Music was a constant theme in Edouard Manet’s life and art. His wife Suzanne Leenhoff was a gifted pianist, and regular musical soirées were held at the Manet family home.

This talk by Dr Lois Oliver, curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Royal Academy and lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, will explore his pictures of musicians and their audiences. These range from major early canvases depicting itinerant gypsy musicians and Spanish dancers, through to paintings encompassing the full range of Parisian musical culture, from private performances to street entertainment, café concerts and the Paris Opera. Manet also designed cover illustrations for music composed by his friends.

Bringing together images of Manet’s art and recordings of the music that inspired him (including Spanish flamenco, Wagner piano reductions, café songs, and opera highlights) this lecture is an immersion into Manet’s world.

How can you best understand one of the most prolific, complex, and influential painters of the 20th Century? By taking just ten of Picasso’s paintings this lecture will examine his life and attempt to explain the evolution of his painting styles through a career that spanned more than seventy years. Looking at the genesis of each work, examining its biographical meaning, its moment in history and its significance in the canon of modern art this will reveal the truth behind this most enigmatic and powerful artist.

A one-man survey of all the architecturally significant buildings in the country, county by county. This lecture explores what Pevsner said, rightly or wrongly, about the buildings in our own county – churches, houses, shops, town halls, tower blocks, factories and cinemas. 

Nikolaus Pevsner was the Grand Old Man of English art history for almost thirty years – in   on the radio, in the lecture hall and, of course, as the author of The Buildings of England.

How did he do it? In 1940 he was a young German refugee from Hitler in a British internment camp outside Liverpool; in 1970 he was Professor Sir Nikolaus, Reith lecturer and  Slade professor. It was an extraordinary journey – almost as extraordinary as the journey Pevsner made, county by county, to catalogue and summarise, county by county, every architecturally significant building in England.

Wherever you zoom in, anywhere in England, Pevsner has been there. He’s visited, analysed, recorded – and commented:  he was a man of few words but definite opinions. He has provided all the materials to start a conversation - people rarely agree with all his views.

Writer and broadcaster, Gavin Plumley, will talk about the culture of German speaking countries in the period after World War One, contemplating painters such as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and Christian Schad alongside the experiments of the Bauhaus, new film technologies and the sultry stylings of Marlene Dietrich.

Janusz has visited us at Highnam on a number of previous occassions.

English furniture making reached a near-unrivalled degree of excelence by the mid 18th Century largely thanks to the influence, from the late 17th century onwards, of new methods of construction and decoration from the Netherlands, Low Countries and France in particular,–and also by the migration to England of craftsmen and designers from those countries. By the mid 18th century, English cabinet-makers and designers were producing furniture which set a new standard in terms of both design and craftsmanship.  Central to this, was the way in which cabinet makers exploited the properties and characteristics of Mahogany, which was to become regarded as the “king” of cabinet-making woods. This golden age encompasses the work of great designers and cabinetmakers like Kent, Vile, Cobb, and, of course, Chippendale.

In March we will celebrate the 250th anniversary American Independence:
The History of American Art in 25 Iconic Works 
exploring 25 iconic works of American art: including Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic,’ Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother,’ Hopper’s ‘Nighthawk s,. The lecturer Marie-Anne Manico trained as an artist before gaining a DPhil in Art and Critical Theory from the University of Sussex.

A Review of the Arts Society Lecture on 12th March 2026

Dr Marie-Anne Mancio selected a broad range of 25 artworks, including photography and sculpture, from 1730 to the present day to demonstrate the development of American art.

Some of the works were very familiar (“Whistler’s Mother” – although that is not technically the name of the piece; “American Gothic” by Grant Wood; and “Black on Grey” by Mark Rothko). What was interesting was seeing how some works echoed genres in European and indeed Japanese art, where others had their own origins in the urban landscape of the big cities.

So, we found out about Precisionism, Regionalism and the Ashcan School and then into the pop art world of Andy Warhol via Edward Hopper.

Amazingly, Jackson Pollock’s work was supported by the CIA, who, in the height of the Cold War, wanted to show that Americans could paint absolutely anything with complete freedom, where Russian artists were limited to set themes and approaches.

Not all of the works were well received in their time and many of them divide opinion today. But certainly, Marie-Anne’s lively and lucid explanations pointed us towards artists that we might like to explore further.

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

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

Toys form an intimate part of our own personal histories. Some toys are universal: rattles, balls, kites and dolls entertained children in ancient times. Others reflect modern concerns: clockwork toys have been superseded by battery-operated and electronic toys. The making and the design of toys parallel the evolution of materials and technologies, trade and marketing, cultural trends and ideas about childhood. Whatever changes affect the toys of the future, however, the relationship between creativity and play will surely remain central. Toys teach children about the environment that surrounds them, while allowing them to explore the inner world of the imagination.  

Chloe is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. Has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Has curated exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4. 

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the favourite of King James I - who addressed him as ‘my sweet child and wife’ - and subsequently chief minister to King Charles I. Buckingham was a beauty, and he surrounded himself with beautiful things. He enjoyed exquisite clothes, like the fabulous white silk suit encrusted with diamonds that he wore to visit the Queen of France. He was a superb dancer. When he cut capers during a court masque King James startled visiting ambassadors by shouting out ‘By God, George, I love you!’ 

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is a cultural historian and biographer. Her book on Gabriele d’Annunzio, The Pike, was described in The Sunday Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. It won all three of the UK’s most prestigious prizes for non-fiction - the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her other non-fiction books include Cleopatra and Heroes. 

She also writes fiction. Her novel, Peculiar Ground, is largely set in the 17th century, and narrated by a landscape designer loosely based on the great diarist John Evelyn. It was described as 'almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance' (The Guardian) and 'full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating detail’. (New York Times).  In her short story collection, Fabulous, she retells fables from classical mythology, relocating them to modern Britain.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she has written on books, theatre and the visual arts for publications including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New Statesman and the TLS. She was Chair of the Judges for the 2021 International Booker Prize. 

What makes a genuine Rembrandt?  This lecture charts the  ebb and flow of Rembrandt attribution and tries to answer the question: who decides? Science or the subjective eye of the connoisseur. The Rembrandt Research Project tried for nearly five decades to pare down the painter’s oeuvre, using the latest technology and a barrage of experts. But a backlash in the 1990s caused many disavowed Rembrandts to be put back on the list. 

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. 

Albrecht Dürer is among the stars of graphic art, of printmaking, in the Germanic lands. Based in influential Nuremberg, one of the centres of the Reformation and a hub of publishing, Dürer rose to prominence artistically and in the city’s government. Some of his prints established images which still pack a visual punch today. He went to Venice twice in his career and meeting Giovanni Bellini there changed his artistic life. Venice opened his eyes to the Italian Renaissance and guided him to have great aspirations for the art of his homeland. Although known for his stunning drawing of The Praying Hands, he was massively important as a printmaker in woodcut and engraving: he invented etching and drypoint in printmaking. Larger than that, he knew all of the key movers of his day, including Erasmus and was on talking terms with the Holy Roman Emperor. A fascinating character who represents the inner turmoil of Europe in transition.

Hilary Williams, formerly a curator and Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, now Art History Education Officer in the Department of Learning & National Partnerships at the Museum. Lectures for BM and Wallace Collection. Founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society of North Kent Evening. Specialist in 17th century art and has published on Rembrandt. Hilary has vast experience of giving gallery talks, of lecturing and of leading art history tours in UK, Europe, New York and Boston. For the Royal Collection Trust, she has guided Special Interest Private Tours of the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace.

