2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Spanish architect and designer Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), a key figure in Catalan Modernism, who stands as one of the creators of Barcelona’s urban identity. Inventor of new techniques and a magpie enthusiast of all things botanical and sacred, Gaudí’s most famous building, the Barcelona Church of the Sagrada Família, is Spain’s most-visited monument and one of seven of the architect’s works listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. Building works on Sagrada Família were begun in 1882 and are still ongoing, a fact that stands in stark contrast to contemporary building projects and brings to life the nature of cathedral building in medieval Europe.

 Vivienne Lawes is an art historian, curator, author and journalist with over 25 years’ experience in the art market. She teaches at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the University of the Arts London, Imperial College, SOAS (University of London) and the City & Guilds of London Art School. Her work has been published in numerous specialist journals, newspapers, catalogues, handbooks and websites, aimed at both the academic and general readership in print and online. Since 2011 she has been Senior UK Consultant to Singapore gallery One East Asia.

Henry Moore is one of the most popular and important British sculptors of the twentieth century, revolutionising the way people thought about the human figure and sculpture, and making beautiful forms that grew out of his love for the landscape. He was often inspired by the art of the past and of other cultures, but he was also at the forefront of modernism – creating a new language of sculpture, full of abstract shapes, holes and magisterial forms. This talk explores his life and works, as well as the vibrant artistic world of mid-twentieth century Britain.   

Jo Walton combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling. She has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and is now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, The National Gallery, The Art Fund, and local art societies.

Cinema from the rubble: the post-war politics of Ealing Studios

Ealing Studios is often hailed as the most quintessentially English of all film studios. Run by Sir Michael Balcon for decades, the studio reached its zenith in 1949, its annus mirabilis, releasing Passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore! and Kind Hearts and Coronets. Now most celebrated for these and the similarly magnificent comedies that followed, Ealing's films have a reputation for cosiness, whimsicality, and an ever-so gentle subversiveness. This talk revisits these films and reads them again, this time in the light of the post-war new waves that were beginning to emerge across Europe. Ealing films – like the masterpieces of Italian neo-realism – are films set amongst the ruins, documenting the lives of citizens in bombed cities. Viewed as comedies of rubble, they take on a far more serious set of meanings than their whimsical reputation suggests.

Benedict Morrison is a lecturer in Literature and Film at the University of Exeter. He has recently published a book entitled Complicating Articulation in Art Cinema with Oxford University Press, and is now producing works on post-war British comedy films, the response by the arts and humanities to Covid-19, and cultural narratives of extinction.

How to Steal a Million

We have all heard about audacious art heists that are more like blockbuster movies than run-of-the-mill burglaries. In this lecture we will look at famous art thefts and discuss what motivates art thieves, as well as examine what aspects the thefts have in common. We will also look at where the burglars made mistakes, which enabled investigators to swoop in and recover stolen masterpieces. In many cases, the police sting operations were just as daring as the thefts.

Shauna Isaac has been active in World War II art restitution for several years, and has worked with families and government organisations to recover Nazi looted art. Shauna studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in the UK and at Smith College in the USA. She is a regular lecturer at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Her publications include articles for The Art Newspaper, The Times Literary Supplement and Art Quarterly.

Over the last 35 years, the Docklands area of London has been transformed. Here are not only some of the great Georgian industrial warehouses and dock buildings, but state-of-the-art office buildings by the great architects of today. Canary Wharf is also a dramatic and witty sculpture park. Even the lamp posts, benches, pavements, planters and ventilation shafts are specially commissioned and designed to the highest standards.

Sue Jackson is a Fellow of the Huguenot Society, a Freeman of the City of London, a tutor at the City Literary Institute and a Blue Badge guide, conducting a variety of walks and visits.  

Throughout its long history, and many changes in form and fortune, Rome has always been a tourist centre. In every age – Classical, Christian, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Romantic, Modern – people have flocked to look at its wonders. But what they have chosen to look at – the pictures, buildings, statues, artefacts – has varied with each age. This is partly because Rome itself has varied – it has risen and fallen and risen again – but it is also because tastes and priorities have changed with each age. The pictures looked at by the ‘milords’ on the Grand Tour were totally different from those looked at by the Victorian sightseers on their early Thomas Cook excursions, and so on through the ages. This talk examines those shifts in taste and emphasis by examining a succession of specific sights that were once held in high regard but are now all but forgotten.

Matthew Sturgis’s book ‘When In Rome’ chronicled the history of the way in which Rome has been visited, and the artworks that tourists have admired there over the millennia: from Classical and Medieval times, via the Renaissance and the Grand Tour, to our own era.  He is also the author of three acclaimed biographies, and has written a history of the English Decadence of the 1890s.

Our rich cathedral choral tradition is unique. Drawing on his own experience as a chorister in Wells Cathedral, Roger will give a lively insight into the life of a cathedral chorister. The lecture will explore the development of the tradition from medieval times to the present. It will be illustrated with examples of some of the outstanding choirs of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Roger Askew was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. He combined a teaching career with professional singing in London, and after obtaining a further degree in Music became Director of Music at Daniel Stewart’s and Melville College in Edinburgh.

Focusing on the sumptuous society portraits of John Singer Sargent, Philip de Laszlo, Giovani Boldini and other artists and designers who defined the ‘look’ of the period, we will look at paintings, photographs, interiors and fashion designs to recreate the opulent lifestyle of the artists’ aristocratic and nouveaux riches international patrons.  What role did art play in social acceptance as a person of refinement and culture? What influence did King Edward VII and the Marlborough House set have in changing the rules of the game? The lecture will explore important influences from America and the effects of female emancipation on social conventions and etiquette. Commentaries from Henry James, Edith Wharton and Elinor Glyn bring the personalities to life.

Mary Alexander was Assistant Curator at Platt Hall, the Gallery of English Costume, and subsequently lectured in art history at the University of Leeds, the Open University and Manchester University Extra Mural Department. From 1995 - 2008, she was a Visiting Lecturer at Christie’s Education in London. Mary has also combined academic work with the world of design consultancy. In 1985 she joined Pentagram Design in London, a leading international design consultancy, and in then transferred to Pentagram’s New York office.

This lecture ties in with the exhibition on the Edwardians at the King's Gallery.

While Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475- 1564) are two of the most familiar figures in Italian Renaissance art, the rivalry and antipathy that existed between them remains a story without an author. This lecture throws light on these themes using select examples of their works which, it is argued, hold the key to understanding the motivations for their animosity. Particular emphasis is given to the commission bestowed upon them to undertake frescoes for the great council chamber in Florence. Though unfinished, the surviving designs placed Leonardo and Michelangelo in direct competition with one another, as well as indicating their differing artistic approaches. 

Dr. James Lindow was  awarded the first Renaissance PhD from the Royal College of Art and the V&A. He has convened and presented at international conferences, lectures widely in the UK and overseas and is currently a fine art underwriter in the City. He has written articles on diverse aspects of the Renaissance, and his book entitled The Renaissance Palace in Florence: Magnificence and Splendour in Fifteenth-Century Italy was published by Ashgate Press.

This lecture reveals how self-portraits have shifted over time, from artists depicting themselves as gentlemen and thinkers in an age when their social status was low, to the 17th-century reframing of the artist as visionary. From autobiography and fiction to masks and mirrors, we reveal how and why artists from Michelangelo and Dürer to Rembrandt and Van Dyck relentlessly made images of themselves and moved from being bit-players to central actors in the artistic narrative. How important is likeness and ‘truth’ in self-portraiture, or can fictions and masquerades give us equally rich insights into an artist’s life and work? The lecture comes right up to date, looking at the work of Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Marc Quinn and Marina Abramovic, to explore what it means to make self-portraits today, in our image-saturated age of smartphones and selfies.

