2024 - 2028 marks one hundred years since Winnie-the-Pooh was introduced to children of all ages in the four iconic books created by A A Milne and E H Shepard. First seen in When We Were Very Young (1924), Winnie-the-Pooh and the characters of the Hundred Acre Wood had their own adventures in Winnie-The-Pooh (1926), with Now We Are Six (1927) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928), giving us more wonderful poems and stories which include the introduction of both Tigger, Kanga-and-Roo and Poohsticks. This lecture tells the story of how these much loved books were created by the genius of Milne and Shepard’s groundbreaking collaboration and why they remain embedded in our national identity.

James Campbell

has a BA in History and an MA in the History of Art and a particular interest in the work of the artist, illustrator and cartoonist E H Shepard (1879-1976). He has been lecturing for over twenty years and has lectured across the UK and overseas to Literary Festivals, Art Societies, military museums, and to private clubs and community groups. He has been a Trustee of the E H Shepard Estate since 2010, as was involved in the ground-breaking Victoria and Albert Museum 2017 Exhibition marking the 90th birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh.  His books Shepard’s War and The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh were published in 2015 and 2017 respectively. His new joint biography of A A Milne and E H Shepard - The Men Who Created Winne-the-Pooh: The Lives of A A Milne and E H Shepard - commissioned for the centenary of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, has been recently published by Michael O'Mara Books.  

Although very influential in English painting, Walter Sickert’s art is sometimes difficult to appreciate. This lecture looks at his background as pupil of Whistler, his friendship with Degas and the development of his unique style. His paintings of the Victorian music halls, of Venice and his Camden Town nudes are shown. A truly international figure, Sickert moved between London, Paris, Dieppe and Venice. However, in 1905 he settled in London and collected around him a group of young artists called the Camden Town Group – Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman, Charles Ginner, Malcolm Drummond, Robert Bevan and William Ratcliffe.

Julian Halsby

studied History of Art at Cambridge. Formerly Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Croydon College of Art. He’s written seven books and published many articles. He interviews artists for the Artist Magazine and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics Circle. A practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.

We are pleased to invite Julian back to TAS Hart after his excellent lecture in 2022 on John Singer Sargent.

Image: Sickert: Ennui -A painting of a man and woman in a living room

Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal

The international art market is today dominated by four British auction houses, all founded in the 18th century, their record prices sensationally reported by the world's media. But what is it like behind the canvas? How do auction houses function? What goes on behind the scenes and what is required for a successful sale to take place? With an overview of the rise of two of the leading international salerooms, based in London and globally, this interactive lecture, given by an auctioneer and specialist with almost forty years' experience in both houses, reveals all.

Simon Cottle

Is a leading international specialist, author, auctioneer and lecturer in British and European Glass, now retired. Formerly Managing Director (Bonhams Europe) and Director of European Ceramics and Glass at Bonhams Auctioneers, London (2007-2023). Formerly Head of European Ceramics and Glass at Sotheby's, where he was also a Director and auctioneer (1990 to 2007). He is responsible for numerous landmark auctions of European Glass both at Sotheby's and Bonhams. After studying History at University College Cardiff and the University of Washington and holding a postgraduate diploma in Museum and Art Gallery Studies from Manchester University, he began his career as a senior curator of ceramics, glass and silver at museums in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Glasgow (1979-1990). He is Hon. President of the Glass Society, Fellow of the Guild of Glass Engravers and a Fellow of the Corning Museum of Glass, New York.

In the spring of 1889 the young architect Edwin Lutyens, later to become the most famous British architect of the 20th century, met the artist-gardener-craftswoman Gertrude Jekyll for the first time at an afternoon tea-party in rural Surrey. She was a well-known eccentric, of whom her parents had despaired, and a generation older than the young man who communicated with the world through drawings and elaborate jokes. Though Lutyens always found women difficult, he found in the daunting Miss Jekyll someone who empathised with his big ideas regarding design, detailing and distinctiveness. She opened social doors to him, and he brought her theories and experiments in garden-making onto the national stage. Though they always maintained their independence from one another, their joint creations of house and garden became the talk of Edwardian society. His ever-ingenious geometry, soft-furnished by her colour-coded herbaceous borders, his superb textures of terrace and pergola lined and hung with her signature plantings, set a standard of excellence which has been admired ever since. Separately they were interesting, curious, isolated; together they proved irresistible.

Steven Desmond

Is a charted horticulturist specialising in the historic gardens of Britain and Europe. He lectures to a wide range of audiences including the University of Oxford and has undertaken lecture tours in Australia. He is an experienced leader of specialist tours to gardens, houses and cultural landscapes in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. He is a regular garden writer for Country Life, His well-received book “Gardens of Italian Lakes” was published by Frances Lincoln in 2016

Image: Munstead Wood: Fickr/ Amateur with a camera

By the latter half of the 1700s British artists were making their mark and if they wanted to make money then portraiture was the genre to focus on. This talk will focus on the two most successful portrait painters of the day, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. They both flattered their sitters in very different ways catering to different tastes and their portraits reflect different fashionable aspects of 18th century society and culture. 

Sarah Ciacci

has an MA in History of Art (Late 19th century French Painting and 20th Century Art) from University College London. She has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries. Since 2008 she has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and for a period the National Portrait Gallery. She is a gallery educator and runs regular courses and independent lectures on a variety of art historical periods.

Image: 'Mrs Siddons' by Thomas Gainsborough, National Gallery, London, England

Flickr/Alex David-Baldi

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 the work of 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 looks 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

Rosalind has an MA from both Goldsmith and Birkbeck Colleges and is an experienced guide, having worked at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and the Greenwich Gallery. We are pleased to invite Rosalind back to TAS Hart after her excellent lecture in 2024 on Contemporary Artists: Anthony Gormley and Anish Kapoor.

