’s early trade with Persia. During the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese imperial kilns at Jingdezhen perfected the production of blue-and-white wares and thus extended the scope of China’s trade with the West. Oriental export porcelain has its own rich history, enhanced by tales of shipwrecks and lost cargoes, that hints of the fascination for these products from the East, that came to be adapted for Western markets. 

This lecture will trace the history of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain and the trade in export porcelain. It will also recount tales of salvaging operations that have resulted in the recovery of sunken treasures from the East. The ‘Nanking Cargo’ and the ‘Hoi An Hoard’ are but two examples of early shipwrecks in Eastern waters, the recovery of which have enhanced our understanding of blue-and-white porcelain and its wider commercial impact.

Marie Conte-Helm

Professor Conte-Helm is an established Lecturer of The Arts Society with a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art.  She has most recently served as Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group and as Visiting Professor at Northumbria University. She is currently a Member of the Board of Governors of the University for the Creative Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation from 1999-2011 and has held senior academic positions at various UK universities. 

She is widely published and has lectured throughout the UK and abroad. She is also an experienced cruise speaker and a resident historian with cruise companies, lecturing on many aspects of Asian Art and East-West Encounters. 

She was awarded an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK-Japan educational and cultural relations.

Marie Conte-Helm

Professor Conte-Helm is an established Lecturer of The Arts Society with a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art.  She has most recently served as Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group and as Visiting Professor at Northumbria University. She is currently a Member of the Board of Governors of the University for the Creative Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation from 1999-2011 and has held senior academic positions at various UK universities. 

She is widely published and has lectured throughout the UK and abroad. She is also an experienced cruise speaker and a resident historian with cruise companies, lecturing on many aspects of Asian Art and East-West Encounters. 

She was awarded an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK-Japan educational and cultural relations.

Occupying a pair of early Georgian townhouses nestled in historic Greenwich, the story of how The Fan Museum came to fruition is interwoven with the fascinating biography of its founder, whose personal collection forms the basis of the Museum’s holdings. 

From an especially rare Elizabethan-period embroidered folding fan to contemporary examples decorated by street artists, discover some of the key objects within the Museum’s collection of 5,000+ fans dating from the tenth century to the present day.

Jacob Moss

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

Food and Art Through the Ages is a whistle-stop tour of the history of food as artistic medium; starting with 16th century sugar sculpture and venturing all the way up to 3D dessert printing and beyond. Hosted by Food Historian Tasha Marks, this lecture is a treat for those with a sweet tooth, as Marks feels the subject of food and art through the ages is most exciting in the realms of the dessert. 

Topics covered include; the origins of dessert, the crossover between sugar and art, architecture and dessert (including Renaissance banqueting houses), sugar and spectacle, food as artistic medium, and the future of food. 

This exploration into the realms of dessert as spectacle includes an accompanying display to illustrate and enhance the historic subject.

Tasha Marks

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

Recent academic achievements include publication in the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, where Marks authored the entry on Mrs Beeton

The nineteenth century was a period of astonishing change in the maritime world. The advent of steam technology ended the age-old dependence on wind and tide, shortened voyages, ended some trades and enabled others, destroyed or made entire professions, caused the demise of many ports and contributed to the rise of others, and brought prosperity to individuals, cities, and entire regions. The SS Great Britain, and the variety of roles she played in her long life – ocean liner, troopship, emigrant ship, collier – epitomises these remarkable developments, and will provide an iconic venue for a major conference to discuss these themes. The involvement of the Society for Nautical Research marks and remembers the major contribution of the society, and individual members of it, to the campaign to save and bring home this unique ship.

Helen Doe

Helen is a Fellow of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at the University of Exeter, where she gained her PhD. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a trustee of the ss Great Britain. She has published extensively on 19th century sail, women in the maritime world, and in 2015, in a departure from her usual maritime theme, published a well received biography of a WW2 fighter ace. She is currently working on a series of books on Isambard Brunel's shipping ventures. Her lecturing experience is wide and she is a speaker onboard all three Cunard ships. She has appeared on radio and television.

Early in the French Revolution, English women of letters visit Paris. Some stay there. Mary Wollstonecraft is there for the execution of Louis XVI. Grace Dalrymple hides the governor of the Tuileries Palace between two mattresses in her own bed, and stays in the bed for four hours while her apartment is searched. 

Painted by Gainsborough, her portrait is in the Frick Museum, New York. Fanny Burney, Hannah Moore and Helen Maria Williams are among others and we shall see their portraits by contemporary French artists such as Louis-Leopold Boilly and Jean-Baptiste Lesueur.

Karin Fernald is an actor, writer and speaker.  She researches and  creates a spell-binding picture of a character and a historical period; sometimes with  revealing  powerpoint  images, and sometimes with music.   

She has appeared at festivals in England and on tour in Japan, Australia, Europe and at the University of  Cape Town Summer School. 

Hostile toward both the Academy of Arts and 19th century Realism, the World of Art artistic movement owed its singular vision, practical organization, and public success largely to Sergey Diaghilev, who in November 1898 launched the celebrated magazine of the same name (Mir Iskusstva [World of Art], St. Petersburg, 1898-1904), sponsored a cycle of important national and international art exhibitions (1899-1906), and with great aplomb, propagated Russian art and music in the West. In this lecture we will examine the following questions:

Distinctive features of Russian Symbolism

Aims of the World of Art movement

Role of Sergey Diaghilev in promotion of Russian Art in the West

Natalia Murray

Natalia Murray was born in St Petersburg where she gained BA and MA in Art History at the Academy of Fine Arts before taking the PhD course at the Hermitage Museum 

In 2015 she has been awarded PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Her books and articles extend across the wide field of 19-20 century Russian art, and she has featured in films dedicated to the Hermitage museum and the Russian revolution and in programmes for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. Natalia is also trustee of the Russian Avant-Garde Research Project - a UK-based charity which shares one of her aspirations to reduce the number of fakes on the Russian art market.

Sandy talks about the Bach Cantatas.Between 1997 and 2010 he conducted a complete cycleof JS Bach's surving sacred cantatas at St Michael and All Angels in West London. 

Sandy Burnett

After studying music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy Burnett spent a decade as one of the core team of music presenters on BBC Radio 3, is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

Possibly the most admired historic English building outside London, Blenheim Palace is an uncompromising World Heritage monument to English military ambition and one family's self importance. The story of its construction is a fascinating catalogue of excess and outrage, while the result is both monstrous and utterly sublime. But it is in the effect that its perceived spirit has had on consecutive generations of Marlboroughs, that is most revealing. It is also of course, from within this 'cauldron' that a Churchill was born, recently voted the ‘The Greatest Briton of All Time’. 

This lecture explores these themes and the characters involved, marvelling at the genius of Vanbrugh and considering the real impact the palace has left on the nation..

Anthony Russell

Has travelled much of the world, combining painting with tour lecturing - principally to American university students on bespoke tours. Spent six years as a consultant for Luke Hughes and travelled the country advising on the furniture needs of prestigious buildings, including museums, palaces, schools and cathedrals. As an advocate of non-violence, he is the author of the book Evolving the Spirit - From Democracy to Peace, commended by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate recently released from 15 years of house arrest, as meaning a great deal to her

Angels, familiar and fantastic, playing major and minor roles, can be seen in centuries of paintings, engravings, illustrations and sculptures. Archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation or Archangel Michael fighting the good fight. Angelic references also abound in Islamic and Jewish traditions, the latter beautifully evoked in Chagall’s Bible Message. Time to contrast the beauty and light of cherubims and seraphims with the dark, fiery abyss of Satan and contemplate the Angel of the North.

Caroline Holmes

Has lectured in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe and Japan, and in 2017 returns to The Arts Society in New Zealand. Lectures for the University of Cambridge ICE (Course Director for International Summer Programme), the Royal Horticultural Society, museums, travel companies and Clio Voyages for francophones. Consultant designer specializing in evoking historic, artistic and symbolic references. .Presenter and contributor on television and BBC Radio 4. 2017 recipient of the Herb Society of America ‘Elizabeth Crisp Rea Award

The late antique emperor Diocletian saved the empire from collapse by instituting a new system of government. However, his most enduring legacy was probably his wide-ranging building schemes which included renovation work at Palmyra, Luxor and the existing Senate House in the Roman Forum. This lecture looks at his monumental palace at Split (modern day Croatia) including the domed mausoleum and the southern facade along the sea front. We will also consider its impact on the young architect Robert Adam, leading to him publishing illustrations of the building and subsequently to its influence on neo-classicism and 18th century architecture.

Isabella Image

Bella studied Classics at Cambridge and many years later took her doctorate on Late Antiquity at Oxford. She writes and teaches free-lance, including tutoring within Oxford and lecturing on Late Antiquity/Early Christianity for the St Albans Study Centre.

As well as the art topics mentioned in her lecture titles list she has also written or taught on Late Antique history and philosophy.

This lecture will explore my personal favourite paintings from the rich and varied collection of paintings that make up The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Collection. Beginning with works that as yet still have no artists attributed to them, the lecture will be looking at works as diverse as Botticelli, van Dyck, Aelbert Cuyp from Rubens through to Degas and Gauguin. The lecture will place these works in that context of those from national collections; drawing parallels and contrasts..

This lecture will not only revel in the exquisite details in some of these works with detailed explanations of the meanings, but it will also look at a hidden aspect of these works and that is the appearance and function of black figures in these Masterpieces.

Leslie Primo

Holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. Was Visiting Lecturer in Art History at the University of Reading in 2005 and 2007, and gives lectures and guided tours, plus special talks, at both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. 

Also lectures at the City Literary Institute, and has presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute

Considers the outstanding contribution to English stained glass of one of the greatest and most idiosyncratic of Victorian artists. From 1861, Burne-Jones, already recognised as the most promising young stained glass designer in the country, worked exclusively for William Morris and his companies. Morris’s sole figure designer from 1875, he supplied an extraordinary range and number of designs which show a mastery of different media, and an often startling modernity. His increasingly pictorial and symbolist style had a far reaching effect on stained glass design in Britain and America.

Martin Ellis

An experienced curator, lecturer and broadcaster. Until recently Principal Curator and Head of Collections Research & Development at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, he now divides his time between curatorial work, consultancy, the development of cultural tourism programmes and broadcasting projects. He has wide-ranging expertise in the applied arts and has acted as a specialist adviser to the Art Fund and on research programmes at the universities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Making History, he has written and presented several documentaries for Radio 4 on subjects ranging from AWN Pugin to contemporary silver.

The arts underwent a sea-change in the forty years between the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874 and the launch of the Vorticist magazine Blast in 1914. In an era of extraordinary vibrancy and experimentation, exciting new interconnections were forged between painters, musicians and writers across Europe as they steadily broke with tradition and moved from representation to abstraction in their work. This lecture pinpoints the milestones along this revolutionary journey, showing how movements like Cubism and Expressionism radically changed the language of art, and foreshadowed the violence of the First World War

Rosamund Bartlett

Doctorate from Oxford and has held senior university posts, most recently at the European University Institute in Florence. Specialises in comparative study of art, music and literature, and currently writing a book on the Russian Avant-Garde and European Modernism. Author of several books, including biographies of Tolstoy and Chekhov. Extensive experience lecturing in Russian cultural history at venues such as the V&A, the National Theatre and Covent Garden, and broadcasts regularly on the BBC. 

The shell is an attribute of Aphrodite who was conveyed to Paphos on a shell; of Triton who calmed the waves by blowing a conch trumpet and of the pilgrim as seen, for example in scallop shells at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. As exotic and beautiful objects of wonder, realistic groups of shells were faithfully reproduced within Dutch still life paintings of the 17th century. Real shells featured in grottos, such as that in Florence’s Boboli Gardens and as a decorative motif appear in European interiors of the Baroque and Rococo. Exotic and fragile shells were traded from the eastern seas, carved as cameos, ground into artists’ pigment, and mounted as drinking vessels in precious silver gilt, to be admired as wonders of the natural world in princely Cabinets of Curiosities. Mother-of-pearl has long been utilised as a decorative inlay on rare works of art from India and Japan and tortoiseshell was manipulated as a veneer for fine furniture. The lecture considers the beauty of shells in all of their variety

Anne Haworth

Lecturer at the V&A. Guide for private tours of the State Rooms and The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Lecturer in British Painting for American students resident in London. In Autumn 2002, catalogued collection of Chinese porcelain at Kensington Palace. From 2002 2005, a committee member of the French Porcelain Society. From 1995 2002, was resident in Shanghai, China, visited ancient kiln sites and lectured to expatriate groups. From 1981 to 1995, trained and became a senior ceramics specialist at Christie's and Bonhams head offices

The careers of John Piper and Graham Sutherland followed surprisingly similar paths. Born in the same year – 1903 - they both attended Epsom College, then commenced different careers before attending art college. Along with other English Neo-Romantics, each was influenced by William Blake and Samuel Palmer. They were also able to embrace European modernism in a way that enabled their work to remain accessible to the general public. Piper and Sutherland worked in a variety of media, producing astonishing bodies of work; each was an Official War Artist in the Second World War, and each went on to create moving and inspirational works of religious art

Valerie Woodgate

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

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

Andrew Hopkins

Previously Assistant Director of the British School at Rome from 1998 to 2002 and since 2004, Associate Professor at the University of L'Aquila. Part of his PhD (Courtauld Institute 1995) on Venetian architecture was awarded the Essay Medal of 1996 by the Society of Architectural Historians (GB). A Fellow at Harvard University's Villa I Tatti in Florence in 2003-2004, and in 2009 was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 

Looking at maps from their origin to the present, consider them as works of art and as functional tools. Assesses the particular challenges of mapping and of representation. Considers range of maps, both thematic and geographical. 
If for a study day, there is a separate presentation on mapping cities and there can be another on mapping maps.

Jeremy Black

Born in London in 1955 and graduated from Cambridge with a starred first. Undertook graduate work at Oxford and taught at Durham from 1980, eventually as professor, before moving to Exeter as professor in 1996. Has lectured around the world to popular and academic audiences, including the Decorative Arts Society in New York and the Bard, as well as the annual decorative arts conference and on various cruise lines

Seduction had been one of the enduring themes of art since Eve offered Adam an apple. Courtly love blossomed in manuscripts and miniatures of the Middle Ages and the Italian Renaissance offered painters an Olympian cast of amorous gods and goddesses. Puritanical Dutch and Prudish Victorians tutted over the loose morals of fallen women. Rococo artists revelled in the flirtatious fun of Fetes Galantes and Belle Epoque ‘Gay Paree’ flaunted the Femme Fatale. But in our permissive society had ‘Battle of Sexes’ killed the spirit of romance? I do hope not! Join me to celebrate the theme of love and courtship, through painting from the Age of Chivalry to the Modern Age, The Art of Seduction

Lynne Gibson

Now working as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, Critical and Contextual Studies, as well as in practical Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. For many years lectured for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme and residential summer schools. Gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of organisations and institutions including ARCA colleges, the National Trust, National Gallery, art museums and art societies. 

