The story of two remarkable Victorians and the birth of English comic opera. Their quarter of a century long partnership began in 1871, when the pair were brought together by the remarkably entrepreneurial theatre manager Richard D’Oyly Carte, with whom they collaborated on fourteen unique comic operas.  Perhaps best known for The Mikado, H.M.S Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe, their satirical brilliance can still inspire and impress today. Enjoy the bouquets, brickbats and their extraordinary popularity and fame. Their success was unprecedented in the history of music theatre and their creativity inspired the likes of Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Their legacy not only inspired amateur companies to flourish but also left London with three great theatres and three world famous hotels.

With the exception of Munch, it’s only in the last forty years that Nordic art from 1880 to 1920 has made an impression on the wider world. Exhibitions and books have traditionally focused on the supposedly unique Nordic light and evocative national landscapes painted in this era.  But this was also a period of heady experimentation, of vastly different genres and painting styles, influenced by wave after wave of the French avant-garde. It was finally the time for Nordic women painters to break through, receive the highest accolades internationally and achieve the most prestigious posts in the arts world.  And yet the twentieth century forgot these remarkable female painters. Why?

Fortunately, this century has seen their rediscovery and an explosion of interest. They are now names you need to know, famous again on the international exhibition scene. In the last decade they have had blockbuster retrospectives not just in the Nordics but at Tate Modern, The Royal Academy, the Musée d’Orsay…and the works of one scored triumphantly in New York in the Guggenheim’s most popular exhibition ever.  

This talk explores works by artists as diverse as Hilma af Klint, Helene Schjerfbeck, Harriet Backer, Sigrid Hjertén, Ellen Thesleff and Anna Ancher, to tell the story of the Nordic Modern Breakthrough through the eyes of its female artists. Their ability to create groundbreaking art in a man’s world is testament to their talent and endurance.  We’ll learn how they found training, the sacrifices they had to make and why art history erased them. And when you have seen their powerful works - interiors and arctic mountains bursting with colour, achingly emotional self-portraits, innovative abstraction, angst-ridden expressionist cityscapes – you’ll understand why Scandinavia’s Modern Breakthrough in art needs to be told by its women artists.  

In this lecture I review the life and works of Paul Klee and the impact of his unfortunate mysterious illness. The talk will show Klee as a poet, a writer, an accomplished musician, a teacher as well as being one of the most prolific artists of the 20th century. His work covered several 'isms' of post first world war German art. He also had a wicked sense of humour in his caricatures. Shortly after escaping from Nazi Germany, as one of the so-called 'degenerate artists', Klee developed the very rare auto-immune disorder, scleroderma. This is a disease that has been the subject of much of my research career. What is less known, and is the focus of the second half of the lecture, is that Klee documented in his own drawings the impact of the disease on his health and his life in general. There is much in his diaries and letters  to accompany these very moving outputs, culminating in how he approached his own death.

synopsis to come

This lecture explores an artist whose work, inventiveness, and ability to catch the zeitgeist is still admired a century after her bold 'Bizarre' wares were launched in 1927. These Art Deco masterpieces are the products that most vividly signify Clarice Cliff's legacy. She spent a lifetime innovating. Born in 1899, she was a working professional whose lifespan covered the period in which women broke through the barriers of the art world. While the Royal Academy barred women from accessing the full training and privileges of their male counterparts, the pottery industry was one that had traditionally offered female artists the opportunities to excel. Cliff's talents were recognised when she was still a teenager, and she went on to produce designs that keyed into the cutting-edge trends of the period, setting the bar for ceramics as a commercial art form.  

This talk is on how magicians have appeared in art throughout the centuries, whether in paintings, satirical prints or cartoons. Early artists used the magician to symbolise the mysterious and the unknown, associating them with astrology. In the 16th century, Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch produced two of the most famous and striking pictures of the conjurer performing the Cups and Balls trick. The 18th and 19th century saw a proliferation in engravings and lithographs showing the magician both indoors and on the streets. Bringing it right up to date there are examples of how cartoonists and satirists delight in linking politicians with skulduggery with images of them featuring Sawing a Woman in Half, Vanishing illusions or pulling a Rabbit out of the Hat. Some of the tricks talked about are performed by Ian.

Discover the core of Charles Dickens character in this enlightening and entertaining lecture.  Making his debut reciting a poem as a 7 year old sitting on a pub table, little Charles Dickens developed a lifelong passion for the theatre. As a young man he attended the theatre every night for 3 years, he created over 2000 intensely theatrical characters, and produced, directed, and starred in lavish productions staged in purpose built theatre spaces in the family home. First night audiences included Queen Victoria and The Duke of Wellington!

Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts in the 15th century and when Catherine Medici an Italian noblewoman married the French King Henry II in 1533, she brought Ballet to the French court. A century later, King Louis XIV, a passionate dancer, popularised and standardised the art form and in 1661 he founded the Royal Academy of Dance, The popularity of ballet soared in Russia in the late 19th century when Russian choreographers and composers took it to new heights.

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. 

Between 1911 and 1914 Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc (two of the founding members of The Blue Rider artists’ group in Munich) believed that they were working together to create a new art for a new spiritual era that was about to dawn. Influenced by a mix of ideas derived from German and Russian Romanticism, and Theosophy’s blending of Western and Eastern mysticism, Kandinsky and Marc created a symbolic art using colour symbolism to represent spiritual ideals and began to explore the possibilities of abstract art.

A fascinating lecture of how opera began, developed and spread worldwide; from 1600 to the present day. Illustrated with musical examples and excerpts of opera productions from around the world. This illustrated lecture looks at the development of opera from its baroque beginnings right up to the modern-day Hamilton. Highlighting the major changes and game-changers through each century, the movers and the shakers, focusing upon the greatest operas by the greatest composers. This lecture is suitable for the operatic novice; or expert.   

I write only for fame… 

Jane Austen 

When Jane Austen declared that she wrote ‘only for fame’, she was, of course, being ironic: she published anonymously; there is no record on her gravestone that she was a writer; and her books fell out of print shortly after her death.  But now, Jane Austen is one of our best loved authors, with legions of adoring fans throughout the world.  Her novels have inspired countless stage and screen adaptations, and even provided solace to soldiers in the trenches.  She is the face of the £10 banknote, and she adorns tea towels and fridge magnets everywhere.  Jane Austen is now very famous indeed.    But how did it all happen?  This lecture will chart Jane Austen’s rise to fame; it will explore the making of a literary celebrity and examine Austen’s legacy, 250 years after her birth.      