This summer lecture explores the extraordinary life of one of the 20th century's most influential artists. We will follow Barbara Hepworth’s early friendship with peer Henry Moore and trace her journey to becoming an iconic figure in modern sculpture, Hepworth’s groundbreaking work earned her international acclaim. This talk delves into her innovative techniques, profound artistic vision, and her trailblazing role as a woman in a male-dominated field. Learn about Hepworth’s enduring legacy, from her St Ives garden to her pivotal influence on global art movements.

Ian Giles studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and is a practicing artist. He has lectured at the University of Cambridge and Chelsea College of Arts as well as nationally and internationally. His work has recently been exhibited at The Whitechapel Gallery, Kettle’s Yard and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. His work has been profiled on BBC television and in the Guardian.

In the early 1860s Japanese prints started to pour into Europe; in Paris young radical painters, seeking fresh pictorial ideas appropriate to modern subjects, collected them (they were very cheap).  These prints by Japanese artists such as Hiroshige, Hokusai, Utamaro and Kunisada became hugely influential on the direction painting was to take. We focus on the works of Manet and Van Gogh, two major artists of the latter half of the 19th century, and look at the way Japanese prints had a powerful impact on ideas about composition, space, colour, form and expression of line. 

Oliver Gosling born 1958, is a painter, trained at Royal College of Art,who exhibits internationally, with work in collections around the world. He lived and exhibited in: Japan for two years (1998-2001) and China for eight years (2007-2015), where he continues to be represented by two galleries. Later lecturing widely in China on contemporary art in Britain and own work, and for Christie’s in Hong Kong:  From 1994 to date: Lecturer, BA Fine Art Painting and MA Fine Art, University of Brighton; From 2001 to date: Lecturer, Certificate in the History of Art, University of Oxford (Materials and Techniques of Western Painting). Currently represented by the Fanxi Delarue Gallery, France.

The widespread developments in art and industry, in science and technology and social behaviour in the 18th century laid the foundations of the modern Britain that we know today. This was the age of the Enlightenment and of the Industrial Revolution, events that were to change and mould British life for the next two hundred years. This was also the age of Joseph Wright of Derby who painted the very spirit of the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment and whose paintings are still familiar to his many admirers to this day.

Scott Anderson trained as an archaeologist at Leicester University and was a professional archaeologist for ten years before his interests shifted to the world of art, antiques and auctioneering. In 1994 he joined the team at Southampton Solent University lecturing on the only BA(Hons) degree course of its kind to look at the commercial art world. Now, as a Senior Lecturer, he teaches courses on the history and theory of interior design and visual culture. He has lectured to many adult audiences for a variety of University Extra-mural departments and the WEA. For the last few years he has also worked as a consultant valuer for the BBC television programme Flog It.

Angela writes: This lecture is essentially an overview of the life and work of Salvador Dali. I begin by considering the painter’s early life and influences and the variety of styles he tried before developing and settling on his own idiosyncratic style. Dali came late to Surrealism and was ousted by its controlling leader Andre Breton before too many years had passed. Nevertheless Dali is often regarded as the archetypal Surrealist. I discuss this notion but also explain Dali’s personal response to Surrealism, in particular the approach he called his ‘paranoiac critical activity’, one which spawned works such as The Persistence of Memory and Metamorphosis of Narcissus. 

Angela Smith has a PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. Is the author of numerous articles and several books including A Timeline of Art History (2013). She has contributed to television programmes, most recently an episode of Digging up Britain’s Past.

Brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini are among the most highly-regarded artists of Renaissance Venice.They painted Doges portraits, grand altarpieces, private devotional works, scenes of public ceremony and miracle, personal portraits, and depictions of foreign dignitaries – a panoply of paintings covering all aspects of Venetian life and of the self-image this mythical city consciously presented to the world.

Ian Cockburn is an art historian with a BA (Birkbeck College) in art history and an MA (Courtauld Institute of Art) in medieval Spanish art history. Specialist in the nearly 800 years of Moorish occupation and Christian reconquest of medieval Iberia.  Founder and director of an art tours company, specialising in guided cultural tours in Spain, plus lecturing in London at institutions such as the V&A, SOAS, Christies Education, and the London Art History Society. Formerly a Chartered Accountant and senior manager in multi-national IT companies.

The story of one of the greatest creative collaborations of all:  Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, whose team of dancers, choreographers, and costume and set designers transformed expectations of what a night in the theatre could be, and the circumstances behind its most notorious stage work of all. Sandy examines the build-up to the Rite of Spring’s premiere in Paris, takes a look at the original costumes, plays excerpts from this fascinatingly inventive score, and explores what divided opinions of that first-night audience quite so dramatically.  No, nothing could top the riot at the Rite in 1913…

Sandy Burnett is one of the UK’s most versatile music commentators, enjoying a career that combines broadcasting, performing and lecturing. After studying 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 presenters on BBC Radio 3. Combining engaging scholarship with hands-on expertise, he devises and leads cultural holidays all over the world, is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, is a highly sought after double bassist on the London jazz scene

… a nostalgic trip into our collective memory. 

“I find it interesting that as adults we tend to retain images from the books we read as children despite ‘forgetting’ much other information from the same period.”     John Ericson

Images of 'Toad‘, Tigger’ or even ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ will probably remain with us for ever! 

In addition to a wide range of examples of children's book we may have we will examine different styles of illustration before demonstrating how illustrations contribute to the development of understanding and how the interaction of image and narrative creates such powerful memories. 

John was formerly a lecturer at the University of Bath where he was Director of Studies in the School of Education with responsibility for the professional development of teachers. He has worked extensively overseas as an educational consultant and this has given him the opportunity to give lectures and presentations at conferences all over the world. Over the last decade he has been a popular speaker on the Arts Society circuit in the UK and Europe as well as a frequent visitor to the societies in Australia and New Zealand. 

In his professional life he has developed a particular interest in presentation skills including the role of pictures in learning.

Find out, in this very light-hearted lecture, about the various ceremonial events that take place around Christmas time. Carol services, concerts and even Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor all play their part. How do the Chelsea Pensioners prepare and celebrate the festive season? All will be revealed so, come along and feel wrapped in a blanket of Christmas loveliness.

Graham Jones started his professional life as a musician in the British Army and over a glittering career spanning nearly forty years he retired as the Senior Director of Music, Household Division and Director of Music, Coldstream Guards a position unequalled throughout military music in Great Britain. During his illustrious career he has recorded over 40 albums and been responsible for the largest commissioning programme of wind band music in recent history commissioning over 30 new works. He pioneered a music education programme with the University of Salford for military musicians resulting in a new Master of Music in performance degree. Graham was made a Member of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace for outstanding service to military music in 1993. Having retired, at the start of 2012, from military service Graham is enjoying a second career as a guest conductor, adjudicator, guest speaker, lecturer, clinician, recording consultant and educator. He is also the Artist Director of London International Band Week, music consultant to Henley Music Festival, resident conductor of the British Imperial Orchestra, visiting conductor in residence at Troy University, Alabama, USA and guest lecturer on cruise ships

The House of Fabergé’s meteoric success saw a modest jewellery concern transformed into one of the world’s most iconic brands.  By 1900, the firm had gained international recognition, stunning the press and public with its displays at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.  At the dawn of the new century, Fabergé was poised for expansion, choosing Kiev and Odessa as outlets.  We will discuss the beauty and grandeur of Ukraine’s aristocratic estates, jewels of the Crimean Peninsula, that drew the most prominent families seeking respite from Northern winters.  

Cynthia is an independent researcher, author and lecturer on Russian pre-Revolutionary works of art, consulting regularly on Fabergé for auction houses. Having periodically grown up on and off in Moscow within a family of Russian art collectors, she was destined for a career in Russian art. Previously, Cynthia ran the Russian Department for Christie’s in New York and worked for Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington DC. This was followed by a restoration project at the Alexander Palace near St Petersburg, Nicholas II’s last residence.