Jacky Klein specialises in modern and contemporary art, and has worked as a curator at the Tate, the Barbican, the Courtauld and the Hayward. She has also been Commissioning Editor at Thames & Hudson,  and Executive Editor at Tate Publishing and subsequently Director of HENI Publishing, a small independent arts publisher. She is the author of a book on B Grayson Perry and co-author of a number of other titles, including What is Contemporary Art?  (Thames & Hudson, 2012), a children's guide to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which has been translated into 11 languages.  Jacky is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's arts review programme, 'Front Row’. She has taught at a number of arts institutions including University College London, Christie’s Education, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts.

From the controversial Parthenon or ‘Elgin’ marbles to the Venus de Milo, most celebrated among the ‘naked Aphrodites’, here is a chance to meet the Ancient Greeks in the raw. Contains nudity! The Ancient Greeks invented the human portrait and their sculpture formed the basis of European art. Arguably, it has never been bettered. They produced statues of such beauty and realism that men are said to have fallen in love with them.

Rupert Willoughby is an historian and classicist and the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, and of a series of histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village, and Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. Rupert also contributes regular obituaries to The Daily Telegraph. 

Before the invention of printing in the 15th century, manuscripts were written and illuminated by hand, and each manuscript has its own particular beauty and character. From the Anglo-Saxon Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells to the glories of the individual Books of Hours of the 15th century, such as the Très Riches Heures. Some of the most sumptuous are those produced at the beginning of the 16th century in Bruges, Ghent and Milan.  Despite being prayer books, they are filled with decorations of animals, birds and flowers, as well as delightful calendar pages of the labours of the months.

Clare Ford-Wille’s regular commitments include the Centre for Lifelong Learning, London University, National Gallery, V&A Museum, WEA, Morley College, the City Literary Institute, the Art Fund and National Trust. She often arranges study tours abroad.

‘Unbeautiful but of value’: Victorian buildings embodied many of the characteristics that Pevsner most deplored – rampant individualism, unnecessary ornament, historical fancy dress. He reserves some of his best adjectives for Victorian architecture – ‘hamfisted’, ‘distressing’, ‘flabby’, ‘noisy’, ‘rum’. But he also considered it indispensable as the most vivid record of a period when Britain led the civilised world. Under his leadership the Victorian Society fought to conserve it, so hard that they would be credited with having saved a whole century. This lecture looks at Pevsner’s views on the Victorians, the battles he won – and those he lost.  

Susie Harries is a writer, editor and lecturer specialising in 20th century culture and the arts. She has published eight books on subjects including official war art, opera and the composer Elisabeth Lutyens, as well as the biography of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, published in August 2011.She lectures to a range of audiences, from the Imperial War Museum and British Museum to the Twentieth Century Society, the RSA, the Cheltenham and Bridport Literary Festivals, and the Victorian Society.

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

Pepe Martinez qualified as a London blue badge tourist guide in 2011 and has specialised in the graffiti and street art of East London. He leads London walks and also organises practical spray sessions, giving groups an opportunity to have a go at creating their own works. 

Fascinating as much for her life as her art, Carrington (as she preferred to be known) eventually formed one corner of a typically Bloomsbury triangular relationship. She studied at the Slade School of Art where her student work showed promise but at a time when it was unusual for a woman to succeed as a professional artist.   Her long (and improbable) relationship with the biographer Lytton Strachey was followed by marriage to Ralph Partridge and these complexities played a part in her death at the age of only 38. The lecture will consider both her unconventional life and her art; a talent that has, perhaps, been overwhelmed by biography. An exhibition of her work will run at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester until the end of 2025.

Alan Read is a gallery guide at Tate Britain and regularly lectures at both London Tates. For twenty years he was a gallery guide and lecturer at the National Portrait Gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. He also works as a London Blue Badge Guide.

From Wedgwood to Chippendale, from Robert Adam to the beauties of Bath, for many the Georgian period was an age of stability and refinement. And few pleasures were as refined as the famous 12-acre Vauxhall pleasure gardens sited on the River Thames which offered a splendid cornucopia of masques and music, fireworks, fountains and balloon ascents - plus the notorious 'Dark Walks'. We will wander around the gardens accompanied by Hogarth, Handel, Canaletto and Rowlandson. Sadly, we will also chart their decline and eventual closure in 1859.

 Andrew Davies is an extra-mural Tutor for London, Essex and the Open Universities, the author of 9 books, including The East End Nobody Knows and a frequent contributor to radio and television. He organises walks to complement his lectures.

Over 2500 years in the making, the great British pantomime is a very potent brew indeed. Mix the earliest Greek and Roman drama with commedia dell'arte and medieval morality plays, then stir in a sprig of C17th masque, a dash of C18th harlequinade and a hefty shot of Victorian music hall and, hey presto, you have the modern Christmas pantomime. (Oh no you don’t!).

Giles Ramsay is an independent theatre director and producer who specialises in creating new work with artists in developing countries. He is the Founding Director of the charity Developing Artists, a Fellow of St. Chad’s College, Durham University and is a Course Leader in Theatre at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Giles has run theatre projects in Botswana, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Kosovo, Palestine, Mexico, Thailand and Zimbabwe. He has given numerous talks for institutions ranging from The Foundation for Mexican Literature in Mexico City to The Royal College of Physicians in London. He regularly lectures on the history and practice of theatre on the Queen Mary 2.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, when the so-called ‘Cult of Saints’ was at its peak, the idea of a physical journey towards a spiritual goal was extremely popular. The cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in north-western Spain, was one of the three most important Christian pilgrimage sites of the medieval period, after Jerusalem and Rome. The ‘camino’, or pilgrimage road, across northern Spain thus became one of the most widely-used of medieval times, dotted with Romanesque churches and monasteries, designed to incorporate the veneration of saints into sumptuous architecture, replete with religious sculptures and elaborate reliquaries, and thus to attract the many pilgrims and their money.

Ian Cockburn is a specialist in the nearly 800 years of Moorish occupation and Christian reconquest of medieval Iberia. He is founder and director of an art tours company specialising in guided cultural tours in Spain, and he lectures at the V&A, SOAS, Christie’s Education, and the London Art History Society.

This lecture ties in with the major exhibition at the National Gallery from 14 September 2024 until 19 January 2025.

It would seem that there has never been fascination in an artist to rival the Dutchman who simply signed his work 'Vincent'. We are all aware of the recent exhibitions and the remarkable prices realised for this humble artist's work. Most of us appreciate the beauty of his efforts but how much do we know about the man himself? This lecture considers exactly why, despite never selling a painting and his committing suicide in poverty, no art historian today denies his genius. There are extraordinary, little-known facts to be revealed, while we can enjoy the remarkable range of his talent. Though seeming so extreme and exceptional, the tragic story of his loveless life is deeply moving, and his humanity makes a lasting impression. 

Anthony Russell spent six years as a consultant advising on the furniture needs of prestigious buildings throughout Britain, including museums, palaces, and cathedrals. At the British Museum, where for many years he ran outreach events and hosted visiting lecturers, he has been described as "Hugh Grant meets the Dalai Lama.” Committed to the 'search for civilisation' and as an advocate of nonviolence, he is the founder of The Chandos, a forum fostering understanding, co-operation and peace through the arts. He is author of the book Evolving the Spirit - From Democracy to Peace.

The National Gallery gives us the opportunity to discover the science behind fine art. How has scientific innovation changed the way we create art? We will examine the development of perspective in the early Renaissance, and the evolution of different paint types. We will look at the way Leonardo da Vinci brought scientific knowledge into art, and we will see how trade brought new copper minerals to Europe that would change the composition of paintings such as Titian’s. The industrial revolution meant that science and innovation became the subject of art, with industrial scenes by Turner and Joseph Wright of Derby, and the life-like re-creation of horse anatomy of George Stubbs. Finally, the 20th century brings modern chemistry that takes painting out of the studio and into the open air where we can see the impact of Impressionism.

Aaron Hunter is a professional scientist and researcher with the University of Cambridge and a London Blue Badge Guide, a Green Badge Guide for the City of London and Oxford, and a City of Bath Mayor's Guide. He is a palaeontologist, and has published research on the origin of marine animals 480 million years ago. He worked 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, and gives lectures that encompass these subjects ,looking at the interface between the arts and sciences.