Alice provides a painter’s perspective on famous artworks from the 17th to the 21st centuries. Rembrandt and Turner are revealed as artistic risk-takers, whose new combinations of glazes, surfaces, pigments and processes re-defined the language of painting.  

These two forefathers of experimentation lead the way for modern artists such as Pollock and Fontana, who went beyond the brush, the canvas, and the gallery wall itself in search of the meaning of making

The lecture covers the career, style and impact of the Renaissance master painter, from his prodigious childhood in Urbino, to the Princely reputation he enjoyed in Rome. The lecture will look at his famous works, as well as analyse his lesser-known masterpieces. Discover the truth behind his competition with Michelangelo, his shocking death, and how this artist became the celebrated Prince of painting, honoured with a burial in one of the most remarkable buildings in the world.

Synopsis to come

Explores the way TS Eliot was indebted to, and himself inspired - whether as subject or as poet - some of the 20th Century's greatest artists

As a pioneer of literary modernism, TS Eliot inevitably influenced his counterparts in the visual arts. He was friends with several artists. Edward McKnight Kauffer and David Jones illustrated his work; Patrick Heron and Wyndham Lewis painted him; Jacob Epstein sculpted him. There are paintings and compositions inspired by his poems. And the reverse is also true; The Waste Land famously employs techniques borrowed from modern art. 

The British musical grew in its own unique way, with style, heart, guts and masses of fun. We are still entertained by revivals of Me and My Girl, The Boy Friend and Oliver! But what of the many more hit shows, such as Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet, Ivor Novello’s King’s Rhapsody and the bitingly satirical Expresso Bongo, that are no longer staged?

This lecture rediscovers a distinctive West End story to give a new perspective on the shows and the people who made them. It’s an aspect of culture and personality unique to Britain – and fascinating in variety and success. 

This is the story of making a replica of the oldest known stringed instrument, the Gold Lyre of Ur, a Mesopotamian lyre dating from 2,500 BC.  A lyre is the precursor of the harp. We have made a playable instrument, using authentic materials from the Middle East: cedar wood, mother-of-pearl, pink limestone and lapis lazuli. The crowning glory is the bull’s head on the front, which is covered in gold. 

The lecture is illustrated with Powerpoint pictures of all the stages of the making, and then of musicians performing with it, with a sound clip so that you can hear what it is like. It took more than 3 years to complete, all with voluntary help. The story of the acquisition of the materials, and the construction, is quite dramatic, and the finished product is amazing.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists in their independent exhibitions. When the artist, Edgar Degas, persuaded her to stop exhibiting work at the Paris Salon - the official art exhibitions in the capital - and to exhibit instead with his artistic colleagues, she stated that, ‘I accepted with joy… I hated conventional art.’ Cassatt went on to make outstanding contributions to four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions.

Like her Impressionist colleagues, Cassatt represented modern life, but the subjects suitable for a ‘respectable’ woman such as Cassatt were limited. However, Cassatt’s treatment of the traditionally acceptable subjects for women artists is both unconventional and thought provoking. Looking at paintings and prints, this lecture examines ways in which Cassatt - a professional woman artist in a male art world - produced idiosyncratic and significant avant-garde images of 19th century French society.

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the favourite of King James I - who addressed him as ‘my sweet child and wife’ - and subsequently chief minister to King Charles I. Buckingham was a beauty, and he surrounded himself with beautiful things. He enjoyed exquisite clothes, like the fabulous white silk suit encrusted with diamonds that he wore to visit the Queen of France. He was a superb dancer. When he cut capers during a court masque King James startled visiting ambassadors by shouting out ‘By God, George, I love you!’ He was a discerning patron. Inigo Jones renovated his houses. John Tradescant was his garden designer.  In his great house on the Strand he put together a collection of art works as fine as King Charles’s. 

At the age of 35 Buckingham was murdered. His collection was scattered, but contemporary inventories allow us to reconstruct it. I will show you some of the magnificent paintings he owned - the Titians, the Tintorettos, the Veroneses. But Buckingham was not just a collector of old masters: he was also a patron, commissioning boldly innovative new work. Most remarkable are the portraits of himself that he commissioned from painters including Van Honthorst, Van Dyck and Rubens – images by great artists of a man known as ‘the handsomest-bodied man in Europe’. 

The first time the word cartoon was used in the sense that we know it today was in 1843 in Punch magazine. But the employment of satire, caricature, speech bubbles and the writing of captions had been around long before then. In this talk Ian tracks the early stages of cartoons and how, through the works of Hogarth and James Gillray, they gradually evolved. Copious illustrations abound  from the masters of their craft such as John Tenniel, John Leech, David Low, Vicky, Ronald Searle, Heath Robinson and Giles; and, bringing it right up to date, with Gerald Scarfe, Steven Bell and Peter Brookes.

India, where Buddha was born, and where Buddhism flourished for over a thousand years, boasts a wealth of Buddhist art and architecture. Majestic stone stupas, pillars, rock-cut shrines and monasteries of early Buddhism, often located in beautiful countryside, are covered with a profusion of divine and mythological figures and scenes from daily life. The symbolism and imagery of Buddhism becomes apparent through relief carvings, colourful paintings, colossal Buddha statues and smaller figures, some of which are masterpieces of religious art. Originally created to guide and inspire believers they remain an inspiration to visitors today. 

In this lecture we play armchair detective and follow trail of clues to discover more about the London life of the “Queen of Crime”. 

Although Dame Agatha Christie is closely associated with Torquay in Devon, the world’s best selling author left a trail of clues for us to follow all over London.
Living in various London properties during her long (and eventful) life, she penned 16 out of 66 novels from one London address alone! It was at University College London that she further developed her knowledge of her preferred method of murder; poison! We examine the London links to her novels including a hotel that inspired a Miss Marple novel and Agatha’s perhaps lesser known links to The Mesopotamian galleries at the British Museum. We conclude with a look at Agatha’s personal and professional devotion to the theatre and the extraordinary longevity of The Mousetrap: the longest running theatrical production in the world.