From Inverness to Cornwall, from Pembrokeshire to Norfolk, from the Antrim Coast to County Cork, the pyramids of Britain and Ireland are little-known but of great variety and interest. This talk, which will include local examples, sets the pyramids of Britain and Ireland in their historical perspective and tells the story of the mausoleums, memorials, garden ornaments, pumps, wellheads, boat houses, beacons, sculptures, churches, offices, shops, sports halls, swimming pools, cinemas, navigation marks and general pyramidal oddities that turn up in the most unexpected places. Their builders range from eccentrics to engineers, via martyrs, philanthropists, ghosts, kings, musicians, heroes and villains. The talk uncovers forgotten corners of history and highlights unusual discoveries, like Britain’s only castiron pyramid, a Scottish Formica pyramid, an Irish pyramid that sheltered the IRA and a Welsh one made of road signs. Whether you have an interest in architecture, landscapes, gardening, Freemasonry, New Age ideas, scandalous family histories or just in what prompts people to place triangles together to make an interesting structure, Up to a Point will surprise and inspire you.

David Winpenny

Studied English at Birmingham University and taught for several years before joining the Countryside Commission as Co-ordinator of its National Parks Campaign. Worked for the Central Office of Information in Leeds before setting up own public relations company. Author of Up to a Point - in search of pyramids in Britain and Ireland and has written and contributed to several books for the AA. Writes regularly for BBC Countryfile Magazine, is chairman of Ripon Civic Society and lectures on architectural and related subjects.

Portmeirion is an extraordinary surprise; a colourful and delightful fantasy village on the coast of north Wales.   Created from the 1920s by the remarkable architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, Portmeirion was his personal defiance against the advance of modernism and what he saw as the despoilment of Britain. By the 1950s it had become the playground of artists, intellectuals, aristocrats and the merely rich. Regular visitors included H G Wells, Bertand Russell and Noel Coward (who wrote Blithe Spirit at Portmeirion).

Sir Clough’s daughter Susan created Portmeirion Pottery, which during the 1960s and 70s, was synonymous with cutting-edge ceramic style. This lecture looks at the place, its architecture and associations.

Matthew also draws on some personal memories, as his uncle was Resident Director of Portmeirion for 30 years.

Matthew Williams

Lectures widely on the subject of design, and is especially interested in that of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A recognised expert in the work of the designer William Burges, he has been the Curator of Cardiff Castle since 1990 and has published widely in art and architectural journals. 

A long standing member of The Arts Society, Matthew has been a Volunteers Representative, a Programme Secretary and a Chairman. He has been a Lecturer for The Arts Society since 2001.

Gold in South America had a spiritual importance. Its brilliance evoked the Sun — the golden disk that nourished the Earth. In Peru and Colombia, goldsmiths made some of the most spectacular treasures of the ancient world. Cast and hammered, gold was transformed into sacred offerings for tombs and temples. Europeans, by contrast, saw gold as a commodity — the ultimate symbol of wealth. 

For decades, Europeans searched in vain for El Dorado, the legendary Golden One. Although many golden treasures were melted down for bullion, magnificent works of art are preserved in the museums of Peru and Colombia.

Chloe Sayer

Freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and on cruises. As a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute has carried out fieldwork, curated several exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. 

Her many publications include Mexican Textiles (British Museum Press, 1990), Arts and Crafts of Mexico (Thames & Hudson, 1990), The Incas - The Ancient World (Wayland, 1998) and Textiles from Mexico (British Museum Press, 2002). Is co-author of Skeleton at the Feast; Mexican Day of the Dead (British Museum Press, 1991), Traditional Mexican Architecture (Thames & Hudson, 1993) and Masks Arts of Mexico (Thames & Hudson, 1994).

At the turn of the last century, Vienna was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world. It produced painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, architects like Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the composer Gustav Mahler and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. 

Looking at these and others figures in the context of the society in which they worked, this talk asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed around 1900.

Gavin Plumley

A writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to The Independent on Sunday and The Guardian. Lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, including to the National Gallery, the British Museum, the V&A, the Southbank Centre, the Tate and the Neue Galerie, New York, as well as for history of art societies and The Art Fund. 

A comparative analysis of the architectural remains of these two great medieval cities, one representing the triumph of the Capetian monarchy, the other the Plantagenets. Although linked by a common culture and language there were striking differences in the way each developed in this age of Chivalry. Paris by the mid-thirteenth century was the wonder of the age, combining the seat of Royal power with the intellectual, ecclesiastical and commercial heart of France. 

Its Kings had humbled the ‘German’ Emperor, and disciplined and chastised God’s representative on earth, the Pope. This triumph was represented by the explosion of what we know call Gothic art and architecture, an art form that quickly came to dominate western Europe and even eclipse developments in Italy.

London by comparison struggled to compete, although she was far and away the largest and most successful city in the British Isles. Effectively a cultural satellite of Paris, she quickly adapted to the Gothic revolution in her bid to emulate her rival and mentor. Her Plantagenet kings, dazzled by the splendour of their Capetian cousins, sought to recreate the glories of Isle de France, but with only mixed success.

Mark Corby

Freelance lecturer in history and architecture and occasional lecturer at Institute of Archaeology, University College, London. Praelector and tour leader on numerous 'adventures' to Spain, Sicily, Italy, Cyprus, Turkey, Libya and Ireland. TV historical documentary presenter for: "The Real Spartacus", "Roman London", "Vespasian, The man who saved Rome" and "The Defeat of the Spanish Armada".

The beginning of the new millennium has witnessed a growing taste for clean lines and lack of clutter which has stimulated interest in 20th century design. 

With many of us visiting Ikea on a regular basis, the influenced of the great Scandinavian designers of the mid-20th century has had more of an impact on contemporary design than most people realize. Some of the most important designers whose influence remains extraordinarily strong were Scandinavian, such as Alvar Aalto from Finland, Henning Koppel, working for Georg Jensen, and Arne Jacobsen from Denmark or Orrefors glass from Sweden. 

These were designers and makers of the new ‘antiques’, pushing the boundaries in the use of design and materials and with a lasting legacy. 

Deborah Lambert

Formerly Curator of the Schroder Collection, a private art collection. Studied for her MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute. Worked for many years as an academic director and lecturer for Christie's Education. Appears regularly as a furniture specialist on the Antiques Roadshow.

Throughout history, fashion, costume and ‘accessories’ have played a major part in defining the visual arts of any period, and, therefore, to defining the character and ‘look’ of that period. 

From the Ancient Egyptians (pleating overkill, anyone?) to the Jazz Babies, Revolutionary décolletage to Hippy Chic (let it all hang out), from the sumptuary laws of Renaissance Italy via the Cult of the Dandy to Alexander McQueen, this all-new lecture will lay bare the facts and cover up the cracks simultaneously. 

Lots of gorgeous pictures, naturally, featuring satins and silks, frocks and fascinators, jewels and gee-gaws, ruffs and hose, shoes and socks.

Adrian Sumner

Lecturer to universities/higher education institutions since 1973. Director, Development of the Arts in Northwich (1984-1990). Arts Development Officer, Chester City Council (1990-2009). Arts Development Officer, Cheshire West and Chester Council (2009-). Professional painter and illustrator (1973-2001). Undertaken tours and study weekends in UK and Europe, organised exhibitions for Chester City Council.

For hundreds of years hobby horses, Jack in the greens, mummery, morris dancing, straw men and other similar characters brought life and colour to civic processions in towns and cities across the country, particularly in the West Country and Cornwall.

Mrs Hallet will tell us that hobby horse festivals coincided with the arrival of Maytime spring where the obby oss - a costume worn by a single person and bearing only the vaguest of resemblances to a horse - danced through the town and performed various rituals

Anna Hallet

Is a historian with interests in architecture and the arts. Was born in the Netherlands where she studied history and English literature, followed by two history degrees in England. Has lectured on a variety of subjects for a wide range of educational institutions, including the universities of Birmingham and Keele, the Open University, colleges at Lichfield, Tamworth and Walsall, the WEA, the Gateway at Shrewsbury, and the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, West Sussex. Published books on almshouses (2004) and on markets and market places and their buildings

Santiago Calatrava,Terry Farrell, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Jean Nouvel, I.M.Pei, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers: all these are starchitects. Starchitects are stratospheric. Their buildings straddle the world, if not as yet the universe. Their practices are vast and vastly cosmopolitan. 

Their creations are hailed as iconic and cutting-edge. Cities have been energised by them. Design has been stamped by them. Perhaps….but what about the quality? And whence came they? Who was the first starchitect? Le Corbusier? Frank Lloyd Wright? And are we about to see the last of them as personality implodes into team anonymity and explodes into a mass of initials? Who knows? Here, as lecture or study day, I offer an opportunity for due reflection on a Galaxy of Starchitects.

Clyde Binfield

Man of Kent, Cambridge graduate, cruise lecturer, Professor Emeritus in History University of Sheffield, he is a straight-up-and-down historian returning to some first and last loves - buildings, their creators and their settings.

A brief history together with their design and construction, their conservation, and how to choose the right frames for your paintings.

The talks take a look at the history of frames, and how frames have developed in Europe, influenced often by the prevailing architectural style. It looks at how they are constructed and conserved; and how a frame can transform a painting and display it to its best advantage. The choice of frame is a very personal one and primarily to complement a picture, but there are certain guidelines that can be helpful: for example, the balance between frame and picture. Julia discusses why a picture might need a frame, aesthetically: how to protect it from the dangers of light and temperature etc., together with the materials available for use; the design, construction and conservation of frames; and the process of making gold leaf and gesso frames and how they are conserved.

Julia Korner

Julia Korner is a specialist and lecturer in fine art conservation and the restoration of paintings, sculptures and frames. She is also a valuer, passionate collector, advisor and curator of paintings and works of art. Julia trained in art history, sculpture and graphic illustration in Cambridge, England. Julia has worked independently in her own studio in West London for almost twenty years. Here, she and her small team give specialist conservation work personal and expert attention. She also gives illustrated talks and lectures. She is an elected member of The British Antique Dealers' Association, (and exhibits at the annual exhibition), The British Association of Paintings Conservator Restorers,.

This is the dramatic story whereby the Society transformed the St Ives art colony from being moribund in 1927 into a run-away success, with over seventy works a year by members being hung at the Royal Academy and regular nationwide touring shows attracting up to 75,000 visitors.

By the end of the 1930s, most artists of repute, who had at some juncture lived, worked or studied in Cornwall, had joined the Society and, during the period covered by the talk, it boasted fourteen Royal Academicians amongst its membership. After the War, the Society welcomed artists with modern leanings, such as Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, but this in time led to a major and very acrimonious split in 1949. Nevertheless, the Society continued to be successful until representational art went out of fashion. 

The lecture features many of the exhibits from the nationwide touring exhibition, Creating A Splash, which attracted over 80,000 visitors during 2003-4. Artists featured include the Royal Academicians Julius Olsson, Arnesby Brown, Terrick Williams, Adrian Stokes, Algernon Talmage, Stanhope Forbes, Laura Knight, Dod Procter, Stanley Spencer and Frank Brangwynatmosphere. 

David Tovey

Read law at Oxford and practised as a solicitor for 20 years. He returned to University in 1996 to read History of Art and now specialises in Cornish Art. His particular interest in St Ives art derives from the fact that his great-grandfather, William Titcomb, was one of the early settlers in the colony. Since 2000, David has curated various exhibitions on Cornish art for Tate St Ives, Penlee House Gallery and Museum, Penzance, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, Nottingham Castle Museum, Cheltenham Art Gallery and various other art galleries around the country. He has also published eight books, of which five have been major, ground-breaking surveys of St Ives art, namely "St Ives Art pre-1890 - The Dawn of the Colony"," Pioneers of St Ives Art at Home and Abroad 1889-1914", "Sea Change - Fine and Decorative Art in St Ives 1914-1930", "Creating A Splash - The St Ives Society of Artists 1927-1952" and the unique social history "St Ives (1860-1930) - The Artists and the Community".

The fundamental beauty and range of Islamic art, essentially decorative, from 8th c. Syria to 15th century Egypt through to 17th c. Mughal India.

Sarah Searight

1960 BA (Hons) (Oxon) in Modern History. Historian and journalist specialising for many years in the Middle East; published extensively books and articles on the subject. More recent interest in the art history of the Islamic World; 1990-92 MA in Islamic Art, London University. Lectures on Islamic art including on special tours to the region. Her latest book, 'Lapis Lazuli: in pursuit of a celestial stone', was published in 2010.

Joanna Hardy takes a rare glimpse inside the Cartier Paris jewellery workshops to watch its Royal Collection of High Jewellery come to life. From the initial detailed designs, to the finishing touches of the setters who bring it to life, to showcasing the collection at the Biennale, Joanna explores exactly what goes into creating a High Jewellery collection – two years in the making but based on 160 years’ of expertise. As she discovers, creating a jewel that is in keeping with the Cartier legacy is a team effort: there is no room for individual egos, it is the combined passion and empathy from the creative team that ensures that the jewel takes centre stage

Joanna Hardy

Trained as a goldsmith before working for De Beers valuing and grading rough diamonds, before becoming one of the few women diamond dealers, trading in Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Mumbai and New York. She worked as a senior jewellery specialist for Philips Auctioneers, and for Sotheby’s London, where she was responsible for jewellery sales in New York, Geneva and London. 'She is a published author with her books ‘Collect Contemporary Jewelry‘ and ‘Emerald’ both published by Thames and Hudson, and a contributing author for ‘Cartier Panthère’ published by Assouline and GRAFF published by Rizzoli. 

Rarely does an architectural feature associated with one building type suddenly find itself used across the board. Battlements are a case in point - originally practical in application they lost their original function and became adopted as a decorative feature. Over a thousand years their use jumped from castles to churches and thence to public buildings of all sorts. They have been used for prestige, to create a sense of history, to define a building type. 

This lecture looks at their application in many different buildings and shows how each period of history - including the present - has reinvented the battlement to make a statement..

John Vigar

Professional ecclesiastical historian, author and broadcaster for over 35 years, John has visited and recorded over 13,000 churches in England and Wales. He is a trustee of the oldest church preservation society in Britain - Formerly an employee of The Churches Conservation Trust, John has also served as Photographic Curator of The Kempe Trust and Hon. Secretary of The Ledgerstone Survey of England and Wales. In his spare time he has written 12 books, leads specialist church tours and is a tutor at Denman College.