Image: Sir Henry Raeburn - The Skating Minister. Flickr/Gandalfs gallery

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

American pioneers in glass technology from the late 19th century onwards provided much of the innovative tradition that was to bring about the birth of the Studio Glass Movement in the USA in the 1960s. Glass manufacturers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany developed new blown shapes and technologies to create new surface effects and an appearance of movement in glass. The Studio Glass Movement dates from 1962, with its emphasis on the aesthetics of form and colour now influencing studio art glass makers everywhere. As time has passed studio glass making has become more individualistic and more sculptural in its forms. Dale Chihuly became one of the foremost American studio glass artists and has popularised the medium throughout the World. In this talk his work is considered in some detail in terms of individual works and large-scale exhibitions such as that in Kew Gardens, England, in 2005 and 2019.

Scott Anderson

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

Image: Dale Chihuly's Blown Glass Sculpture Summer Sun In Kew Gardens - London. Flickr/Jim Winwood

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

image: Flickr/Laura Loveday

Brian Stater

Brian lectured at University College London for 25 years, retiring in 2021 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. His principal academic interest lay in the appreciation of architecture and he has a lifelong enthusiasm for photography. He has written on architecture for a wide range of publications and an exhibition of his own photographs was held at UCL. Brian is a former member of the Association of Historical and Fine Art Photography. He works with a range of cameras, including a pre-War Leica as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.

This lecture will explore the life of one of the most famous and iconic Mexican artists of the twentieth century. It will situate her within an extraordinary historical context and explore her family background and her battle as a child with polio.

Her flamboyant character will be set against her deep sadness in love and in pain after an appalling accident left her disabled physically but able to paint while in her hospital bed. And her meeting with the great figure of Diego Rivera, muralist and revolutionary and her subsequent love affair with him, their turbulent marriage, divorce and re-marriage. Often scrutinising her self-portraits, we will learn about her rise to international fame and her liaisons with extraordinary characters of the time such as Leon Trotsky and her untimely and very public death in 1954.

Jacqueline Cockburn

Jacqueline is Managing Director of Art and Culture Travel, running residential courses in Andalucía, Southern Spain in the art and culture of the region as well as curated tours to Madrid, Tangiers, Barcelona, Paris and Venice. Jacqueline is a course director and lecturer at the V&A and also lectures at The Royal Academy. Her specialist field is Spanish Art, but she also lectures on European Art 1790-1950.

Image: Flickr/Rael Garcia Arnes

When the Wallace Collection was bequeathed to the British nation in 1897 it was believed that the museum had twelve paintings by Rembrandt. Later, however, most of these pictures were re-assigned to other artists, to the extent that a hundred years later it was thought that there was only one genuine work by the great Dutch master - a wonderful portrait of the artist’s son Titus. Since then further research has suggested that in fact four of the other paintings are also wholly or partly by Rembrandt. But who decides things like this, and how do they make their decisions?

Stephen Duffy

Was Formerly Senior Curator of the Wallace Collection where he 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.

Image:  Flickr/Steve Zucker

Georgia o’Keeffe (1887-1986) rose to almost mythical status as the pre-eminent artist in early 20th century America, at a time when painting was not considered a suitable occupation for a woman and despite spending decades in isolation in New Mexico far away from the artistic hub of New York.

The lecture will look at her landscapes, cityscapes, the skull paintings and the notorious outsized flower paintings. It will also address the question of how much of a role her husband the photographer and leading gallerist, Alfred Steglitz had in shaping her career and her success.

Lydia Bauman

Lydia, born in Poland, had a degree in Fine Art from the University of Newcastle and a Master’s in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute divides her time between painting and exhibiting and lecturing widely.

She has taught at the National Gallery, the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery as well as at collections such as the Boston Museum of Fine Art, The Hermitage and the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Image: Cows Skull with Calico Roses (Flickr/Jim Forest)

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford houses one of the finest collections of Ancient Egyptian Art – including a wealth of material and some outstanding pieces in terms of art, history and culture.

It includes some of Egypt’s earliest monumental art; the decorated mace heads of the first Pharaohs; the ‘Amarna Princess’ wall paintings and the shrine of the Nubian pharaoh, Taharqa, the only monument of its kind in the UK.

The lecture with introduce us to these and more – a follow on to 2024’s visit to the Ashmolean.

Lucia Gahlin

Lucia is an Egyptologist who has worked in museums and excavations in Egypt. She was formally a Research Associate at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology and works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London as well as lecturing widely. She has written and published works on Egypt and its gods, myths and religion.

Image: Shrine and Sphynx of Taharqa (Flickr/Aidan McRae Thomson)

When we look at a painting or a statue in a museum do we ever question how it came to be there?When Napoleon conquered much of Europe he had the best of Europe’s art sent back to Paris – but how?

How did they get the 4 life-sized bronze horses of Sam Marco down from their place in the Basilica in Venice, over the Alps and to Paris?

What were the practicalities of shipping a 15 foot long painting? Or moving Michelangelo’s ‘David’?

Chantal Brotherton-Radcliffe

Chantal was last seen by AS Hart on Zoom in 2021 when she delivered her excellent lecture on Artemisia Gentileschi.

With an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh University and a PhD from the Warburg Institute at London University she has over 40 years’ experience as a lecturer. She has taught at Sotheby’s Institute of Art since 1989 and acts as a freelance lecturer at a number of institutions including, among others, the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection.