Pablo Picasso called Cézanne ‘the father of us all’, referring to how Cézanne’s paintings inspired both Picasso’s Cubist paintings made up of different, flat facets, and Matisse’s Fauvist paintings with their emphasis on bright colour, which in turn influenced many other artists to either explore structure (from Cubism) or colour (from Fauvism). We will explore these aspects of Cézanne’s work and how it influenced Modern Art, as well as try to work out what Cézanne’s work was really all about – was it about finding “something solid and lasting like the art of the museums”, as Cézanne said, or was he instead, as Andrew Graham-Dixon calls him, “A master of doubt”? 

The Stirling Prize has celebrated the very best contemporary buildings since 1996. Some winners, such as Norman Foster’s Gherkin, of 2004, have become enormously successful and appreciated by the wider public. Others have proved harder to love. This entertaining lecture looks at some of the hits, some of the misses, and several buildings that arguably should have won, but didn’t.

The work of artists over the centuries contains hundreds of images of London, providing a fascinating social document of the Capital. This lecture looks at just a few of these works, both from home-grown Cockneys to Visitors to the City. With images of buildings long gone and the documenting of new arrivals as London expanded and changed, we get a fascinating glimpse into the Changing Face of London.

This talk examines John Constable’s work during the later period of his life. From 1825 until his death in 1837, Constable tackled familiar themes afresh whilst also diversifying his practice with new subjects. In pursuit of naturalism in landscape he evolved a freer and more expressive style in oil, and more fully explored the possibilities of watercolour and printmaking. The final years of his life can therefore be seen as some of his most varied, exciting and radical, and are crucial to understanding his overall legacy.

Despite the flourishing of Russian Avante Garde Art during the first 30 years of the 20th Century, as Stalin rose to power, he banned all but Socialist Realist expressions of art. To own anything else was dangerous enough but to start collecting it was unthinkable. And yet this is what Igor Savitsky did. He travelled throughout the Soviet Union, buying, bribing and cajoling until he’d amassed the second largest collection of Russian Avante Garde art in the world. The State Museum of Karakalpakstan, situated near the south shores of the Aral Sea is now a Mecca for art lovers. It’s remote location in the desert oasis of Khorezm, meant that Savitsky was able to get away with such subversive activity, because even the authorities in Moscow were a little hazy as to where exactly Karakalpakstan was. Savitsky promoted Russian artists sent to Central Asia in exile and the works of the first Central Asian artists to paint their own people and landscapes.

This lecture seeks to understand the 19th century through its jewellery by looking at what jewellery meant to the people who wore it, revealing how it was used for both public and private purposes. It shows how jewellery responded to historical and topical events - jewellery with fish scales, or electrical batteries that enabled a death’s head to gnash its teeth and roll its eyes, and why there was a craze for Colorado beetles in 1877. 

Bandstands are a distinctive feature of public parks and seaside promenades all over Britain. But what do we actually know about them? Why did they appear in our earliest parks? When were they erected, and who made them? This lecture explores and provides answers to these questions, showing how the bandstand evolved from the buildings and ‘orchestras’ of the early Pleasure Gardens of the eighteenth century, and how they appeared in nearly every public park and seaside promenade of the time, and how its design was influenced by the great landscape designers, and importantly how a very small number of Scottish foundries cornered the market across the world, from Bradford to Brazil and Aberdeen to Australia. From parks, seaside resorts and civic spaces, bandstands have appeared and disappeared - but are once again re-appearing, being restored and enjoying a new lease of life. This lecture will appeal to those interested in architecture, design and social history.

Through the lens of British history and politics, this lecture assesses the artistic contribution of artists starting with Donald Rodney and Keith Piper, to Lubaina Himid and Sonia Boyce. This talk is aimed as an introduction to the topic, establishing the iconography, styles and influences of the artists that were part of the BLK movement, as well as addressing issues of colonialism in British Museums. The lecture will be hugely informative to many who feel that they have missed a large cultural influence in Britain. The talk includes themes of racism, slavery, colonialism, and violence

Monet, perhaps the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, once said that he owed his painting "to flowers". But there were so many other artists who not only created their own gardens, but made them into the subject of their work - among them, Pissarro, Liebermann, Sargent, Sorolla, Tissot, Kandinsky, Klee, Van Gogh, Klimt and Matisse.

We explore the ways in which the theme of the garden inspired so much of the most beautiful and innovative art of the late 19th and early 20th century. The talk will trace not only the appearance of the garden as a modern phenomenon but the development of new art movements which adopted it as a subject

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.

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.

Since its foundation in 1925, Faber and Faber has built a reputation as one of London’s most important literary publishing houses. Part of that relates to the editorial team that Geoffrey Faber and his successors built around them - TS Eliot was famously an early recruit - but a large part is also due to the firm’s insistence on good design and illustration. This lecture traces the history of Faber and Faber through its illustrations, covers and designs.

We look at how JMW Turner articulated the dramatic changes taking place in the age of the Industrial Revolution with landscapes which created a new aesthetic of an industrial sublime.

I talk about the increasing popularity of classical music, especially amongst young people.

I show examples of how classical music enhances the mood - the drama, the tension, the romance -of feature films.

I show examples of how it has made many TV commercials truly memorable.

I describe how a piece by an obscure 17th century German Composer has become our No.1 favourite at weddings and funerals

And to finish I show how classical melodies and chord sequences have been borrowed for a huge number of popular hit records. (I play guitar and sing for this part)

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. 

Walter Sickert was the most charismatic British artist of the early Twentieth Century. Ever conscious of his public image, he cultivated a variety of personae: aesthete; provocateur; sage, painter of modern life. He was drawn to shocking or notorious subjects (those more likely to garner attention), especially the sensational ‘Camden Town Murder’ of 1907. This lecture examines the series of paintings and prints Sickert produced in response to the crime and its aftermath. These are compelling images, among the most original by any British artist of the period. How was Sickert able to create great art out of murder? Why was he, and much of the British public, so fascinated by the case? What did the Camden Town Murder series do for Sickert’s reputation and career?

David Hockney has become a ‘national treasure’. Although a fine draughtsman, he first came to fame in the early 1960s for his graffiti-like paintings. The late 1960s and early ’70s saw him painting in a number of different styles, from the precise naturalism of Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy to extremely unnaturalistic works paying homage to his great hero, Pablo Picasso. With all his media and style changes, Hockney continues to delight and enchant people from all walks of life.