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 is 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.   

With the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, the nations of Europe were set on a collision course. Newly mechanised armies, with undreamed of power to maim and destroy, transformed the world’s notions about war. This lecture looks at the work of a group of young British War Artists and considers the ways in which they recorded this new and terrifying form of war in a body of work still remarkable for its ability to move and shock.  

Jo has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling and has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

We will look at the establishment of the British Museum and hear the stories behind some of the most important pieces. These are the finest objects highlighting the development of civilisations as made by the hand of man.

Anna graduated as a Blue Badge Guide early in 2013 and won an award for the best new guide at Westminster Abbey. 

She studied for her BA in History of Art & Italian at the University of Sussex and did her MA in Renaissance Decorative Arts & Design at the Royal College of Art. 

The Special Exhibition held by the Cornish Artists at Nottingham Castle Museum in the autumn of 1894 was “the greatest exhibition of Cornish art that there ever has been and ever will be”. This is because it is not feasible nowadays, logistically, to reproduce anything quite like it, for it contained over 220 paintings, mostly large canvases, drawn from Chicago, Munich, Paris as well as from around Britain.

David Toveyread 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.

Norman Rockwell’s folksy images of middle America were dismissed for decades by art critics as over-sentimental and banal.  But his reputation has soared in recent years as a new generation comes to appreciate his humanity and inventiveness and he is revered by film directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for his brilliant storytelling. At their best, his paintings reconcile midwestern values with progressive ideals and artistic traditionalism with optimism about the modern world.  This lecture traces the roots of Rockwell’s art through and his immediate predecessor and idol J.C. Leyendecker, back to the 19th century work of Winslow Homer and Howard Pyle. 

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. 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. 

Cubism can be confusing. Never truly popular, the most influential art movement of the Twentieth Century can sometimes appear difficult and strange. Is this because there is something inherently ‘unlovable’ about Cubism? Not at all! Cubism needs simply to be explained for its beauty to be appreciated. This lecture sets out clearly and succinctly the theory behind Cubism, its various phases and the different types of Cubist painting, collage and sculpture in the years c.1907-25. This is an accessible introduction to the subject, illustrated with artworks by the most famous Cubist artists - Picasso, Braque and Léger - and those lesser-known including some working in Britain.

Steven has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art, Liverpool School of Art; MA in History of Art, Birkbeck College, London. Lecturer at the National Gallery since 2004. Has lectured on the history of European art and architecture at Somerset House, taught courses on art and architecture at London colleges (The City Literary Institute and Bishopsgate Institute). Steven is also a painter

Discover the vast range of artists from the Dutch Golden Age of Art. The new Dutch Republic of the 17th century was the most prosperous nation in Europe and led European trade, science, and art. Together we will marvel at the domestic interiors of Jan Vermeer, the piercing portraits of Frans Hals and the genre paintings of Jan Steen. Rembrandt was the master technical innovator, storyteller and visionary. This was a glowing Golden era of landscapes, still life, moral stories that was to last over eighty years.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. Later in his career John produced and directed several short films and animations. 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 Kingston University.

From the 1890s to the 1960s, Winston Churchill’s life was captured in countless photographs. He was a prolific writer and speechmaker - the definitive edition of his speeches alone runs to four volumes. He was a successful and enthusiastic artist, producing some 500 paintings in a span of over fifty years.

Churchill was a complex and sensitive man of many parts and many interests – a discriminating contemporary, Kenneth Clark, was to write of him, “I have never been frightened by anyone except Churchill … he was a man of a wonderful and very powerful mind”.

The aim of this lecture is to try to capture the richness and diversity of this great man’s life and character which can still inspire us today.

Our lecturer Mark, was born on the Isles of Scilly and educated at Truro School, Cornwall, and Birmingham University. His career has been spent in education and training at home and abroad. He has lectured at Exeter College on Medieval and Tudor history, St Mark's & St John's University College, Plymouth, and at Bath University on Anglo Saxon and medieval England.

Members and their guests are invited to join together for this seasonal lecture and shared lunch.  Tickets £12.50 each available at meetings.

Wine has been part of our global society for over 7,000 years, and the story tells of its origin and appearance in all societies across the Mediterranean and through Europe. There is rich evidence of the role wine has played in these societies and how it became an important component of faith, well-being and festivity. From the kwevris of Georgia in 5,000 B.C., the symposia in ancient Greece, the thermopolia of Pompeii, the hospices of Europe, to the dining tables of fine society wine has been ever present. Drawings, paintings, engravings, buildings, pottery and wine labels themselves all contribute to the story.

David writes, "I have been a wine retailer, importer and distributor for 30 years. In that time, I have publicly presented tastings and talks on wine to trade and private audiences. I have developed a talk, A Brief Story of Wine, a great subject, and full of rich evidence, going back 7,000 years, in the form of paintings, decorated drinking vessels, buildings and literature that contribute to the story.

Calcutta was the second city of the British Empire and a hub of cultural and artistic production throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This lecture provides an overview of the arts (poetry, theatre, literature, song) and architecture of this extraordinary city, which was India’s capital until 1911. At the epicentre of the ‘Bengal renaissance’, Calcutta played a central role in shaping the arts and culture of modern India, as a huge variety of artists sought to interpret India’s classical heritage in new ways, and to combine this heritage with Western cultural forms. This lecture examines how Calcutta’s arts and architecture were affected by British rule, and explores the fascinating ways in which Indian artists viewed the British in India.

Dr John Stevens is a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and a member of academic staff at the SOAS South Asia Institute. His PhD in History is from University College London. He teaches British Imperial history, Indian history and Bengali language, and is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh. He publishes widely in the fields of British and Indian history. 

     To compliment this lecture on Thursday 26 October tickets are available for our visit to the Museum of Royal Worcester.

This lecture will look at the early experiments into porcelain making in England; concentrating on the Chelsea, Bow, Derby and Worcester factories. It will examine the different pastes developed in an attempt to achieve both whiteness and strength, consider the influence of both silver and continental porcelain on shapes and decoration; and will look back at Chinese and Japanese export wares as a source of inspiration. In addition, it will show the ways in which porcelain was both displayed and used and discuss the fashion for porcelain figures.

Jane has a 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.

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

James 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.

From the 1820s the French province of Normandy attracted the attention of many of the most important and innovative British and French painters of the nineteenth century. At first it was British artists such as Turner, Bonington and Cotman who were drawn to the area by its coastal scenery, its many fine buildings and its strong historical links to England. Later the French painters Boudin and Monet (who were both born in Normandy) also painted many Norman scenes, particularly in response to the development of the province's coastal towns as tourist resorts. This lecture places pictures by all these artists in their historical context, and in doing so discusses and illustrates some of Turner and Monet's finest works.

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

This talk features his collection of 18 woodwind instruments of the Middle Ages. These are reedpipes, shawm, bagpipe, double bagpipe, bladderpipe, hornpipe, crumhorn, cornemuse, kortholt, bone whistles, flute, double pipe, gemshorn, pipe and tabor, early recorders, portative organ and small hurdy-gurdy.

Each instrument is described and its evolution and its place in Medieval life in a lively and amusing manner, He then plays an appropriate tune on each one. Each instrument is accompanied by good images of them in the art and iconography of the age.

 It is an unusual talk that has something for everyone, and the eyes and the ears of everyone.

Jonathan Weeks was born into a farming family in Buckinghamshire and was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School. While studying archaeology at Reading University he developed an interest in Medieval Musical instruments, particularly in the crumhorn and shawm. Thus began the collection which now amounts to nearly 50 examples. He firstly began giving informal talks. After 15 years working on the farm he moved to Somerset and began lecturing in earnest principally on the instruments but also on late Medieval paintings.  In 2018 life changed immeasurably when his house was destroyed by fire. Miraculously most of the instruments survived, but not much else.