Image: Horses of St Mark (Wickimedia Commons/Eduardo Franco Rondina)

Amid the turmoil of the Russian Revolution in 1918 a new avant-garde art was developing and artistic battle lines were drawn – Chagall v Malevich, Expressionism v Constructivism – and new collaborations emerged.

From the infamous ‘Black Square’ to Tatlin’s “Monument without a Beard’

to Soviet Socialist Surrealism under Stalin. This period in Russia is vital and artistically fascinating and has caused the question of ‘is it art?’ to be raised with regularity.

Dr Marie-Anne Mancia

Trained as an artist before gaining a Ph.D at the University of Sussex in ‘Art and Critical Theory’ Marie-Anne has lectured on Art History for Tate Modern, Art in London, the London Art Salon and the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

She also runs Art History tours abroad, is a Director of InFems an art collective for whom she curates exhibitions and writes on art topics.

Image: "Suprematist" Kasimir Malevich (Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)

The outbreak of WWI in 1914 brought the glamour and frivolity of the late 19th and early 20th Century to a sudden end. Posters remained the most effective means of mass communication but the output of the decorative and gentle Art Nouveau inspired style of Mucha, Lautrec and the other artist-advertisers had to change dramatically – in August 1914 Kitchener needed an ad campaign that would persuade 250,000 thousand men to enlist by Christmas!

The lecture compares the propaganda from Britain, France, Germany, America and the USA through the art of Leete, Christy, Erdt and others.

Charles Harris

Charles needs no introduction to AS Hart after his very successful 2023 lecture on poster art.

After a successful career in mainstream advertising as Creative Director in several of the large global agencies and working on the campaigns of some of the world’s greatest brands – Sone, Nestle, BA – who better to explain what does and does not work in the world of advertising.

Image: Ger,man WW1 Post Card (Wikimedia Commons/Karl Trosti) - "May God punish unfaithful Italy"

Some twenty years after The Great Exhibition of 1852, France after its defeat in the Franco Prussian War in 1872 embarked on a period of peace, prosperity and development lasting until 1914 was became known as the Belle Epoque. The Moulin Rouge, that opened its doors in 1889, evokes that period of French, and especially Parisian history which pulsated with artistic energy, technical and scientific innovations, risqué entertainment and boundless enthusiasm.

This was the age of Lautrec, Bonnard, Rousseau, Pissarro, Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse Degas but also of Peugeot, Michelin, Pasteur but there was another darker side – the poverty, the slums and an antisemitism that resulted in the infamous Dreyfus Trial.

Cindy Polemis

Cindy is an art historian with degrees from Oxford and London. After leaving the BBC’s World Service where she worked as a radio producer and presenter she now works as an independent lecturer and art guide as well as being an official guide at Tate Briton and Tate Modern.

Image: Poster Folies Bergere (Picryl/Public Domain)

The impact of The Great Exhibition on British design is hard to over emphasise and led to the country’s leading position in the field of decorative and applied arts in the latter half of the 19th Century. It was a desire to create a ‘legacy institution’ in its aftermath that inspired the establishing of a design museum – originally called the ‘Museum of Manufacturers in 1852 it, with the laying of the foundation stone in S Kensington by Queen Victoria in 1899, became the V and A.

The lecture looks at the building itself as a work of art and explores the work of William Morris, Lord Leighton and other influential designers of the Victorian Age.

Anna Warrillow

A graduate of the University of Sussex and The Royal College of Art, Anna was for six years a curator in the Sculpture Department of the V and A.

A Blue Badge Guide since 2013 and the founder of Canvas and Stone Tours, she lectures for art, history and academic societies and is an adjunct lecturer at Richmond The American International University in London.

Image: Opening of the Great Exhibition 1851 by Queen Victoria (Picryl/Public Domain)

Some of the most iconic images of the 20th Century were created not for galleries or private patrons but for record sleeves. The zebra crossing from the cover of the Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ is now a place of pilgrimage for thousands from all over the world and an icon of the 1960s.

Album covers have been produced by Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and a host of lesser-known artists and designers.

Exploring the art of the album cover reveals the connections between the visual and musical creativity in this vibrant period of popular culture.

Rupert Dickens

Rupert is an Art historian with Degrees from Birkbeck and University College, London and a special interest in Dutch and Flemish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries. He works at the Wallace Collection as a guide and Lecturer and is also a tour director for art-themed tours to Europe.

Image: Beatles Album Cover (Flickr/Leo Reynolds)

Laura Knight(1877-1970) came from a difficult and impoverished background in Derbyshire but rose to become the third woman ever to be elected to full membership of the Royal Academy and the first painter to be made a Dame.

Known for her paintings of the circus and ballet, with the outbreak of WWII she started to focus on women working in armaments factories, drawing attention, with scrupulous detail, to their contribution to the war effort. She was made an official war artist in 1942 and commissioned to paint the Nuremburg War Trials in 1945. Her sensitive paintings featuring women and children have been largely overlooked.

Working in oils, watercolours, etching and engraving she was a painter in the English realist tradition who also embraced English Impressionism.

Timothy Wilcox

Wilcox is a writer, lecturer and exhibition curator with a special interest in British art.

He has organised exhibitions of Laura Knight, John Sell Cotman and Constable and others at the Tate, The Lowry and Dulwich Picture Gallery among others. He contributes regularly to educational programmes at the Ashmolean as well at lecturing at museums and galleries in Europe and the USA.

Image: Ruby screwing a breech ring (Imperial War Museum Collection)

Calcutta was the second city of the British Empire and a hub of culture and artistic production throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and India’s capital until 1911. The city played a central role at the epicentre of the ‘Bengal Renaissance’, playing a significant role in shaping the arts and culture of modern India.