'Me, Myself and I: Self Portraiture through the Ages'

The art of self-portraiture has created some of the most moving and memorable images in history. 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, a change that reached its zenith with the modern cult of the artist-poet. From autobiography and fiction to masks and mirrors, we look at this most personal and revealing of artistic genres, revealing how and why artists from Michelangelo and Dürer to Rembrandt and Van Dyck relentlessly made images of themselves in their explorations of the world, 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? How have artists expressed the very different facets that make up identity – from the physical to the cerebral, the familial to the national? The lecture comes right up to date, looking for example 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.

This lecture replaces the advertised lecture Craft A Woven History

Please note the date of this lecture.  It will be followed by a celebratory Lunch at the Langley Park Golf Club.

2022 is the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and 2023 marks the 70th Anniversary of her Coronation, events which are unique in the history of our nation.

This lecture celebrates these events and looks at the evolution of the coronation ceremony from Saxon times to that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It examines the different stages of the ceremony from the Recognition through to the Homage and explains the significance of the different items of the Coronation Regalia.

 Finally, the lecture gives an account of the ill omens and memorable mishaps which have occurred at coronations throughout the centuries and ends with the coronation of Her Majesty the Queen, the first to be genuinely witnessed by the people through the medium of television.

2022 promises to delight enthusiasts with an exhibition dedicated to the legendary St Petersburg jewellers. Our discussion of the House of Faberge’s British enterprise will dovetail with objects on view at the museum.  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.

Exhibition is on View at the V & A  20 Nov 2021/8 May 2022

Photographs have the ability to stop time, to provide a freeze-frame of a moment in time and space. They give the observer the opportunity to think, to react, to feel and to soak in the details of the circumstances surrounding the image. This talk examines some the most important images and photographers of the past century. It explores why these images are so powerful and influential in our understanding of history. 

Can a single year adequately encapsulate an artistic environment in British art history?This lecture, The Art of 1935, explores that year’s many aspects of decorative and fine art, demonstrating how these artistic forms reflected the period in a fitting and cohesive manner. Set against the backdrop of the 1935 Silver Jubilee Celebrations of King George V and Queen Mary, audiences are transported back to this fabulous time and learn about this pivotal year. The fully illustrated talk examines the range of contemporaneous art forms; including the work of the celebrated British portrait photographer, Cecil Beaton; magazine, poster and Penguin paperback book design; architecture; Silver Jubilee memorabilia; commemorative stamps; locomotive design and fashion. An exploration of the year 1935 would not be complete without a study of certain significant works by the Polish-born artist Tamara de Lempicka which have come to personify the age of Art Deco. We also review Art Deco interiors on stylish cruise liners and film sets, as well as acknowledging the importance of The Lansdowne Club which opened its doors for the first time on 1 May 1935. Sporting and motoring trivia are also revealed.

Jan van der Heyden’s reputation pales in comparison with the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci, but his career at the height of the Dutch Golden Age was no less extraordinary.  He was a brilliant painter and draughtsman, producing wonderful views of Amsterdam and other cities. But he was also an inventor, entrepreneur, administrator and marketing genius. A mechanical fire engine and street lighting were among his innovations.  We will take a close look at his career from his meticulous cityscapes, through the detailed drawings of his inventions to the surprising vanitas still-life paintings he produced at the end of his career.  

December 2nd

Ian Swankie

Great Railway Stations – evoking the spirit of romance and adventure

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.

Dora Maar: The image in her hands

During the 1930s, Dora Maar’s provocative works became celebrated icons of Surrealism.  Her eye for the unusual also translated to her commercial photography, including fashion and advertising, as well as to her social photography In Europe’s increasingly fraught political climate, Maar signed her name to numerous left-wing manifestos – a radical gesture for a woman at that time. Her relationship with Pablo Picasso had a profound effect on both their careers. She documented the creation of his most political work, Guernica 1937 and he immortalised her as Weeping Woman 1937. Together they made a series of portraits combining experimental photographic and print making techniques. In middle and later life Maar withdrew from photography. She concentrated on painting and found stimulation and solace in poetry, religion, and philosophy, returning to her darkroom only in her seventies.

Unravelling the Silk Road – A Textile Journey

Wool, cotton and silk have each played a crucial role in the fortunes of Central Asia. Wool created the clothing and housing needed by the great nomadic cultures that were to dominate Middle Asia. Silk was more valuable than gold and used as currency, creating a network of trading routes that led to the first outbreak of globalisation. Cotton was the cause of Russian and then Soviet Colonisation and continues to cause controversy today as well as human misery and environmental catastrophe The felts, carpets, embroideries, robes and veils of the Silk Road stratified wealth, displayed religious and political entrenchments and changed the fortunes of this fascinating part of the world; a meeting place between Mohammed and Marx.

Masters of America, from Copley to Bellows

Introducing American art of the early modern period through the work of its leading masters.  We trace the interaction between American and European art worlds during a period of dynamic change - including the colonial period, the exploration of the western territories and the Civil War.   Finally, we see the growth of a new centre for art: from a place at the periphery of the European art work American would develop a rich and sophisticated art scene by the end of the 19th century.  In the course of this survey we look at the work of some of America's leading artists: including John Singleton Copley, Frederic Edwin Church, Mary Cassatt and George Bellows.

From cathedrals to churches, cottages to coastlines we are never very far from a place John Piper has painted, written about or undertaken a commission for. One of the most versatile British artists of the twentieth century - painter, designer, stained glass artist, photographer and writer on the arts - a man of many parts.

THIS LECTURE WILL BE ON ZOOM

This talk starts by examining some late nineteenth-century images of women to show some of the ways in which the early avant-garde challenged and subverted European traditions in art, and discusses the parallel rise of the cult of Bohemia and what that meant for women trying to succeed as artists. This provides background for a look at the difficulties women had making their voices heard in the 1950s, and moves on to explain the confrontational strategies employed by feminist artists in the 1970s, comparing them with the more nuanced attitudes of more recent feminist art.