Impressionist Berthe Morisot is known for her light-filled canvases of modern life: afternoons boating on a lake, young women in ballgowns, children playing. Yet, her contemporaries perceived a connection with the eighteenth century. Renoir considered her ‘the last elegant and ‘feminine’ artist that we have had since Fragonard.’ And the art critic Paul Girard, surveying the 1896 retrospective of her work in Paris,  declared, ‘it is the eighteenth century modernised.’

This lecture traces Morisot’s engagement with eighteenth-century culture, and highlights what set her apart from her predecessors and contemporaries.

Eighteenth-century art fell from favour following the French Revolution but was ‘rediscovered’ in the mid-nineteenth century by collectors including Louis La Caze and Hippolyte Walferdin. Morisot copied works by Boucher in the Musée du Louvre and elsewhere; she experimented with red chalk, a technique closely associated with Rococo drawings. She also greatly admired the English painters Gainsborough, Reynolds and Romney, whose work she first encountered on honeymoon in the Isle of Wight and London in 1875.

Lois Oliver is currently Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Royal Academy, Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, Lois also writes audio and multimedia tours for clients including the National Gallery, Royal Academy, Royal Collection, and Tate, and has appeared on BBC Radio and TV. Also a keen violinist, Lois plays regularly with Kensington Chamber Orchestra and the Endellion Festival Orchestra.

Speed! Technology! Destruction!

The battle cry of the Futurists WWI heralded the appearance of the car as a powerful symbol in avant-garde art. Soon the Art Deco masterpieces of the great car builders came to epitomise style, luxury and craftmanship, works of art in their own right. 

The romance of speed continued to be a major theme in how cars were depicted in art, but, since the 1950s the car has become art, used as a canvas for artists as celebrated as Peter Blake, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst.  

This lecture will showcase the beautiful and the bizarre, celebrating the dynamic, creative, and sometimes unsettling relationship between cars and art.

The image on this page is of an exhibit  from an exhibition at, 

NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART

Rolling Sculpture: Art Deco Cars from the 1930s and ’40s

October 1, 2016—January 15, 2017

Julian C. Richards, FSA (born 1951) is a British television and radio presenter, writer and former professional archaeologist with over 30 years' experience of fieldwork and publication.

(Changed due to ill health to that previously advertised.)

This entertaining lecture looks at some of the hits, some of the misses, and several buildings that arguably should have won, but didn’t.

Guests are welcome to attend live or online and can book via Eventbrite 

The Stirling Prize has celebrated the very best contemporary buildings since 1996. Some winners, such as Norman Foster’s Gherkin, of 2004, officially called 30 St Mary Axe, took the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize on a unanimous vote by judges,  are enormously successful and appreciated by the wider public. Others have proved harder to love.

In 2022 The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects, was naned as the winner of the 26th RIBA Stirling Prize.

The exquisitely detailed new building provides students at the 700-year-old University of Cambridge college with a new library – open 24 hours a day – incorporating an archive and an art gallery.

Set within the college grounds in Cambridge’s city-centre, the new library replaces the cramped study spaces of the adjacent 17th century Grade I listed Pepys Library and extends the quadrangular arrangement of buildings and courts that have gradually developed from the monastic college site.

Brian Stater is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience. He lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography.

He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. He is a member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography and he works with a pre-War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

(Changed due to ill health to that previously advertised.)

Designer, Businessman, Printer, Conservationist, Leader and Famous Victorian polymath.  We all think we know plenty about William Morris, many of you will have had William Morris wallpapers at home, curtains, a sofa covered in a Morris print, a reproduction of one of his tapestries or rugs if not then perhaps a mug or two.

This talk looks at his legacy, how do we see Morris and his work, the ‘myth’ of William Morris, we will look at the way his work has been used and misused over the past 120+ years since his death. How does this differ to the way he was thought of in his lifetime and the influence – if any – his legacy?

Matthew Denney is an auctioneer, currently a senior valuer and head of department at Lawrences in Crewkerne, one of the country's leading provincial auctioneers. He completed a PhD in the Arts and Crafts Movement and has written on design history for a number of publications. 

Members and their guests are invited to join together for this seasonal lecture.  Tickets £10 each available at meetings.

To book online click here.

The foods we eat at Christmas have a long, curious and visually spectacular history. This lecture narrates and illustrates that history from Medieval boar’s head and brawn, by way of highly decorated seventeenth century mince pies to the almost forgotten Twelfth Night Cake. Medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings and prints from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, and illustrations from cookery books provide us with images of some of the lost glories of the British Christmas feast.

Peter Ross is currently Principal Librarian at Guildhall Library, he has for 20 years lectured on a broad range of topics including the history of English books, portraiture, and London history. Peter has appeared on TV and radio as a consultant on the 18th century criminal Jack Sheppard and on the history of English food. His most recent publication, The Curious Cookbook, was published by the British Library.

Ian Swankie presents his lecture about the remarkable range of art outside in the streets, ranging from huge and expensive commissions to unofficial graffiti, sometimes audacious and often playful. He looks at why art is there, how it has developed over the years and discover many hidden gems. 

An open meeting with free admission to the public.

You can chose to be present in the hall or view online via ZOOM.

To book your place please click here.

In 'The Art Of The Cartoonist' Harry will be tracing the history of his profession with examples from early practitioners like Cruickshank and Hogarth, to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz, bringing events right up to date with cartoons produced fresh on the page that day!

Prepare to hear some tricks of his trade, learn where to put eyebrows for maximum effect. Harry will be drawing live in the hall, with the drawings projected onto the big screen to ensure a good view for everyone.

Harry Venning has been a professional cartoonist for thirty years, during which time he has provided cartoons high profile UK publications such as The Guardian and Radio Times as well as for countless more obscure titles.

He was awarded UK Strip Cartoonist Of The Year for his Guardian strip Clare In The Community, which he adapted into a BBC Radio 4 sitcom.

David Cross is an Hon. Research Fellow, Durham University. 

Our picture is a self protrait of JOHN RUSKIN English art critic and writer as a young man. 

Arguably the greatest Victorian polymath, Ruskin stoutly defended both Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. A patient and enthusiastic teacher of drawing, he was a significant collector of paintings and a perceptive critic. A scholar of the northern gothic, he also elucidated the evolution of Venetian architecture. Generous with his treasures, he endowed a museum for working men at Sheffield, supported the Working Men’s College in London and did much to encourage the education of women. In the arts and crafts he advocated high quality workmanship, whilst criticising exploitative industrialists. His books influenced Tolstoy, Gandhi and the founders of the National Trust.

This lecture explores how and why sixties art came about in a new era and looks at some of the key works of the greatest Pop artist names, including Peter Blake, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein

Now a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, Lynne Gibson originally trained as a fine artist and has taught painting, drawing and printmaking in higher and adult education. She lectured as an art historian for the universities of Sussex and Bristol and gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of other organisations and institutions. As a professional artist her work has been shown at the British Museum and the Barbican.

Can a single year adequately encapsulate an artistic environment in British art history? This lecture, The Art of 1935, explores that year’s many aspects of decorative and fine art, demonstrating how these artistic forms reflected the period in a fitting and cohesive manner. Set against the backdrop of the 1935 Silver Jubilee Celebrations of King George V and Queen Mary, audiences are transported back to this fabulous time and learn about this pivotal year including the work of Cecil Beaton; magazines, posters and Penguin paperback book design; architecture; Silver Jubilee memorabilia; commemorative stamps; locomotive design and fashion. An exploration of the year 1935 would not be complete without a study of the Polish-born artist Tamara de Lempicka who has come to personify the age of Art Deco.