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD AT ST. MARY'S CHURCH, PERIVALE NOT AT ST. BARNABAS CHURCH PITSHANGER LANE.

From July to September 2024 Paris will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. But whilst most onlookers will focus on sport, art and design will also play a part, as they have since the games began at Olympia nearly three thousand years ago. Greek art is replete with representations of athletes on vases, plates and bronzes. Every four years modern day hosts unveil dazzling new architecture, in the form of stadia, arenas, velodromes and swimming pools. The athletes themselves act as torch bearers for ever changing ideals of physical perfection. From nudity to Nike, from sand to synthetics, the Olympic story offers art lovers pure gold.

Simon Inglis specialises in the architecture and heritage of sport and recreation. Since 2004 he has edited the Played in Britain series for English Heritage. Simon’s themes are architecture, design, heritage and popular culture. He has curated exhibitions for the Building Centre and the British Council, been a regular contributor to radio and television, has travelled and lectured extensively, and written a number of books. Two were shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, while another, on British football grounds, was chosen by journalist Frank Keating as the best sports book of the 20th century. A recent highpoint in his work for English Heritage was the listing of a 1970s skatepark in Essex, a world first that made the 10 o'clock news.

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

Dr Amy Lim is an art historian and curator, specialising in British fine and decorative arts from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. She is curator of the Faringdon Collection at Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, and of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham. She is also an exhibition researcher at Tate, contributing to British Baroque: Power and Illusion (2020) and the forthcoming Women Artists in Britain. 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.

Our AGM will held immediately prior to this lecture.

From diplomatic gifts to tokens of love, between the 16th-19th centuries miniatures were commissioned as small portraits which could be held in the hand or placed inside lockets creating an intimate relationship between the owner and sitter, this lecture looks at the history of these tiny treasures of art.

 Cindy Polemis has worked as an art guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. She has also been a trustee at the Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum. Cindy has accumulated a wide range of art historical knowledge ranging from 18th European and British art to the contemporary international art scene. She has been an official guide for both Frieze Masters and Frieze Art Fairs in London. She is particularly keen to draw parallels with art and social history.

This lecture explores the sacred architecture of Laos, particularly in Luang Prabang, where there are 32 golden and frescoed Buddhist temples, some dating from the 16th century, with tiered roofs that sweep to the ground. Inhabited mostly by saffron robed monks, Luang Prabang is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We also look at the French legacy of elegant wooden houses with Lao motifs, built during the late 19th century, which blended harmoniously with Lao secular architectural traditions. Finally we examine silk-weaving, once the preserve of the Lao monarchy, an ancient, traditional craft that has recently been revived.

Denise Heywood worked in Cambodia in the 1990s and has been a scholar of Southeast Asian art ever since. Her books include one on the Buddhist temples of Laos, Ancient Luang Prabang and Laos, and Cambodian Dance Celebration of the Gods, with a foreword by the daughter of King Sihanouk. She lectures for the Art Fund, for the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies on their post-graduate Asian Art Course, and for the V&A; also for Madingley Hall (University of Cambridge), the British Museum, the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Asia House, the National Trust and the Royal Geographical Society.

This talk was inspired by Andrew’s visit to the National Portrait Gallery. Seeing all the Tudor, Stuart and Hanoverian monarchs, dressed in their finery, he wondered where had all their spectacular jewels gone? Among the many jewels he traced, Andrew follows ropes of glowing pearls that belonged to Catherine de Medici, Mary Queen of Scotts, Elizabeth the First, Queen Victoria and now Queen Elizabeth II. He also follows a spectacular and historic diamond that belonged to King James the first of England, King Charles the First and was later sold, worn by Marie Antoinette, stolen during the French Revolution, purchased by a Russian Aristocrat and later mounted in a tiara by Cartier for and American Heiress, who then became a British Member of Parliament!

 Andrew Prince’s private commissions have included Michael Jackson (a large crystal and pearl shoulder jewel) and Shirley Bassey (necklaces). In 2002, the V&A commissioned a collection of jewels to accompany the Tiaras, Past and Present exhibition. In 2005, made tiaras and jewellery for Mrs Henderson Presents starring Judy Dench. In 2009, pieces were commissioned for The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and Miranda Richardson. In 2012, he supply a large collection of jewellery for Downton Abbey: Maggie Smith, Shirley MacLaine, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery were all adorned with elegant tiaras, combs, earrings and necklaces designed and created by Andrew.

The lecture explores the distinctive forms and functions of medieval gardens through contemporary illuminated manuscripts, goldsmiths’ work and tapestries.We look at monastic gardens, planted as early as the 9th century with a surprisingly wide variety of plants, produced food and medicinal remedies for their religious communities. We also follow gardens enjoyed by secular patrons, whether formal enclosed spaces, or landscaped parks, were designed for pleasure, supplied with flowery meads, turf benches, raised flower beds and gravel-strewn paths. Such gardens were used as the settings for medieval tales of romance and intrigue, or interpreted as intriguing metaphors.

Sally Dormer is a lecturer and tutor for the Early Medieval Year Course at the V&A. She is Dean of European Studies for two American Universities and is also a freelance lecturer for The Art Fund.

New arrivals leave their imprint on a city – nowhere more so than in London, where Jews, Muslims, Roman Catholics, Hindus, Methodists, Sikhs, Buddhists and Orthodox Greeks have each added their own layer. Not least, they have all left a remarkable signature. Here are eight faith communities that can each point to a special place they built, not on first arrival, but when numbers and self-confidence had grown in the knowledge they had established themselves for the long term. Crucially, it was when they had the wealth and resources to commission great architecture. So we have a synagogue, a chapel, a gurdwara, a monastery, a couple of cathedrals, a temple and a mosque, permanent markers of the highest quality. Their differences stretch across cultures and 300 hundred years of persecutions and economic crises. But their similarities are also striking.

 Charlie Forman is a London walking tour guide and lecturer who highlightsI the social, architectural and artistic history of his  home city, a city that has a historic core larger and richer than any other world city.  He is a member of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers Association,  and his talks focus on the forces that have shaped and changed this multi-faceted metropolis and the artistic and cultural heritage that this has given us. During the seven years build-up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games he played a role in channelling potential long-term benefits into surrounding East London communities. His publications include Spitalfields: A battle for land.

This lecture ties in with the major exhibition at the National Gallery until 21 January 2024

Using bold poses, masterly brushstrokes, and emotional connections with his sitter, Frans Hals revolutionised portraiture into something entirely fresh and novel. Praised for his ability to paint likenesses that seem to ‘live and breathe’, Hals is one of the artists who tells us most vividly about the 17th century Dutch Republic and its Harlem citizens. The cultural flourishing, enrichment and self-confidence of its elite was associated with requests for depictions of status and success. A growing middle and merchant class wanted to celebrate their services to the state and their exceptional accomplishments. Delving deeper, however, the pictorial representation of these achievements and economic prosperity also had disturbing connections to the Dutch East India Company, the transatlantic slave trade, and the ruthless regime in the colonies.This lecture ties in with the major exhibition on Frans Hals coming to the National Gallery in September 2023.

Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff has an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in Dutch Baroque Art, and set up Art Historical London, offering art historical lectures, courses, tours, travel and events from London. Over the years this has expanded to events in New York and Amsterdam, and, since March 2020, online. She also teaches on the public program of the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

This lecture covers almost 2000 years of London's history illustrated through the stained glass windows in its churches, halls and civic buildings.

Anna Warrillow has been a Blue Badge guide since 2013  and established her own guiding company Canvas and Stone Tours in 2018. She worked as a curator in the Sculpture Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum as well as in the Henry Moore Family Trust. She lectures at the American International University in London and other academic. She provides training courses and Continual Professional Development courses for students and guide members of the Institute of Tourist Guides.