Linda Smith

Holds two first-class degrees in Art History. A broad knowledge of art historical subjects, but specialises in British Art and twentieth century art. Experienced lecturer and guide, especially at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Has lectured to a wide variety of audiences in different venues, including school and university students, and independent arts societies in the UK and overseas.

Please note that we cannot accomodate guests at the December Lecture

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

THIS LECTURE WILL BE ON ZOOM

Raphael died in Rome on Good Friday, 1520, aged only 37. The Pope, his most prestigious patron, was devastated and earth tremors were felt around the city. He was buried in the Pantheon – Rome’s most important classical building – a fitting tribute to an artist who rivalled the greatness of the Ancients. (He was also charming, handsome and polite – which couldn’t be said for all Renaissance polymaths.) This lecture looks at his short, but astonishing career as painter, architect, administrator and superb draughtsman and considers his lasting influence on subsequent artists. 

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. Now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, the Art Fund, and Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery and local art societies.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

THIS LECTURE WILL BE ON ZOOM

The Alhambra of Granada, the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Alcazar of Seville are the three most impressive monuments to the architectural creativity of the Moors in Spain, but there are many other examples worthy of mention too.

The classical origins that influenced the Moorish style are less well-known, but fascinating to explore, as too is the unique interior decorative style developed by the Moors, which gives their architecture its beauty and exotic appeal – an appeal so strong that the Christians sometimes copied it, even as they slowly reconquered the territory from its Islamic rulers. This lecture provides a comprehensive introduction to the peninsula’s Moorish architecture

Ian Cockburn

Art historian with a BA (Birkbeck College) in art history and an MA (Courtauld Institute of Art) in medieval Spanish art history. Specialist in the nearly 800 years of Moorish occupation and Christian reconquest of medieval Iberia.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

THIS LECTURE WILL BE ON ZOOM

For a woman of her time and class, Gertrude Lowthian Bell’s achievements were extraordinary. She broke free of social constraint and convention to make outstanding contributions in the male-dominated worlds of exploration, archaeology, and imperial statesmanship. Partly because of this, however, commentary has tended to be gushing and uncritical.

Bell was a complex figure. The daughter of the one of the richest men in Britain, it was class privilege that made her achievements possible. Her politics were reactionary: 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

Educated at King's College Cambridge and Institute of Archaeology UCL. Works as lecturer, writer, archaeologist and occasional broadcaster. Research Fellow, University of Bristol. Editor, Military History Monthly. Director, Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. Director, Great Arab Revolt Project. Author of The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, Apocalypse, Hidden Treasure, Rome: Empire of the Eagles, and The Ancient Greek Olympics: a visitor's guide. Author of forthcoming Lawrence of Arabia's War. Major TV appearances include Channel 4's Time Team, BBC2's Timewatch, Channel Five's Boudica Revealed and Sky Atlantic's The British.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

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

Ian Swankie

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.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

Introducing American art of the early modern period through the work of its leading masters.  We trace the interaction between American and European art worlds during a period of dynamic change - including the colonial period, the exploration of the western territories and the Civil War.   Finally, we see the growth of a new centre for art: from a place at the periphery of the European art work American would develop a rich and sophisticated art scene by the end of the 19th century.  In the course of this survey we look at the work of some of America's leading artists: including John Singleton Copley, Frederic Edwin Church, Mary Cassatt and George Bellows

Kathleen McLauchlan

A lecturer specialising in 19th-century art history, currently a course director at the Victoria & Albert Museum, organising courses and study days on the history of art and design.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

As former Director of churches and cathedrals for the Church of England, Janet has chosen one church from every Church of England diocese to illustrate the incredible story of our churches bound up with the story of England over the last 1400 years and shares with the audience how they might select their own favourites, together with the many joys and some of the challenges in maintaining England's extraordinary ecclesiastical heritage.

Janet Gough

A Cambridge graduate in History and History of Art, Janet worked at Sotheby’s for nine years, was a trustee at the Churches Conservation Trust, the Museum of Fulham Palace and the Friends of the V&A and guided and lectured at the V&A. Currently a trustee of the Priory of St John (Hospitallers) and a commissioning editor for Scala Heritage Publishers, Janet received an OBE for services to heritage in January 2017.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

From his early finely-painted, almost hyper-realist, portraits to his more recent heavily-impastoed expressionistic ones, Lucian Freud has always had the power to disturb and shock

Frank Woodgate

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

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

Music was a constant theme in Manet’s life and art. His wife Suzanne Leenhoff was a gifted pianist, and regular musical soirées were held at the Manet family home. His pictures of musicians and their audiences range from major early canvases depicting itinerant gypsy musicians and Spanish dancers, through to paintings encompassing the full range of Parisian musical culture, from private performances to street entertainment, café concerts and the Paris Opera. Bringing together Manet’s art and the music that inspired him (including Spanish flamenco, Haydn string quartets, Wagner piano reductions, café songs, and opera highlights) this lecture immerses you in Manet’s world.

Lois Oliver

Dr Lois Oliver studied English Literature at Cambridge University, and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, completing an MA in Venetian Renaissance Art and writing her doctoral thesis on The Image of the Artist, Paris 1815-1855. She worked at the Harvard University Art Museums before joining the curatorial team at the V&A and then the National Gallery where she co-curated the major exhibition Rebels and Martyrs: the image of the artist in the nineteenth century (2006) and a series of touring exhibitions. Currently Assistant Professor in History of Art at the University of Notre Dame in London, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, she writes audio and multimedia tours for clients including the National Gallery, National Maritime Museum, Royal Academy and Tate, and has appeared on TV programmes for the BBC and Channel 5, as well as broadcasting on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Also a keen violinist, she plays regularly with orchestras including the Endellion Festival Orchestra.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

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/study day 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.  Beethoven will be 250 years old on 17 December 2020.

Peter Medhurst

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

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

Primarily an exploration of the music chosen by ballet choreographers through the years, proving that the right piece with the right moves and design can create modern masterpieces and timeless classics.  We transition through the grandness of Imperial Russia with Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty into the current modern repertoire of The Royal Ballet.  Includes historical and recent video clips.

