This month's lecture is being held on WEDNESDAY, 8th July and NOT TUESDAY, 7th July

According to historian Barbara Tuchman, the invention of the ball ranks as highly as the invention of the wheel. Simon Inglis agrees, especially after spending years delving into cubbyholes at pavilions and museums, in workshops and factories, finding out how these apparently simple objects came into being and how their design and manufacture has evolved. He asks, why are marbles glass? Why did the discovery of gutta percha transform golf? Why were games such as lawn tennis and ping pong made possible only in the mid-19th century? Why did some billiard balls explode, and why are rugby balls such an odd shape? In 1853 the ingredients of one manufacturer's cricket balls were listed as cork, worsted, hemp, brown oats, suet, lard, alum, stale ale and dragon's blood. Can this really be true, or is it, perhaps, just a load of old balls?

SIMON INGLIS

Writer and historian 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. Although sport and recreation might seem an unlikely subject for The Arts Society, non-sporty types need have no fear. Simon’s themes are architecture, design, heritage and popular culture. After a history degree at University College London, he freelanced for various publications, including the Guardian, Observer and Radio Times. 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 high point 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.

Image: Historic England/Played in Britain.

From the early 1960s a young student called Margaret Calvert began working with designer Jock Kinneir, and their work utterly transformed the entire face of modern Britain. They designed the road sign system from the typeface to the colours and shapes. They created the look of British Rail. Their signage was used by every hospital and NHS building. They created the yellow and black wayfinding system of British airports. And all of their ideas were copied around the world. Celebrate Calvert & Kinneir in this revealing lecture and you’ll never look at the UK in the same way again.

MARK OVENDEN

Mark Ovenden is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit. His first book, Metro Maps of the World, published in 2003, is a guide to the diagrams, plans and maps of underground rapid transit systems and includes images ranging from photos of the systems to rare and historical maps. Mark continues to write books on graphic design and transport systems, as well as broadcasting on radio and television.

This month's lecture is being held on WEDNESDAY, 6th May and NOT TUESDAY, 5th May

Why were merchant ship figureheads created, and what and who did they represent? In the 19th century sailing ships with their colourful figureheads were a regular sight but now just a few f igureheads survive.

HELEN DOE

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

This month's lecture is being held on WEDNESDAY, 8th April and NOT TUESDAY, 7th April

The British medicine for all – but the legacy of tea has strands that are woven deep into our culture. This lecture explores the highlights of this fascinating history. An international history that follows the trade routes from east to west, by land and sea, and has had a significant impact on the styles and designs of much of what we consider British: from legends to country houses, coronation thrones to silver and ceramics, and of course the humble cup of tea. This is a story of fashion, trade, commerce and progress, which, collectively presents a legacy that has sustained for 500 years … and counting!

EMMA WATTS

Dr Emma Watts is an art historian with a specialist interest in late 19th- and early 20th-century British art and visual culture. Her career began in the fine art auction world and she has since had a successful academic career in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong. Emma is passionate about access to the fine arts and its education. She has developed national, tertiary and adult education curricula and has been active in policy, planning, education and advisory boards for Heritage, Arts and Museums and curatorial and collection management in Australia and the UK. She is currently enjoying the diversity of consultancy, through lecturing with the Open University, writing, and advising on fine art valuation, probate and sale

Immerse yourself in a world of carnations, tulips, hyacinths and roses as you discover the history of Turkey’s famous Iznik ceramics, from their origins imitating Chinese porcelain to their 16th century heyday and subsequent decline.

ANTONIA GATWARD-CIVIZLI

Dr Antonia Gatward-Cevizli is an independent art historian specialising in both Italian Renaissance art and Ottoman art. She gained her PhD from the University of Warwick. Her publications focus on cultural and diplomatic exchange between the Italian city-states and the Ottomans. Antonia has lectured for a number of institutions including Sabancı University, Istanbul; Sotheby’s Institute of Art; the National Gallery; the V&A Academy and The Courtauld summer school. Her interests are wide-ranging and she also worked across the collections of both Tate Modern and Tate Britain as a professional guide. She has lived in Siena, Venice and Istanbul.

Image: Dish depicting two birds among flowering plants - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

From the early Kosovan silver mines which are mentioned in Dante, through the 20th-century politics over Kosovo’s mines which resulted in both a war and a golf course, a silver thread winds through Kosovo’s history. Its most intricate tanglings are in the country’s cultural capital, Prizren, where a seventh generation of filigree artisans use ‘filum’ and ‘granum’, zigzags, ‘mouse-tooth’ designs and other twists and turns to magic lacy creations from dull sticks of raw material. The results – in boxes, buttons, jewellery, religious ornamentation and the talismans of superstition – are a fine narrative of Kosovo’s history and traditions.

ELIZABETH GOWING

Studied at Magdalen College Oxford before training as a teacher and working in Lambeth, Hackney and Islington. Moved to Kosovo in 2006 and there worked with the Ethnological Museum in Prishtina and co-founded ‘The Ideas Partnership’, a charity working on education and cultural heritage projects. Elizabeth speaks fluent Albanian and is a translator and author, as well as being a regular contributor to Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. Member of the advisory board of GuideKS, the NGO for Kosovan tour guides, and of the board of Faktoje, the Albanian factchecking organisation.