Lecturer: Dr John Alexander Stevens

Dr Stevens teaches British Imperial History, Indian History and Bengali History at the School of oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London University. A regular visitor to India and Bangladesh he has lectured at numerous Indian Universities. In addition, he works as a consultant on Indian affairs and teaches the Bengali language.

Image: Dalhousie Square, Calcutta (Raphael Tuck and Sons)

Almost since the dawn of human history wine has played a part in our society and this lecture tells of its origins and appearance in societies across the Mediterranean and then throughout Europe. There is ample evidence of the role played by wine in these societies, how it grew to be an important component of faith, well-being and festivity. From the Kwevris of Georgia in 5000BC, the symposia of ancient Greece, the hospices of Europe to the dining tables of fine society – wine has always been present.

Drawings, paintings, engraving, pottery and wine labels all contribute to the story.

A retailer, importer and distributor of wine for over 30 years David, has now developed his extensive knowledge to lecture on the great history of wine, which for over 7000 yearshas played a well-documented part in human history.

Image - Two lares pouring wine (Flickr/Carole Raddato)

More than any other artist of her day De Lempicka’s most striking portraits have come to personify the age of Art Deco.

She derived a distinct style that was unlike most of her male contemporaries, a style of classic portraiture revamped for a new age, with a glamour, feminine allure, her subjects oozing a seductive appeal with influential roots in cubism, neo-classicism and her infatuation with Hollywood and the movies.

The lecture will follow her development from the early days in Warsaw and St Petersburg to Paris and, eventually, to New York and Hollywood and, finally, to Mexico.

Pamela has over 30 years of experience in lecturing both undergraduates and adult groups along with Patrons and Friends of the Royal Academy. She now works as a freelance art consultant and lecturer.

Pamela last came to AS Hart in 2017.

Image - Jeune Fille en Vert (Flickr/Jean-Pierre Dolbera)

Published in 36 languages Chevalier’s Book translates into words the intimate, intense quality of one of Vermeer’s best loved and hypnotic paintings.

The lecture compares the writer’s meticulously researched created world of the novel with the reality of the

age but focuses on the short but extraordinary life of Vermeer and the light, colour and mood of his paintings.

It is not necessary to read the book before the lecture but to do so may increase the enjoyment.

Nicole studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris and was a Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Now living in London, she works as a freelance lecturer for various organisations, including national museums, universities, National Trust and private organisations.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Higher Education Academy.

Image - The Girl with the Pearl Earring ((Flickr/Nathan Hughes Hamilton)

The name Whistler conjures, along with a mental image of his mother, the perception of a witty, irascible dandy quick to pounce on anyone who stood in his way.

His radical style of painting in the 1860s ultimately changed the course of Western Art but at the time attracted much scornful ridicule – he fought back with equal venom creating much ill will and many life-long enemies.

In examining his works, particularly ‘Nocturnes’, ‘Arrangements’, ‘Harmonies’ the lecture will chart his development as a painter as well as his endless feuds.

Jennifer is an experienced guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, is a visiting lecturer at both Goldsmith and Birkbeck and is a senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University.

Image - James McNeil Whistler (Public Domain Wikimedia/Metropolitan Museum of Art/NY)

Anthony Gormley and Anish Kapoor are among the most well-known sculptors working in Britain today and the work of these two artists provides an insight into contemporary views and preoccupations.

The lecture will look at both artists’ work: exploring the common ground between them, the differences in style, techniques and themes.

Rosalind has an MA from both Goldsmith and Birkbeck Colleges and is an experienced guide, having worked at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and the Greenwich Gallery.

We are pleased to invite Rosalind back to AS Hart after her excellent 2018 lecture on ‘Corot to Monet’

Image - Sky Mirror by Kapoor (Flickr/Duncan Cummimg)

The 19th century saw a growing number of women becoming professional artists and were in the forefront of artistic innovation. Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was one such but from her first Impressionistic paintings in the 1860s and 70s to her bold later works remained nonetheless attached to domestic subjects and landscapes.

The lecture considers her origins, her relation with Eduard and Eugene Monet and her place within the Impressionist movement and the broader Art scene.

Dr Levisse, born in France, studied for her PhD on the relationship between art and religion in contemporary Scandinavian Art in Copenhagen and is now based in London. She teaches courses focusing on 19th century and early 20th century Western Art to a variety of adult education providers.

She has published articles in English and French academic journals as well as magazines and newspapers.

Image - The Cradle (Flickr/Franz Vanderwalle)

This lecture charts the main developments in European painting from the early Italian Renaissance to the birth of Abstraction.

Focusing on a dozen acclaimed masterpieces the lecture charts both the stylistic and thematic development of Western European painting alongside the historical context in which they were created.

Aliki studied at The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, The Slade and The Courtauld and worked at The National Gallery for 20 years. She now teaches for Christies Education and The Wallace Collection and is an Associate Lecturer for the Camberwell College of Art.

She is also a practicing artist who exhibits her photographic work internationally.

Image - Aliki Braine

Dickens brought the world a staggering array of wonderful characters – orphans, starving children, misers, murderers and abusive school teachers among them. Mr Micawber, Fagin, Magwich, Pickwick, Scrooge – all remain in our literary psyche long after we have put down the books.

In this lecture Bertie looks at the life of Dickens though his characters and intersperses the talk with readings. A Dickensian experience.

After graduating from Manchester University and the Ecole Internationale du Theatre Bertie became a member of the Inner Magic Circle with a Gold Star.