RADICAL ROMANTICS is the title of a current major exhibition at Tate Britain.  This lecture will explore some of the works in the show by Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti along with Lizzie Siddal who married into this extraordinary family which also included siblings William Michael and Maria Rossetti.  Though usually considered a Pre-Raphaelite painter, Dante Gabriel was the force behind a second artistic movement and a significant influence on a third international style.  Elizabeth Siddal, so often categorised as model and artistic muse, is revealed as a significant artist in her own right…freed from the bath.

Alan Read is a guide and lecturer for Tate Britain and the Arts Society and was a lecturer for the National Portrait Gallery for twenty years.  He has a master’s degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College and works as a London Blue Badge Guide.

This lecture examines the life and times of Oscar Wilde, from his Irish roots to his days as a student at Oxford and his meteoric rise to the heights of celebrity. We travel with him to the United States, and examine his starring role within the artistic & theatrical worlds of late 19th century London. We visit his home in bohemian Chelsea and some of his favourite West End haunts. Finally, we learn how ‘tired of being in the heights, he plunged into the depths’ and became famous for being infamous…

Simon Whitehouse is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique and voice teacher, and award winning London Blue Badge guide.He has worked as a guide lecturer in-house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature.

This is a whistlestop tour of major artworks, key themes, important ideas and stylistic changes in Modern and Contemporary art from the late 1800s to today, to serve as an introduction to the myriad of styles in art in the 20th century.

Sarah Ciacci has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries, Since 2008 she has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery. She is a gallery educator and Adjunct Faculty at Richmond University.

Egypt has a wealth of artefacts dated to its ancient past that today can be classified as art. This lecture examines one genre, the splendid wall reliefs and paintings found in tombs, drawing on examples from the Old, Middle and New Kingdom Periods. It identifies the techniques, materials and different styles used by their accomplished artisans to achieve the beautiful paintings and reliefs we can still see today, more than 3,000 years after the burial tombs were sealed.

Eileen Goulding specialises in the History, Culture, Myths & Legends of the Ancient Worlds and is also a keen Maritime Historian Her first book “What Did the Poor Take with Them? “ is an academic treatise on Ancient Egyptian funerary goods, while her second book “Understanding Ancient Egypt” is a more accessible introduction to the subject. Eileen has recently featured as an Egyptologist in a documentary, Neferatri: The Life of an Egyptian Queen published on YouTube by the South African film producer Curtis Ryan Woodside during summer 2020.

Louis XIV is best remembered for the creation of Versailles, the immense chateau which he built on the site of his father’s old hunting lodge and which became the seat of French government, the setting for all grand court ceremonies and the envy of every other European monarch. This lecture will be an introduction to the sumptuous state apartments, the vast gardens and pleasure pavilions, the spectacular entertainments which took place both inside and out, the collections of the King and the whole etiquette of life at one of the greatest courts in Europe.

 Jane Gardiner trained at the V&A and continues to lecture there. She was Senior Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art for 17 years, becoming a Deputy Director of Sotheby's, UK. She has also lectured for the National Trust, the Art Fund, London University, and l'Institut d'Etudes Superieures des Arts in Paris.

Sculpture has the power to stop us in our tracks. It can be awe-inspiring, thought-provoking or fun and amusing.  Many sculptures are imbued with historical and cultural reference; statues, for example, representing remarkable men and women of the past. Modern sculpture sees the world from different perspectives that may be perplexing or enlightening. The UK’s national collection of sculpture is arguably the finest in the world and is being catalogued in a unique and ambitious project called Art UK (www.artuk.org). The lecture explores a range of works from across the country and recounts some of the fascinating stories behind them.

Mary Rose Rivett-Carnac started working in 2007 for the Public Catalogue Foundation, now called Art UK. She is a guide at J.M.W. Turner’s House in Twickenham and at Dorich House Museum in Kingston. She is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, one of the City of London’s livery companies.

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

Mark Hill began his career at Bonhams, before moving to Sotheby's where he was a Specialist in the Collectors' Department, and was co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-17. He has since published over 12 books on specialist subjects in 20th century design and decorative arts. He has been a Miscellaneous expert on the Antiques Roadshow since 2007, and has co-presented three primetime factual TV series on antiques and collecting for BBC2.

He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Freeman of the City of London.

BY ZOOM

A Provencal from birth whose love of his native land was a constant, Cézanne painted determinedly and single-mindedly following his own path. He never gained entry to l’Ecole des Beaux Arts nor had a work accepted by the Salon. Difficult, touchy and anti-social, but capable of strong friendships (Zola and Pissarro) success eluded him until his old age. Then, confronted by his strong colours, single brushstrokes and original viewpoint, Picasso, Braque, and others were inspired to call him the “Father of Modern Art.”

This lecture links in with the current exhibition at Tate Modern.

 Elizabeth Strang was recruited as a Guide when Tate Modern opened in 2000 and has since worked at both Tate Modern and Tate Britain. She specialises in 20th century art, and lectures widely on the subject.

The world’s first underground railway has a unique heritage of architecture, ingenious design, powerful advertising posters and unique calligraphy. This talk plots the early development of the Underground, examines the legacy of Frank Pick and Charles Holden and looks at some of the iconic posters. It also celebrates the award-winning architecture of the modern Tube in the Jubilee Line Extension. There will also be a peek at the new Crossrail / Elizabeth Line stations, designed by some of the world’s top architects. 

Ian Swankie is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and is also a qualified freelance London guide. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of  Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies. 

An important source of Gauguin’s myth-making was himself: ‘I am a great artist and I know it. It’s because I know it that I have endured such sufferings. To have done otherwise I would consider myself a brigand – which is what many people think I am’ ... Gauguin started off as an Impressionist, but while the Impressionists used painting to capture fleeting glimpses of the physical world, Gauguin argued that art should go beyond material appearances. His work drew upon a wide variety of visual and literary sources; in Brittany, Martinique and Tahiti he explored layers of myth beneath the contemporary reality he found there. 

Sarah Stopford’s special interests are in British and post-1900 art, as well as the connections between literature and the visual arts. She is a guide and lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

Jazz is one of music’s most important genres: a fascinating blend of rigorous structure, free-wheeling creativity, close-knit ensembles and imaginative improvisation. The lecture covers the early years of jazz up to the Second World War, and touches on the disparate influences which lay behind the emergence of jazz. Musical illustrations range from the blues, ragtime and the very first jazz recordings through to classics by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra to the dawn of the Swing Era.

Sandy Burnett has worked as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End and spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3. He is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, is a double bassist on the London jazz scene, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

ZOOM LECTURE 

Is it possible to look at a work of art when there is nothing to see?  Some of the most famous classical sculptures are familiar to us in a fragmentary form and yet we rarely imagine what is not there.  Notorious art thefts have left empty spaces in galleries where we can only contemplate what is no longer in front of us.  Conceptual artists have challenged the idea of the ‘art object’: often provocatively, sometimes playfully they offer us an idea to consider rather than a physical thing.  This lecture takes a look at the weird and wonderful world of invisible art. 

Alan Read Is a gallery guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery, and is also a London Blue Badge Guide and City of London Guide. 

Venue St Barnabas Church Hall, Pitshanger Lane, W5 1QG.

Time 10am for 10.30am - 1.15 pm

Plenty of free parking and on the E2 and E9 bus routes.

Cost £22 (includes coffee, tea and biscuits).

Contact Susan Parsons  spsecretarytase@gmail.com

Ever since the arrival of the Romans 2,000 years ago, London has been at the heart of Britishand often world affairs. It's great men and women such as Shakepeare, Elizabeth 1, Hogarth and Dickens have shaped the London around us.

We shall explore the major events of the capital's history- the Norman invasion of 1066, the role of the River Thames, the Great Fire of 1666, the coming of the railwayand Dockland - to find out what has made the vibrant, stimulating and often infuriating city 'tick'.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is one of the icons of Britain; from the paintings of Canaletto to photographs of the Blitz, it rises above London. In this lecture we look at the remarkable genius of its creator, Sir Christopher Wren: scientist, anatomist, mathematician, architect and urban planner. Set amidst the lively and vibrant period of the Restoration and the Great Fire, find out how he transformed the skyline of London and created a new language for architects in England.  