Image:  Filigree Brooch

The musical evolved in two great cities: London and New York, so similar and so different in equal measure. With Soho and Times Square as the ultimate destinations, this lecture explores the metropolitan world from the perspective of the musical theatre stage, taking in ganglands and society haunts, the suburbs and the centres of power. West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Sweeney Todd and Oliver! are only a few of the familiar shows that have put London and New York centre stage. So what do metropolitan musicals reveal about the real cities and the characters who live in them? Answers are frequently colourful, often unexpected, but always delivered through distinctive characters, striking images and memorable music.

JOHN SNELSON

John Snelson has been fascinated by musicals all his life and is a leading expert in British musical theatre (the subject of his PhD). His publications include Reviewing the Situation: The British Musical from Noël Coward to Lionel Bart (Bloomsbury), How to Enjoy Opera (Oberon/Bloomsbury), Andrew Lloyd Webber (Yale University Press) and chapters in many authoritative reference works. He is especially known for exploring musicals – British and American – in the light of not just the music and the stage, but society and culture to reveal what makes them so appealing, enduring and important. He is well known as a writer and speaker on all aspects of the lyric stage – musicals, opera, ballet – and has written many programme articles for leading companies in the UK and abroad. John has given talks for, among others, the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, the Garsington and Glyndebourne festivals and for BBC radio. For twenty years he worked for the Royal Opera House. He currently lectures at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The Lecture will be followed by the Annual Christmas Reception - A finger buffet with a glass of wine. 

All Wecome, including guests.

A look at the artistic output of Marion Dorn, one of the leading textile designers of the 20th century.

PAMELA CAMPBELL-JOHNSTON

MA Hons Art History, St Andrew's University. Over 30 years’ experience lecturing to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Adult Education Department's programme of events. Pamela has also conducted numerous guided tours and gallery talks on individual works of art. She specialises in British domestic architecture and modern British art. Over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Work experience also undertaken at Bonhams, Art Loss Register, National Trust. Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer. Recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

Image: Marion Dorn, Colindale design moquette for the London Underground

An illustrated lecture examining the role of women making music in art. Using paintings by the likes of Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, Vermeer, Watteau, Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Lawrence, this talk charts the various meanings, symbolism and iconography associated with women musicians. Associated with both the educational accomplishments of affluent young ladies and the licentious talents of prostitutes, the varying associations of women making music throughout the 16th to 19th centuries will be examined and probed for both the eyes and ears.

This lecture includes live music performed on a lute.

Image:  The Guitar Player by Joahannes Verrmer

Historic England Archive

ADAM BUSIAKIEWICZ

Adam Busiakiewicz is an art historian, lecturer and lutenist. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree in History at University College London in 2010 he held the position of Head of Historical Interpretation (curator) at Warwick Castle. He left the castle in 2013 after winning a full AHRC studentship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Fine and Decorative Art at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. He completed a doctorate in Art History at the University of Warwick, for which he received a full scholarship.

Adam is a lecturer/educator at the National Gallery and guide lecturer at the Wallace Collection, where he has organised several events and courses on Music & Art as well as other subjects. He has also given talks and performances at the Royal Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Alongside his publications and scholarly articles, Adam is the co-editor of arthistorynews.com, one of the internet’s most popular art history blogs

Looking slowly at an Impressionist painting might at first seem counterintuitive, since one of the concepts associated with Impressionism is that the artist captures quickly in paint a fleeting, fugitive moment. Although these works frequently appear to have been painted speedily, in reality, this was not always the case. The Impressionists’ works were often the result of careful observation and planning, and their paintings invite us to dwell on and enjoy the evocation of a transitory effect. In order to appreciate the artist’s work, we need to look slowly. Touches of paint, punctuations of colour and varied textures come alive with sustained looking.

JO RHYMER

Since completing an MA at University College London (UCL) in the History of Art: Modernism and the Politics of Representation, Jo has been employed in various roles at the National Gallery, including Adult Learning Officer and the Head of Adult Learning Programmes. In a freelance capacity, she has worked in prestigious learning departments in London galleries and museums including the Tate, the Hayward Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as leading group excursions in the UK and abroad.

She is currently a Panel Tutor for the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge and teaches for the Wallace Collection and the V&A as well as a range of private institutions

Image:  Monet, Bathers at La Grenouillère, 1869 (National Gallery)

In the 19th century, Denmark lost its territories and global power but produced its finest art. This talk looks at how landscape painting was powerfully used to re-imagine a new, smaller, flatter Denmark, to create a different sense of the nation and to unite its diverse regions. To those unfamiliar with Danish art, these works will prove a revelation.

James aims to question the underlying narratives behind artists, designers and movements, to explore the 'why' and the 'how' instead of the conventional 'who', 'what' and 'when'. A truly gripping Arts Society talk needs a mystery to be solved, not a chronological series of items and events.

JAMES VAUX

James is a researcher and lecturer specialising in Nordic arts, culture, design and history. He has presented extensively on diverse topics throughout his career to demanding audiences across the globe, including CEOs and government ministers. His talks now focus on understanding artistic achievements through their historic, cultural and political context.  