The stylistic development of glass produced in Venice from the late 15th century to the late 17th century, seen through actual objects and through paintings. During this lecture, we will look at the early history of glassmaking in Venice, the material itself and the techniques involved in forming and decorating the pieces. We will discuss the early fashion for richly coloured and enameled glass, the sources of inspiration behind the forms and the decoration, who would have owned the pieces and how they would have been used or displayed. We will also consider the desire for luxury objects in the Renaissance, the new liking in the 16th century for clear glass or cristallo and the fashion for fine glass drinking vessels which followed on from this. Finally, we will examine the spread of this fashion throughout Europe, the resulting trade and the gradual spread of glassmaking skills to other parts of Europe.

Jane Gardiner

MA History of Art, University of London. Trained at the V&A and continues to lecture there. Was Senior Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art for 17 years, becoming a Deputy Director of Sotheby's, UK. Has also lectured for the National Trust, the Art Fund, London University, Buckingham University, l'Institut d'Etudes Superieures des Arts in Paris, a private women's college in Saudi Arabia, on cruise ships and at antiques fairs and interior design conferences in America.

In 2016, it will be 950 years since the Normans invaded England. The roughest of company, they came not to civilise, but to seize. A mere eleven men in Duke William’s inner circle enjoyed an unprecedented bonanza, receiving almost half the land of the conquered kingdom. There followed an orgy of building in what was described as ‘a new manner’ – castles, churches, monasteries and cathedrals – that all but effaced the fabric of Saxon England. It was their way of showing us who was in charge. In describing the mass of post-Conquest masonry, Rupert focuses on individuals, like the deeply unpleasant Baldwin de Redvers, lord of the Isle of Wight, where his legacy endures. He offers an insight into their lives – and the disgusting details of William the Conqueror’s funeral.

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. His approach is to inspire audiences by applying a light, humorous touch. One recent client wrote: ‘Your talk was much appreciated by everyone who heard you. Somehow you manage to bring a period of history to life and one can imagine what life was like not only for the well off and well known characters of the time, but for the more ordinary people as well. It was full of humour and insight …’ The comment of a NADFAS reviewer: ‘Illuminating facts and gentle humour combined. Perfect!’

Rupert is constantly preparing new lectures and these can be tailored – or devised from scratch – to suit the requirements of the client. The following list of his talks is not, therefore, exhaustive.

In this lecture Dominic tells the story of fine bindings in Britain over the last hundred years. The journey begins with William Morris and the Kelmscott Chaucer, possibly the last great book of the printed age. He will then show some of the amazing bindings from Sangorski and Sutcliffe, the finest bookbinders in the twentieth century, as well as work from their contemporaries. Dominic will then discuss the new world of Design Binding which emerged after the second world war, as modern design entered this ancient craft, and finish with examples from some of the best artistic bookbinders working today.

Dominic Riley

A bookbinder, artist and teacher. He first learned bookbinding at 16 from Benedictine Monks at Douai Abbey in Berkshire and later at the London College of Printing. He has worked at the V&A, and for various binderies in London, New York and San Francisco, and spends part of the year teaching across the USA. He has his bindery in the Lake District, from where he travels across the UK teaching master classes and lecturing. He is Vice President of the Society of Bookbinders and was elected a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 2008. His binding work is mostly the restoration of antiquarian books and Design Bindings. He has won many prizes in the Designer Bookbinders competition, including both first prizes and the Mansfield Silver Medal in 2007. His bindings are in collections worldwide, including the British Library and the John Rylands Library in Manchester. In 2010 he bound a special copy of the winner of the Booker Prize which was presented to the author. In June 2013 he won first prize in the prestigious Sir Paul Getty International Bookbinding Competition. His winning binding was acquired by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Since its foundation in 1925, Faber and Faber has built a reputation as one of London’s most important literary publishing houses. Part of that relates to the editorial team that Geoffrey Faber and his successors built around them - TS Eliot was famously an early recruit - but a large part is also due to the firm’s insistence on good design and illustration. This lecture traces the history of Faber and Faber through its illustrations, covers and designs. Early years brought innovations like the Ariel Poems – single poems, beautifully illustrated, sold in their own envelopes. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was an emphasis on typography, led by the firm’s art director Berthold Wolpe; his Albertus font is still used on City of London road signs. In the 1980s, the firm started its association with Pentagram, responsible for the ff logo. Along the way, it has employed some of our most celebrated artists as cover illustrators – from Rex Whistler and Barnett Freedman to Peter Blake and Damien Hirst. Slides will range from book covers, advertisements and photos of key individuals, to illustrations of the concepts behind the designs. The talk will also be peppered with personal insight and anecdote. Faber and Faber is the last of the great publishing houses to remain independent. As the grandson of its founder, I grew up steeped in its books. I was managing director for four years and I remain on the board. I am passionate about the firm’s success, and intensely proud of my association with it!

Toby Faber

Has written two works of narrative history, Stradivarius and Fabergé's Eggs, published by Macmillan in the UK and Random House in the US, and given lectures associated with these two subjects at venues including The Victoria and Albert Museum, Bath Theatre, The Library of Congress and the Huntington Library, as well as a number of literary festivals. His career began with Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has been through investment banking, management consulting and five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. Is also non-executive Chairman of its sister company, Faber Music, a trustee of Yale University Press (UK) and a director of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society.

Hated by her mother, loved by Rodin, Camille Claudel's life was full of tragedy and forms the background to her art. She fought hard to become one of the most brilliant sculptors of her day at a time when women were not accepted as serious artists. She created a small but beautiful body of work, one which speaks of her passion for life and her love of the human form. Most of her sculptures can be seen in the Rodin Museum in France. Even in death she continues to be overshadowed by her lover.

Josephine Hammond

Born in 1953 in London but brought up in West Africa and educated in boarding school, Josephine Hammond went to University College, London where she graduated with a degree in French and Italian. After workng briefly in France she settled into married life in England and had four sons, three of whom are triplets. She taught languages for many years then, after moving to Pembrokeshire, escaped into her own business selling hampers of local produce by mail order as well as taking an MA in creative writing at Trinity College Carmarthen.

She has published three books, Battle in Iraq, about World War 1 and the part played by her grandfather, Adelina Patti, Queen of Song, and most recently Wilderness and Paradise about women explorers of the Arabian Desert. She is a regular speaker at the Tenby Arts Festival giving talks on a range of different artists the latest one being about Sarah Bernhardt and has given talks to Creative Writing groups and the King George Fund For Sailors

British photography enjoyed a golden age in the 1960s, when young, talented newcomers broke out of the conventional studio to revolutionise perceptions of fashion, portraiture and popular culture. This lecture by Brian Stater looks at a range of superb images from photographers such as David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Lewis Morley, Tony Ray-Jones and Jane Bown

Brian Slater

Brian’s chief interests lie in architecture, photography and history. He is a member of the Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography and an exhibition of his own photographs has been staged at UCL. Brian is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience..

It is now around 200 years since the purchase of the so-called 'Elgin Marbles' from Lord Elgin, by the British Parliament. This lecture, beautifully illustrated with specifically taken slides and video, will explore the aesthetics, the back-story, and the heated debates surrounding these fascinating and controversial works of ancient Greek art: what do we mean by 'the Elgin Marbles'? How and why were they originally created? Why are they so highly regarded? What happened to them between their creation and Elgin's time? How did he acquire them? Why are they now in the British Museum? And why are there such passionately held views both for and against their repatriation to Greece?

Dr. Stephen Kershaw B.A. (Hons) PhD

As a Classics Tutor for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, Professor of History of Art for the European Studies Program of Rhodes College and The University of the South, he has spent much of the last 30 years travelling extensively in the world of the Greeks and Romans both physically and intellectually. He has published A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths (Robinson, 2007) and A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization (Robinson, 2010) and is currently working on A Brief Guide to the Roman Empire.

From the wax seal to the microchip, man has exploited the skill of the artist and artisan in his attempt to manufacture and unforgettable document. Taking you through three centuries of passport design, this lecture explains the overt and uncovers the covert to illustrate the defences built in to the passport and the tricks the forger uses to defeat them. You will never see your passport in the same light again!

Martin Lloyd

Has been lecturing to various groups, including U3A, National Trust, historical societies, Gresham College and business groups since 2008. Previously worked for HM Immigration Service, and has broadcast on local and national television and radio.

The Classical Period or Golden Age of Greece, from around 500 to 300 BC, has given us the great monuments, art, philosophy, architecture and literature which are the building blocks of our own civilization.

The two most well known city-states during this period were the rivals: Athens and Sparta. It was the strengths of these two societies that brought the ancient world to its heights in art, culture and with the defeat of the Persians, warfare. It was the same two Greek states whose thirst for more power and territory, and whose jealousy brought about the Peloponnesian wars which lasted 30 years and left both Athens and Sparta mere shadows of their former selves. 

George Hart

graduated with degrees in Classics and Egyptology from University College London and spent over thirty years on the staff of the British Museum, lecturing and running courses on Ancient Egypt.  He is a Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society and is a member of the editorial board of its bulletin Egyptian Archaeology.  He has written books on Egyptian religion, mythology and the monuments of the Pyramid Age, and has led tours to Egypt for the British Museum and Swan Hellenic. He has directed many highly successful courses for BSS.

Welsh National Opera has been working with Creative & Cultural Skills to devise a new Set Design Challenge for members of National Skills Academy colleges.  The Set Design Challenge, which is now in its third year, will encourage young people to use their creativity to design a concept for a set for Rigoletto.  Learners from all disciplines will be encouraged to get involved in order to help them understand how their skills and knowledge can be applied in professional setting.

Simon Rees

Simon Rees is a freelance writer, reviewer and lecturer. He served as Dramaturg of the Welsh National Opera from 1989 to 2012. After studying English at Cambridge, he taught for two years in Italy and for three at Kyoto University. He has published novels, poetry, librettos and translations. He writes for Opera, Opera Now, Early Music Today, Musical Opinion and Bachtrack. His latest poetry collection, The Wood below Coelbren, was published in November 2014 by Poetry Salzburg Press.

The best stained glass windows are masterpieces of colour and narrative. They tell Biblical and didactic tales, display images of saints and armorial crests, memorialise the dead and enhance the devotional ambience of England's churches and cathedrals. Roger Rosewell here traces the history of stained glass from the rare extant Anglo-Saxon works through to some major examples from the last fifty years, exploring the various styles and contexts and affording the reader fascinating insights into how medieval people 'saw' stained glass. 

Roger Rosewell

Roger Rosewell is an award winning professional author, lecturer and photographer, specialising in medieval wall paintings and stained glass. He is the author of STAINED GLASS for Shire Books and the Features Editor ofVidimus, the online magazine about medieval stained glass published by the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (GB committee).  He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries [FSA] and an accredited NADFAS Lecturer and tour leader.  Roger was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and was formerly a Leader writer with the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers

Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, The Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world. The rich and varied collection constitutes one of the most comprehensive and panoramic views into modern art. From an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing, The Museum of Modern Art's collection has grown to include over 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects. MoMA also owns approximately 22,000 films and four million film stills, and MoMA's Library and Archives, the premier research facilities of their kind in the world, hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, and extensive individual files on more than 70,000 artists. The Museum Archives contains primary source material related to the history of MoMA and modern and contemporary art

Theodora Clarke

Theodora Clarke is an art historian and lecturer specialising in Russian art and European modernism. She lectures widely on 20th Century Avant-garde painting and sculpture to audiences across the UK at museums, galleries and universities. Theodora previously worked at Christie’s and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol. She completed her Masters in Russian Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art (2008) and obtained a First at Newcastle University for her undergraduate degree. Harvard University awarded her a dissertation grant in 2011. She founded and currently edits the website/journal “Russian Art and Culture” and publishes the guide to Russian Art Week in London.

The 16th century writer Pietro Aretino wrote –“Your art would be at home in some voluptuous bath-house certainly not in the highest chapel in the world”. 
What was he describing? Michelangelo’s Last Judgement. Pope Paul IV threatened to destroy it and even in our own 20th century the writer Leo Steinberg condemned it as heresy. So what caused such an outcry? How did it differ from the traditional image and to what extent did it reflect the fears and uncertainties of a Church which the Protestant rebellion had rocked to its very core?

Shirley Smith

Shirley Smith graduated from the University of East Anglia with a first class honours degree in the History of Art, specialising in the Italian and Northern Renaissance. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a part-time lecturer for the University of East Anglia and for the Department of Continuing Education of the University of Cambridge. Has run study days and certificate courses as well as residential weekend courses. Also lectures to the Art Fund and individual clubs and societies. She is particularly keen to set the art and architecture of the period in the context of the society for which it was produced

Well-known Official War Artists, Edward Bawden, Rex Whistler and Paul Nash, now have international reputations. Nash, Spencer and Roberts painted in both the First and Second World Wars. There are others who are rarely mentioned, one of whom ran double agents during the War; he is Tomas Harris, a Spaniard, art dealer and artist. Eric Ravilious disappeared in a reconnaissance mission in 1943 and Thomas Hennell was sent out to replace him

Nicholas Reed

The most famous art historian with intelligence connections is Anthony Blunt. Nicholas Reed's father, Ronnie, was an MI5 Officer and knew both Harris and Blunt, and made interesting remarks about them

Inns and public houses are a rich part of Britain’s heritage and their often idiosyncratic names and signs provide us with some fascinating stories and wonderful artwork.  Why are there so many pubs called ‘The Red Lion’, ‘The White Hart’ or 'The Crown'?  Who could fail to be intrigued by stories behind ‘The Drunken Duck’, 'The Blazing Donkey' or ‘The Cow and Snuffers’ or even ‘I am the Only Running Footman’ (the longest pub name in London).  In a light hearted talk John shows examples of some of the most distinctive signs and tells the story of inn signs and their origins..

John Ericson

John has recently retired from the University of Bath where he was Director of Studies in the School of Education. His wide ranging career in education and training has given him the opportunity to give lectures and presentations at conferences all over the world. 

He has developed highly effective communication skills based upon in in-depth understanding of how people learn and his ability to relate well to people of all ages and backgrounds makes him an impressive and confident speaker. He is now a freelance lecturer drawing upon his eclectic range of interests and enthusiasms. His highly professional digital presentations go well beyond the ordinary lecture with slides. All his talks are very well illustrated, are highly informative and presented with humour.