Nigel Bates is the Music Administrator of The Royal Ballet and has been a performer for nearly forty years in and out of the Royal Opera House, including seventeen years as Principal Percussionist with the Orchestra. 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 twenty years, including arts societies and conservatoires in the UK and across Australia.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Colle

 ‘The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret’ – Salvador Dalí

 Like the Renaissance artists he admired, Salvador Dalí did not restrict his creative output to painting but was also a writer, poet, engraver, sculptor, architect, photographer, theatre designer,  and jewellery designer.  As well as designing the latter, Dalí selected the materials to be used, focusing not just on the colours or the value of the material, but also on their symbolic meanings. Jewels such as ‘El cor reial’ (1953, The Royal Heart) have become iconic works and are considered to be as exceptional as his paintings. He also was an omnivorous reader who was as interested in science as he was in art and in this his work also reflects the Renaissance artist he admired. This lecture explores the work of Dalí the designer and science enthusiast – a Renaissance artist in the 20th century.

Julia Musgrave 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 is currently working towards her Ph.D. at the University of York the involvement of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group in the development of the Contemporary Art Society from 1910 to 1937. She is a lecturer in Art History at the City Literary Institute (City Lit).

Main illustration: Salvador Dalí, Publisher's proof for the cover of Maurice Sandoz, 'La Limite' (Paris 1951), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Public domain)

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

This lecture explores the way in which artists over the centuries have included transparent glass objects in their paintings, taking huge delight in capturing the shadows and reflections seen within the glass as well as displaying their skill in portraying what lies behind and beyond. It will include the remarkable depiction of glass objects in Roman wall-paintings, works by artists such as Titian, Veronese and Caravaggio - where both the Gods of Olympus and the disciples are seen drinking out of fragile Venetian cristallo - and the proliferation of glass drinking vessels in Dutch still-life paintings.

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

Main illustration:  William Claesz Heda, Still Life with Tazza, Tobacco and Peeled Lemon, Wiki Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The lecture explores the fashion for lacquer screens, furniture and exquisite Kakiemon and Imari porcelain exported from 17th century Japan by European merchants. Such decorative luxury objects were collected by England’s Queen Mary II and later by Madame de Pompadour and Queen Marie Antoinette in Paris. In the 1850s, Japan was forcibly opened to trade by the American Commodore Matthew Perry. The export of woodblock prints, silk kimonos, samurai armour and decorative works of art which flowed from Japan inspired jewellers, ceramicists, painters including the Aesthetic artist James McNeil Whistler and portraitist John Singer Sargent and also composers including Puccini and Gilbert & Sullivan.

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

Main illustration The Great Wave off Kanagawa Wiki Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their creative campaigns.  Tony describes some of the processes by which these advertisements have been created and why the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo have been a particularly rich source. From the Renaissance through to the present day fine art continues to provide opportunities to enhance Brand imagery with admiration, humour, satire and irony.   In an entertaining and informative lecture Tony uses a wide range of visuals and video to show examples of the original works, the creative process and the (not always entirely successful) advertisements that are the end result.

Tony was educated at  Highgate School, starting his career in advertising in 1965 as a mail boy in J.Walter Thompson. Graduating through the training system there to become an account director he worked in a number of agencies before setting up on his own in 1985, primarily to handle Guinness accounts in Africa and the Caribbean, where he produced many commercials and ads for them over a period of 15 years. He remains active in the industry, but now concentrates on more philanthropic projects - producing a film in the rural villages of Nigeria for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and recently completing a sanitation project in Haiti after it was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.  

He has been a member of The Arts Society for many years. His lecturing experience includes presenting to client groups, sales conferences, students of creative advertising in the UK and overseas, on creative and marketing strategies.

Main illustration:  Tournée du Chat Noir, by Théophile Steinlen, Wiki Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

We all know van Gogh. We know the Sunflowers, Starry Night, his self-portraits, the bright prismatic colour applied with energetic strokes of the brush. We know his life was not an easy one. But why is he so famous? What makes him possibly the best-known artist in the world? Why does every gift shop in every gallery have a Vincent gift on display? What makes his paintings instantly recognizable? His failure to find sales or success during his lifetime, his suffering leading to self-mutilation & later to suicide at the age of 37 are all well known. What happened during his short life, and afterwards to transform him into the world’s best-loved artist?

Lucrezia Walker

Is a regular lecturer at the National Gallery both in front of the paintings and in the lecture theatre. For the Tate Gallery's Development department she speaks to their corporate sponsors in their offices and at their private receptions in both Tates. She teaches US undergraduates on their Study Abroad semesters in London. She was Lay Canon for the Visual Arts at St Paul's Cathedral 2010-2014.

Illustration:  Self portrait with grey felt hat, source Wiki Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The Bloomsbury Group is mainly associated with their literary output. This talk investigates the visual aspect of their activity: a singular phenomenon in the British arts at the beginning of the 20th century. Artists like Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant rebelled against the pretty superficiality of Impressionism in favour of a new, unconventional mode of expression in line with continental developments of Post-Impressionism. Initially explored in the Fine Arts, these new ideas were then translated into the Decorative Arts in their OMEGA workshop.

Eveline Eaton  BA Hons Courtauld Institute; Diploma:Study Centre for the History of Fine & Decorative Arts. Freelance lecturer in Fine Arts and tour-guide to Berlin, Dresden, Munich. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dresden Trust.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) was a phenomenal international success in his own lifetime. His paintings of fishermen, his beach scenes, portraits and regional studies of Spain – all permeated by colour and light – were eagerly bought in his lifetime by European and American collectors. Today his work is less well known, though occasionally one of his paintings comes up for sale in a major auction house and hits the headlines, and it still delights.  He was grounded in Spanish traditions of realism, but was influenced by Impressionism and open to the ideas of the contemporary avant-garde.  His passion was painting sunlit scenes, so there is a wonderful optimism about his works.  His former home and studio is now one of Madrid’s most popular small museums, and his work in the Hispanic Society in New York is a major attraction there.  The National Gallery in London is holding an exhibition of his work from 18 March - 7 July 2019.