Additional Resources

Major Artists

Golden Age

Jens Juel (1745-1802)

C.W. Eckersberg (1783-1853)

Martinus Rørbye (1803-1848)

Christen Købke (1810-1848)

Louis Gurlitt (1812-1897)

Dankvart Dreyer (1816-1852)

P.C Skovgaard (1817-1875)

J.T. Lundbye (1818-1848)

Vilhelm Kyhn (1819-1903)

Modern Breakthrough

Skagen Painters:

Michael Ancher (1849-1927)

Anna Ancher (1859-1935)

P.S. Krøyer (1851-1909)

Carl Locher (1851-1915)

Theodor Philipsen (1840-1920)

L.A. Ring (1854-1933)

Harald Slott-Møller (1864-1937) V

ilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916)

Contemporary Artists

Søren Martinsen (1966-): Instagram @martinsen.soren

Allan Otte (1973-): Website https://allanotte.dk Zealand

Where to see

• Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) Copenhagen – Golden Age and Modern Breakthrough (the most comprehensive collection)

• The Hirschsprung Collection Copenhagen – Golden Age and Modern Breakthrough (particularly good collection of Lundbye paintings)

• The David Collection, Copenhagen - Golden Age and Modern Breakthrough (particularly good for Hammershøi) 1

• Ordrupsgaard, Charlottenlund (North of Copenhagen) - Golden Age and Modern Breakthrough (a wonderful treasure of a museum with the iconic Finn Juhl house too)

Jutland

• Aros Museum, Aarhus - Golden Age and Modern Breakthrough

• Skovgaard Museum, Visby – Works by P.C. Skovgaard and his family

• Randers Kunstmuseum - Golden Age and Modern Breakthrough

• Skagens Museums, Skagen – The best collection of the Skagen painters. A must see.

• Trapholt Museum, Kolding – Contemporary landscape works

The Ashmolean in Oxford has one landscape work by Kyhn.  The National Gallery is slowly collecting Nordic painters and has works by Eckersberg (of Rome) and Ring (post 1900) on display. The British Museum sometimes exhibits its collection of Nordic prints. Anna Ancher’s works feature in an exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery from November. 

Danish landscape works are regularly auctioned by Bruun Rasmussen (bruun-rasmussen.dk).

Further reading

There are no English language books specifically on 19th C Danish landscape art. Books in the UK on the Skagen School are particularly hard to find. But the following books cover many works from the Golden Age to the Modern Breakthrough. The first two are still in print and Patricia Berman’s work is particularly recommended. 

• Berman, Patricia G, 2013. In Another Light: Danish Painting in the Nineteenth Century. London: Thames & Hudson
• Spira, Freyda et al, ed. 2023. Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteeth Century Danish Art. The Met. New Haven and London: Yale University Press
• Kent, Neil, 1987. The Triumph of Light and Nature: Nordic Art 1740-1940. London: Thames & Hudson
• Gunnarsen, Torsten, 1998. Nordic Landscape Painting in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Yale University Press.

This coffee table book on the Danish Golden Age is excellent and accompanied an exhibition at SMK Copenhagen and the National Museum Stockholm in 2019:

• Østergaard, Cecilie Høgsbro ed. 2019. Danish Golden Age. Stockholm: Nationalmuseum.

There are many academic works about landscape theory (not just in art but in cultural geography and across all humanities). Most are highly complex, theoretical and contentious. However, for a good overview of different ways to interpret landscapes paintings, try:

• Andrews, Malcolm, 1999. Landscape and Western Art. Oxford: OUP

If you’d like to understand the wider debates about landscapes across academia:

• Wylie, John, 2007. Landscape. Oxford: Routledge 2

This month we start with the AGM at 10.45, which is then followed by the lecture

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

TIMOTHY WALKER

I read Botany at University College Oxford. After graduation, I worked as a trainee at Oxford Botanic Garden, the Savill Garden Windsor, and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. In 1985 I was awarded a Master of Horticulture by the Royal Horticultural Society of London. From 1988 to 2014 I was director (Horti Praefectus) at the Oxford Botanic Garden. Between 1992 & 2000 the OBGHA won 4 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show London. In 2009 the Botanic Garden was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for providing imaginative educational programmes for adults, students, children, and the general public, thereby breathing new life into education for people of all ages and enriching their lives. In 2010 I was elected as a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London. In the same year I presented a 3-part series of films on the history of botany on BBC4. Since 2014 I have been a tutor in Plant Biology at Somerville College, Oxford.

Image: English Yew Tree Taxus baccata

For additional image  click on this link, then click on the item title of the lecture on the list on the left.  Finally, click on the image to enlarge it.

In 1936 Dame Laura Knight became the first woman to be elected as a full member of the Royal Academy in London, 168 years after its establishment. In her extraordinary career she painted landscapes, portraits and seascapes, as well as scenes from the circus, the ballet and the theatre. She was the only woman to be given War Commissions in both the First and Second World Wars and the only British artist to cover the Nuremberg Trials of 1946. This lecture provides an overview of her fascinating career and some of the remarkable achievements of her long life. 

ROSALIND WHYTE

BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. Experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. Lectures at Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises. Leads art appreciation holidays.

Laura Knight : On the Cliffs 1917 Private Collection 

Unfortunately, this month's lecturer has had to cancel following a bereavement in the family.