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

Raphael’s is one of the most famous names in art history and until the late 19th century to emulate him was the goal for most artists succeeding him. Yet today he is not as well-known as this might suggest. This lecture asks what is the magic of Raphael? It explores what he achieved, and looks, as if for the first time, at the beauty and grace of his work. It also examines his astonishing ability to grow and transform himself over the years of his career. His tragically early death leaves us wondering – had he lived, what would have come next?

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989. Having also trained as a painting conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures and study sessions. 

Following the opening of Japan to Western trade in the 1860s, paintings, prints and artefacts from Japan came to Europe and the West, creating new styles and demand for all things ‘Japanese’: this continued into the 20th century and inspired artists to create daring new designs in architecture, space and design.

 Suzanne Perrin has taught Japanese history and culture, has lectured at the V & A and founded Japan Interlink in 1995 to promote the understanding of Japan in the UK. In 2016 she published Bridges: Anglo-Japanese Cultural Pioneers 1945-2015.

LECTURE  AT ST. BARNABAS CHURCH HALL, PITSHANGER LANE, W5 1QG AT 7.30PM

The Fabergé Connection between Russia and England: Edwardian demand for Treasures from St Petersburg 

This lecture ties in with the exhibition currently on view at the V&A,which explores master goldsmith Carl Fabergé, the man behind the internationally-recognised firm symbolising craftsmanship, luxury and elegance.  The firm’s Russian sales ledgers disappeared but those of the London branch, opened in 1903, document royal patronage and a ‘Who’s Who’ guide of Edwardian prosperity.   American heiresses and other prominent visitors flocked to the London salerooms while the branch supplied periodic trunk shows to delight buyers on the Continent and as far as Siam and India.  The role of the London business cannot be overstated and provides us, today, with insight into a society that was forever altered by the world events that followed.

Cynthia Coleman Sparke is an independent researcher, author and lecturer on Russian pre-Revolutionary works of art, consulting regularly on Fabergé for auction houses.  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 in Tsarskoe Selo, Nicholas II’s last residence. Her book Russian Decorative Arts was published in 2014 by the Antique Collectors’ Club. 

LECTURE  AT ST. BARNABAS CHURCH HALL, PITSHANGER LANE, W5 1QG AT 7.30PM

This lecture looks at the backstage life at the Royal Opera House. It highights the pressures faced by the performers: singers, conductors, dancers and musicians. It examines the changing audience expectations inside and outside this world-class venue over the years.

Nigel Bates performed at the ROH for over 40 years, not least as principal percussionist and Music Administrator for the Royal Ballet. He also produced the BBC's 'Maestro at the opera' and 'Pappano's Classical Voices series.

An Online ZOOM LECTURE at 7.30pm

William Hogarth is regarded as a quintessentially British artist but the current Tate Britain exhibition ‘Hogarth and Europe’ examines his work in the context of his Continental contemporaries.  It offers some striking comparisons and positions Hogarth’s work in the context of broader trends in European art.  While Hogarth was often deeply resentful of ‘foreign’ artists he was thoroughly informed with a knowledge not only of their work but the Old Masters too.

The lecture will focus on the Hogarth works on display in the exhibition and consider some of the issues raised by them.  The exhibition is at Tate Britain until 20th March 2022.

Our lecturer is Alan Read, an Arts Society lecturer and Tate guide.

THIS LECTURE IS VIA ZOOM 

IT WILL NOT TAKE PLACE AT ST BARNABAS CHURCH HALL.

THE EDWARDIAN GARDEN: GOLDEN AND DELICIOUS

The Mediterranean inspired the architecture of Harold Peto’s designs and the colours in Gertrude Jekyll’s early paintings and later plantings. Peto’s richest client was Daisy, Countess of Warwick, for whom he designed in the grand Italianate manner at Warwick House.

Jekyll and Edward Lutyens collaborated in 70 projects, creating the Surrey style as showcased in the architecture and gardens of her former home, Munstead Wood. The kitchen garden inspired visual and edible feasts in the ground and on the plates of contemporary gardening books.

Caroline Holmes is a garden historian, author and consultant designer. She has lectured across the world, and for the University of Cambridge and the Royal Horticultural Society. She is the author of 11 books, including several on Monet, and is a TV and radio presenter and contributor.

LECTURE  AT ST. BARNABAS CHURCH HALL, PITSHANGER LANE, W5 1QG AT 7.30PM

The UK holds some of the biggest Ceremonial Events in the world and, arguably, the best in the world but why is that? How do the military prepare for major events such as State Opening of Parliament, State Visits, National Day of Remembrance, Royal Weddings or even a State Funeral? 

Dr Graham Jones started his professional life as a musician in the British Army and over a career spanning nearly forty years he retired as the Senior Director of Music, Household Division and Director of Music, Coldstream Guards. During his career he has recorded over 40 albums and been responsible for commissioning over 30 new works. Graham has a second career as a guest conductor, adjudicator, lecturer, recording consultant and educator.

LECTURE AT ST. BARNABAS CHURCH HALL, PITSHANGER LANE, W5 1QG AT 7.30PM

This lecture highlights projects taking place in some of the country's 138 prisons and young offenders institutions. These attempt to harness people's potential with an emphasis on art and design. It covers a brief history of Elizabeth Fry and her tradition of convict quilt making right through to the present day.

Magdalen Evans worked in London galleries for fifteen years, and since then has been organising exhibitions and writing articles, concentrating on C19th/20th women artists. She 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 the Art Society of Budapest. 

LECTURE  AT ST. BARNABAS CHURCH HALL, PITSHANGER LANE, W5 1QG AT 7.30PM

The Irritating and Influential Mr Whistler. James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a leading proponent of the idea of "art for art's sake". He signed his paintings with stylized monogram of a butterfly with a long stinger for a tail – as much a symbol of his love of Japanese art as his assertive and sometimes combative nature.

Having lived and worked with the Paris avant-garde he settled in London in 1859 having created a distinctive Post-Impressionist style at a time when many of his British contemporaries had yet to come to terms with Impressionism.

Inspired, influential, and infuriating, he mastered the art of making enemies.

Julia Musgrave has a Graduate Diploma in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a MLitt in ‘Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism, c.1450 – c.1930’ from the University of Glasgow. She is a lecturer in Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit).

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY 10 AUGUST AND WILL START AT 11AM

Monet and Boudin introduce us to the world of the seaside but within a generation, Philip Wilson Steer, our finest Impressionist after Turner, took on the British mantle. The first British seaside resort was, improbably, Scarborough, nearly 300 years ago; later came Brighton. The ARTS SOCIETY AGM has been held at Scarborough and Eastbourne, so the lecture will give an interesting insight into the growth of such resorts. We see this through the eyes of Victorian painters such as Frith, Wyllie and Berthe Morisot; in the 20th century we find Picasso, Stanley Spencer, Dorothea Sharp, Dame Laura Knight, Sickert and the Newlyn School. 

THIS LECTURE WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY 13 JULY AND WILL START AT 5.30PM

Columbus reached the Americas in 1492. Intrepid European artist-explorers have since given us dramatic landscapes with exotic plants, birds, animals, and insects; often they portrayed Native peoples and customs. Part fact -- part fantasy -- these arresting images shaped European perceptions of the New World. This lecture surveys the changing image of America -- North, Central and South -- as it has evolved in the European mind over the last five centuries.

Gertrude Bell: Traveller, Archaeologist, Orientalist, Imperialist.  Gertrude Bell broke free of social constraint and convention to make outstanding contributions in the male-dominated worlds of exploration, archaeology and imperial statesmanship. Her politics were reactionary as she opposed women’s suffrage, campaigned for volunteers for the trenches and opposed anti-colonial movements after the First World War.

This lecture will assess the character, career and contribution of Gertrude Bell to exploration, archaeology and imperial politics in the context of the tumultuous age through which she lived.