Lecturer Pamela Campbell-Johnston has over 20 years of lecturing experience, conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art, specialising in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art. She has over 12 years' experience working with the Royal Academy.

Horace Walpole said, in 1783, that ‘No man ever went to the East Indies with good intentions’ and George      Chinnery was certainly that man. Running away from debt and his wife, who he charmingly described as ‘the ugliest woman I have ever seen’, he settled in India for 23 years before running away from debt again to China. This talk covers his portraits of many of the leading figures of the East India Company as well as his beautiful scenes of everyday life and landscapes.

Clive Stewart-Lockhart has been working in the fine art world for 47 years and was a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow for 25 years between 1991 and 2016. He is now an independent art advisor.

This lecture compares his work with those masters he most admired, as well as the contemporary trends he chose to ignore. It tells of his lasting appeal, asking whether he should now be considered a great master of British art.

 ‘Ted’ Seago was part of a remarkable British post-impressionist flowering that included the likes of Sickert, Munnings and Augustus John. What made Seago quintessentially English was the great subtlety of his colour control and peaceful landscape compositions. This refinement won him admiration from four generations of royalty and an international fan-base that would cause his exhibitions to sell out on the first day. But you won’t find his paintings in the Tate Britain, nor did his work ever find favour with the art establishment. This lecture tells of his lasting appeal, asking whether he should now be considered a great master of British art.

Lecturer Russell Anthony has travelled much of the world, combining painting with tour lecturing.  Now based in London, he spends much of his time lecturing and undertaking research, while assisting at the British Museum with outreach events and visiting lecturers.

Kahlo's paintings offer a stunning visual record of the life of one of the 20th century's most gifted and original artists. Born in Mexico City just three years before the Revolution, her works reflect a deep pride in the rich cultural heritage of her homeland. But it is the self-portraits which remain her most striking and memorable body of work: these are not simply a record of her physical likeness but also a vehicle for exploring the dramatic and often poignant events of her life. Our lecture traces Frida's life and work through these powerful and often moving images. 

Siân Walters is an art historian. She has been a lecturer at the National Gallery for 20 years and also lectures for The Wallace Collection, The Art Fund and many art societies and colleges throughout Europe, and taught at Surrey University for many years. She has lived in France and Italy and spends much of the year organising and leading specialist art tours abroad, including bespoke trips for The Arts Society.

Jewellery

Join us for an insight into the work of a professional jewellery valuer, Catherine Parsons
2pm Thursday 10 February 2022 
This is an added event in place of our advertised Special Interest Day, online available free to all members.  In style and content it will be very similar to last years talk by Thomas Jenner Fust from Chorleys auctioneers which was very much enjoyed. 

She has worked with Major Retailers, Independent Jewellers, Trade Dealers, Police Forces, Legal and Insurance Companies for over 25 years providing a first class valuation, insurance advice and consultancy service.

This lecture surveys Rodin’s work showing why he is one  of the greatest sculptors ever, looking at his work in relationship to the 19th century.

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

This image is of the poster for the Rodin’s Kiss sculpture at The Wilson Museum and Art Gallery in Cheltenham. The campaign image uses a ‘X marks the spot’ idea for visitors to ‘hunt for Rodin’s hat that he left behind when he came to Cheltenham’, according to the designer.

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, then studied fine art in London, Barcelona and New York. An artist, he also curates and writes about art. He was shortlisted for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2009. David is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Sculptors, and was Vice President in 2010-13.

Both painters had a tremendous effect on the modern painters that followed.

Velásquez joined the court of Philip IV, and had the benefit of studying  Rubens, Titian and Poussin in the royal collection, thereafter finding a modern idiom in his work. Goya had similar experiences in the Bourbon Court. Both painters had a tremendous effect on the modern painters that followed them, especially Edouard Manet in nineteenth century Paris; whose works include  Dejeuner sur l’herbe shown here.

As a freelance lecturer, Alice Foster has lectured at home and abroad, including Oxford University, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock.

As part of the Habsburg Empire, Prague was beloved of kings and princes. During the 19th century, however, the Czechs sought to reclaim the city for their own. Looking back at ancient mythology, they imagined a new future by means of art, architecture, literature and music. From Romanticism to cubism, the Czechs re-conceived various artistic movements in specifically patriotic ways. Looking at painter and decorative artist Alfons Mucha, artist Karel Svoboda and composers Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, this talk shows how the Czechs created a capital that was fit for a new independent nation.

The Slav Epic included here was Mucha's most important and meaningful work: 20 huge patriotic murals of key moments from the history of the Slavic people.

Gavin who we welome back, is a writer and broadcaster who has appeared on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and has contributed to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. He has given talks to 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, as well as for history of art societies and The Art Fund. 

This lecture considers the wealth of images made from 18th century to 21st century that bear witness to the  industrial revolution and its impact on the environment.

The lecture will take us back to the eighteenth century, a time in which the industrial revolution was having a profound impact on the environment. We shall start in Coalbrookdale, then consider the effects of industrialisation on the settlers and natives in America. We explore and consider a variety of approaches by different artists including British artist David Hockney with his recent vibrant paintings that depict the West Yorkshire landscape in a post - industrial age

Lecturer Tricha Passes gained qualifications from the Courtauld Institute and Bath Spa University she has taught at various universities, in 2009 winning the Teaching and Learning prize for the Faculty of Arts at Bristol.

Andy Goldsworthy is one of the most interesting and innovative landscape artists working in Britain today. He mostly works in the open air, using natural materials such as leaves, ice, stones or trees to make exquisitely beautiful but usually ephemeral images in the great Romantic landscape tradition. Fortunately, although most of his works eventually disintegrate, melt away or fall over, they are all carefully photographed and included in extremely desirable and lavish ‘coffee-table’ books.

Frank Woodgate

Lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, lecturer for the Art Fund, the National Trust, U3A and other organisations. Lecturer and runs courses at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. 

In this illustrated lecture, Sarah Dunant, international bestselling novelist of the Italian renaissance, shares the secrets of her trade. To recreate the past as a living, breathing place, Sarah has visited churches, archives, museums and art galleries all over Italy. This is the story of her discoveries; how the decoding of old paintings alongside the work of the most modern historians helped her to penetrate hidden worlds inside the Renaissance, finding wonder and drama in ordinary lives and exploring the complexities of politics and religion along with emotion, the senses, and the heady appetites of body and soul.

Sarah Dunant

Novelist, broadcaster and critic. Sarah read history at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2), and Night Waves (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen novels, taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis, is a visiting tutor on the MA in creative writing at Oxford Brooks and has lectured around the world at festivals and conferences. Her last five novels have been set within the Italian Renaissance. Her next, In the Name of the Family (to be published in 2017) completes the story of the Borgia family and the remarkable period of Italian history in which they lived. Her recent series on history for BBC Radio 4, called When Greeks Flew Kites is available on podcast or listen again: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b090ccrh/episodes/player

Western Art from ‘Down Under’ is often overlooked and neglected, but there is a large amount of talented and inventive painters who rose to prominence in the post-World War II era. Painters like Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd from the ‘Heide School’ working in a naïve and expressive style, John Brack’s figurative paintings give a social critic of Australian post-war culture, John Olsen’s celebratory abstract expressions of the landscape, Brett Whiteley’s personal vision of his life in Sydney, Fred Williams' landscapes and Jeffery Smart’s surreal depictions of urban life are all essential in our understanding and appreciating the modern art of Australia and its place in the history of Western Art.