In her place, Jonathan Foyle will deliver a lecture on

"The Nature of the Beast: Animals in Medieval Art"

Animals were central to medieval arts: we find birds, reptiles, mammals, insects and fabulous creatures in sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, paintings, tapestries and even wax seals. But what were the artists trying to tell us through the animals they portrayed? This talk explores this lost artistic language, to discover that the behaviours and legends of creatures enabled us to learn about ourselves. 

Medieval bestiaries are wondrously colourful worlds, blending fact with fiction, morality with mythology. They represent an understanding of the physical world, but also fulfilled the need for symbolic creatures to supplement biblical stories, offering a wide array of noble or crude behaviours with which to compare ourselves. What happened if you chased a bonnacon? What was a beaver's superpower? What did owls mean? And how did animals graduate from bestiaries into the realm of heraldry? In the course of an hour, we'll explore all these and more.

JONATHAN FOYLE

Dr Jonathan Foyle is a career communicator, best known for presenting TV series such as BBC2's Broadcast Award-winning 15-part 'Climbing Great Buildings', as well as contributing to Channel 4's 'Time Team' and Channel 5's 'Secrets of the Royal Palaces'. His former roles have encompassed Curator at Hampton Court and Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain, writer for the FT Weekend, and he is now a lecturer at the University of Bath. Jonathan has authored seven volumes on great cathedrals and castles and has spoken across the world about discoveries in British arts.

Don't forget - This month's lecture is on THURSDAY, 3rd April

The Wallace Collection - surely everyone's favourite museum of art - contains an outstanding array of paintings, furniture, porcelain, arms and armour, and other works of art, brought together by five generations of one family between about 1760 and 1880. This lecture tells the fascinating story of the Wallace Collection’s formation and also presents many of its finest treasures. It's a story full of wonderful works of art and extraordinary characters, such as the 4th Marquess of Hertford, perhaps the greatest art collector of the nineteenth century, and his illegitimate son whose name (from the age of twenty four) was Richard Wallace.

STEPHEN DUFFY

Formerly Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection where Stephen had particular responsibility for exhibitions and nineteenth-century paintings. He has given countless tours of the Collection for visiting groups as well as many lectures on its art and other art historical subjects at home and abroad. His most recent publication, The Discovery of Paris, is a book on early nineteenth-century watercolour views of Paris by major British artists such as Girtin, Turner and Bonington. He has written many articles and reviews for art magazines.

For a historian there can be little to match the excitement of discovering a forgotten treasure. Dr Griffiths’s eventful research across Russia to unveil the Romantic figure of Leokadiya Kashperova (1872-1940) offers the perfect example. Kashperova was BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week in December 2022. Her fine music is now published by Boosey & Hawkes and available for the musical world to enjoy. This presentation offers narrative, images and high quality recorded music examples – illustrating ‘what it takes’ to recover the biography and works of a great composer whom History had completely forgotten. Until now.

GRAHAM GRIFFITHS

Lecturer, conductor, pianist, composer. Honorary Music Research Fellow (City, University of London). Member of the Editorial Board, St Petersburg Conservatoire. DPhil., Musicology (Christ Church, Oxford, 2008), PGCE (Cambridge), BMusHons (Edinburgh).  Musical Director: Grupo Novo Horizonte de Sao Paulo (contemporary music; featured on BBCR3) and Camerata Novo Horizonte (Music of the Latin American Baroque); guest of The British Council; University lecturing in Denmark, Russia, Brazil and in the UK at Oxford, Bath, Bristol, Canterbury (Christchurch), and City (London).

Leokadiya A Kashperova (1872-1940) ca. 1900 around the time she premiered her Piano Concerto op. 2 in Moscow and St Petersburg and was teaching Igor Stravinsky.

Image: Courtesy of the Russian National Museum of Music, with thanks to Mikhail Bryzgalov and Olga Kuzina.

This strange noise that opera singers make, is it really necessary? And if, so, why do they make it? How do they make it? Is it something anyone can do or are they some race apart? The talk is liberally illustrated with picture, video, sound, both live and recorded, and a small (unstressful) amount of audience participation.

TIM MIRFIN

Tim Mirfin is an opera singer. He has performed in all major European countries, Russia, US, Australia and the Middle East. He has given concerts in some of classical music’s most iconic venues, such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein, the Bolshoi, the Wigmore, Festival and Albert Halls. He also teaches singing, gives masterclasses, lectures on opera and the voice and runs a local community choir.  He studied postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music and National Opera Studio, previously reading law at Cambridge. He is passionate both about opera as an art form and also about the sheer act of singing. He is keen to share peaks behind the curtain on both apparently mysterious activities.

The Lecture will be followed at 12.15 by the Christmas Reception.  All Welcome.

Years of working as an artist within the Criminal Justice System in England and Germany have given Angela unique insights into the destructive and costly cycle of crime, prisons and re-offending. In this thought-provoking talk she offers a deeper understanding of the minds, lives and challenges of offenders.

ANGELA FINDLAY

Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer with a long career of teaching art in prisons in Germany and England. Her time ‘behind bars’ and later as Arts Coordinator of the London-based Koestler Arts, gave her many insights into the huge impact the arts can have in terms of rehabilitation. Though novel, her ideas were effective and in 2016 she was invited by the Ministry of Justice to support the case for the arts to be included in new, progressive programmes of rehabilitation and education. Brexit unfortunately reversed the direction of prison policy but art's role is still vital.