His highly professional digital presentations go well beyond the ordinary lecture with slides. As well as the talks he has developed from his professional background, John offers presentations on an eclectic range of topics that are derived from his diverse interests and enthusiasms such as antique corkscrews and the Shakers. All his talks are very well illustrated, are highly informative and presented with humour.

From around 750 BC to 12 BC, the Celts were the most powerful people in central and northern Europe. There were many groups (tribes) of Celts, speaking a vaguely common language.

The word Celt comes from the Greek word, Keltoi, which means barbarians and is properly pronounced as "Kelt".

They lived inparts of Europe from the 8C to the mid 1C BC. Though Greek and Romn writers portrayed them as fearsome, barbaric warriors, their archaeological remains reveal an accomplished society whose metal work shows a technical and artistic brilliance unsurpassed in prehistoric Europe. In Autumn 2015 the British Museum will be holding an exhibition called ‘The Celts’.

Barbara Askew

Barbara Askew grew up in Eton with Windsor Castle as part of her daily view. She graduated with an honours degree in History and taught History for 15 years before qualifying as a Blue Badge Guide. She is a lecturer, examiner and course director on Blue Badge Training Courses and an acknowledged expert on Windsor Castle, for which she has been the Blue Badge Guides’ Site Liaison Representative since 1990.  Barbara is a rota guide at the British Museum, the Houses of Parliament and the Albert Memorial, and conducts historically-themed walking tours in Windsor for the Windsor Festival and Further Education groups.

Paul Nash and CRW Nevinson were two of the most significant British artists to paint the Great War. This lecture explores their artistic backgrounds and reveals how their distinct, but related talents allowed them to portray an extraordinary, horrific and very modern war.

David Haycock

David Boyd Haycock was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and spent his childhood in Boston, Lincolnshire, and Ripon, North Yorkshire. In 1988 he went up to St John’s College, Oxford, to read ‘Modern History’, and then went on to the University of Sussex to study for an MA in Art History. His book William Stukeley was based on his PhD thesis, undertaken at the University of London. He has held research fellowships at Wolfson College, Oxford, the University of New South Wales, The Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Studies, UCLA, and the London School of Economics. For almost two years he was a curator at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. His favourite quote from A Crisis of Brilliance is Mark Gertler’s remark in August 1914, following the outbreak of World War One: ‘I hope in the future to be able to live more among trees.

On a very warm and humid day in Cranleigh, it was not difficult for the senses to be transported to the exotic shores of Tahiti for a fascinating and often amusing description of an island that still today conjures up images of dusky maidens, straw huts and swaying palms. 

John Dryden the Poet Laureate in the 17th century wrote of the idea of "A Noble Savage". The painting of the death of Wolfe by Benjamin West portrays such a man kneeling at the feet of the dying commander. The thought of an earthly Paradise waiting to be discovered captured the imagination of Society. 

In 1767 Samuel Wallace discovered Tahiti. He then laid claim and renamed it King George Island. Paintings and etchings of the period show the long war boats used by the natives to defend themselves against tribes from other islands. A year later the French arrived to claim the land and changed the name yet again.

James Cook had served as a cartographer on Bligh's ship, The Bounty. In 1778 he was sponsored by The Royal Society to make the voyage to Tahiti. Many of his crew had already made the journey and knew some of the landmarks. The objective was to chart the movement of the solar system and secretly venture to the land of Australia. 

On board was Joseph Banks the botanist. He was eager to discover the untold delights of this exotic paradise. They were charged with observing The Transit of Venus, the time when Venus passes in front of the Sun. They had one chance to chart this phenomenon as it occurs in cycles of 120 and then 8 years. This would be a wonderful aid for future navigation. 

Cook landed on 15th April, building a small fort on the spot named Point Venus. The astronomical quadrants and equipment were put into place. The night before the observation the instruments were stolen. Fortunately they were found and reconstructed just in time. 

Cook and Banks had very different views of the natives. Cook thought they were deceitful liars and thieves. Banks however had learned their language and become intimate with many of the ladies. When Cook was to make a second voyage, Banks was very keen to return. Sadly for him, Cook refused. 

Ten years of war had changed Tahiti and on Cook's return he and his men discovered commerce was now part of the lifestyle. The natives had realised that metal was a valuable commodity. As they did not have currency how could they trade? Prostitution was the commerce, paid for, by the sailors, in nails, taken from the ship. A ripple of laughter rang out at the amusing apocryphal tale of the vessel leaving for home and falling apart in the bay. 

The exotic image of this far-flung paradise remained in the minds of Europeans well into the 19th century .At the 1889 Paris World Fair there were still depictions of scantily clad dancers, luscious green mountains, quiet groves, a paradise just waiting to be enjoyed. 

In July 1891 Gaugin arrived to discover there were no longer the traditional dwellings and that Christian missionaries had convinced the ladies to cover their bodies in European style clothes. He had great difficulty is persuading any of them to remove these garments for his paintings. His mistress of Anglo Tahitian descent was not happy when he decided to move further into the interior in the hope of finding some of the unspoilt life of the island, so they went their separate way. His paintings throbbed with colour, conveying the heat and perfume of this tropical life. However, "civilised" it now was! 

For a brief period he returned to France to sell his work and then returned to an island in the Marquesas . Here he edited the local paper and fathered three children. At the age of 54 he died never having found his mythical paradise. Are there still some direct descendants of Gaugin alive today? As we ventured out into the afternoon sunshine we could only wonder.

Leslie Primo

Leslie Primo is a graduate with two degrees in Art History from Birkbeck, University College, London, specialising in early Medieval and Renaissance studies. He has worked at the National Gallery in London for 10 years, and has taught a variety of art history courses at Reading University. Leslie currently lectures at the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and teaches a variety of art history courses at the City Literary in London. He has presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute

As Venice declined, it produced ever fewer opportunities for high-grade lucrative employment and as a result, many of its native artists and musicians looked for work elsewhere.  Some went south to Rome and Florence, some gravitated to Paris, Vienna, and even Madrid, but many – inspired by the constant procession of Englishmen on the Grand Tour – set their sights on the ever expanding English capital.  Through digital images, film and live examples sung and played at the piano, Peter Medhurst explores the knock-on effect of the Venetians’ stay in 18th century London and reveals how English culture took on a discernable Venetian quality that was to be detected in its art and music for many years to come.

Peter Medhurst

Peter Medhurst’s work as singer, pianist and lecturer-recitalist has taken him all over the world, and in the last few years he has toured New Zealand, Australia (twice) and South Africa (four times), and made frequent tours in Europe, giving performances in Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Salzburg, Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris and Spain.  Closer to home, he has presented events at the Barbican, St John’s Smith Square, and the Royal Festival Hall on  Beethoven String Quartets,  Mozart Operas, Vermeer’s Music Lesson, The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Golden Age of Vienna, and 18th Century Venetian Art and Music.  He has also directed presentations at the Wallace Collection, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, linking the visual arts with the world of 17th & 18th century music making.

He is a familiar face to audiences of music societies, regional theatres and British festivals (Henley, Isle of Man, Rye, Amersham, Stevenage, Chichester, Leith Hill, The Three Choirs etc) as well as to those of arts based organisations such as The Art Fund, The National Trust and NADFAS.  On the radio, his appearances include Classic FM’s Susanna Simons’ Show, Radio 3′s In Tune, Radio 4′s Arts Programme, and MidweekwithLibby Purves.  His recordings number For Two to Play, Schubert Songs, Handel and His Satellitesand a recently released CD of 16th and 17th century keyboard music entitled Tyme at the Virginalls.  A recording of 19th and 20th century English songs is scheduled for release in Winter 2013,  as well as a new Christmas CD.

Peter Medhurst was born of German and English parents, and did his musical training at the Royal College of Music where he studied singing with Redvers Llewellyn and Edgar Evans, organ with Richard Popplewell, composition with Justin Connolly and music history with Else Mayer-Lismann, Christopher Grier and Joseph Horowitz.  In 1978, a scholarship from the Austrian government gave him the opportunity to have coaching with the accompanist Erik Werba at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.  On his return to England he took harpsichord lessons with Ruth Dyson, who became his accompanist and fellow keyboard duettist in a professional partnership that lasted until her death nearly 20 years later.

Over the years Peter Medhurst has lectured for the universities of Kent and Surrey, directed a wide range of choirs, vocal ensembles and instrumental groups, and adjudicated and given masterclasses for the British Federation of Music Festivals.

An architectural odyssey that crosses the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds in a quest to explain what the Romans demanded of a City, the very basis of their civilisation.  Even today many cities of the modern world fall well short of the example set by the Roman City.  No people in history have pursued "happiness" with such vigour and zest as the Romans.  The City was their chosen method of achieving it.

Mark Corby

Mark Corby is a freelance lecturer in history and architecture who places a special emphasis on 'Classic Civilisations' and is an occasional lecturer at the institute of Archaeology, University College London. He also lectures for NADFAS organisation. He is a presenter for BBC2, Channel 4, Channel 5 and LWT on programmes including 'the Real Spartacus' 'Alesia: Caesar's greatest battle & Vespasian', 'The Man who saved Rome', and 'The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

A delightful look at the history of pleasure piers, these elegant structures which are remarkable examples of Victorian engineering. Diverse in designs, often crowned with exotic palaces or pavilions. Places of entertainment, laughter and joy which have given untold pleasure to generations. As such, they are an important part of our social history.

Jackie Marsh-Hobbs

Jackie Marsh-Hobbs is a freelance lecturer, guide, researcher and teacher, working at the Royal Pavilion, Preston Manor and various museums. She has taught courses on architecture, local history, house history and design at the University of Sussex, and is a guest lecturer at the University of Brighton. She researches and runs several tours of famous Brighton landmarks.

The Frome Hoard of 52,503 Roman coins was found in April 2010, and dates to the period AD 253-90. Most importantly, the hoard enables a major appraisal of Carausius (AD 286-93), Britain's 'forgotten emperor' a man who defied Rome for ten years. This lecture will tell the story of Carausius, showing how the professional excavation of the hoard provides us with important insights into the reason for the seclusion of the coins.

Sam Moorhead

Sam Moorhead is the National Finds Adviser for Iron Age and Roman coins in the Department of Portable Antiquities and Treasure at the British Museum. He was voted Archaeologist of the Year in 2011 by readers of Current Archaeology, and is Honorary Secretary of the Roman Society and a Trustee of the Association for Roman Archaeology. He has published extensively on Roman coins and is co-author, with David Stuttard, of AD 410: The Year that Shook Rome (2010) and 31 BC, Antony, Cleopatra and The Year That Shook Egypt (forthcoming). He is also a long-standing member of WANHS

This lecture tells the story of Jim Thompson’s achievements, showing the process of silk production and its artistic heritage. It touches on films that have featured his silks e.g. The King and I, and reveals his house and art collection.

Denise Heywood

Denise is a lecturer, author, journalist and photographer. She has lived in France, America and, most recently, Cambodia, where she worked as a journalist for three years. She lectures for the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) on their post-graduate Asian Art Course and for Madingley Hall (University of Cambridge). She has lectured all over the world for organisations such as The British Museum, The Art Fund, The Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Asia House, The National Trust, Farnham Castle Centre for International Briefing and universities, museums, colleges, schools, art institutions, literary societies and travel organisations.

She has written books on the Buddhist temples of Laos, Ancient Luang Prabang, and on Cambodian dance, Cambodian Dance Celebration of the Gods, with a foreword by Princess Buppha Devi, daughter of King Sihanouk. She writes for many art, literary and travel publications, appears on BBC radio, leads art tours to Southeast Asia and France and lectures on cruiseships sailing throughout Asia. Denise is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom, Asia House, the Anglo-Indonesian Society, La Societe des Amis de Champa, the Cambodian Society in the United Kingdom and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

The magnificent ruins and superb mosaics of the ancient city of Zeugma have lain below pistachio groves in southeast Turkey for nearly 2000 years. Once it was on the Silk Road between Antioch and China, with a quay on the River Euphrates and an affluent population of 80,000. Now the race is on to preserve Zeugma from the rising waters of a new dam.

Louise Scholfield

Louise Scholfield For thirteen years Louise Schofield was Curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities in the British Museum. Now she works on international archaeological projects, principally in Turkey and Albania.ler

Kevin Karney will briefly chart the history of dialing, punctuating it with what poets and philosophers thought about time throughout the ages.  The sundial was seen as a symbol of the interconnected threads between cosmology, astronomy, geometry, other natural sciences, philosophy and religion.  The theme, however, is not a history lesson, but shows how the role of the sundial changed as the needs of society and science have progressed.  Since the dawn of civilization, the Sun has been used by mankind to mark the passage of the seasons and the time during the day.  It was not until the 1920’s, when radio time signals finally took over, that the last commercial use of the sundial as a time-teller finally ceased

Kevin Karney

Kevin Karney holds a Master’s Degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College Cambridge. Spent two years as VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) school teacher in Borneo. Thirty-three years – mostly overseas - in the oil business as a technical engineer and manager in exploration and production.  Now retired – sits as JP in Gwent, is Treasurer of Monmouthshire DFAS.

He has had a lifelong interest in the art and science of sundials

Akhenaten (c1352 – c1336 BC) is probably the most controversial of all the Egyptian pharaohs. He made extraordinary changes to the religion and art, all the more striking when we consider how conventional the ancient Egyptians tended to be in these respects. He replaced the traditional polytheistic religion with the worship of one solar deity, and the art is unlike that of any other pharaoh’s reign. He chose to be represented in a most singular fashion. Did he really look like this? Or was his representation determined by ideology? I shall explore these questions and consider the mythologizing of a most unusual pharaoh – a mythologizing that began soon after his death and has continued through to the present day

Dr Lucia Gahlin

Lucia is Deputy Director of the Bloomsbury Summer School at University College London, and a Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society. She has taught Egyptology for the Universities of London (Birkbeck College), Reading, Surrey, Sussex and currently Bristol, while leading a number of successful online courses for the University of Exeter

Ravenna with its cluster of 5th and 6th century churches and baptisteries contains some of the finest examples of early Christian art and a kaleidoscopic array of glittering wall mosaics. This was an art form in which the Byzantines excelled, producing examples of truly outstanding beauty in Ravenna. Dante describes the mosaics as “a great symphony of colour, their chief characteristics being clarity, harmony, brilliant colours and a decorative rhythmic design”. With the use of first class slides, the lecture looks at the mosaics in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the church of San Vitale, the churches of S. Apollinare Nuovo and S. Apollinare in Classe and in the two baptisteries of Ravenna. These were all created between c. 450-550 during a time when Ravenna was a major port linking the Italian peninsular to the Eastern Mediterranean and a cultural centre of considerable importance.