He has a wide experience of lecturing to a variety of audiences and travels the world with his Magic Caberet show.

Bertie last entertained AS Hart in 2016 with his lecture “The Punch and Judy Show’.

Image "The Two Wellers" (CC 1.0 Universal- in public domain)

The rise of a new Protestant dominated society in 17th century Holland saw a move away from the earlier demand for traditional religious scenes towards domestic scenes and the less formal portrairure. Foremost amolng the masters of this relatively new genre were Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer.

Image "The Laughing Cavalier" by  Frans Hals (I Sailka/Wikimedia Commons)

Woodblock printing, developed in China, was introduced to Japan in the 8th Century and woodblock printed books with extensive illustrations gained in popularity during the 16th century.

This form of cheap and affordable art, known as Ukiyo-E ‘pictures of the Floating World’, because of their ephemeral nature, become well established and highly popular, reaching apogee during the Edo period (1615 – 1868).

When Japan opened up to the West in the mid 19th century many of these prints by artists such as Hokusai, Hiroshige and others were introduced to Europe for the first time and were received with enthusiasm. The French Impressionist and the Post Impressionists in particular welcomed this new genre and were in turn influenced by it.

The lecture will trace the history of Ukiyo-E with examples from its famous Masters.

Dr Arichi has a Post-graduate Diploma in Asian Art, an MA in History of East Asian Art and a PhD in Japanese Art.She has taught at SOAS, the British Museum, the V&A, Birkbeck College and the Courtauld.

Image - Mount Fuji from Kanaya on the Tokaido (Hokusai/Flickr Chris Devers)

Cynthia Coleman-Sparke

Cynthia is an independent researcher, author and lecturer on Russian Pre-Revolution works of art, consulting regularly on Faberge for auction houses. Having grown up, off and on, in Moscow within a family of Russian art collectors her career choice was almost inevitable.

She ran the Russian Department of Christie’s New York for a number of years and the Hellwood Estate in Washington DC, followed by work on the restoration project at the Alexander Palace in Tsarkoe Selo, Tsar Nicholas II’s last residence.

Faberge – Objects of Desire

Exactly how did a modest jewelry concern with an extremely un Russian sounding name become an enduring symbol of Romanov luxury?

This talk goes beyond the legendary Easter Eggs to consider the design sources, materials and techniques that distinguished the legendary Russian from his contemporaries. We look in particular at Faberge’s gifts that were selected to convey romantic ties, filial devotion, diplomatic esteem and even loyalty to a beloved pet.

Image: James Hennigan - Rose Trellis Faberge Egg (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

David Haycock

David has an MA in Art History and a PhD in British History and is the author of a number of books on art.

He has lectured widely at galleries and museums in the UK, including Tate Britain, National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Watercolour Society and Pallant House.

The England of Eric Raviious (1903-1942)

Watercolourist, muralist, ceramicist and wood engraver Revilious was one of the distinctive young British Artists working between the wars. He was also an artist who is increasingly of interest and popularity as recent exhibitions have shown.

This lecture explores Revilious’s entire career looking at his place in the long tradition of watercolour painting in England, as well as within the social and cultural context of 1920s and 30s leading to his sudden death as an official war artist in Iceland in 1942.

Image: Eric Ravilious Coastal Defences (PICRYL Public Domain)

Georgina Bexon

Georgina is an Art Historian specialising in South Asian art and has worked in the UK, the US and Singapore.

Consultant art historian at the Oriental Club in London and an official tour guide at Tate Modern she is, in addition, a visiting lecturer at several British Universities, presents talks at a number of leading institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow and Christie’s Education in New York.

Georgina is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Asiatic Society.

Art of the Mughal World

The 16th to the 18th centuries in India saw a golden period of Mughal rule marked by a unique flowering of art and architecture unrivalled in luxury and opulence.

The mighty Emperors were dedicated patrons of artists, sculptors, jewellers, engravers, architects, poets and calligraphers who generated an extensive body of beautiful works of art and monuments – from exquisite Mughal miniatures with their luminous colours to sumptuous Imperial palaces.

The lecture considers the fusing of Persian, European and indigenous Indian influences that produced these amazing works.

Image: Hamayan's Tomb, New Delhi, c.1572 (Courtesy Georgina Bexon)

Grant Ford

Grant is an independent Fine Art Advisor, Private Curator, and Representative. He is a senior painting specialist for ‘Antique Roadshow’ and specialises in Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite, Irish, Scottish and European Art. He was responsible for Sotheby’s Victorian Art Department from 2001 to 2016

Scottish Art

Grant became interested in Scottish Art at an early age, especially that of the Glasgow School.

The lecture will cover traditional Scottish painting leading up to the work of the ‘Scottish Colourists’ and their followers in the 20th Century. During the course of the talk Grant will discuss many of the ‘trophy ’works he has handled in the course of his career.

Image: Sir John Lavery - Played (NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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

Pepe Martinez

Pepe, who needs no introduction to those who enjoyed his virtual tours of London during ‘lockdown’ is a London Blue Badge Guide and one who specialises in graffiti and street art.

Prior to becoming a guide Pepe was a tour manager with fifteen years of experience travelling world-wide.

Image: Banksy - Girl and Heart Balloon (ShareAlike 2.0 CC BY-SA 2.0)

Art of Atonement: How Germany Commemorates WWII

In the UK little is known about Germany’s complex post WWII process of coming to terms with the atrocities of its recent past. It’s very specific situation rendered traditional concepts of memorials and monuments irrelevant and inappropriate. Instead of commemorating their own losses German artists have created art forms that respond to questions of apology and atonement. How does a nation of former persecutors mourn its victims? How do you remember what you’d rather forget? The results are extraordinary.