The mass migration of the French Protestant Huguenots in the 16th and 17th centuries impacted the arts, the military and finance sectors of the countries to which they fled after suffering Catholic persecution in their homeland. It is estimated that upwards of 50,000 people settled in the British Isles, and that perhaps one in six of the country’s current population descends from Huguenot lineage. This lecture focuses on three areas of the arts impacted by the migration: the baroque style of Versailles that arrived in London through the great Huguenot designer, Daniel Marot, who worked for William and Mary at Hampton Court; the growth of the silk weaving industry in Canterbury, Spitalfields and later Sudbury and Macclesfield; and on the silversmiths and ceramicists who ushered the French Rococo style into Britain. This is put into the context of how their work changed material culture and was absorbed into British national identity.

VIV LAWES

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

Jean Tijou (c.1650-1712)

The Fountain Screen, Hampton Court Privy Garden

Copyright: Tim Winter Photography

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. 

NICOLA MOORBY

Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian and curator, specialising in British art of the nineteenth century. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly at Tate Britain, she has curated a number of exhibitions including, most recently, Constable: The Dark Side at The Arc, Winchester in 2023. She has published widely,  including as co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010) and as a major contributor to the online catalogues of the Turner Bequest and the Camden Town Group. She is an experienced lecturer and regularly teaches short courses at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has appeared as an expert on television and radio including ‘Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr’ (2020 and 2021) and ‘Art on the BBC’ (2022). Her forthcoming book about Turner and Constable for Yale University Press will be released in 2025.

One of our greatest composers, Edward Elgar was an extraordinary man.  Brought up in a provincial town, his father a piano tuner and the owner of a music shop, Elgar was completely self-taught as a musician, evidence of the strong determination behind his original and unique genius. His path to recognition was hard and bitter.  He had to contend with the prejudices of the British musical establishment, religious bigotry (he was a Roman Catholic) and with the entrenched class-consciousness of late Victorian provincial society.  However, with his wife Alice as his staunchest supporter, from a hesitant start with pieces written for his local music societies, to cantatas celebrating Britain’s history, “King Olaf” and “Caractacus”, he finally achieved national and international success with his “Variations on an original theme (Enigma)” of 1899.  This work demonstrates remarkable technical mastery of form and orchestration and above all an individual and forceful personality.  He went on to create two of the greatest of 20th century symphonies, the magnificent oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius” and two concertos, for violin and cello, among the finest ever written. And of course, he expresses a vigorous patriotism in his “Pomp and Circumstance Marches”. This lecture, illustrated with many notable musical examples, explores the development of this contradictory musician, always wracked with self-doubt, and explains how his music expresses a quintessential Englishness.

ROGER ASKEW

Roger was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in English. 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. After retiring in 2003 he returned to the south of England. He is President Emeritus of The Stoke Poges Society.

ZOOM GUEST SCHEME (FORMERLY THE ZOOM ACCESS SCHEME)

Although many Societies have now returned to in-person lectures in their usual venues, there are some Societies that have decided to continue with hybrid lectures - with members viewing either in person or at home.

The Arts Society has received feedback that many members, for various reasons, would like to continue to view lectures and other content at home via Zoom. In order to help Societies that are not offering online content to retain these members, the use of a ‘Zoom Guest Scheme’ has been introduced. Members who belong to their local Society (and pay their subscription) have access to the online content of other Societies either for free or upon payment of the appropriate fee to the Society whose content they will be accessing. 

If you are not already a member of the Zoom Guest Scheme and would like to join now, click on this link and follow the instructions.

The Arts Society sends a monthly email to members who have signed up to the scheme. This includes a link to a web page containing the details of the lectures of participating Societies that are being held via Zoom. To find out about each lecture and how to attend, members can click on the name of the event for more information and details of how to book. They should contact the Society direct using the details given on the event page to book their place at a lecture. 

Click on this link to see the list of zoom lectures that are currently available

If you resign from your local society you will no longer receive notifications of upcoming zoom lectures.

 NOTE:  THIS LECTURE IS ON A  WEDNESDAY

The AGM starts at 10.45 followed by the lecture at 11.00

The lecture tells the fascinating story of how painting and architecture went their separate ways, exploring the complex reasons behind their dramatic divorce.

_________________________________________

RICHARD WHINCOP

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.

This lecture will consider some of the many reasons for a good artist's obscurity, from the brevity of his life to the misfortune of his being born and working in the shadow of a larger reputation such as Leonardo or Rembrandt. But above all it is an excuse to spend an hour gorging over beautiful paintings, finding hidden treasures.