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

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

In an age of discovery where science and industry went hand-in-hand, 18th century England saw not only the flowering of the Industrial Revolution, but also that of the self-made man; who came not from money but from industry. It was a time of gentlemen’s clubs, in their true original meaning rather that the corruption of this term we unfortunately experience today, and one of these clubs would become synonymous with investigation and discovery characterised by the individuals that were associated with it. But this age of discovery also witnessed the end of an era with the rise of the AntiSlavery movement, and those who were on the periphery of this club who were also achieving great things. Such as the voyages of Captain Cook, the work of Joseph Banks, the work of Sir Hans Sloane, and the inception of the Royal Academy under its first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds. In this lecture I shall, through the paintings of Reynolds and others, explore the lives, achievements, common interests and connections between a unique group of individuals from this period who either attended this club or were associated with it; men such as, James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, Joseph Wright of Derby and others. The industrialists amongst these men would be, in their time, referred to as philosophers practising what we would now call joined-up thinking, eventually we would invent a new name for them - scientists however, they would call themselves the Lunar Society.

Leslie Primo:  Holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. Was Visiting Lecturer in Art History at the University of Reading in 2005 and 2007, and gives lectures and guided tours, plus special talks, at both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Also lectures at the City Literary Institute, and has presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute.

Illustration:  William Bloye's statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch, in Birmingham.  Source:  Wiki Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

Pablo Picasso had a tumultuous relationship with Britain over the course of his life, related to both his personal politics and the shock of his art. This lecture examines the lasting effects of Britain on Picasso and of Picasso on Britain. From the artist’s initial visit to London in 1918 and the display of his monumental Guernica (1937) in Manchester in 1938, to his visit to Britain for the International Peace Conference in 1950 as a communist delegate and the cancelled 1952 Picasso retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery, the relationship – and the surrounding public controversies – reveal a multitude of fascinating connections between the most prolific artist of the twentieth century and a country on the verge of its global artistic renaissance.  

Kate Aspinall is an independent historian, writer, and artist. Based in London, she focuses her academic work on British visual culture in the twentieth century, and she has spoken recently at Tate, the Courtauld, the Towner and Pallant House, among other galleries. She consults for the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and is a Trustee of the Association for Art History, representing freelance and independent art historians. She has degrees from the University of St Andrews, the Courtauld Institute and the University of East Anglia. 

Illustration:  Portrait de Picasso, 1908, source Wiki Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The operas of Gilbert and Sullivan are rich in contemporary satire and witty personal allusions.  This lecture tells how each of the 14 operas , on which the partners collaborated, drew inspiration from the world in which they lived by drawing on celebrities, politicians, social mores, manners, artistic taste, as well as the class system.  The lecture explains how the then first Lord of the Admiralty, WHSmith, became the model for Sir Joseph Porter KCB in 'HMS Pinafore', how Oscar Wilde inspired Bunthorne in 'Patience' and how Gilbert himself may have been the model for the Judge in 'Trial by Jury'.

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

Main illustration:  Comic Opera at the Savoy Wikimedia commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The modern world was never in greater need of chivalric ideas and images than during the First World War. The Victorian imagination revelled in the iconography of the medieval knight, as a champion of good over evil, of right over wrong. But the wartime Edwardian psyche appropriated such imagery in an unprecedented way, as a medium for moral justification, an instrument of bellicose propaganda, or just a way of coping. It was not only the British who developed a new relationship with medievalist iconography during the Great War – their French, Italian, Russian and American allies responded to it as well, as did –almost more enthusiastically– the opposing Central Powers. While the British portrayed themselves as in war art as Saint George triumphing over a Teutonic dragon, the Kaiser had himself depicted as the very same warrior-saint, battling the monstrous Entente. In a desperate time, fantasy intermingled with reality. Fighter pilots became heroic knights riding mechanical winged steeds, the enemy was twisted into demonic and monstrous shapes, and heavenly angels and warrior saints were freed from their captivity in Pre-Raphaelite painting to manifest in the fields of France

Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an internationally acknowledged expert on Medieval and Renaissance weapons

Main illustration: World War I British poster E J Kealey wikimedia commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

From the mid-fifteenth century the River Thames has been an important and colourful part of the national story. The lecture is a riverscape of this history from the Tudor age to the present day. It has been the inspiration for artists and architects, including, Canaletto, Doré, Kent, Turner and Wren; and the stage for royal ritual, cheerful and solemn river pageants, palaces and pleasure gardens and the ceremonial barges of the City of London Livery Companies and the Crown – a legacy today invested in Gloriana The Queen’s Row Barge.

Peter Warwick is an author, historian, high-profile event organiser and a recognised authority on Admiral Lord Nelson. Specialises in naval, maritime and polar history.

Main Illustration: Westminster Bridge on Lord Mayor's Day by Canaletto, Wikimedia Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

For many years Scottish artists found it necessary to travel south to make their names and careers in art, but with the increasing importance of the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow from the end of the 18th Century, an independent Scottish art scene became possible. These developments will be traced through individuals such as Sir Henry Raeburn, the first artist to find success whilst remaining in his native Scotland, and Sir David Wilkie, important as one of the first to truly export Scottish art. This lecture will also look at the parallels between Scottish and other European art, as well as periods of divergence, touching on art movements such as the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists. 

Rosalind Whyte has a 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, Dulwich Picture Gallery, to independent art societies and on cruises.

Main Illustration:  Henry Raeburn The Skating Minister, Wikimedia Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

From the scandal of the painting of Madame X to the trials, tribulations and triumph of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, discover the rise, the fall and rise again of John Singer Sargent, the leading portrait painter of his age - the age of elegance. 

Alexandra Epps is an official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Guildhall Art Gallery. Pallant House Gallery Lecturer. City Lit Institute Art History Tutor.

Main Illustration: John Singer Sargent: Nonchaloir (Repose), 1911, Wikimedia Commons

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

At the turn of the last century, Vienna was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world. It produced painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, architects like Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, composer Gustav Mahler and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Looking at these and others figures in the context of the society in which they worked, this talk asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed around 1900. 

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

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The beginning of the new millennium has witnessed a growing taste for clean lines and lack of clutter which has stimulated interest in 20th century design. With many of us visiting Ikea on a regular basis, the influenced of the great Scandinavian designers of the mid-20th century has had more of an impact on contemporary design than most people realize. Some of the most important designers whose influence remains extraordinarily strong were Scandinavian, such as Alvar Aalto from Finland, Henning Koppel, working for Georg Jensen, and Arne Jacobsen from Denmark or Orrefors glass from Sweden. These were designers and makers of the new ‘antiques’, pushing the boundaries in the use of design and materials and with a lasting legacy.