Angela Findlay

We are pleased to welcome Angela back again to AS Hart.

A professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer Angela spent a number of teaching art in prisons in Germany and England, an experience that underpinned her very well received lecture ‘Art Behind Bars’.

In the course of the past decade her Anglo-German roots have led her to research Germany’s post WW II process of remembrance and the culture of ‘counter memorials’ that emerged to express national shame and apology. In view of the current debate over statues and monuments a discussion of the ways in which Germany dealt with its past seem particularly relevant.

Image: Stolpersteine/Stumbling Stones by Gunter Demnig (Courtesy Angela Findlay)

Picasso called Cezanne ‘the father of us all’ referring to how Cezanne’s paintings inspired both Picasso’s Cubist paintings and Matisse’s Fauvist paintings with their emphasis on bright colours. These Artists in turn inspired may others explore form and colour.

The lecture will explore these aspects of Cezanne’s work and his influence on Modern Art as well as try to work out what His work really was about – was it finding ‘something solid and lasting like the art of museums’ as claimed by Cezanne himself or was he a ‘master of doubt’ as others have claimed?

Image - Basket of Apples CC BY-NC-SA2.0 JRP Flickr

Sargent’s life is full of movement - born in Italy, he studied in Paris, painted portraits in London, produced oils and watercolours in Venice, was a WWI artist and spent the later years of his life painting murals in Boston. My lecture looks in depth at his amazing portraits analysing just how he captured the character of his sitters and looking back to Van Dyck and Gainsborough. I look in detail at his Venetian oils and sparkling watercolours and outline the Anglo-American society in the Palazzo Barbaro that he frequented while in Venice. I look at his paintings done in the Alps while travelling down to Venice and show his wartime watercolours. This is a sparkling lecture full of colour which shows that Sargent is a master in both oils and watercolours, as well as being a charming, musical and cosmopolitan man.

Image: Mrs Fiske-Warren and her daughter Rachel (Public Domain)

Julian Halsby

Studied History of Art at Cambridge. Formerly senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Croydon College of Art. Publications include Venice – the Artist’s Vision (1990, 1995); The Art of Diana Armfield RA (1995); Dictionary of Scottish Painters (1990, 1998, 2001, 4th edition 2010); A Hand to Obey the Demon’s Eye (2000); Scottish Watercolours 1740-1940 (1986, 1991); A Private View – David Wolfers and the New Grafton Gallery (2002). Interviews artists for the Art Magazine and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics Circle. A practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.

Image: John Singer Sargent - Mrs Fiske Warren and her Daughter Rachel (PICRYL Public Domain)

Peggy Guggenheim

The ‘poor little rich girl’ who changed the face of 20th Century Art - not only was Peggy Guggenheim ahead of her time – she helped define it.

She nurtured a new generation of artists producing radical new art - Pollock, Calder, Rothko to name but a very few – and to garner a large collection much of which can be seen at the Palazzo Vernier dei Leoni in Venice at the Museum that bears her name.

Alexandra Epps

Alexandra needs no introduction to AS Hart after her very well received 2020 Zoom lecture on Coventry Cathedral.

With a background in design and having practiced as a graphic designer Alexandra ran her own design company for a number of years. An official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the Guildhall Gallery she also lecturers at the Pallant House Gallery and is an Official Guide to the City of London.

Image: Peggy Guggenheim Museum from the Grand Canal (Graham Churchard/Flickr  CC BY)

NICHOLAS HAWKSMOOR AND THE GLORIES OF ENGLISH BAROQUE

Nicholas Hawksmoor is one of Britain’s most important but least-known architects. Responsible in large part for the magnificent Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard and the west towers of Westminster Abbey he also designed several splendid churches.

Starting as Sir Christopher Wren’s favourite pupil, in the early eighteenth-century he developed his own architectural voice and was a major part of Britain’s short-lived Baroque movement.

We will examine his works in detail plus the legacy of contemporaries such as Sir John Vanbrugh.

Image: Christ Church, Spittalfield (Steve Cadman/Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0) (No alterations made by us)

David Hockney – he will be 85 in 2022 - is now a recognised ‘national treasure’!

Although a fine draftsman he first came to fame in the early 1960s for his graffiti-like paintings. The late 1960s and 1970s saw him painting in a number of different styles, from the precise naturalism of ‘Mr and Mrs Price and Percy’ to the extremely un-naturalistic works paying homage to his hero Picasso.

With all his media and style changes Hockney continues to delight people from all walks of life.

David Woodgate is a lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and lectures for The National Trust and the Art Society as well as a variety of other organizations in Europe and the USA.

He also lectures and runs courses at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.

 The Della Robbia family of Florence, including the sculptor Luca and his nephew Andrea, perfected the art and craft of glazing roundels and architectural panels made of terracotta.  They worked during the 15th   and early 16th centuries and counted the Church and great Florentine families among their patrons.  Marked out by the distinctive colours of blue, yellow, manganese and green enriched in lustrous white, these panels brought to life delicate groups of angels, the emotion between the Madonna and Child and stories from the bible including the Adoration of the Kings.  Prestigious products of this workshop can still be seen in church and cathedral interiors and on the walls of church and civic buildings in Florence and the nearby towns of Tuscany, including Pistoia and Barga.  The fame of the Della Robbia family outlived their workshop and was celebrated in Victorian Britain with original examples acquired by museums such as the V&A and others reinterpreted by the Della Robbia art pottery workshop at Birkenhead.

Anne Haworth is a 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 the 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 Bonham’s head offices.  