_________________________________________

DR CHANTAL BROTHERTON-RATCLIFFE

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

NOTE:  THIS LECTURE IS ON A THURSDAY

MARC ALLUM 

Marc is a freelance art and antiques journalist, writer and broadcaster based in Wiltshire.  He is shortly to begin his 23rd year as a specialist on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes.  Marc regularly writes for mainstream magazines and is an author, antiques consultant and lecturer.  He also runs a fine art valuation and consultancy service.  Marc has his own unique style with interests ranging from pre-history to modern design and is a self-confessed collectaholic.  He has a passion and reputation for divining the unusual through 'a desire to connect with history through the interpretation and pursuit of objects and their origins'.  Marc has lecured widely for many years to a number of different organisations in both the public and chatity sector, including travel companies, The National Trust, The WI, and many literary festivals including Cheltenham, Bath, Wells and Petworth.  Marc is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

In 2024 the National Gallery celebrates its 200th birthday.  In the run up to this special anniversary, join me as I explore some of the Nation's best-loved paintings in a new light, revealing details which cannot be seen with the naked eye and discussing what goes on behind the scenes in the conservation, framing and scientific departments.  The lecture will result in a greater understanding of not only the art itself, but also of the work the National Gallery does to care for it, present it and interpret it.

Few of the gallery's works retain their original frames but an expert team will often source and adapt examples which complement the paintings historically, or indeed hand-carve new ones from scratch.  We will also look at the technical challenges involved in hanging, displaying, moving and framing the collection and the various solutions devised by the Art Handling Team.  Many of the paintings in the gallery were designed for a very specific function, an altar-piece such as Piero's Baptism of Christ for example, so how do the curators allow us to interpret and view these within a museum context?  Finally, we'll talk about restoration and conservation, exploring exraordinary details from works such as the Wilton Diptych, which have only been discovered recentlty thanks to scientific analysis.

We will explore the hidden secrets of masterpieces by Bellini, Leonardo, van Eyck and many more.

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SIAN WALTERS 

Sian is an art historian and the director of Art History in Focus.  She has been a lecturer at the National Gallery for over 20 years and taught their first online course, Stories of Art, in September 2020.  She 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.

Her specialist areas include 15th and 16th century Italian Art, Spanish Art and Architecture, Dutch and Flemish painting and the relationship between Dance and Art.  Sian studied at Cambridge University where she was awarded a choral exhibition and a 1st for her disertation on the paintings of Arnold Schoenberg.  She spends much of the year organising and leading specialist art tours abroad, including bespoke trips for The Arts Society.

In 2020 she launched a series of live, online tours and visits abroad entitled Cultural Travels from Home.These include visits by special arrangement to a number of major European art galleries, allowing virtual access to their collections.  Sian organised the world's first livestream tours of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, the Medici Palace in Florence, the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi and the Castello Sforzesco in Milan and many more.

From the early abstract expressionist images, through his famous Californian scenes of swimming pools to the photo-montages of the mid eighties, this lecture follows the career of an artist whose wit and imagination has never faltered.

DOUGLAS SKEGGS

Douglas read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980.  In that time he has given over 8,000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies.  He was the director of The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a lecturer at The Study Centre, Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses.  Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base.  Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe.

He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on Whistler and the exhibition video on William Morris. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland.  He has published five novels, which have been translated into eight foreign languages, and his book on Monet, River of Light, has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France.

This week Coffee will be served before the lecture from 9.45am to 10.30am

Simon is a writer and historian; he specialises in the architecture and heritage of sport and recreation.  Since 2004 he has edited the Played in Britain series for English Heritage.  Although sport and recreation might seem an unlikely subject for The Arts Society, non-sporty types need have no fear.  Simon’s themes are architecture, design, heritage and popular culture.  After a history degree at University College London, he freelanced for various publications, including the Guardian, Observer and Radio Times.  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.

London’s great drivers have always been finance and culture. But while the arts are celebrated in the capital, physical culture is often overlooked. In this lecture, Simon traces London’s sporting culture back to the 12th century, taking in manuscripts in the British Library, records of jousting at the College of Arms, and the obscure game of Pall Mall, from which the current thoroughfare takes its name. 

Much of this story concerns the battle for open space, an issue for the Finsbury Archers of the 17th century no less than campaigners for playing fields in the 20th century East End slums. Other themes include the story of the German Gymnasium, boathouses on the Thames and the mania for lidos in the 1930s.

Although focusing on London, several elements of this lecture (such as the Olympics, Lord’s, Wimbledon and the University Boat Race) will be of interest to audiences elsewhere. 

Looking forward to our lecture in February on David Hockney, you may be interested in the current exhibition, ‘David Hockney Drawing from Life’ at the New National Portrait Gallery, which ends on 21 January 2024. More details are available on their website: please click this link and scroll down.

Followed by the Christmas Reception at about 12.30.  Enjoy wine, sandwiches and mince pies.

For more than three centuries Sadler's Wells has been a place of entertainment and a part of London's theatrical history with a reputation known across the world.  Surviving many highs, lows and rebuildings, the theatre has hosted and nurtured an impressive array of performing companies over the years.  A fully illustrated talk with audio and video clips.

NIGEL BATES

Nigel has been a performer for more than thirty years in and out of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, including seventeen years as Principal Percussionist with the Orchestra and eight years as the Music Administrator of The Royal Ballet.

He has worked with many of the leading figures in the classical music industry and was also a producer for both the BBC's Maestro at the Opera and Pappano's Classical Voices documentary series. He is a regular contributor to the printed and online content of the ROH.

He has given lectures for over thirty years, including many arts societies and conservatories in the UK and across Australia.