Neil Faulkner is an archaeologist, historian, writer, broadcaster and tour leader. He is the author of a number of books on history and archaeology, and has contributed to a wide range of television documentaries, including Timewatch, Time Team, Boudicca Revealed and The British. Neil is founder-director of Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project, a long-running research and training project in north-west Norfolk.

The Art of Dance. Since the birth of the earliest human civilisations, dance has been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations, a method of healing and a means of expression and entertainment. 

Using stills and video clips the lecture looks at dance as an art form from its earliest beginnings; through ballet within Europe, the explosion of modern dance in the early 20th century, and the growth of post-modernism from the 1960s.

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes is an experienced guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. She has a special interest in British and European art of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century.  Jennifer had a long-standing career making documentaries and factual programmes for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. 

If you think of St Pancras International or New York Grand Central you imagine long romantic journeys. This lecture will take you on a journey around some of the most evocative and splendid stations in the world, looking not only at the magnificence of the architecture and the brilliant engineering, but at the numerous artworks within the stations, such as Claude Monet’s Gare St Lazare.

Ian Swankie is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives tours around each venue. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.

Pompeii and Herculaneum: reconstructing the final hours  

James will take us through the events of the day of the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in AD 79 as far as they can be constructed, using the eye witness account of Pliny the Younger and the insights of modern archaeologists and volcanologists. He will then go on to examine how our understanding of the two cities has changed even in recent decades, as the advances of modern science have allowed archaeologists to understand the sites more deeply and to correct earlier, inaccurate assumptions. 

James Renshaw’s books include 'In Search of the Greeks' (2nd edn, Bloomsbury, 2015) and 'In Search of the Romans' (Bloomsbury, 2012).He is General Editor of the suite of books for OCR Classical Civilisation and Ancient History (Bloomsbury, 2017).

The Art of Rabindranath Tagore. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, claimed that he had two gurus: Gandhi and Tagore. Tagore became a global sensation when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, the first non-European to do so. This lecture provides an introduction to his life and work, including his novels, poetry, songs and paintings. It also explores the role Tagore’s art played in the story of India’s fight for independence.

Dr John Stevens is a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and a member of academic staff at the SOAS South Asia Institute. He teaches British Imperial history, Indian history and Bengali language, and is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh.  He appears regularly in the Indian media, and was a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore.

Women behind the Lens: Outstanding Female Photographers and their Contribution to the Art of Photography.  The work of women photographers has often been unfairly neglected. This lecture examines the contribution of outstanding British practitioners and influential Americans including Annie Leibovitz and Margaret Cameron. 

Brian Stater is a Senior Teaching Fellow at University College London, where he has lectured since 1997. 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.

From the Edwardian era to the outbreak of World War II, millions of artist-drawn postcards were produced not just for entertainment but to bolster morale, to inspire, instruct, motivate and persuade. Discover the popular themes and styles of the period by the masters of the medium such as Mabel Lucie Attwell, Dudley Buxton, Donald McGill and Fred Spurgin, and the reasons why their popularity waned with the British public.  

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 exhibitions and galleries at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. He is also lecturer and ships' historian on board cruise ships.

Beethoven will be 250 years old on 17 December 2020. 

Famously, every morning of his adult life, Beethoven measured out exactly 60 coffee beans for his breakfast.  A man who is capable of such discipline over a cup of coffee can surely apply that exactness elsewhere in his life; and in Beethoven’s case, it was applied to his compositions. In fact, the detail found in his music is often so subtle that most people don’t even know it’s there. The lecture explores Beethoven’s genius as a writer of music, at the same time setting his extraordinary story against the backdrop of 19th century warfare, revolution and dramatic social changes.

Peter Medhurst gives this fascinating lecture from the Steinway piano in his sitting room.  He 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.

Do not be alarmed! This is not a lecture on Hannibal Lector's sister - instead it is a Zoom lecture on the ever intruguing Mona Lisa!

This was our inaugural Zoom lecture offering a faacinatinating insight into how John Nash brought his ambitions to turn London's West End into an architectural rival to Paris

If you think of St Pancras International or New York Grand Central you imagine long romantic journeys. You know they are special places promising excitement and adventure. But there are dozens of other glorious stations in the UK and abroad. We will take a journey around some of the most evocative and splendid stations in the world. We will look not only at the magnificence of the architecture and the brilliant engineering but will discover numerous artworks within the stations and examine many depictions of stations in art – like Claude Monet’s Gare St Lazare or William Powell Frith’s Paddington. It may sound a bit anoraky, but it’s definitely not. It’s lavish, colourful and fun.

A Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, Ian is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral, and gives tours around each venue. He is also a qualified and active freelance London guide and leads regular tours for various corporations and organisations. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his home town of Richmond in West London. He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.

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

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

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. His biography of the Indian guru Keshab Chandra Sen – Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet - was published by Hurst and Oxford University Press in 2018. He appears regularly in the Indian media, and was recently a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is arguably the most important Indian artistic figure of the modern era. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, claimed that he had two gurus: Gandhi and Tagore. A renowned poet, novelist, composer and painter, Tagore is also the only person in history to have written the national anthems for two countries (India and Bangladesh). He became a global sensation when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, the first non-European to do so. This lecture provides an introduction to Tagore’s remarkable life and work, including his novels, poetry, songs and paintings. It also explores the role Tagore’s art played in the story of India’s fight for independence.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is the author of The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio - which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award - and of Cleopatra and Heroes. Her novel, Peculiar Ground 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)

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she has reviewed for all of the UK’s serious newspapers and for Radio 3’s Night Waves, judged five literary prizes, and spoken at numerous literary festivals. She teaches Creative Writing at Arcadia University and at Arvon.   

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

Nicola is 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. She is also co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010). In addition, she has published on Walter Richard Sickert and is co-author of Tate's catalogue of works by the Camden Town Group.

Turner vs Constable: 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/study day sets them head-to-head and examines their differences, their similarities, their battles and their shared triumphs. But who will ultimately be crowned star painter? As well as giving an overview of Turner and Constable, the subject provides an enjoyable overview of the British art world during the nineteenth century.  

Sam is the National Finds Adviser for Iron Age and Roman Coins at the British Museum. He is an experienced lecturer, writer and archaeologist concentrating on Roman and early Medieval Period. His many books include 'The Romans who shaped Britain' and '31BC Antony and Cleopatra and the Fall of Egypt'. 

Recent turmoil in much of the Near East and North Africa means that many of the most impressive sites in the Roman Empire can no longer be visited. Sam Moorhead was privileged to have been able to work and travel in parts of the Eastern Mediterranean which are now too dangerous to explore – in fact, he was in Syria in March 2011 when the civil war began. This lecture will provide an outline of Roman activity in the region, focussing on cities which have been largely destroyed (for example Hatra in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria), sites which have been heavily looted (Apamaea and Dura Europus in Syria), and places which are now too dangerous to visit (Leptis Magna and Cyrene in Libya). Some of finest architecture, sculpture and mosaics from the Roman world will be presented, highlighting both the richness of eastern Roman culture and the lives of the people who lived in these exotic places.

Edouard Manet played a vital role in the establishment of the Impressionist movement by challenging the authority of the Paris Salon and poking fun at academic traditions.  Though suspicious of the younger Impressionists, never taking part in their exhibitions, he is considered the major revolutionary painter of his generation. The love of his life was Berthe Morisot a talented painter conveniently married to his brother, Eugene.

Manet was born into a wealthy Parisian family and attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Thomas Couture where he learned to draw and to admire the great classical painters of the past. He was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. His great works, Dejeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia, were very controversial at the time and are considered watershed paintings that mark the genesis of modern art.

Julian Halsby read history of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge before joining the staff of Croydon College of Art as Senior Lecturer and Head of Art. He has published a number of books on art, is an art critic and, as a practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.