The Mona Lisa is one of the most iconic paintings in western art. Painted by Leonardo da Vinci in Florence in 1503, it accompanied him to France in 1517, eventually passing to the Louvre. But why did Leonardo keep this painting with him until his death? What is its place in the history of portraiture? And when did the Mona Lisa become an international celebrity? She has inspired artists and writers from Freud to Warhol, Dalì to Dan Brown, as well as songs and films. She went on a ‘state visit’ to Washington, meeting President Kennedy and Jackie; she has been vandalised and stolen. This lecture looks at the reasons for her fame – and incidentally, explains why she is smiling!

This lecture seeks to provide a balanced insight into the life and achievements of one of the most important women in Chinese Imperial history.

 From relative obscurity as a low-ranking consort, we explore the events that led to her confirmation as Dowager Empress Cixi in 1861 and her strategy to preserve, then revitalise, imperial rule after a series of humiliating military defeats by western colonial powers plus several brutal ethnic uprisings.

 We will trace the distinct cycles of Cixi’s power, as Emperors came and went, whilst the Dowager Empress moved periodically from a position of influence to full authority and then into times of enforced retirement. 

 Looking beyond Cixi’s desire to force China into the modern world we will gain an insight into her life within her beloved Summer Palace with a focus on her passion for painting, embroidery, fashion design and the extensive gardens.  A location where Cixi forged some extraordinary close relationships with leading western women.

 David Rosier is a Chartered Insurer by profession and a Fellow of the Assurance Medical Society, with extensive international experience as an author in Medical Risk Assessment.  He has over 25 years of working and living in Asia.  Whilst living in Hong Kong (1991-2004), he assembled a collection of approximately 700, predominately Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Imperial and related textiles/costume accessories.  Past committee member of the Hong Kong Textile Society and frequent speaker on Imperial Insignia and Badges of Rank.

This lecture considers the influence of the Art of the Low Countries on Italian Renaissance Art.

Generally viewed as a one sided cultural exchange moving from the South to the North the lecture demonstrates that in fact Flemish art made a significant contribution to the development of Italian art through its use of oil and the developments it made in both landscape and portrait painting.

Focusing on Florence the lecture will consider the impact of Flemish Art on the de Medici and their court painters including Botticelli, Ghirandaio and Leonardo.

Dr Lindow gained the first Renaissance Ph.D. from the Royal College of Art and the V&A. Since then he has convened and presented at international conferences, lectured widely in the UK and Overseas and is a Fine Art underwriter in the City of London.

Along with writing on diverse aspects of the Renaissance for a variety of publications, his book ‘The Renaissance Palace in Florence : Magnificence and Splendour in the 15th Century’ has been widely acclaimed.

Although often perceived, along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, as one of the three giants of the High Renaissance his fame and position is harder to explain. Although a talented draughtsman he made no progress in the fields of anatomy or construction and nor did he share the other two’s wide-ranging talents.

His career was short – he died at 37. And yet in that period he moved from a humble painter in his home town of Urbino to become one of the leading artists in the Court of Pope Julius II for whom he created some of the most sublime and influential frescos of the 16th Century.

The lecture will explore how he achieved this extraordinary rise, tracing the development of his early work and influences to the masterpieces he created in Rome.

An art historian and director of Art History in Focus, Sian has lectured at the National Gallery for over twenty years as well as lecturing for The Wallace Collection and many art societies and colleges throughout the UK and Europe.

In 2020 she presented the first on line lectures for both the National Gallery and The Wallace Collection and was one of the first AS accredited lectures to provide on line Zoom lectures.

Widely known for his outlandish appearance dressed at his feminine alter ego, Claire, Grayson Perry is also a core part of the art Establishment.

A turner Prize winner, a Royal Academician, popular broadcaster and colourful character he is possibly one of the world’s best known contemporary artist. His works in ceramics, textiles, tapestries and print are all highly sought after.

Often controversial he tackles difficult subjects in a poignant yet witty way and holds up a mirror to society.

The lecture will examine Perry’s work, his exciting and thought provoking exhibitions and the character inside the flamboyant frocks.

Ian Swankie, a Londoner with a passion for art and architecture, is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Guildhall Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral. Also a qualified freelance London guide he leads regular tours for various organisations.

A Freeman of the Worshipful Company of art Scholars he has also established a popular independent Art Lecture group in Richmond, Surrey.

This lecture is given in place of the Christmas Lunch, cancelled for the second time by because of Covid 19.

Inn Signia – Pub Signs, Art Work and the Stories behind the Names.

Pub signs are a fundamental part of pour history and heritage – John will show us some of the most interesting and distinctive signs and explain the stories behind them.

Who could fail to be intrigued by ‘The Bucket of Blood’, ‘Cow and Snuffler’ or even the  ‘Eager Poet’!

John Ericson

Formerly lecturer at University of Bath and Director of Studies in the School of Education. Over the last decade he has travelled widely as a popular speaker on the Art Soc circuit in UK, Europe, Australia and NZ.

The cartoonist Carl Giles once said that he loved his creation Grandma Giles – that fearsome black clad, gambling, drinking battle axe – because she allowed him to say things he was too polite to say in person! She helped him to poke fun at Hitler to Traffic Wardens and authority in all forms.

His admirers include Prince Charles and Sir Malcom Sargent among many others. He was voted Britain’s best loved cartoonist in 2000.

Few people realise however that he was a war correspondent who witnessed the horrors of Belsen.

Giles gave us a remarkable picture of 50 years of British life – but was also a spreader of happiness.