Lectures are held in the Crosfield Hall, Broadwater Road, Romsey SO51 8GL, at 11.00am

The Arts Society Romsey welcome you to join us for a lecture/recital

'The Genius of Young Mozart' by Peter Medhurst

Peter Medhurst Travels the world as a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts.

At Romsey Abbey

Friday 6th October 2023, 7.30 pm

Free Event:  please arrive early

An American artist in London, 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. Whistler’s art moved painting towards abstraction, sparked a renaissance in printmaking and gave us the Peacock Room, a masterpiece of interior design. Inspired, influential, and infuriating, his art was full of subtle delicacy, he had a wide social network of friends and family and yet, if crossed, could be a formidable opponent. He mastered the art of making enemies.

JULIA MUSGRAVE 

Julia got her first degree in Chemical Engineering and went on to become a Chartered Information Systems Engineer and IT project manager. In 2008 she decided that life was too short for just one career and decided to become an art historian.

She now has a Graduate Diploma in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MLitt in ‘Art, Style and Design: Renaissance to Modernism, c.1450 – c.1930’ from the University of Glasgow. She gained her Ph.D. at the University of York for her research into the involvement of Roger Fry, the Bloomsbury Group, and the social networks of the British art world  in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1939.

The history of English garden design can be told in different ways, but rarely can it be told “through the lens” of one garden.  The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded at the beginning of the 17th century and its design bears all the hallmarks of 17th century design. This talk looks at how the art of gardening has changed, or perhaps has not, in four centuries in Oxfordshire and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century. The title of the talk refers to the fact that one of the motivations for garden design remains the desire to create paradise on Earth. The meaning of paradise may now be less rooted in the Biblical account of the rise and fall of man, but there is still a clear vision of what we would like the world to resemble.

TIMOTHY WALKER

Timothy read Botany at University College Oxford. After graduation, worked as a trainee at Oxford Botanic Garden, the Savill Garden Windsor, and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. In 1995 he was awarded a Master of Horticulture by the Royal Horticultural Society of London.

From 1988 to 2014 he was director at the Oxford Botanic Garden. Between 1992 & 2000 the OBGHA won 4 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show London. In 2009 the Botanic Garden was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for providing imaginative educational programmes for adults, students, children, and the general public, thereby breathing new life into education for people of all ages and enriching their lives.

In 2010 he was elected as a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London. In the same year presented a 3-part series of films on the history of botany on BBC4.

Since 2014 he has been a tutor in Plant Biology at Somerville College, Oxford.

Love it or loathe it, you can’t fail to be impressed by London’s Tube. It was the world’s first underground railway and grew into one of the biggest and arguably best designed. In his talk the lecturer will show how the tube and its various facets, such as the architecture of tube stations or the tube diagram, fabric designers for seats influenced not only transport systems worldwide, but also impacted on our daily lives – Southfields station even inspired the Daleks.

Mark Ovenden

Mark Ovenden is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit.

Catherine de Medici, the only woman ever to rule France, married Henry, second son of King Francis I. This was a dazzling match for a Florentine “daughter of merchants”. However the young bride arrived in a strange
country only to find her new husband completely uninterested in her due to “a third person in the marriage”. She had enemies in the French court and life was a great struggle. After many unhappy years, she became ruler of France (three of her sons would rule after her) and mother-in-law to Mary Queen of Scots. This is the story of the very sad life of a brave woman and how she survived huge indignities and her enemies.

Caroline Rayman

Has lectured for many years to universities and art organisations in America and on cruise boats. She was an official guide at the British Museum and has published articles on samplers. Her lectures range from the role of the royal mistress in history to more scholarly lectures on Frederick the Great of Prussia.

3 May (Wednesday): 

Born Marie Godebska, Misia was brought up in Paris and Brussels and became a pupil of the concert pianist and composer Gabriel Faure. She married the owner of an important art magazine and was painted by Bonnard, Toulouse–Lautrec and Renoir. After her husband lost his money and the marriage broke down, she married a wealthy industrialist and became a patron of artists and musicians.

Her third marriage was to a Spanish painter, and Misia became involved with the Ballets Russes, Stravinsky and Satie. Misia became close friends with Coco Chanel in 1917.

 Julian is an art historian, specialising in the period from about 1850 to 1920, a time rich with amazingly talented artists from the Pre-Raphaelites, via Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to the Social Realism of the 19th century adopted by the Newlyn School and many English painters. Julian has written seven books and published many articles. He is also a practising artist and an elected member of the Royal Society of British Artists.

At the end of the 17th century Poland was the largest state in Europe, but within a hundred years it had been partitioned by its powerful neighbours and partly absorbed into the Russian empire. The Poles reacted to Russia’s brutal suppression of their 1830 Uprising by developing a strong cultural identity in which artists played a key role. This lecture shows how Chopin and his revolutionary Polonaises and Mazurkas came to be seen as an indispensable symbol of the Polish nation, both during his lifetime, and in the years before Poland regained its independence in 1918.

Rosamund Bartlett was born in London. She holds a doctorate from Oxford, and spent fifteen years pursuing an academic career, latterly as Reader in Russian at the University of Durham, before becoming a full-time writer, translator and lecturer.  She continues to maintain an active scholarly profile in Russian literature, music and cultural history, and has held fellowships at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and the European University Institute in Florence.  She is a recent Honorary Research Associate at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney.  In 2015 she was awarded the Mary Zirin prize by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.