Jane Angelini 

is a graduate in Russian Studies and took a Masters degree in Byzantine & Early Russian Art & Architecture. She runs St James's Art Tours as well as working as a lecturer for NADFAS. She has translated several works of

19th century Russian literature for Penguin Books and the Oxford University Press.

How did Leonardo acquire his knowledge of anatomy and does it tie in with his artistic achievements?   This knowledge is the cornerstone of modern medical science and provides a basis for the mechanical functions of the body..

Guy Rooke

An Orthopaedic Surgeon who explores the delineation of anatomical knowledge through art and the remarkable contribution made to our understanding of the subject by Leonardo da Vinci, giving a surgeon’s view of the artist’s anatomical drawings.

The lecture is based on the Islamic manuscript, the Padshahnama (chronicle of the King of the World) which is the unique official history of the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, who ruled India from 1628 to 1658.

He is best remembered for the building of the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The Padshahnama is illustrated with 44 of the finest Mughal paintings in the world. They vividly depict the very dramatic events in the Emperor's reign and the years before it. Most of the important individuals in Shah Jahan's court can be identified and the paintings tell the remarkable story of the intrigues of court life as well as the Emperor's coronation, royal weddings, bloody battles and hunting scenes.

The book is the finest Islamic manuscript in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and was given to King George III in 1797 by the ruler of the north Indian state of Oudh.

Oliver Everett

Following service in the Foreign Office, including postings in India and Spain, our lecturer was Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, 1978-80; and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981-3 and was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1984-2002.

He is now Librarian Emeritus following his retirement in 2002. He wrote the official guidebook and audio tour on Windsor Castle, taught a course on its history and advised on a television programme about it. He wrote articles on the Royal Library and helped with two books on aspects of the Royal Collection. He is advising on a possible history series for television.

He was educated at Cambridge University and did post graduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA; and at the London School of Economics.

He lectures widely in Britain and abroad and we are happy to welcome him back
to WWDFAS

When Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 it was covered with dense jungle but the American academic and explorer, Hiram Bingham III, realised the magnificence of the site.  The Incas believed that every object in nature had a spirit which they had to protect.  Paths were built round rocks – earth and man-made structures seemed to coalesce.  We may never know who lived there and why it was abandoned but it is one of the most fascinating places on earth – a site of infinite beauty and mystery..

Gloria Broadbent

Gloria Broadbent gained a degree in Architecture in Cusco and completed an MA in Theory and History of Architecture in Lima, Peru – has lectured in many UK institutions and Universities and supplied lecture briefings on Peru to diplomats. She has had several articles published in architectural publications.

This lecture illustrates the continuing influence of the Italian architect and designer Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) on British architecture and landscapes from the 16th Century to the 19th Century.

The talk covers the Grand Tour of the English 'Mi-lords' in the 17th and 18th Century illustrating Palladio's buildings in Italy.

Then we look at many of the great houses of Britain including Chatsworth, Clandon, Chiswick, Dyrham, Hardwick, Kedleston, Petworth, Stourhead, Wilton etc.

Dai Evans

Was the Director of Picton Castle

The first bodies to be built on early motor cars were provided by existing carriage makers.  Most of these ‘cars’ were really carriages with added motors: and we still talk of ‘carriageways’ and ‘coachwork’.

This lecture will describe some common types of carriage, trace how they influenced car design, say something of the skills involved, and illustrate coachwork design in its extravagant heyday of the first half of the 20th century

Clive Barham-Carter

Clive Barham-Carter is a hugely experienced lecturer and has managed to combine this with being a secondary school teacher for the past 30 years

In Mozart's day, who would have known who he was, and how? Why did the 'prima donna' get her fiery reputation? Which have been better for opera: dictatorships or democracies? Has opera ever been truly self-financing? When did opera audiences begin to turn up on time and remain quiet during performances? And how did a supposedly 'elitist' art form take root in such egalitarian societies as Australia and the USA? 

These are some of the questions addressed in a richly illustrated Lecture about the history of an art form that incorporates all the others. From the birth of opera in late Renaissance Italy we move to Louis XIV’s Versailles, Handel’s London, Mozart’s Vienna, Verdi’s Italy, Wagner’s Germany, Gilded Age America and the world-wide spread of opera in the 20thC. The Lecture concentrates on the 'demand' rather than the 'supply', and considers eg: patronage of the arts, the changing nature of the operatic professions, opera and politics, theatrical architecture and stage design, and the impact of new technologies from gaslight to digital downloads. By the 21stC, opera had become truly global in its appeal. Yet, with the core repertoire seeming to slip into an ever-receding past and the world plunged into economc recession, the question must be addressed: does opera have a future? 

Daniel Snowman

Daniel Snowman is a frequent speaker for a number of British arts festivals, cultural organisations, luncheon clubs, NADFAS (National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies) etc, and in a typical year delivers some 40-50 illustrated talks and lectures in the UK and abroad

This Lecture examines the unusual phenomenon of the artist monks or “frate dipintore” in Renaissance Florence – men who lived, on the one hand, an austere and cloistered existence and yet rose to become some of the most successful and highly respected artists of their time. Fra Filippo Lippi, Lorenzo Monaco and Fra Angelico were well-known not only as painters of devotional works for their own orders but also as highly active and successful figures outside their monasteries. How were they able to lead these demanding and no doubt attractive double-lives, and did their religious duties help or hinder their artistic activities? We discuss these questions with reference in particular to works on display in the National Gallery, London.

Siân Walters

Siân Walters is an art historian and lectures for the National Gallery, Surrey University and NADFAS. Her specialist areas are 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish Art and Architecture, and the relationship between Dance and Art (she is an honorary advisor to the Nonesuch Historical Dance Society). She has given a number of lectures on this subject for the National Gallery, including events in conjunction with the Gallery’s recent 'Renaissance Siena' and 'Sacred made Real' exhibitions. Siân runs her own company, Art History in Focus which organises regular lectures, study days and art holidays abroad and was recently nominated in the Daily Telegraph 'World’s Best Guide' Award. Last year Siân was invited to give the prestigious annual T Rowland Hughes Lecture at the University of Wales, which in recent years has been given by leading figures in the art world such as Neil Macgregor, Sir Roy Strong and Sir Kyffin Williams. Siân studied at Cambridge University where she was awarded a choral exhibition and a 1st for her dissertation on the paintings of Arnold Schoenberg. She has lived in France and Italy where she worked for the eminent Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon and for the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

The Greeks trace their culture back to two earlier cultures known as the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. The Minoans were named after the legendary King Minos. A large palace had been discovered at Krossos on the island of Crete. It is believed to have been built around 2000 B.C. The Minoans grew grapes, grain, and olives and traded with the Greeks, Egyptians, and others in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The Mycenaeans were from the Peloponnesian Peninsula. They invaded and conquered the Minoans on Crete. The most famous of the Mycenaean kings was named Agamemnon. He was a key figure in the Trojan War, as retold in Homer’s poem the Iliad. The Mycenaeans were then conquered by the Dorians. This began the period in Greek history known as the Dark Ages

George Hart

George Hart graduated with degrees in Classics and Egyptology from University College London and spent over thirty years on the staff of the British Museum, lecturing and running courses on Ancient Egypt.  He is a Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society and is a member of the editorial board of its bulletin Egyptian Archaeology.  He has written books on Egyptian religion, mythology and the monuments of the Pyramid Age, and has led tours to Egypt for the British Museum and Swan Hellenic. He has directed many highly successful courses for BSS.

Alan begins with a description of silk manufacture. He will then trace this 8000 mile route which religions, commerce and conquerors have travelled for the last 3000 years. Starting from Xian, the talk follows the Great Wall and passes over the Roof if the World. The caravans en route are drawn by camels, yaks, mules and horses. The journey continues through Samarkand and Isfahan to Syria and Turkey and thence on to Constantinople, Athens, Venice and Rome.

Alan Bott

MR ALAN BOTT OBE is a Bodley Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.  During 40 years' service with P&O his work took him round the world 42 times (twice by sea). Alan is an Extramural University lecturer on the History of European Architecture, a NADFAS lecturer to 225 Societies and the author of ten books on architectural and antiquarian subjects. 

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, refers to the administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries inEngland, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their income, disposed of their assets and provided for their former members.

The Greatest Act of Artistic Vandalism in English History

In just four years the artistic and architectural heritage of Medieval England was swept away in an orgy of vandalism and self-destruction, unparalleled in English history. Over 800 monastic sites were looted of their treasures and their buildings left to rot.

Mark Corby

Mark is a freelance lecturer in history and architecture.  He has led numerous "adventure" tours to Spain, Sicily, Italy, Cyprus, Turkey, Libya and Ireland.  TV historical presenter for The Real Spartacus, Roman London, Vespasian and The Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Technical innovations in printing coupled with creative genius and remarkable craftsmanship enabled the Poster to become the world's first effective method of mass communication.

From Manet's 'Les Chats' to Cheret's 'Saxoleine' and Lautrec's 'Moulin Rouge', you will see inspirational work by artists who made the poster great. The lecture will deal with Lithography, what it is and how Cheret almost single-handedly made it the chosen method of poster artists. Techniques had to be specially invented for lithographic posters - because the artists worked on stone, not on canvas!

Charles Harris

Mr Harris was the Creative Director of global advertising agencies and has lectured extensively on design, illustration and photographic styles as they have influenced the building of brands 

Throughout the history of art, men have often been depicted as behaving badly. Characters from Hogarth’s ‘Rake’s Progress’ through to other rakes and rogues featured in 19th and 20th century paintings will be discussed as well as some of the artists themselves (eg Rosetti, Rodin, John and Picasso).

John Iddon

Is a Lecturer and guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Ran course on Heritage Interpretation at St. Mary's University College. Art lecturer on the Queen Mary II

Over Turner's long career, he travelled extensively and sought to experience the nature he was depicting through his art. It was said that he literally tied himself to the mast of a ship to experience the force of a storm before painting it. He loved to paint ships, violent storms, fires, fog. As his work matured, it became almost impressionistic in style and many believe he laid the foundation for the French Impressionist painters to come. In his later years he became quite withdrawn and eccentric. At the end of his life at age of 76, his last words were "The Sun is God". He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. It's ironic that he was routinely referred to as the "Painter of Light".

John Ruskin, an influential art critic of the time, claimed that no one but Turner could "most stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of nature". Turner, along with William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough, and John Constable are considered by many, to be the greatest English landscape artists of their time.

The name ‘Laura Ashley’ is an international byword for the classic English countrywoman living in domestic bliss. But what was Laura Ashley the woman really like, behind the façade of the family-based company that not only used her name, but was moulded on her personal image?

Anne Sebba describes Laura the astute business woman with her sure instinct for forecasting trends, her canny feel for colour and fabric and her often brilliant but perfectly simple ideas. She describes Laura the wife and mother: her relationship with Bernard, her sadness at leaving Wales and her family for life on the Continent, her conviction that her place was with her husband.

Anne Sebba

Anne Sebba is a biographer, lecturer, journalist and former Reuters foreign correspondent. Her first job was at the BBC World Services in the Arabic Department. She has written eight books, several short stories and introductions to reprinted novels. She is a member of the Society of Authors Executive Committee and is working on a biography of Wallis Simpson  In 1990 Laura Ashley: A Life By Design was published in UK and US and also reached several bestseller lists. This was a biography of a businesswoman, wife, mother and proto-feminist who became one of the leading influences on British twentieth century design and marketing. It was serialised in the Daily Mail and in Australia. The Sunday Telegraph described it as "a moving book. Anne Sebba has written a vivid, true story.

Charles John Huffham Dickens (1812-1870) was born in Portsmouth, son of a pay clerk in the Navy office. His memories of working aged 12 in a blacking warehouse, when his father was imprisoned for debt, were the inspiration for much of his fiction. He captured the popular imagination as no other novelist has done and was admired by Queen Victoria and Dostoevsky, who read David Copperfield and Pickwick Papers while he was in Omsk prison. Both writers share an interest in major subjects such as the city, children, crime, and the suffering of the innocent.

Jane Tapley is the Special Events Organiser at the Theatre Royal Bath where she has worked for the past 20 years. She frequently interviews visiting actors, writers and directors. She lectures regularly to theatre going societies, NT and History and Fine Arts groups. She is also a Blue Badge Guide/Lecturer, Freelance Author and Researcher, Home Economist and Theatrical Landlady!

This lecture looks at the enormous changes in our homes over a hundred year period, encompassing aspects of household taste from Victorian clutter to the psychedelic ‘throw away’ furnishings of the 1970s. Although in many ways light-hearted, the lecture examines how social upheaval, War and technological advances transformed our houses. From the 1880s, when each interior was governed by strict convention and the home was regarded as a shrine to family life, we look at how change gradually came about. The coming of electricity and central heating altered appearance and comfort and other major developments in design all changed our interiors. 

Matthew Williams

Holds degrees from the Universities of Nottingham and Manchester and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. A recognised expert on the work of the Victorian designer William Burges, Matthew was Curator of Cardiff Castle for nearly 30 years. His most recent  publication is a major book Cardiff Castle and the Marquesses of Bute, published in 2019. A long-standing member of The Arts Society, Matthew has been a programme secretary and a chairman before becoming an accredited lecturer in 2001.

Textiles provided the interiors of Elizabethan aristocratic houses with colour, glamour, texture and symbolism. Now only a fraction survives of the huge collections of textiles that once graced and invigorated Elizabethan mansions and palaces. This talk looks at the designs, techniques and uses of these textiles, as well as subject matter and the Elizabethans’ fondness for decoding hidden messages and devices. The talk is fully illustrated with a range of images including tapestries, bed hangings, cushion covers, wall hangings and table carpets, as well as references from contemporary inventories and paintings.

Dr Gillian White specialises in the history and visual arts of late medieval and sixteenth-century England. After beginning her career at the Warwickshire Museum, she then worked for the National Trust as Curator/Collections Manager at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, about which she wrote her PhD at Warwick University. Since that she taught part-time at Leicester University in the Centre for the Study of the Country House and continues to teach History of Art in the Department of Continuing Education at Oxford University and elsewhere.

Velázquez (1599-1660) was the leading artist of Spain’s Golden Age. His unique talent is viewed from his youth in Seville through his long career as court artist, courtier and friend of the Habsburg King Philip IV of Spain. His total works number less than 130 paintings, yet they show great variety and versatility. The formality of the court is evident in his projects for royal palaces, while his keen observing eye is revealed in iconic court portraits, less formal paintings for palaces and hunting lodges, landscapes, frail Habsburg children, and proud dwarves and courtiers. His great painting Las Meninas ('The Maids of Honour') epitomises Philip’s court, and some say, the art of painting itself.