Chapman Paul

Paul is an Art Historian and a National Gallery trained guide with many years of experience working in education. As a freelance Paul delivers courses and lectures for a wide range of educational organisations. Paul has also given talks and tours for art associations/societies in Museums and Galleries in the UK and Europe. As a writer, Paul has published a book, which examines the subject of cultural crossovers and appropriations in 20th century painting. Paul has a long-standing commitment, in conjunction with the National Gallery as a tour guide at the Longford Castle art collection and he is also a visiting tutor at Marlborough College and a tutor at MCSS.

MacDonald 'Max' Gill, younger brother of the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill, was an architect, graphic designer and letterer, best known for his pictorial maps, especially those for the London Underground. He also created painted maps for Arts & Crafts houses including Lindisfarne Castle, magnificent murals for Cunard liners, and eye-catching publicity posters for organisations such as the Empire Marketing Board. An enduring legacy is his alphabet for the Imperial War Graves Commission used on all British military headstones since the First World War. This illustrated talk by Max Gill’s great-niece presents a colourful overview of this versatile artist's personal life and artistic achievements.

Caroline Walker

After embarking on family history research in 2006, she became fascinated in the life and work of her great-uncle MacDonald 'Max' Gill (1884-1947), an architect and graphic artist, best known for his decorative maps. Although well-known in his time, he was all but forgotten after his death unlike his brother Eric Gill, the controversial sculptor.  She has written for publications including Country Life, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and the Journal for the International Map Collectors Society. Also she has given talks for the National Archives, the Art Workers' Guild, Christie's, Friends of Kettle's Yard and the National Trust.  

BEAUTY IN TRUTH - THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF BOTANICAL ART AND ILLUSTRATION

Many people now carry a phone with a camera capable of taking very high-quality pictures, and yet the painting of botanical specimens persists with new Florilegium Societies still being formed. Why is a drawing and painting still considered to be superior to a digital image? This talk looks at the history of botanical illustration from drawings made on rocks 20,000 years ago to the present day, taking in the lives of both the artists and the plants immortalised in the artwork.

Walker Timothy

Since 1986 he has given 1,500 public lectures. This was originally part of his work as director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden from 1988 to 2014. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Since 2014 he has been a college lecturer and tutor at Somerville College Oxford. Gardens are often thought of a place where science and art meet on equal terms. His lectures investigate this relationship.

If you would like to  attend this lecture, please email your name to

 info@theartssocietywestglos.org.uk.

The High Renaissance saw the seamless integration of art and Architecture. So how was it that by the mid-20th century, painting and sculpture were an anathema?  This lecture tells of how painting and architecture went their separate ways, exploring the complex reasons behind their dramatic divorce.

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

Whincop Richard

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. 

Until we can return to Highnam this lecture will take place for members online.

‘I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show’ – Andrew Wyeth.

Magical, festive, beautiful, harsh, cruel and bleak – this talk will explore the variety of interpretations of this season through the works of Bruegel, Caspar David Friedrich, Monet, and Andrew Wyeth.

Stella Lyons

‘Without sacrificing scholarship, Stella Lyons has a most engaging way of hooking an audience into sharing her passionate interest in art history, drawing three dimensional human stories and experiences from the two-dimensional canvas’ – Maev Kennedy, writer and Arts correspondent for The Guardian

Stella Grace Lyons is a freelance Art History lecturer, speaker and writer accredited with The Arts Society. She has lectured across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malaysia and will soon embark on a lecturing tour in Australasia.

Stella gained her BA in the History of Art with a 1st class in her dissertation from the University of Bristol (2007-2011), and her MA in History of Art from the University of Warwick. She spent a year studying Renaissance art in Italy at the British Institute of Florence, and three months studying Venetian art in Venice. In addition, she attended drawing classes at the prestigious Charles H. Cecil studios in Florence, a private atelier that follows a curriculum based on the leading ateliers of nineteenth century Paris.

Until we can return to Highnam this lecture will take place for members online.

The festive works of Canaletto and Francesco Guardi, the last great eighteenth century painters of views, shaped the image of Venice in the minds of northern Europeans long after the city’s demise. Subsequently the most important pictures of Venice of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were painted by some of the most progressive artists from Europe and the United States. These included Turner, Manet, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Paul Signac, and Monet. Captivated by its unique atmosphere and beauty these artists found new approaches to challenge the run-of-the-mill visual stereotypes, developing their own unique strategies and techniques, marking a turning point in their work and making considerable contributions to the development of modern art.

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes

Jennifer  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.  

Until we can return to Highnam this lecture will take place for members online.

Merchants of the Dutch Golden Age filled their town houses with paintings. But these upright Calvinist citizens rejected biblical subjects and Baroque melodrama.

Favourite themes were found closer to home. Still Lifes reflect the prosperity and self-esteem of the new Republic. The detailed realism of these paintings is compelling but is there more to Dutch art than meets the eye?

Banketje (banquets) and ontbijtjes (breakfasts) celebrate an abundance of both local and imported foodstuffs. Could the curl of lemon peel, platter of oysters, kraakware bowl of blemished fruit or spiced meat pie warn of the dangers of gluttony and pleasures of the flesh?

Vanitas, ‘pronkstilleven’ and ‘blompots’ display collections of books and instruments, luxury goods and vases overflowing with exotic flowers. If we look closely, however, the pocket-watch, fading bloom or, more explicitly, human skull, might hint that consciences are troubled by such ostentation. Life is fragile and worldly beauty is fleeting.

Join us to explore the secret symbolic language of Still Life paintings and become a fluent reader of ‘Double Dutch’!

Lynne Gibson
For the past ten years she has worked as an independent art historian with a busy freelance schedule.

Giving talks, lectures, courses and guided tours to a wide range of organisations around the UK and abroad, including ARCA colleges, art galleries and museums, art societies, the Art Fund, the National Trust and The Arts Society.

Also contributing educational material and gallery talks to exhibitions organised by institutions including The National Gallery, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, The Whitworth Art Gallery and The Lady Lever Art Gallery.

Previously she worked professionally as an etcher and a painter in oils. Solo and group exhibitions have included the RWA, the British Museum, the Guild Gallery in Bristol and London's Barbican. Work is held in private and public collections and has been used in a range of publications, including newspapers, periodicals and for book covers.

This lecture will take place for members online.

On coming to the throne in 1820 George IV instinctively understood the pomp and splendour appropriate to the monarch of the richest and most powerful country in the world. 

This lecture traces his developing taste as Prince of Wales, Regent and King and examines connections between his royal residences as well as his spectacular legacy to the Royal Collection – the greatest by any monarch since Charles I. 

Click the link and take a minute to watch Barbara introduce this lecture at Directory Day  https://youtu.be/c3Nhy3vCnCY

 Barbara Askew

Barbara Askew grew up in Eton with Windsor Castle as part of her daily view. She is a London Blue Badge Guide with almost 30 years’ experience and as the Site Representative at Windsor Castle for the Guild of British Tourist Guides she is the acknowledged expert on Windsor Castle and the surrounding area among Blue Badge Tourist Guides.  She lectures on the subject for the Arts Society and for Blue Badge Guide Training Courses.

Due to the cronavirus crisis this lecture will be online.

The Frick Collection, New York, is one of the finest-quality museums in the world. It belongs largely to the Gilded Age of American connoisseurship of the early years of the 20th century and is a testament to the taste of its founder, steel magnate, Henry Clay Frick. He died on the eve of WWI after being able to collect some of the best pieces available in Europe and America. His agents were really effective and the result is a first rate collection of fine French furniture, enamels, porcelain, paintings by Bellini, Van Eyck,   Holbein, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Dyck, Rubens, El Greco,          Velázquez, Fragonard, Ingres, Renoir, JMW Turner, Constable, Whistler and many others. All set within an outstanding mansion in Manhattan.