This talk looks at female artists from the 19th and 20th centuries.  We discuss the difficulties of becoming a successful female painter in both Britain and Ireland during both centuries and we will look at some of the extraordinary, innovative and creative paintings and works of art that were produced by theae remarkable women.  Of particular note will be narrative paintings from the 19th century that illustrate poverty, domestic life, industrialisation and social divide.  This talk looks at some of the incredible modern images that were created by female painters in the 20th century.

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GRANT FORD

Grant is a well-known international fine art specialist, trusted advisor, curator and representative of prestigious art collections.

He is a specialist in 19th and 20th Century British, Irish and European Art.

How do you express national guilt and apology rather than pride and patriotism?  How do you remember what you would rather forget?

The subject of Remembrance has been hugely topical in these years of World War anniversaries.  With the recent protests against imperial statues, a fuller, more nuanced understanding of the past is being demanded.

In Britain, little is known about Germany's unique process of remembrance after the Second World War. With traditional forms of memorial deemed irrelevant and inappropriate, German artists sought new ways to honour the victims of one of history's darkest periods.  The ensuing and ongoing 'counter memorial' movement places extraordinary art forms in key locations, encouraging visitors to take personal responsibility for keeping the memories and lessons of the past alive.

In this talk, Angela Findlay explores the challenging, moving and inspiring results of this redemptive art form.

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ANGEL FINDLAY

Angela is an Anglo-German artist, lecturer and writer.  She has led extensive research not only into Germany's complex post-Second World War process of remembrance but also her own German roots as the granddaughter of a decorated Wehrmacht general.

She says: "It was my father who once summed up the common thread running through my work: 'You make people think, and that's so important.' 

He was right.  For as long as I can remember, I have been asking questions, looking beneath the surface, exploring life's darker sides and challenging commonly held perceptions.  Everything I have discovered, I now weave together through a varirety of creative disciplines to produce my art, talks, blogs and teachings."

Harry will be tracing the history of his profession with examples from early practioners like Cruickshank and Hogarth, to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz, bringing events up to date with cartoons produced fresh on the page on the day!  Yes, Harry will be drawing live.

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HARRY VENNING

Harry has been a professional cartoonist for over thirty years, during which time he has provided cartoons for several high profile UK publications (The Guardian and the Radio Times) as well as for countless more obscure titles (British Journal of Wound Care).

He was awarded UK Strip Cartoonist of The Year for his Guardian strip 'Clare in the Community', which he adapted into a Radio 4 sitcom.

From Burns to Byron and from Jane Austen to the Brontes; this lecture will uncover the fascinating stories behind some literary portraits of the Romantic period.  We'll look at various ways in which Romantic writers have been depicted in art, and how these likenesses have been received; both during the writers' lifetime and posthumously.

We will also explore the afterlives of literary portraits and their use in popular culture - from bank notes and fridge magnets, to tins of shortbread and bottles of gin.

How do writers' portraits contribute to literary fame and celebrity?  Do these images affect our perceptionof their lives and work?  And to what extent may portraits of writers be said to be fictions themselves?

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ANNALIE TALENT

Following a career in teaching, Annalie spent several years working on education programmes at museums and literary houses across the UK, including the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere; Wordsworth House in Cockermouth; Jane Austen's House in Hampshire; and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.  At Jane Austen's House,  Annalie won 2 Sandford Awards for Excellence in Heritage Education; she also worked with the British Library, the Bodlean Library, and Chawton House Library in promoting Austen's work to young people.

Chatsworth has undergone a renaissance under the leadership of first, the 11th, and now the 12th, Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This lecture paints a portrait of the Devonshire’s treasure house in the modern age, illustrating the extensive decorative and furnishing renovations and the restoration of historic interiors and works of art. The lecture also includes work by modern artists in the collection at Chatsworth including Lucian Freud, Elisabeth Frink, David Hockney and others.

Simon Seligman

“I fell in love with a photograph of Chatsworth when I was 12 and visited for the first time as a teenager.  I then worked there for 19 years, from 1991 to 2010, starting with a summer job car parking and lavatory cleaning, and ending up as their first Head of Communications. My first bosses were the 11th Duke of Devonshire, Andrew and his wife Deborah (famous in her own right as ‘Debo’, the youngest of the six Mitford sisters), and then their son Stoker, the current Duke and his wife Amanda, and in that time I became immersed in the place; the house itself, its collections, landscape and history.  I hope to pass on my life-long passion for this beautiful place.”

Budapest was formed in 1873 by the unification of Buda and Pest, situated on either side of the River Danube. The new capital was the focus of resurgent Hungarian nationalism, which found expression through lavish new buildings, the continent’s first underground railway system and myriad paintings featuring specifically Hungarian subjects and locales. Meanwhile, in the countryside, composers Bartók and Kodály began to collect the music of their compatriots. Placing these endeavours in a historical context, this talk explores how the Hungarians came to understand national identity through cultural means.

Gavin Plumley lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. Recent talks include the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum, the V&A, the Southbank Centre, the Tate and the Neue Galerie, New York, as well as for history of art societies and The Art Fund.