Gail Turner

Historian, art historian, and painter. Lecturer for The Arts Society since 1992, lectures regularly for the V&A High Renaissance and Baroque course, Art Pursuits, and the Art Fund. Has taught on Cambridge University International Summer Schools, the Courtauld Institute Summer Courses, Inscape, Gainsborough’s House and other arts organisations. She has led tours to Spain for The Arts Society and other tour companies. Lectured in the Prado and Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid 1983-5, was Deputy Curator of Keats Shelley Memorial House, Rome 1978-80, manager of the Courtauld Slide Scheme 1977, and a Christie’s consultant (Ill. MSS) 1976. Gail has recently given a course at the National Gallery, on Sorolla. In 2015 Gail was awarded the Encomienda de Isabel la Catolica (the equivalent of the CBE) by the King of Spain for promoting Spanish culture among British audiences, and was recently elected President of The Arts Society Colchester.

Sex, shock, scandal – secrets of ballet's greatest maestro

Hopeless with money, a nightmare to work with, jealous of male dancers who took female lovers – but Diaghilev, the son of a vodka merchant, electrified the sedate world of dance

During the liberation of Paris in August 1944, the photographer Lee Miller made her way to Picasso’s studio on rue des Grands-Augustins, where she was greeted with a wide-eyed grin. ‘This is wonderful – the first Allied soldier I’ve seen, and it’s you!’ the artist exclaimed, reaching up to place his hand affectionately around her neck.

Miller had just escaped house arrest for breaching the terms of her press accreditation by entering a combat zone. The PR office of the US Army had dispatched her – one of just four American female photographers they granted an official commission – to Saint-Malo in the mistaken belief that the fighting there was over. As bombs fell, Miller stood by with her camera and, according to her son Antony, caught the use of napalm on film; her negatives were later seized by the censors. She spent her four-day confinement sleeping it off and writing a 10,000-word article on the siege for Vogue.

The choice of publication seems unlikely unless you know that Miller had begun her career as a fashion model. The New Yorker was picked up by Mr Condé Nast himself as she strolled idly into the path of a car but became better known for posing in Hitler’s bathtub as an up-yours to the Nazis following her visit to Dachau. As she made her way surreptitiously through Paris for the liberation, her eye turned only too naturally to the celebratory clothes worn by the other women – the ‘full floating skirts’, the ‘tiny waist lines’. She, for her part, was still dressed in shirt and slacks.

Anthony Penrose

For the past 30 years has conserved and disseminated the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. He is the director of The Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection at Farley Farm House in Sussex and has seen his parents' work featured in major exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Whitworth. He has lectured at museums and universities around the world, and made documentaries for television. Publications include The Lives of Lee Miller, Lee Miller's War (editor), The Angel and the Fiend, The Home of the Surrealists, Roland Penrose the Friendly Surrealist and The Boy Who Bit Picasso.

The Duke of Wellington achieved fame through the defeat of Napoleon, at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In 1817, he purchased Apsley House, and filled it with many treasures. Some were gifts given in gratitude such as 200 paintings from the Spanish Royal Collection, rescued from a fleeing Joseph Bonaparte in northern Spain, and later gifted to Wellington by the King of Spain. The Duke of Wellington added paintings, porcelain, sculptures, and silver to his collection with many items still on display at Apsley House today.

This will provide an overview of the evolution of the architecture of Ireland’s finest country houses.  Over nine consecutive weeks, drawing on new research and insights, academics and authors will chart the stylistic development of Ireland’s country houses, while explaining who commissioned, designed and built these houses that arguably form the most impressive building typology of Ireland’s architectural heritage.

Commencing with the 17th century Jacobean country house with a focus on Portumna, Rathfarnham and Jigginstown, the lectures will continue weekly on a chronological and stylistic basis, examining the post-Restoration country houses of Beaulieu House, Stackallan, Mount Ievers Court, Eyre Court, Damer House, Doneraile and Kilmacurragh. The arrival of Palladian style to Ireland will be dealt with through two lectures: the early Palladian house illustrated by Castletown, Bellamont Forest, Stillorgan Park, Summerhill and Castle Hume, and the later-Palladian country houses of Belvedere, Carton, Powerscourt, Russborough, Kilshannig and Castletown Cox.  Next the neo-Classical country house will be examined with the exemplars of Abbeyleix, Castle Coole, Curraghmore, Westport, and Headfort.  The Regency era country house will follow with two dedicated lectures; the Gothic Revival regency country houses of Slane Castle, Charleville Castle, Birr Castle, Tullynally, Lough Cutra, Knockdrin and Killeen Castle; and the classical Italianate Regency country houses expressed at Lyons, Mount Stewart, Fota, Lissadell and Barons Court.  The last of the styles to be examined will be the Tudor-Revival country houses of the Victorian era with a focus on Lough Fea House, Crom Castle, Carrigglas Manor, Kilruddery and Castle Leslie.

Tom Duncan

After a generation in University life, 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.

This lecture looks specifically at all of Wren’s surviving steeples and domes in the City of London, which he created with the deliberate intention of providing the City with a panoramic skyline alongside the dome of his great cathedral of St Paul’s. The variety is immense, with plain towers, lead steeples, simple spires and built-up classical steeples in stone. The lecture is illustrated with a large number of digital photographs. 

Tony Tucker

MA in Modern History from Oriel College, Oxford, Qualified City Guide and former Chairman of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association and Trustee of the Friends of the City Churches (FCC). Lectures to various City institutions, the FCC, U3A, and various historical associations. Leads regular guided walks for the City of London Corporation, the Friends of the City Churches and numerous private groups. Publications include The Visitor’s Guide to the City of London Churches  (2006) and regular contributions to Cityguide magazine and the FCC Newsletter.

The life of Lee Miller, told with reference to those with whom she exchanged creative inspiration – Man Ray, Roland Penrose, Pablo Picasso, David E. Scherman, her father Theodore Miller and her son Antony Penrose. A definitive view by her son and biographer this presentation has been acclaimed for its ability to embrace many different levels of the history of art and photography, social commentary and emotional connection with the subject. • Contains some war time images which may be disturbing. 

Anthony Penrose

For the past 30 years has conserved and disseminated the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. He is the director of The Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection at Farley Farm House in Sussex and has seen his parents' work featured in major exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Whitworth. He has lectured at museums and universities around the world, and made documentaries for television. Publications include The Lives of Lee Miller, Lee Miller's War (editor), The Angel and the Fiend, The Home of the Surrealists, Roland Penrose the Friendly Surrealist and The Boy Who Bit Picasso.

Despite his German birth and his Italian musical training, Handel remains one of the most important composers that England ever nurtured. Not only did his music have direct influence on his musical contemporaries, but his largerthan-life personality had a profound effect on the literary, visual and decorative arts as well – both in his lifetime and after his death, in 1759. By exploring the works of the French sculptor Roubiliac, the paintings of Hudson and Denner, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the novels of Samuel Butler, the Crystal Palace, the chimes of Westminster, as well as compositions by Sullivan and Tippett, the lecture assesses the cultural influences Handel had on a nation, as he once wrote, “from whom I have receiv’d so Generous a protection”.

Peter Medhurst

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.

The Derby Porcelain Factory is believed to have been founded by the Huguenot, Andrew Planché in late 1747 or early 1748; another Huguenot, James Marchand may have joined him there. In the V&A there is an unsigned partnership agreement dated 1 January 1756 between Planché, William Duesbury (who ran a porcelain decorating business in London from 1751-1753) and a banker John Heath who provided finance. Planché left around this time leaving William Duesbury (1725-1786) in charge of the Derby factory which he enlarged.
Many notable artists (incl. Zachariah Boreman, James Banford and William Billingsley) and figure modellers (incl. John Bacon RA, Pierre Stephan and Nicholas Francois Gauron from Tournai) were employed at the Derby factory and at the Chelsea Porcelain factory which Duesbury acquired in 1770: hence Chelsea-Derby. Duesbury also opened a London showroom in Bedford Street, Covent Garden in 1774 (first agent William Wood, then Joseph Lygo) for which there is a draft trade card in the BM. The term 'Crown Derby' resulted from the grant of a royal warrant in 1775. Dr Johnson visited the Derby factory in 1777. Duesbury's son William Duesbury II (1763-1797) became joint manager in 1784 and he ran the factory after his father's death until with his own health failing he entered a partnership with Michael Kean in December 1795.
The 18thC Derby porcelains of particular note are the early 'dry-edge' figures; certain wares of the late 1750s and early 1760s decoratively painted with birds, cherries and moths; some of the biscuit porcelain figures of the Chelsea-Derby period and the years immediately succeeding it; and the best of the landscape and botanical painting in the closing decades of the 18thC.
Porcelain manufacture continued in the 19thC under the management of Robert Bloor (from 1715 until his health deteriorated in 1828, died 1846). The Nottingham Road factory closed in 1848. Shortly afterwards some of the former employees set up a new factory in King Street, Derby which continued in production until 1935 when it was acquired by the owners of Royal Crown Derby which started life in a new works at Osmaston Road in 1877 and was still operating in 2000.

Diana Lloyd

Diana Lloyd is a freelance lecturer in Ceramic, Glass and the History of Interior Decoration in Europe, North America and South America. She lectures at the Inchbald School of Design; The Design School; and for American University groups, the National Trust and Antiquities Societies. She guides groups through Museum collections and Country Houses. Diana collects Ceramics and Glass. She has a Diploma with Distinction in Fine and Decorative Arts, Inchbald School of Design

Frank Brangwyn was a muralist, oil painter, watercolourist, etcher, lithographer, wood engraver and designer of interiors, furniture, carpets, ceramics and stained glass. The artist produced over 12,000 works during his lifetime. He was arguably the first British artist to gain an international reputation and certainly the first living artist to be honoured with a retrospective at the Royal Academy.  The lecture will provide an overview of all the disciplines with which the artist was involved, with special reference to the Skinner’s Hall murals, and a discussion of his life in Ditchling.

Libby Horner

Libby Horner is a freelance art historian, curator, film producer, lecturer and the world’s leading authority on Brangwyn. She has published numerous articles and books about the artist including Frank Brangwyn: Stained Glass (2010), Brangwyn @ WAR! (2014), Brangwyn’s ‘Pots’, catalogue of ceramics and glassware (2018) and Christ’s Hospital Murals (2019). She is currently finalising details for Brangwyn’s Big Prints Book. Lectures beautifully illustrated and delivered with a sense of humour!

This lecture is an introduction to the senior livery companies of London, their medieval origins and their role in modern society. Some companies maintain fine Livery Halls with historical and art treasures. They support charitiable causes and paly an imporrtnat role in education. Only Liverymen and Liverywomen may elect the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London.

Fennella Billington (Evening Lecture)

Fenella Billington has an MA in Art History from Manchester University. As a Liverywoman of the Worshipful Company of Skinners in London,

In 1985, 21-year-old Amelie Drummond, dressed in a crinoline gown spangled with gold, was leaning against the wall of a ballroom in a vast house in Germany when she spotted someone staring at her. Across the room, which was filled with the great and the good of Europe, was a tall and lean man wearing a daffodil-yellow tailcoat with red velvet collar and cuffs, full white tie and hunting boots - the evening wear of the Normandy hunting pack, the Rallye du Mont Malgré Tout. In his hand was a silver-topped malacca cane. Moments later, they were chatting. And a few moments after that, Amelie decided she was talking to the man she would one day marry.

Amelie was brought up in Megginch Castle in Perthshire, which was filled with whippets, dressing-up cupboards and birds of prey. Her father Humphrey Drummond was a captain in the mountain artillery and a keen falconer; her mother Cherry was a formidable woman and, as Baroness Strange, a much loved member of the House of Lords, whose work for war widows is still remembered. There were six children in the family, three of whom Cherry home-schooled. Creature comforts, it is probably fair to say, were not high on the list of priorities, but a sense of adventure and endeavour was encouraged.

When she returned home to Megginch from the ball in Germany - following a heady week in Paris with the dashing huntsman - Amelie had news that she was desperate to share with her parents. 'They were watching a television programme about Glamis Castle and said I had to wait until it had finished before I could speak to them,' she recalls. Following an agonising wait of 40 minutes, Amelie was at last able to reveal that she had met Philippe Maurice de MacMahon, the 4th Duc de Magenta, and that she would be leaving university at once to live with him in his chateau in France.

Despite any reservations her parents had about this sudden development, they decided to support her. Within weeks, Amelie had left her studies in psychology at City of London Polytechnic, packed up her things and set off for Burgundy and the beautiful Château de Sully.

Sully is one of the largest chateaux in the region. Although its origins date back to the Roman era, the house grew into its current magnificence during the sixteenth century in the hands of the Saulx Tavannes family. Two centuries on, Sully passed to Charlotte le Belin, dame d'Eguilly, who had married an Irish doctor called John MacMahon. His ancient lineage was recognised by Louis XV and he was given the right to use the title Marquis d'Eguilly, which became Marquis de MacMahon. His grandson Maurice was granted the title Duc de Magenta as a reward for his victories on the battlefield in the mid-nineteenth century. Maurice later became the third President of the French Republic (1873-1879).

Eccentrics are those people who exhibit behaviour patterns which are far from the norm in their society. In Britain we have encouraged and tolerated them for centuries. They can be divided into several groups including: recluses, collectors, builders, flamboyant dressers and those who adopt strange proclivities. Some eccentrics even adopt several of these activities at once. Most of us all love the stories told about Edith Sitwell and Oscar Wilde for example, and celebrate their ability to add colour to the life of their periods. This lecture looks at a range of eccentrics and their portraits and tells some of the tales about them.

David Cross

Hon. Research Fellow, Durham University. Founder of the Cumbrian Biographical Project. Past President of Cumbria DFAS. Author of biography of George Romney. Specialises in Lake District artists of all genres. Art history lecturer to undergraduate and adult classes at Universities. Catalogue of Paintings in Durham Castle (2002). In recent years has lectured on cruises in the Mediterranean and Baltic. He has edited two volumes of the illustrated letters of Percy Kelly (1919-1993). His volume in the national series on public sculpture is Public Sculpture of Lancashire and Cumbria and was published in 2017.

Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas refers to slavery of and by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The history of slavery spans all regions of the world; during the Pre-Columbian era, many societies in the Americas enslaved prisoners of war or instituted systems of forced labor. Contact with Europeans transformed these practices, as the Spanish introduced chattel slavery through warfare and the cooption of existing systems.[1][2] Other European powers followed suit, and from the 15th through the 19th centuries, between two and five million indigenous people were enslaved,[a][3][4] which had a devastating impact on many indigenous societies, contributing to the overwhelming population decline of indigenous peoples in the Americas.[5]

After the decolonization of the Americas, the enslavement of indigenous peoples continued into the 19th century in frontier regions of some countries, notably parts of Brazil, Northern Mexico, and the Southwestern United States. Some indigenous groups adopted European-style chattel slavery during the colonial period, most notably the "Five Civilized Tribes" in the United States, however far more indigenous groups were involved in the selling of indigenous slaves to Europeans

How to read the signs and symbols within Medieval art, some more easy to detect than others. This lectures considers art of the period c.1100 – c.1500 and guides the audience through where it might be found and the forms it might take as well as what it meant to the Medieval viewer. This ranges from formal sculpture to graffiti. It answers some basic questions (e.g. why are fonts usually octagonal, is a hedgehog a good or bad figure in Medieval art?), but also considers body language and how to spot saints. There is also a detailed analysis of at least three different types of art form.

Imogen Corrigan

I was in the army for nearly 20 years and then turned to a life-long interest with the result that in 2004 I graduated from the University of Kent with a 1st class honours degree in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval History and with an M.Phil from the University of Birmingham and have been studying ever since.

I have been lecturing and running study tours on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval history for some years and I use art – usually church art – as the evidence in my research as much as possible. But  however lovely or bizarre the images might be, it fascinates me to try to get at the people who made them and to hear their voices speaking.  Sometimes, I may say, they speak to us directly and write things such as the Anglo-Saxon scribe who complained at the end of his manuscript that: “three fingers write, but my whole body labours.” I cover 1,000 years of history and I like to take the major events and look at the individuals living through those times to try to understand them. For instance, when we see an image made around 1400, we could be seeing a reaction to the several catastrophes of the C14th, and might be looking at a cry for help, or someone reacting to the situation with sensitivity, superstition or perhaps with humour.

I lecture for Martin Randall Travel, ACE Cultural Tours and other specialist travel companies leading tours which have included ‘A White Garment of Churches’ (French cathedrals), ‘Medieval Pilgrimage’, ‘Medieval Brittany’, ‘The Age of Bede’, ‘An Appointment with Angels’ (Norfolk Churches), ‘First-Millennium Northumbria’, ‘Welsh Marches’ and ‘An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England’. I  lecture on board small ships for Noble Caledonia  as well as  for The Arts Society (formerly called NADFAS). I am a speaker for the U3A, Kent Federation of History, East Kent National Trust amongst many others.  I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the British Commission for Military History.

On a different note, I believe that I may be one of only two people who are the third generation of women to serve in the British Army. My maternal grandmother was a driver in the Women’s Legion in WW1 and was in the ATS in WW2.  My mother served in the ATS and WRAC and I was in the WRAC and AG Corps. Not only did we all join the army, but we all changed Corps and so had two cap-badges. I’m always interested to hear if anyone else has the same record.

Breaking news!

I’m delighted to say that I have been admitted as a Freeman of the Company of Communicators and recently was given the Freedom of the City of London.

This talk focuses on the family and influences upon Charles Darwin and Captain Robert FitzRoy, the commander of HMS Beagle, and their participation in the celebrated voyage of 1831-36 which enabled Darwin to collect vital evidence for his ground-breaking publication On the Origin of Species. FitzRoy paid for two artists, Augustus Earle and Conrad Martens, to paint the people and places encountered, and these images underpin the series of sensational seafaring stories. 

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.

The East India Company (EIC)[a] was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600[b] and dissolved in 1874.[4] It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with East Asia. The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world[vague]. The EIC had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three Presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British army at the time.[5][6] The operations of the company had a profound effect on the global balance of trade, almost single-handedly[7] reversing the trend of eastward drain of Western bullion, seen since Roman times.[8]

Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies",[9][10] the company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s,[11] particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.[11][12]

The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.

Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances. The company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act enacted one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of the British Raj had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies.

In Europe and the US, the average person spends 84% of their life indoors: that is, inside architecture. Much of the rest of the time we are around buildings, even if we’re not paying them a great deal of attention. Despite this massive exposure, on the whole we’re not – as a culture – very ambitious about what buildings look like. We tend to assume that mostly the buildings we live around won’t be anything special and that there’s nothing to be done about this. We’ve come to imagine that great buildings are the unique and very expensive creations of genius-architects. You might travel to see great architecture on holiday perhaps but it’s hardly to be expected as standard at home. Vicenza, 25 miles inland from Venice, is one of the leading sites of global architectural tourism and for one reason: many of the works of Andrea Palladio are located in and around that town.

Andrea Palladio was born at the end of November in 1508 in Padua. He was an apprentice stone mason and later a stone carver. His real name was Andrea di Pietro della Gondola (i.e. Andrew, son of Peter the Gondolier). And it was only when he was around thirty years of age that he got involved in designing buildings himself – and his first important patron suggested a stylish name change, to Palladio.

[It’s not intuitively obvious how to say his name. A safe bet is to start with ‘pa’ (as in dad); then ‘lad’ as in ‘a bit of a lad’; and finish up with with a brisk ‘ay-oh’: pa-lad-ayoh.]

Over the next forty years of his working life, Palladio designed forty or so villas, a couple of town houses and a handful of churches. Not a huge list, given the amount of building that was going on at the time. For most of his career he had a mix of professional successes and setbacks; though during his sixties he finally emerged as the top architect  in Venice – about the richest and most powerful city in the world at that time. He was a devoted father, but his two elder sons – who worked alongside him – died young. Palladio himself died in the summer of 1580. He was 71.

George III is unjustly remembered solely as having been mad and having lost the American colonies. The lecture corrects this impression.
He was a discerning art collector, patron of the arts and artists, friend of America and Americans, and a committed family man. He was also a keen architect who added the future Buckingham Palace to the Royal residences, and reinhabited Windsor Castle.

The talk describes his life, family and wide interests, his patronage of the arts, his important additions to the Royal Collection and his relationship with North America and Americans.

Oliver Everett

Oliver Everett was educated at Cambridge University and did post graduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA; and at the London School of Economics. Following service in the Foreign Office, including postings in India and Spain, he was Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, 1978-80; and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981-83. He was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1984-2002. He is now Librarian Emeritus following his retirement in 2002. He wrote the official guidebook and audio tour on Windsor Castle, taught a course on its history and advised on a television programme about it. He wrote articles on the Royal Library and helped with two books on aspects of the Royal Collection. He is advising on a possible history series for television. He lectures widely in Britain and abroad and also on cruise ships.

From the sunflower in Van Dyck's self-portrait to roses scattered around Botticelli's Venus to columbines in the borders of fifteenth-century manuscripts, flowers grace many Renaissance artworks. But their symbolism may not be understood by the modern viewer. This is the first book to untangle the richly layered botanical messages in many of the world's great masterpieces.

Renaissance artists made conscious choices about the flowers they included in their work and by embracing new methods of observation, rendered petals and leaves with an accuracy that made each species easily identifiable. Focusing on twenty popular Renaissance flowers, including roses, lilies, irises, tulips, daises, and poppies, the author discusses the history of cultivation of each variety before examining its symbolic meanings.

Flowers and plants were not usually the subject of a painting, but rather elements of a larger religious story. Influenced by the revival of classical ideals, Renaissance artists frequently married religious symbolism with that from contemporary romances or classical mythology. For example, the hortus conclusus or closed garden, traditionally a reference to the Virgin Mary, also became a symbol for the popular Romance of the Rose, and Venus, in her purest aspect as the goddess of love, was aligned with the Virgin Mary and, like her, often surrounded by roses or daisies.

Dr. Celia Fisher

Celia Fisher is a freelance art historian and plant specialist and the author of Flowers and Fruit (National Gallery London, 1998) and The Medieval Flower Book (British Library, 2007).

Over the years, Jen has made many presentations on Welsh quilts, blankets and textiles. She has written for and has featured in numerous books and magazines and is frequently asked to talk about Welsh quilts, on quilting and interior design programmes on television.

Jen wants to make this colourful and artistic aspect of Welsh culture accessible to everybody. Antiques TV finds out the history of these highly collectable items. We have included a short video made by Jen for Antiques TV, which recounts the history and takes you on a tour of the shop here in Pontbrendu.

Four hundred years of international jewellery design, examining the changing styles from the pomp of High Renaissance enamelled gold work to the glamour of Harry Winston diamonds. This presentation covers many of the key elements of manufacture, including the progress of diamond cutting, Neoclassicism and Romanticism, 19th century Archaeological and Renaissance Revivalism, the impact of diamond mining in South Africa, Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts and Art Deco, Post War Modernism and designs of the future. Other important areas covered include Cartier and the introduction of platinum jewellery as a statement of style and the jewels of the Duchess of Windsor. 

John Benjamin

John Benjamin is a jewellery historian, lecturer, author and broadcaster. Formerly International Director of Jewellery at Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers, since 1999 he has been an independent jewellery consultant on behalf of the private client network. John is well-known from his appearances over 30 years on BBC Television’s ever-popular Antiques Roadshow. He is a Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company, a Court Assistant and Founder Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and in 2021 was appointed Honorary Jewellery Adviser to the National Trust

The fame of Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, rests mainly on his vivid paintings of Venice, his native city. Only rarely was he tempted to travel, but the popularity of his works with British tourists and patrons led him to England in 1746, and his visit became a productive, nine-year stay. This beautiful book focuses on the fruits of Canaletto's English sojourn, reproducing the views of London he painted while there, as well as the Italian and imaginary views he painted in response to the vigorous demands of his patrons. The book offers a full study of Canaletto's English period along with detailed catalogue entries for about fifty paintings and twenty drawings. The works depict such landmarks as St. Paul's Cathedral, Somerset House, and Westminster Bridge as well as views of Venice and Rome and caprices in which the artist playfully organizes Renaissance palaces and Classical ruins in fanciful juxtapositions.

Hugh Graham Belsey, MBE,

(born May 1954) is a British art historian who is an authority on the art of Thomas Gainsborough. For 23 years he was the curator of Gainsborough's House in Sudbury. His most recent contribution to Gainsborough scholarship is his catalogue raisonné of Gainsborough's portraits published in February 2019 by the Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Belsey worked at Bowood House in Wiltshire after which he became curator of Gainsborough's House in Sudbury, a position he held for 23 years.[1] He has been a senior research fellow at the Yale Center for British Art during which time he worked upon compiling the catalogue raisonné[2] of the portraits by Thomas Gainsborough published in February 2019.[3] He has also taught a museum course at the University of Buckingham and is known also for his annual lecture series on British art which he delivers in different Suffolk venues. He is often commissioned to write catalogue entries for the major auction houses and fine art dealers on especially Thomas Gainsborough, and the artist's nephew and only pupil Gainsborough Dupont.

Belsey was a founder member of the Constable Trust, and has served as its chairman. He was on the Council of the Association of Independent Museums for ten years.

In 2014, Belsey appeared in the BBC television series Fake or Fortune? in which he authenticated two previously unattributed works, a landscape and a portrait of Joseph Gape, as being by Thomas Gainsborough

The English upper classes drew a sharp distinction between dinner and any other time when one might eat.  While dinner was an extremely formal and public affair, there were few rules to govern other meals.  Breakfast was generally a modest self-serve selection of pastries and fruits set out on a table for a few hours in the morning, usually from around 9am until 11am.  The lady of the house might choose to have breakfast delivered to her room, so that she could avoid the necessity of appearing in public before completing her toilette (Paston-Williams, pp. 241-242). 

Lunch, during the Georgian era, was a loosely-defined snack.  It was referred to as “luncheon” or “nunchin” (Paston-Williams, p. 244).  Since it could be eaten anywhere and was not considered a meal, there was no table setting associated with it.

Even dessert was considered distinct from the formality of dinner, although it was served immediately afterwards and at the same table.  When dinner was served, it was on a long, white tablecloth.  Removal of the tablecloth signalled the end of dinner and, with it, the end of formality.  When dessert was served, diners could generally sit where they wished and discuss topics that would not have been polite for dinner conversation.

Yet itself was a grand affair.  It might be served anytime between noon and 5pm, as dictated by the custom of the house.  It would officially begin when the mistress of the house addressed the most socially prominent female present, asking her to escort the other ladies into the dining room.  This would signal the master of the house to ask his most prominent guest to do the same for the men.  At this point, each guest would be invited to enter in strict order of social hierarchy, segregated by gender.  In this prescribed order, they would arrange themselves around the table.  To seat oneself out of order would be seen as an unspeakable insult.

His work has been called brash and shallow, and hers dismissed as fussy and spinsterish. These assessments are not really fair to either artist, and this lecture takes a careful look at their lives, up to the point of Gwen’s death in 1939. At that time, she had no public reputation whatsoever, and her brother was enjoying enormous professional and critical success. By the time he died, however, the positions had been reversed.

Linda Smith

Linda is taking some time off from lecturing and will not be taking on any new engagements for a while. All existing contracts will be honoured.

Goya’s long life and career spanned the reigns of four Spanish monarchs, and much social and political upheaval. Until his late forties his main work was designing subjects for the royal Tapestry works in Madrid, but by the 1790s he branched out into portrait painting, political satire, and experimental works. He was an energetic and restless genius whose painting reflected the turbulence of his age.

Gail Turner

Historian, art historian, and painter. Lecturer for The Arts Society since 1992, lectures regularly for the V&A High Renaissance and Baroque course, Art Pursuits, and the Art Fund. Has taught on Cambridge University International Summer Schools, the Courtauld Institute Summer Courses, Inscape, Gainsborough’s House and other arts organisations. She has led tours to Spain for The Arts Society and other tour companies. Lectured in the Prado and Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid 1983-5, was Deputy Curator of Keats Shelley Memorial House, Rome 1978-80, manager of the Courtauld Slide Scheme 1977, and a Christie’s consultant (Ill. MSS) 1976. Gail has recently given a course at the National Gallery, on Sorolla. In 2015 Gail was awarded the Encomienda de Isabel la Catolica (the equivalent of the CBE) by the King of Spain for promoting Spanish culture among British audiences, and was recently elected President of The Arts Society Colchester.

Gwendoline and Margaret Davies were born in Llandinam, Montgomeryshire, Wales, in 1882 and 1884, respectively. They were the granddaughters of David Davies of Llandinam (1818–1890), a self-made man who had amassed a fortune from contracting, coal-owning, and building railways and docks, and was elected a Liberal Member of Parliament in 1874. Their brother David Davies (1880–1944; created Baron Davies in 1932) was also a Liberal MP, parliamentary private secretary to the Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1916–17, a founder of the League of Nations, and the greatest Welsh public benefactor of his day, closely associated with Aberystwyth University College, the National Library of Wales, and the campaign against tuberculosis. Following the early death of their mother Margaret Jones Davies in 1888, their father married their mother's sister, Elizabeth Jones (1853–1942). After his death ten years later, in 1898, their stepmother was responsible for the upbringing of the sisters. Elizabeth Jones Davies was active in public affairs, became the first woman magistrate in Mont-gomeryshire, and was a supporter of numerous charities and good causes.