Hilary Williams

Formerly Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, now Art History Education Officer. Lectures for BM, London Borough of Bexley and Wallace Collection. Liaison officer at British Museum with The Arts Society. Founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society of North Kent Evening. Guides Special Interest Private Tours of the  State Apartments Buckingham Palace.

Due to the cronavirus crisis this lecture will be online.

This colorful lecture explores the relationship between an extraordinary American painter and an equally remarkable place: the picturesque state of New Mexico. Fascinated by the mountains and desert, adobe churches and sun-bleached bones, and above all by the brilliant light and vast skies of the state they call the Land of Enchantment.

James Russell

Drawing on his own twenty-year-long experience of New Mexico and an archive of personal photographs and reminiscences, this lecture brings to life one of America’s greatest artists, and one of its most beautiful places. Having studied History at Pembroke College, Cambridge, James Russell enjoyed a lengthy stint selling contemporary paintings and sculpture in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Of his dozen or so books, one was a Sunday Times book of the year, while his writing has been described by critics as 'insightful', 'informative' and 'enjoyably readable'.

Due to the cronavirus crisis this lecture is cancelled and will be included in our 2021/22 programme.

Hans Holbein was the first great mainland painter to spend much time in England and he brought with him a sophistication and skill, with far reaching consequences for this island's artistic development.

His Ambassadors is recognized by the National Gallery of London as one of its greatest treasures. It dates from a tradition in the arts when no object was without meaning and symbolism. However, practically all of this meaning has been lost to the modern observer. This lecture considers the tempestuous circumstances of its creation and the hidden messages concealed within it. The painting tells us much about the state of Europe at the time and the hopes and fears of its major players. 

Anthony Russell

He 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. Now based in London, spends much of his time lecturing and undertaking research, while assisting at the British Museum with outreach events and visiting lecturers. 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.

The Guggenheim, designed by the Canadian architect Frank Gehry and opened to the public in 1997, is one of the most exciting buildings of the 20th C.

The lecture begins with an Introduction to the Guggenheim foundation and how it came about, and then moves on to  describe the very particular circumstances that led to the commission in Bilbao. It examines the architecture of Frank Gehry using illustrations from his work in Europe and  America. The lecture ends with an introduction to the collection of paintings, sculptures and installations contained  within the museum, covering the permanent collection as well as providing up-to-date information on current and future exhibitions.

Sian Walters

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

You are welcome to attend this month's lecture at no cost if you are interested in joining our society.

A reduced 6 month subscription applies for those joining after 29 February 2020.

Sargent’s life is full of movement – born in Italy, he studied in Paris, painted portraits in London, produced oils and watercolours in Venice, was a First World War artist.

He spent the later years of his life painting murals in Boston. This lecture looks in depth at his amazing portraits analysing just how he captured the character of his sitters and looking back to Van Dyck and Gainsborough. It looks in detail at his Venetian oils and sparkling watercolours and outline the Anglo-American society in the Palazzo Barbaro that he frequented while in Venice. Looking at his paintings done in the Alps with his friends while travelling down to Venice, and show his wartime watercolours. This is a sparkling lecture full of colour which shows that Sargent is a master in both oils and watercolours, as well as being a charming, musical and cosmopolitan man.

Julian Halsby

Studied History of Art at Cambridge. Formerly Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Croydon College of Art.

Publications include Venice - the Artist's Vision (1990, 1995), The Art of Diana Armfield RA (1995), Dictionary of Scottish Painters (1990, 1998, 2001, 4th edition 2010), A Hand to Obey the Demon's Eye (2000), Scottish Watercolours 1740-1940 (1986, 1991),

Interviews artists for the Artist Magazine and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics Circle.

A practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.

He filled his paintings with slumped characters, weighed down by their lives under soulless skies. Those who dislike Lowry point to his simplistic    depiction of the north-west; those who like him refer to the snobbery of his detractors. The lecture will describe Lowry’s life, and explain his art through a discussion of a selection of his paintings. It will balance his industrial paintings with his portraits, seascapes and other subject matter. It will conclude with an assessment of his contribution to British art. 

Warburton Raymond

Has studied art history at the Open University and the University of Buckingham. A Guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, who leads public tours of all the permanent displays and also undertakes exhibition tours. An experienced public speaker who has given presentations and lectures on a range of themes to diverse audiences over many years.

At the turn of the last century, Vienna was the capitall 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, who has appeared on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributed to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Gainsborough transformed British art.

Portraiture and landscape painting were different things at the outset of his career in the 1740s to what they were at his death in 1788. He took both genres to new heights and remains one of the most beloved figures of British Art.

The lecture explores the development of this very British genius through his paintings and his own words and looks    forward to the new Gainsborough's house as it creates a national centre for the artist.

Mark Bills

He studied at the Slade School of Art and the universities of Birmingham and Manchester. He was Curator at the Watts Gallery, and is now  Curator of the Gainsborough Museum and lectures regularly at the Tate, Russell-Cotes Gallery, Museum of London, Guildhall Art Gallery, Bristol University and Mercer Art Gallery. Has also presented talks in New York and Finland.  Publications include George Frederic Watts: Victorian Visionary (2008), The Art of Satire: London in Caricature (2006) and William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age (2006).

This is the keystone lecture of Charles Harris’ Poster Series relating the technical innovation combined with creative genius and remarkable craftsmanship that enabled the Poster to become the world’s first effective method of mass communication. From ‘Les Chats’ by Edouard Manet to ‘Saxoleine’ by Jules Cheret and ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Divan Japonais’ by Toulouse-Lautrec, you’ll see inspirational work by generations of superb artists who made the poster great: magnificent Mucha, socially-conscious Steinlen, and many more. Learn how an effective poster is designed and how it plays on the mind; and why most posters today go unnoticed.  

Chris Harris

Focusing on the role of posters and poster artists in the history of advertising, this global-award winning Creative Director of international advertising agencies has lectured extensively on design, illustration and photographic styles as they have influenced the building of brands. He has himself created posters for major brands including British Airways, Nestlé, Sony, General Motors and Shell.

Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer.

Sir Terence Conran spotted his talent early on and has described

Heatherwick as  

“The Leonardo da Vinci of our times”.   

Heatherwick and his Studio team bring craft, design and urban planning together in a single workspace.  Their Olympic Cauldron with its breathtaking giant ring of fire, was a memorable sight at the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Thomas Heatherwick’s innovative approach is now in  demand all over the world.

Anthea Streeter

Studied  Fine and Decorative Arts in London and  at  Harvard University. It was while at Harvard, that she    became interested herself in 20th century architecture. Since returning from America she has taught on courses in Oxford and London.

Today she is much in demand internationally as a leading  Arts Society lecturer.

Over the centuries the Livery Companies of the City of London have accumulated fascinating treasures.

Quirky, little known and intriguing, from illuminated ordinance books to cups for toasting and chains of office plus objects which represent their craft and trade - these all reveal their history and their vital importance to the commercial life of the City of London.

Despite ravages of fire and warfare, challenges to their monopolies and the disappearance of certain trades, today they are revived and thrive with 31 modern companies formed since 1945.

Surprisingly 42 of their Halls have survived or been rebuilt. These historic buildings retain commissioned portraits, furniture, silver and stained glass. Rare and curious items reveal the stories behind some of the world’s oldest crafts and guilds which have kept pace with modern times and are still very relevant today. 

Joanna Mabbutt is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, Freeman of the City of London, Project Manager, Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker!. Originally a trained singer, pianist and orchestra administrator, Jo is now a decorative artist who combines lace with gilding, printing and painting. Trained in wood graining, marbling, gilding, specialist paint finishes and interior design she was awarded C&G Silver Medal for Excellence in 2000.