Deborah Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters and wife of the 11th Duke of Devonshire, was hefted by marriage to one of Europe’s greatest treasure houses, Chatsworth. In the second half of the 20th century, in partnership with her husband, she imbued it with a spirit, elegance and sense of welcome that transformed it from being the worn-out survivor of decades of taxation, war and  social change into one of the best-loved, most-emulated and popular historic houses, gardens and estates in the country. With responsibility for Lismore Castle and Bolton Abbey as well, no wonder her passport stated her profession as ‘housewife’.

 Alice is a Lecturer at the Ashmolean Museum and for the Three Counties Art History Group.

The depiction of parties has always been popular in the history of Western Art. The lecture take us from  2nd century Greek mosaics to 18th century Harlequins and on to the celebratory styles of 20th century painters. The history of merrymaking will be traced in a feast of colour.

Julia is a freelance lecturer in the History of Art from the Renaissance to British Modernism.She is a graduate of the University of Glasgow and the Coutauld Institute of Art. She is a lecturer at the City Lit and Co-Director of The London Art Salon. 

Caravaggio inspired artists in his own lifetime and went on to inflence many others including Rubens and Rembrandt. Caravaggio is famed as much for his art as for his criminal record. Was it the violence of the times or his own violent spirit that inspired the dramatic lighting and intense naturalism of his work?

The lecture will follw the dramatic incidents in the artist's life and how is influence spread so far.

Sarah is a graduate and Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. She is a composer, lecturer and performer on her own reproduction and ancient instruments.

Her lecture will trace the history of the harp including developments during the Renaissance and the 19th Century.

Tom is an experienced art lecturer and teaches art history and professional practices of the international art market at a number of UK universities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a senior lecturer at the Kingston School of Art.

This lecture wil cover the time in Holland when a flower cost more than a house. Bruegel the Elder at the beginning of the 17th centure painted tulips in oils on copper which enhanced the brightenes and intensity of colours. Tulip mania is the first example of an economic bubble and by early 1637 the market collapsed.

Sophie is an Art Historian and Medievalist. She is an expert in the art of Belgium and the Netherlands. She has been an Arts Society Lecturer since 2002 and also leads specialist art tours. 

The lecture will describe how fine art, including Raphael, Michelangelo and da Vinci, has influenced and helped create advertisements. Through to the present day fine art continues to enhance brand imagery with humour, satire and irony. 

Early Christians celebrated Christmas at the same time as the ancient Romans were feasting and partying for their pagan Saturnalia festival.

Many of the pagan habits were therefore absorbed into our Chistmas traditions.   Present giving, holly and even party hats all have their origins in this 2,000 year old party.

This talk will revel in artwork that is ancient and modern as we un-wrap the images and stories behind our festive season.

Gillian Hovell graduated in Latin and Ancient History from Exeter University worked in BBC Television and went on to become an award-winning freelance writer, author and public speaker, specialising in archaeology, pre-history and in the Greek and Roman eras.

The lecture will start promptly at 8:00pm in the William Barry Theatre at the University of West London in St Mary's Road. Admission to the room is from 7:15 when a glass of wine will be available.  

Some parking is to be found in the UWL car park accessed from The Park on the north side of the campus. Otherwise, parking restrictions in the surrounding streets are lifted from 7:30 pm.

Non-members are welcome to attend up to 3 lectures per year at a cost of £7 per lecture. Students are admitted for a nominal charge of £3.    

To join The Arts Society Ealing, please contact us at info@theartssocietyealing.org.uk or use the "Contact Us" tab on the right. 

Dame Zaha Hadid died on March 31st 2016 at the age of 65.  Architectural historians of the future will surely recognise her as one of the important architects of the early 21st century.  She was born in Iraq and her reputation was global but she made Britain her home.   This lecture tells the story of her career from the visionary projects of the 1980s, though the years of frustration when her designs were considered unbuildable, to the prolific crop of successful projects built all over the world in the last decade of her life.

Colin Davies teaches at the University of North London

The lecture will start promptly at 8:00pm in the William Barry Theatre at the University of West London in St Mary's Road. Admission to the room is from 7:15 when a glass of wine will be available.  

Some parking is to be found in the UWL car park accessed from The Park on the north side of the campus. Otherwise, parking restrictions in the surrounding streets are lifted from 7:30 pm.

Non-members are welcome to attend up to 3 lectures per year at a cost of £7 per lecture. Students are admitted for a nominal charge of £3.    

To join The Arts Society Ealing, please contact us at info@theartssocietyealing.org.uk or use the "Contact Us" tab on the right. 

The Chapel of the Magi was one of the first rooms to be decorated after the completion of the Medici Palace, designed by Michelozzo.  Begun around 1450, the chapel was probably completed around 1459 with the precious ceiling of inlaid wood, painted and generously gilded by Pagno di Lapo Portigiano, according to Michelozzo's design.

The chapel is famous for the series of wall paintings by Benozzo Gozzoli, with the Angels in Adoration in the rectangular apse and the Journey of the Magi in the large hall. The latter is covered in three large frescos, each showing the procession of one of the Three Magi on their way to Bethlehem to see the Nativity of Jesus. 

ALICE FOSTER has lectured for Oxford University Department of Continuing Education since 1998. She lectures regularly at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. Her busy freelance career includes organising History of Art study days with colleagues, and regular weekly classes in Oxfordshire and Worcestershire. In 2004 Alice joined The Arts Society and has lectured in Britain and in Europe. Since 2003 Alice has been a tutor on study holidays. In 2010 she was elected President of Banbury Fine Arts Society.

The lecture will start promptly at 8:00pm in the William Barry Theatre at the University of West London in St Mary's Road. Admission to the room is from 7:15 when a glass of wine will be available.  

Some parking is to be found in the UWL car park accessed from The Park on the north side of the campus. Otherwise, parking restrictions in the surrounding streets are lifted from 7:30 pm.

Non-members are welcome to attend up to 3 lectures per year at a cost of £7 per lecture. Students are admitted for a nominal charge of £3.    

To join The Arts Society Ealing, please contact us at info@theartssocietyealing.org.uk or use the "Contact Us" tab on the right.

This talk will provide a whistle-stop tour of the history of food as an artistic medium, starting with 16th century sugar sculpture and venturing all the way up to 3D dessert printing and beyond! This exploration into the realms of dessert as spectacle includes an accompanying display to illustrate and enhance the historic subject.

Tasha Marks is an award-winning food historian and artist, who explores the relationship between food, art and history. Her practice, AVM Curiosities, 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 Tasha authored the entry on Mrs Beeton, one of the Victorian Era’s most influential cooks.

The lecture will start promptly at 8:00pm in an alternative lecture theatre (WK.01.014) at the University of West London in St Mary's Road. The main entrance will not be in use. Entry will be via the Car Park from the side road called The Park. Admission to the room is from 7:15 when a glass of wine will be available.  

Some parking is to be found in the UWL car park accessed from The Park on the north side of the campus. Otherwise, parking restrictions in the surrounding streets are lifted from 7:30 pm.

Non-members are welcome to attend up to 3 lectures per year at a cost of £7 per lecture. Students are admitted for a nominal charge of £3.    

To join The Arts Society Ealing, please contact us at info@theartssocietyealing.org.uk or use the "Contact Us" tab on the right.

Many artists have discovered that humour is the key to winning the hearts of the English!

Caricature, satire and the cartoon have given pleasure, satisfaction, amusement and relief, whilst drawing down censure and puncturing pomposity across class divides since the Eighteenth Century.

From the witty and genteel to the vicious and scurrilous, these pithy encapsulations of the recognisable, continue to have relevance today. They are miniature masterpieces, ephemeral yet enduring through time.

From the Georgians; Gillray & Rowlandson, to Punch and Strand cartoonists, Tenniel, Sambourne, Leach and Dickie Doyle and from Thelwell to Scarfe these visual drolleries have lost none of their appeal.

This lecture will trace the history of cartoonery in British public life, as a means of observing and commenting upon society and the politics of the day.

Tim’s involvement in art began with the practical; for a number of years he was a professional painter/ ceramicist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults.