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

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

Paintbrushes at Dawn: the World’s Greatest Artistic Feuds

The late Christopher Hitchens, who knew a thing or two about feuds, once wrote that a really first rate bust up requires one of at least two things: a clash of strong personalities, and a conflict of principles. The history of art is peppered with first rate bust ups: between the great early Renaissance artists, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, between Constable and Turner in the early 1830s and, most recently, between the graffiti artists Banksy and ‘King’ Robbo, who painted out and amended each other’s works. There are many more. They are highly entertaining, but they tell us a great deal about key issues in the history of art.

Barry Venning is an historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom he has published widely, including the volume on Turner in Phaidon's Art & Ideas series, and several catalogue essays for exhibitions in the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland. He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and has recently taken part (2013) in a BBC documentary called The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution. He has also published a study of John Constable's paintings. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art. He is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for The Arts Society, Christie's Education and other organisations.

Main illustration:  Copyright Barry Venning

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

In this talk Giles romps through the Edwardian period, the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, the Space Race and the Information Revolution and shows how, in this age of extremes, the show still went on and continued to tell us our own story.

Giles Ramsay is an independent theatre director and producer who specializes 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 Course Leader in Theatre at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Giles combines academic analysis with hands on experience to bring a unique insight to the world of the theatre.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

2017 will mark the 20th anniversary of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, described by the acclaimed late architect Philip Johnson as "the greatest building of our time”

Bilbao is now the Basque Country's most important city thanks in no small part to the impact of the Guggenheim Museum, completed in 1997 to huge critical and popular acclaim.  This extraordinary edifice, the first to use Frank Gehry’s trademark titanium panels, combines modernity and beauty with practicality and function, and also a great sense of fun which makes it a joy to explore. 

Our lecture begins with an introduction to the Guggenheim foundation and how it came about, and then moves on to describe the very particular circumstances that led to the commission in Bilbao. It examines the career of Frank Gehry using illustrations from his work in Europe and America, and describes how exactly the vast asymmetrical, titanium-clad structure in Bilbao was created using the latest technology, initially developed in the aerospace and shipbuilding industries. The lecture ends with an introduction to the collection of paintings, sculptures and installations contained within the museum, covering the permanent collection as well as providing up-to-date information on current and future exhibitions. Gehry’s current projects such as his involvement with the Battersea Power Station development are also discussed.

Siăn Walters studied at Cambridge University. Lecturer at the National Gallery and Surrey University, specialising in 15th and 16th century Italian painting, Spanish art & architecture, and the relationship between dance and art.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

We are all familiar with playing cards, but how far back do you think they go?  They become truly interesting when the face of the card deviates from standard and particularly when recognisable faces are depicted.  Similarly, among the many popular playing card themes are "transformation" cards.  All of these mysteries and more will be revealed in this fascinating lecture.

Yasha Beresiner was born in Turkey and is a Law Graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He moved to England in 1969 and after an extended career as a legal consultant was appointed a Director of Stanley Gibbons Ltd, the stamp magnates.  He is a qualified City of London Guide and a Past Master (2001/2) of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards, founded in 1628.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

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

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

Daniel Snowman is a social and cultural historian.  He was born in London, educated at Cambridge and Cornell, and was a Lecturer at the University of Sussex.  For many years, he worked at the BBC where he was responsible for a wide variety of radio series on cultural and historical topics.  Since 2004 he has held a Senior Research Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London).  A long-time member of the London Philharmonic Choir (1967-2015), he has always had a strong and informed interest in music and musicians.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The ancient goldsmiths of Peru and Colombia produced some of the most spectacular treasures of South America.  They transformed this sacred metal into elaborate pendants and breastplates, ear-ornaments, musical instruments, flasks, human figures, funerary masks, and lifelike representations of birds and animals.  These ritual objects were often destined for temples, burial sites, and places of offering, and for most societies in South America, gold had a spiritual importance.

Europeans, by contrast, saw gold as a commodity, the ultimate sign of wealth.  After 1492, the search for precious metals in the Americas prompted colonial expansion by major powers. Gold was the magnet that lured Spanish conquistadors deep into the heart of Peru and Colombia. The Spanish Conquest would transform the lives of the inhabitants for ever.  The dream of El Dorado led many Europeans to risk their lives searching for 'the Golden One', and the legend of El Dorado kept European explorers fascinated for over two centuries.

Most of the golden treasures that the Spaniards found were melted down for bullion.  Those that survive are works of sacred art, the technically sophisticated creations of once-great cultures.

Chloë Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America. She has made ethnographic collections and carried out fieldwork in Mexico and Belize for the British Museum.  She is now a Research Associate with the Department for World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum. Chloë has lectured for galleries, museums and cultural institutions in Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Mexico.

Banner Illustration:  ‘Anerley Arms' Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

Giovanni Bellini is probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters.  He is considered to have revolutionised Venetian painting through his use of clear, slow drying oil paint, creating rich sumptious colours and detailed shadings.  He was a huge influence on his pupils Titian and Giorgione. Jo will look at his work as well as his contemporaries and pupils during a turbulent time in the city’s history.

Jo Walton read art history at Leicester University then went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Oxford, specialising in the art and architecture of fifteenth century Italy.  Jo has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling and has been a volunteer guide at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern.  She is now a freelance lecturer for The Arts Society, the Art Fund, Friends of Dulwich Picture gallery and local art societies.

Banner Illustration: Anerley Arms Pleasure Gardens, B. Constable, credit Bromley Historic Collections

The world’s first underground railway has a wonderful heritage of architecture, ingenious design, powerful advertising posters and unique calligraphy.  In this talk we plot the early development of the Underground, examine the legacy of Frank Pick and Charles Holden, look at some of the iconic posters, and celebrate the award winning architecture of the modern Tube in the Jubilee Line Extension.  We’ll also take a peek at some of the forthcoming Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) stations, designed by some of the world’s top architects.

Ian Swankie is a Londoner with a passion for art and architecture.  He is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’ Cathedral, and gives regular tours at each venue.  Ian is also a qualified and active freelance London guide and a member of both the City of London and Westminster Guide Lecturer Associations.  Clients include The Arts Society and WEA groups, Transport for London, the National Trust and London Open House.  In 2012 he established a weekly independent art lecture group in Richmond and gives talks on a variety of subjects.