The Dutch Golden Age is one of the finest examples of independence breeding cultural pride. During the 17th century, driven by new freedom from Spanish Catholic rule, the Dutch Republic experienced a surge in economic and cultural prominence. An influx of trade boosted commerce, leading to the rise of a large middle and merchant class in the market for the proliferation of art that had cropped up in response to the burgeoning celebration of Dutch life and identity. Painting flowered as artists focused on everyday scenes of ordinary life, expressed through a growing cadre of genre works, all indicative of the thriving creative period.

Shirley Turner

Shirley Turner read Modern History at St Hilda’s Oxford and gained a Diploma in the History of Fine and Decorative Arts.  She is a course lecturer for V&A Museum.  She lived in Paris, Brussels and The Hague from 1960-83, working for King Leopold of the Belgians and for the Dutch Home and Foreign Ministries.

Fine tea has long been prized in China: according to Lu Yu in c.780, it should ‘unfold like mist rising out of a ravine’. By 1750 tea was China’s principal export to Britain, valued as a remedy for indigestion, amnesia and excess of alcohol. But what would China accept in return? Only opium - from the British-owned poppy fields of India - found a ready market in China. Following the ‘Opium War’ of 1839-42, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain. Blending Chinese and Western elements, Hong Kong developed in dramatic fashion. The story is illustrated with vivid paintings by Chinese and Western artists. 

Dr Patrick Conner

1970-71 Teacher at Marlborough College. 1975-86 Keeper of Fine Art at the Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery & Museums, Brighton. Since 1986 Director of the Martyn Gregory Gallery, London. Author of several books including Savage Ruskin, Oriental Architecture in the West and George Chinnery, artist of India and the China Coast.

An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, the full-time residence for the landed gentry who ruled rural Britain until the Reform Act 1832.[1] Frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses, having functional antecedents in manor houses.

With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for many rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the estates, of which country houses were the hub, provided their owners with incomes. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle. Increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses; those that remained had to adapt to survive.

While a château or a Schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, a country house, similar to an Ansitz, is usually unfortified. If fortified, it is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name "castle" are fortified (for example Highclere Castle in Hampshire).

The State Hermitage Museum (Russian: Государственный Эрмитаж, tr. Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, IPA: [ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ]) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest art museum in the world by gallery space.[4] It was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine's Day.[5] It has been open to the public since 1852. The Art Newspaper ranked the museum 6th in their list of the most visited art museums, with 1,649,443 visitors in 2021.[3]

Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items (the numismatic collection accounts for about one-third of them).[6] The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya, and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building are also part of the museum. The museum has several exhibition centers abroad. The Hermitage is a federal state property. Since July 1992, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky.[7]

Of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five—namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre—are all open to the public. The entrance ticket for foreign tourists costs more than the fee paid by citizens of Russia and Belarus. However, entrance is free of charge the third Thursday of every month for all visitors, and free daily for students and children. The museum is closed on Mondays. The entrance for individual visitors is located in the Winter Palace, accessible from the Courtyard.

John Singer Sargent was one of the leading portraits painters of his generation, creating images of Edwardian Era high society. A prolific artist, he produced around 900 oil paintings, over 2,000 watercolors and even more sketches and preliminary studies. Born in Italy to American parents, Sargent spent his childhood traveling through Europe. He showed his artistic inclinations at a young age, and in 1874 he began his formal training at the Paris studio of Carolus-Duran. After leaving the studio in 1878, Sargent concentrated on building his craft, traveling through Europe and methodically studying works of old masters in Holland, Spain, and Venice. During his travels, he painted many genre scenes, such as Rosina, Capri (1878) and Venetian Bead Stringers (1880-1882). Sargent also experimented with Impressionist techniques at the influence of Claude Monet, whom he met at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. In Sargent’s case, the use of the Impressionist technique is noticeable in landscape paintings like Washerwomen (ca. 1880) and Landscape at Broadway (1885).

In the late 1870s and early 1880s, Sargent was building his reputation in Paris. He received positive critiques for portraits like Portrait of Frances Sherborne Ridley Watts (1877) and subject paintings like El Jaleo (1882). Sargent’s career suffered a setback at the 1884 Paris Salon where he exhibited Madame X (1883-1884), the portrait of the young socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau. While the painting received some praise, it was mostly ridiculed and dismissed as a distasteful display of vanity. Sargent defended his work and refused to take it down even in the face of mounting pressure from Gautreau’s mother, who blamed the portrait for ruining her daughter’s reputation. Discouraged and humiliated by the scandal, Sargent left Paris and moved to London.

The scandal of Madame X followed Sargent to England: London patrons were wary of Sargent’s “French style” and he struggled to secure commissions. However, this changed in 1887 when he exhibited the painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1885-1886), an image of two children lighting Chinese lanterns at dusk. The painting dazzled critics and audiences, and Sargent was once again in demand. He enjoyed an upscale clientele of aristocrats, wealthy businesspeople, artists, and performers from Europe and America. His international reputation reached its peak in the 1890s and early 1900s. At that time Sargent painted portraits of distinguished figures like Theodore Roosevelt, actress Dame Ellen Terry and author Henry James.

By 1910 Sargent gave up portraiture and focused his attention on painting murals and landscapes. One of his significant later works was the war painting Gassed (1919). The painting was commissioned by the British government who asked Sargent to create a large painting that embodied the idea of Anglo-American cooperation during World War I. In 1924, Sargent’s retrospective exhibition was held at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York. After the retrospective, the artist returned to London, where he died of heart disease. Memorial exhibitions were held on both sides of the Atlantic: in Boston, New York, and London in 1925-1926.

Art Deco, short for the French Arts Décoratifs, and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I),[1] and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look (clothing, fashion and jewelry), Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings (from skyscrapers to cinemas), ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects like radios and vacuum cleaners.[2]

It got its name after the 1925 Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris.[3]

Art Deco combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, it represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.

From its outset, Art Deco was influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism and the Vienna Secession; the bright colours of Fauvism and of the Ballets Russes; the updated craftsmanship of the furniture of the eras of Louis Philippe I and Louis XVI; and the exoticized styles of China, Japan, India, Persia, ancient Egypt and Maya art. It featured rare and expensive materials, such as ebony and ivory, and exquisite craftsmanship. The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and other skyscrapers of New York City built during the 1920s and 1930s are monuments to the style.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Art Deco became more subdued. New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel and plastic. A sleeker form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s, featuring curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces.[4] Art Deco is one of the first truly international styles, but its dominance ended with the beginning of World War II and the rise of the strictly functional and unadorned styles of modern architecture and the International Style of architecture that followed.[5]

Of all the legacies left by the Raj in India, British colonial architecture is not, in general, one of our happier exports. Even at the time, the most diehard admirers of British imperium had to admit that the florid confections of the Victorians were often of dubious taste, especially when compared to the sublime constructions of the Mughals who preceded them.

As the 1930s travel writer Robert Byron succinctly put it: "In a country full of good example, the English have left the mark of the beast." Bombay he described as "absolutely awful: Indian, Swiss chalet, French Chateau, Giotto's tower, Siena cathedral & St Peter's are to be found altogether in almost every building", while Darjeeling he thought was "Bognor roofed in corrugated iron and reassembled in the form of an Italian hill town ... the whole of [British] India is a gigantic conspiracy to make one imagine one is in Balham." Indeed, in all his Indian travels, Byron found only one piece of British architecture to admire: Lutyens' Delhi: "People don't realise what has been done," he wrote, "how stupendous it is, and such a work of beauty, so unlike the English. One would never have thought it of them. It will be a mystery to historians."

Byron was undoubtedly right. Lutyens' Delhi is not only one of the supreme achievements of British architecture in any period of history - the colonial equivalent of Bath, Dublin or the Edinburgh New Town - it still ranks as one of the most elegant urban landscapes anywhere in the world, and a rival to Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's Washington. Although it is the grand monumental structures - Edwin Lutyens' Viceroy's House and Herbert Baker's two Secretariats - that are justly the most famous buildings in New Delhi, it is the smaller domestic buildings which give it its character. From wide avenues and open boulevards shaded by neem, tamarind and arjuna, low red-brick walls give on to sprawling white classical bungalows with bow fronts, porticoes and dim colonnades of tall Ionic pillars, all surrounded by long lawns, jungly shrubberies and bushes of molten yellow gulmohar.

Not for much longer. Already, almost every Lutyens bungalow in private hands has gone, destroyed in the welter of demolitions that took place between 1980 and 2000. Now it has been announced that the same fate awaits the remaining 60% of the Lutyens buildings still owned by the government.

The Central Public Works Division (CPWD) this week announced its intention to raze the remaining Lutyens bungalows and so demolish arguably the most important colonial townscape in the world. The CPWD has decided the bungalows have "gone beyond their lifespan", "are unsafe" and "should be up for demolition". The idea is to replace them with "ultra-modern day fuel-efficient apartment blocks", which, if the mock-ups published in the Times of India are anything to go by, will resemble bland 1960s student housing projects of grey windowless concrete, with the additional attractions of tangles of barbed wire around the heightened perimeter walls. If the CPWD gets its way, no fewer than 1,114 houses built across 1,000 acres will be demolished: a virtually unprecedented act of mass vandalism.

Nor is it just the buildings that are at risk: the trees of Lutyens' Delhi, all planted within a few months of each other in the early 1920s, are not being maintained or replaced, and are now coming to the end of their life. The green lungs of central Delhi - which make it the only city centre in the world which is several degrees cooler than its periphery - will give way to a miasma of new concrete. The irony is that the Indian National Trust is currently proposing that Lutyens' Delhi be named as a Unesco World Heritage Site, and that the World Monuments Fund in New York has named the area as one of the world's 100 most important endangered monuments.

Lutyens' Delhi was the last great construction project of the British in India. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was clear that Calcutta was too chaotic to be the capital, and the Viceroy drew up plans to move his headquarters to Delhi. The construction of the new city was an epic project involving no less than 29,000 labourers. Yet one man masterminded every aspect of the construction, from the shape of the doorknobs in the Viceroy's palace to the types of flowers suitable for planting on the roundabouts.

Edwin Landseer Lutyens was a self-taught, working-class genius of ethnic Dutch origins. His appointment was one of the most inspired decisions ever taken by an official planning committee - for, before building Delhi, Lutyens was not especially famous, having only built a scattering of Edwardian manor houses across the home counties. In winning the commission to construct the new capital, Lutyens was presented with the biggest architectural opportunity offered to any British architect since his hero Sir Christopher Wren set about rebuilding London after the Great Fire. Like Wren, Lutyens was a champion of the classical at a time when his contemporaries were still building in Gothic; and Lutyens, like Wren, found himself under great pressure to build New Delhi in a style he abhorred. In Lutyens' case the architect was initially ordered to build the new capital in the strange Anglo-Mughal hybrid known as Tropical Gothic, a style whose latticed screens and pseudo-oriental borrowings filled Lutyens with horror. As he put it in a letter: "They want me to Hindoo, Hindon't I say ..."

Yet while Lutyens started off prejudiced against the forms of Indian architecture, he soon came to appreciate their beauty and found ways of incorporating many Indian features into buildings that nevertheless obeyed all the essential rules of classical architecture. The result was a fusion that combined European, classical Buddhist and Islamic ideas in a wholly original way. Lutyens thus solved a problem whose solution had been eluding British architects for 300 years: how to build in a style that combined the best of east and west, and at the same time create something both impressive and original.

For all the beauty of Lutyens' creation, from the very beginning events conspired to make his grand imperial vision seem antiquated by the time it was built. The capital had been commissioned in 1911 to testify to "the idea and fact of eternal British rule in India", and its undeviating geometry was intended to symbolise Britain's success in imposing order on a chaotic subcontinent. Yet by the time it began to be built, in the late 1920s, New Delhi had already become an anachronism.

Even Lutyens was aware that the British Empire he so admired was rapidly to come to an end and wrote that his age represented the "swansong" of British imperial architecture; he only prayed that it would be "a good tune, well sung". His assistant Baker wrote that he hoped "in 2,000 years there must be an Imperial Lutyens tradition in Indian architecture".

The hope was to be disappointed. Within two decades of New Delhi's formal inauguration in 1931, India won its independence. Nehru disliked Lutyens' work and called New Delhi "a visible symbol of British power, with all its ostentation and wasteful extravagance". Instead, it was to Le Corbusier and the modern movement that Nehru looked for inspiration. As a result, within a few years of the demise of the Raj, nearly all its architectural ideas were dead too. Now, with the proposed replacement of Lutyens' fine colonial buildings by modernist blocks, Le Corbusier has won the final victory.

Who was William Hogarth, and why is his contribution to art history so important?

Hogarth was the most original and influential English artist of the eighteenth century—a brilliant social observer and story-teller who created a new role for the visual artist as a kind of social commentator.

Hogarth lived during a time of tremendous social, cultural and economic change, and his art captured a sense of how the world was changing, towards what we might now recognise as the modern world today.

Why has Hogarth’s work had such a lasting impression on the British imagination?

Hogarth created paintings and prints that were not only hugely successful during his lifetime but have proved enduringly popular. There is so much going on in his images and they are open to endless interpretation, but above all they have a kind of immediacy, you get the sense of being given a vivid insight into people, places and situations as they may really have been.

Take Southwark Fair for example, where the London crowds seem only moments away from chaos, with an almost cinematic freeze-frame on the collapsing stage about to disastrously crash down onto a ceramics stall. Such directness has continued to impress.

The patronage of Augustus the Strong of Saxony resulted in the most beautiful porcelain, influenced by Japanese Kakiemon and Imari designs, being created at Meissen in the 1720s. By 1730 outstanding ground colours were being used along side European decoration and the great Kandler figures dominate the second quarter of the 18th century. The French Sèvres factory took till the 1750s to perfect its production but with the patronage of the King, became the leading porcelain of Europe. Chelsea, which used the same soft paste formula as France, depended for its excellence on the superb taste of Nicholas Sprimont. 

Diana Lloyd

Freelance lecturer in ceramic, glass and the history of interior decoration in Europe, North and South America. Lectures at the Inchbald School of Design, the Interior Design School and for American University Groups, National Trust and Antiques Societies and Christie's Education. Guides groups through museum collections and country houses. Collects ceramics and glass. Diploma with Distinction in the Fine and Decorative Arts, Inchbald School of Design.