For the last 30 years Tim has been a freelance cultural/art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society. Tim recently completed a lecture tour of Australia.

Tim now lectures for Cambridge University, the WEA, The Arts Society (previously known as NADFAS) and The Art Fund, and presents residential study courses in Britain and Europe.

In 2018 the Royal Academy celebrates 250 years since its foundation.   Marking that anniversary, this lecture looks at some of the artists involved at the very beginning, including the first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and brings us right up to date, to a Royal Academy that numbers contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin and Cornelia Parker amongst its members.   Along the way we look at some of the colourful characters connected with the RA, from staunch supporters to artistic rebels, and some of the controversies the institution has been involved in, as well as at the Summer Exhibition, always central to its role.

Rosalind Whyte has been an Arts Society (formerly NADFAS) lecturer since 2007.   She also lectures and guides at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, as well as guiding at the Royal Academy.   She has lecturered on many cruises and hosted art appreciation holidays, as well as lecturing at Dulwich Picture Gallery and for various independent art societies at home and abroad.   Rosalind also runs a regular series of Art History lectures in South East London.

There are many illustrious gardens on the shores of Lakes Como and Maggiore in the mountainous far north of Italy.   The ones descibed in this lecture include the Villa Cicogna Mozzoni, with its 16th century parterre and water staircase; Isola Bella, a baroque extravaganza on an island in the middle of an alpine lake; Villa Melzi and Villa Carlotta, two lakeshore gardens made by rival Napoleonic grandees; and the Villa San Remigio, a garden created by two Edwardian lovers, one Irish, one Neapolitan, as a kind of alfresco theatre for celebrating their love of art and nature.   These considerable achievemenst and others are set in a climate ideal for garden-making among some of the world's most glorious scenery, where Wordsworth, Shelley, Liszt and Bellini found inspiration.  It could work for you!

Steven Desmond is a chartered horticulturist with a special interest in the historic gardens of Britain and Europe.   During a long and varied career of practical and academic experience he has been a professional gardener, lecturer, examiner, adviser, and consultant.   He now divides his time between writing for Country Life, lecturing to a wide range of audiences including the University of Oxford and the Arts Society, and leading specialist garden and architectural tours in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy.   His well-received book Gardens of the Italian Lakes was published by Frances Lincoln in 2016.

In response to comments on the Members Survey last year, we are trialling some daytime lectures.  Please come along and support them.  The first will be on 'Emery Walker and the Arts and Crafts Movement'. 

Emery Walker lived in Hammersmith and was a close friend of William Morris, Philip Webb and other leading figures.  He was also a highly influential printer in the twentieth century.  If you want to know the link between William Morris, the London Underground, and George Bernard Shaw come along!  This will be a tale of friendship, socialism, gender equality, celebrities, arts and crafts, and scandal.

The Speaker is Julie Ashdown, Secretary of The Arts Society Ealing and a volunteer at the Emery Walker House.

Musical instruments are found throughout the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, which include the likes of lutes, harpsichords, viols and various wind instruments. Despite this, knowledge of their symbolic meaning, and how they sounded to their original participants, is often lost on the modern audiences. The associations of music with love and intimacy, conforming to the sound quality and tone of the instruments of the period, help to unravel their meaning in the vast amount of pictures they feature within. From the brothel scenes by Jan Steen, to the solemn interiors of Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch, this lecture will chart the vast meaning and rich significance of music to their works. 

As part of this presentation, there will be several pauses for live music performed on a faithfully reproduced Lute.

Adam Busiakiewicz is an art historian and lutenist based in London. He is a Guide Lecturer at the Wallace Collection and has given several talks on paintings the National Gallery, London.

The Lute Player - Hendrick Martensz Sorgh, 1661 - Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 

Picture © Sally Hoban

A Passion for Fashion tells the story of 20th century fashion design, tracing how clothes, textiles and accessories were influenced by contemporary history.

 It includes the elegant fashions of the Edwardian era, the glamour of the 1920s and 1930s, the austerity of the 1940s, the futuristic fashions of the 1950s, the liberating styles of the 1960s and the avant-garde fashions of the 1970s to the present day. 

Dr Sally Hoban is an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Birmingham and has lectured extensively on art, design and antiques throughout the UK. She has broadcast on BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC Radio 4 and her publications include Miller’s Collecting Modern Design. She has an Honours certificate in public speaking from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and is a freelance arts journalist for local, national and international media. Sally has a PhD in the history of art and design from The University of Birmingham and is a Director of one of the UK's leading antique and vintage fashion and textile businesses. For more information visit her website at www.sallyhoban.com.

Everyone knows the ingredients of a traditional Christmas: gathering round the Christmas tree, pulling crackers, eating Christmas pudding and mince pies.  Those last-minute cards to people you’ve not seen all year.

These are the festive celebrations with which most of us grew up and they still hold a special magic as representing the timeless Christmases of days gone by.  But where did they start?

This lecture looks at the characters and personalities of the people who began those traditions or introduced them to this country.

Alan has a first class honours and a master’s degree in the History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London.  His particular interest is in nineteenth and early twentieth century British art and he has written two dissertations on the early work of Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School, one of which was shortlisted for the Association of Art Historian’s student prize.  He regularly lectures for the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the Plymouth City Art Gallery.  In addition to being a London Blue Badge Guide he has been a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern for more than fifteen years. 

The Covent Garden piazza was the first great square in London.  Created in the 1630s, its perimeters were decorated by a string of Italianate buildings – notably on its western side, by that self consciously Palladian church, St Paul’s by Inigo Jones.

One of the most fashionable areas in town, the piazza soon sprouted every amenity a wealthy Stuart or Hanoverian household might require: coffee houses, a market for fruit and vegetables (and prostitutes); and, in 1732, the first of three successive theatres.

All this made for rich pickings by artists such as Hogarth and others.  Over the nearly four centuries  since the piazza’s creation, much was to change as the sights, sounds and skills on show shifted wth the times.

Daniel Snowman is a social and cultural historian.   For many years, he worked at the BBC where he was responsible for a wide variety of radio series on cultural and historical topics, and since 2004 he has held a Senior Research Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London).  He has always had a strong and informed interest in music and musicians, his books on the Amadeus Quartet and Plácido Domingo combining close-up portraiture of the artists concerned with the broader brush of the social historian.

Daniel's 2009 book The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera has been published throughout the English-speaking world and is now available in a number of other languages.  The late Sir Charles Mackerras hailed it as “Surely the most comprehensive history of opera ever written.”

Daniel is a frequent lecturer for a variety of groups, and has also lectured on cruise liners, and on over 50 music tours to major international venues.

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It was not until the last years of her life that Jane Austen won fame.   Much of her adult life was spent “no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire-screen”.  

Many pleasures sustained her; a love of country life; strong family affections and interests, which would last all her life long; a passion for writing; an enjoyment of reading, together with other resources of her wickedly observant mind.

Jane had been born with a crazy sense of fun. As a teenager, she wrote short plays and novels filled with ludicrous adventures and farce.   

Karin Fernald is an actor, writer and NADFAS speaker, who   researches and  creates a  vivid picture of a character and a historical period. She is known for her entertaining lectures on celebrated writers, correspondents  and diarists from the  18th to early  20th  centuries. Karin has  performed and lectured in Australia, New Zealand,  Germany, Japan and  South Africa. In  theatre she has worked  with Sir Ralph Richardson and Robert Morley, among other famous names, and  has travelled widely with her solo show on diarist Fanny Burney.  On TV she played Anne Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga. On radio she compiled a programme on potter Bernard Leach for BBC Radio 3 which was short listed for a Prix Italia.   In 2010 she published a children's book on Queen Victoria, The Dumpy Princess,  which was  short-listed for a Young Quills literary award.  She  has finished another on Princess Charlotte, daughter of King George lV,  and will perform a new show on Jane Austen next year, the bicentenary of Austen’s death.  

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

Gavin Plumley is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to The Guardian. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, including at 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.