A vain waspish personality to the many people he fell out with, including John Ruskin who triggered the most famous art trial in history accusing Whistler, in one of his ‘nocturnes’, of ‘flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face’.

While controversy and combat dominated his colourful private life, his paintings were ahead of their time, both revolutionary and poetic.

This talk looks at both the man and his art.

John Iddon

Is a Lecturer and Guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern and has lectured freelance to numerous art societies, and even the  Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in Venice.

He regularly Lectures on art for cruises and in 2012, he wrote the new guidebook to the newly opened Strawberry Hill.

Burlington House on London’s Piccadilly the home of the Royal Academy of Arts since 1868.

The Academy was already 100 years old when it took up residence, The building has a long and fascinating earlier history of its own.

This talk focuses on:

·  it’s origins from construction in the 1660’s for a courtier to King Charles II;

· re-fashioning as a Palladian mansion ,

· further re-development during the Regency period,

· and its ultimate role as the home of the United Kingdom's leading 'society for promoting the Arts of Design'.

The talk also examines the reasons behind the founding of the Royal Academy and its history including the time of eminent Victorian artists such as Leighton, Millais and Frith.

With Richard Stephenson

An art historian with a particular interest in the art and architecture of the Georgian period.

He holds a Masters Degree in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors from UCL and has published a number of articles on country house visiting, which is a favourite pastime.

He has lectured extensively for organisations such as U3A, WEA, Probus and The National Trust, and has experience as a cruise lecturer. In 2016 he undertook a lecture tour of Australia for the Arts Society.

As Good as Gold - a special lecture in celebration of

The Arts Society's golden anniversary

Experience the story of gold and its significance and symbolism within the history of art - as the colour of the sun; the colour of divinity; the colour of status and the colour of love. From creations ancient and contemporary, sacred and profane - all that glitters is certainly gold…

With Alexandra Epps

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

THE GREAT BRITISH PAINT OFF. This is the story of the epic rivalry between the two giants of British art, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. As unlike in background and temperament as their paintings were in style, these two creative geniuses transformed the art of landscape. This lecture sets them head-to-head and examines their differences, their similarities, their battles and their shared triumphs. But who will ultimately be crowned star painter? As well as giving an overview of Turner and Constable, the subject provides an enjoyable overview of the British art world during the nineteenth century.  

NICOLA MOORBY An independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner, including contributions to the forthcoming online catalogue of the Turner Bequest.
 

250 years of American history and 1000 miles of American terrain

The lecture covers 250 years of American history and 1000 miles of American terrain. The Plantation Houses of Virginia and the Carolinas provide some of the finest examples of Colonial Architecture in America. Houses like Shirley, Westover and Drayton Hall show all the Palladian elegance of a Georgian Country House. George Washington's Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello are more personal houses, entirely appropriate residences for their distinguished owners. We then move from the Old South to the Deep South and look at some of the spectacular houses of Louisiana.. 

Roger Mitchell Studied History at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds. A Former College Vice-Principal he now lectures for the University of Liverpool and for Adult Residential Colleges. He Organises and leads country house study tours, and tries to find time to do research on British and American Country Houses.

Each artwork tells its own story. The Inside Stories is a 'top 10 looted art cases

 Shauna will look at the most famous works of art that were looted by the Nazis and discuss their provenance and their journeys from their wartime owners to where they are now. Examples of works she will discuss are Vincent van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet and Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto - which was once owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

Shauna Isaac studied at the Courtauld Institute and Birkbeck College, London and regularly lectures at the Sotheby's Institute of Art. She Currently manages an art recovery company and served on the Looted Art Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague, where she was instrumental in drafting the Terezin Declaration on Nazi looting, which was ratified by 46 countries. 

No cabinetmaker’s name is better known

For over a century, postcards have pictured our shared history across the globe. They have documented the changing role of women, the growth of cities, evolving styles of architecture, home decoration, royalty, celebrity, the rise of cinema, aviation, the automobile, fashion trends, celebrations and holidays. Few people, places or things have not become the subject of a postcard. But the age of the postcard is over. With our mobile phones, we take and send images in an instant. This lecture celebrates the history and scope of picture postcards — bearers of news and repositories of memory.

Chloe Sayer specialises in the art and culture of Latin America and has lectured in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. She has curated exhibitions, and assisted on TV documentaries for BBC and Channel 4 and  made collections in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum. She  is Research Associate in the Department of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government for her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture.

It’s hard enough telling whether your artwork is any good, but is it also socially acceptable? In an entertaining survey including artistic beauties as well as beasts, we focus on what can make art socially questionable, to conclude with a revealing definition of kitsch. But don’t expect that in the end, when it comes to good and bad taste, we’ll all agree on which is which – and which is kitsch. 

David Phillips studied History at Oxford, has worked for Nottingham Castle Museum and from 1982-98 lectured in Museum Studies and Art History at Manchester University.

It’s hard enough telling whether your artwork is any good, but is it also socially acceptable? In an entertaining survey including artistic beauties as well as beasts, we focus on what can make art socially questionable, to conclude with a revealing definition of kitsch. But don’t expect that in the end, when it comes to good and bad taste, we’ll all agree on which is which – and which is kitsch. 

David Phillips studied History at Oxford, has worked for Nottingham Castle Museum and from 1982-98 lectured in Museum Studies and Art History at Manchester University.

Dazzle – the Art of Camouflage – The Life and Work of Norman Wilkinson- How to Hide in Plain Sight

Whilst it is a constant throughout history that conflict has inspired and engendered great art, it is much rarer event for art to impact directly upon the vicissitudes of war. Yet, in the course of the First World War, a collision of naval strategy and the nascent modern art movement, led to some 2000 British ships going to sea as the largest painted modernist canvases in the world covered in abstract, clashing, decorative and geometric designs in a myriad of colours. Dazzle had arrived.

 Dr 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. He is also a lecturer and ships' historian on board cruise ships. He completed his PhD at the University of Sussex in 2015 on the voyager artist William Westall (1781-1850) who sailed with Commander Matthew Flinders aboard HMS 'Investigator' (1801-1803) the first ship to circumnavigate Australia.

In 2003 a project was set up to catalogue the UK’s national collection of oil paintings. It involved visiting over 3,000 collection locations across the UK and photographing 212,000 paintings. The lecture offers an insider’s view of this ambitious and unique project.

MRS MARY ROSE RIVETT-CARNAC

Mary Rose gained an MA in Victorian Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. Several of her arts-related essays and articles have been published, and she is a guide at Turner’s House in Twickenham and Dorich House Museum in Kingston. She was a founder member of The Arts Society of Richmond upon Thames. Since 2007 she has worked part-time on the unique arts project that is the subject of her lectures.

Stairs leading nowhere, houses inside trees, bowler-hatted men undergoing unexpected transformations: these are just some of the strange, unsettling images created by the Belgian surrealist. This lecture surveys Magritte’s career, his creative but turbulent years in Paris with the French surrealists, fascination with the connections between words and images and his problem-solving paintings are all addressed.

Sarah Kelly lectures on Western European art in France, Belgium and the UK. She worked at the National Gallery in London, and as a museum curator at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath. She lived for eight years in France and Belgium: working as a lecturer in Toulouse at the Museum of Fine Arts and in Brussels at the Magritte Museum. Since returning to the UK in 2009, she combines museum work with lecturing and teaching art history. She also works with visually impaired people in art galleries.

An Insight into one of History’s Most Famous Couples

British Trees in Art and Literature – The Fascination of Trees – from Shakespeare to Tolkien and JK Rowling, via Constable, Samuel Palmer, Andy Goldsworthy…….