Barry Venning is an historian of British Art and within that field with a particular interest in JMW Turner. He has published widely on Turner as well as participating and consulting on a number of TV documentaries on the subject. He has also published a study on Constable’s paintings.

He is currently as Associate Lecturer at the Open University as well as lecturing to the AS, Christies and other organisations.

Hopper’s paintings of American urban life are typically characterised by a sense of loneliness and isolation.

The most celebrated example is ‘Nighthawks’ a work of 1942 which depicts three men and a woman gathered in a brightly illuminated diner in downtown New York.

We are given few clues as to their identity, whether they know each other or are in any way related. It is this inexplicable quality that made the painting so intriguing to generations of viewers and turned it into an iconic image of 20th Century urban life.

The lecture will consider the background to Hopper’s masterpiece and offer possible reasons for its lasting fascination.

Specialising in 19th Century art history Kathy is a course director at the V&A organizing study days and courses on the history of art and design.

A graduate of Oxford and the Courtauld Institute she also has a PhD On French 19th Century painters in Rome.

During a long successful and very lucrative career Titian established himself as the foremost painter in Northern Italy. Trained by Bellini had had the Venetian love of colour and light but with an added sense of drama that charged his religious and mythical paintings while giving his portraits a sense of previously unknown realism.

Called ‘modern’ because of his ground- breaking technique of applying pigment directly to the canvas without preparatory studies he also built up the layers of paint in thick layers while drenching the works in colour and light – a brilliant new style that shaped the Baroque and influenced painters for the next four centuries.

Those that sadly had to miss the National Gallery’s 2020 Titian Exhibition should not miss the lecture.

Douglas Skeggs needs no introduction to the members of TAS Hart who have enjoyed his lectures on several previous occasions. After reading Fine Art at Oxford he has, since 1980, delivered over 800 lectures to universities, colleges, societies and at courses run by a variety of organisations. He has written and published five novels, written and presented a number of TV series, held exhibitions of his own art both in the UK and abroad and his book on Monet ‘River of Light’ has sold more than 30,000 copies.

Musical instruments are found throughout the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age but their symbolic meaning and how they sounded to their original participants is often lost to a modern audience.

From Jan Steen’s brothel scenes to the solemn interiors of Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch the lecture charts the vast meaning and rich significance of music to Dutch Art. As part of the lecture there is an option to hear faithfully reproduced lute music of the era.

Adam is an Art Historian, lutenist and lecturer.

Formerly Head of Historical Interpretation (curator) at Warwick Castle, he was the youngest Guide Lecturer at the Wallace Collection where he gives talks, tours and lectures to both public and professional audiences. In 2018 he organised a series of talks on the lute paintings at the National Gallery.

Nearly forgotten for centuries Piero della Francesca’s work now strikes us as new and modern in its calm serenity, grave solemnity and stark geometry.

The lecture will trace the oeuvre of this fifteenth century master both in his frescos and his panel painting as well as ‘see’ his paintings in the few museums fortunate to own a Piero.

A graduate of the Courtauld Institute Eveline is a freelance lecturer in Fine Art, a tour guide in Berlin, Dresden and Munich and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dresden Trust.

Artemesia Gentileschi [1593- 1654] while by no means the only woman painter of her period is a rarity and also ranks among the greatest painters of the 17th Century. Her family connections meant that she moved between a number of different artistic worlds – Rome, Florence, Naples and London and her work reflects the different tastes of these centres.

The lecture will consider her traing in the very male dominated world of the Roman studio and explore her skill in painting in a style both individual but also putting her in the forefront wherever in Europe she worked.

Dr Brotherton Ratcliffe has an MA in Art History from Edinburgh University and a Ph.D from the Warburg Institute, University of London.

She has 40 years experience as a lecturer, and has lectured for various art societies and institutes in London, Italy and the USA.

She has taught at Sotherby’s Institute of Art on the MA course in Fina and Decorative Arts since 1989.

Dr Brotherton Ratcliffe has also trained as a painting conservator.

An abstract painter in the 1930s John Piper was also a writer, critic and topographer. During WW II he became one of the best known Official War Artists. He has designed sets and costumes, recorded a wide range of buildings from derelict Welsh cottages to the grandeur of Windsor Castle.

In his fifth decade he began to design stained glass, creating monumentally beautiful windows for the new Coventry Cathedral and the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool.

Jo Walton has combined teaching and lecturing with a career in art bookselling. She has been a guide in both Tate Britain and Tate Modern and is now a freelance lecturer for The Art Society, The Art Fund and Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery.

This lecture explores the influence of El Greco on 20th century art and tracks that impact via the works of Picasso.

El Greco ‘s profound darkness in colour and mood struck a cord with the young Picasso and his Blue Period paintings reveal a close affinity with the older painter’s work and his ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignion’ was greatly influenced by El Greco’s ‘Opening of the Fifth Seal’ which was on display in Paris in 1907.

Hilary Guise lectures in the main London Museums for American Universities as well as conducting lecture tours with the USA, including at the Smithsonian Institute.

Trained as a painter at Central St Martins she has also taught courses for Cambridge University, worked for the Art Fund and as guest speaker on cruises.

Discovered in Oxfordshire in 2003 this previously unknown illuminated Medieval Psalter was subsequently bought by the Earl of Macclesfield and is now at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Vibrant, occasionally ribald, the illustrations and texts of the Psalter shed light on the devotions, humour, tastes and everyday concerns of the wealthy 14th century Englishman who commissioned the book. The lecture will explore the Psalter in detail and set the book in its historical context.

Dr Dormer is a lecturer and tutor for the Early Medieval Course at the V and A and Dean of European Studies at two American Universities as well as a freelance lecturer for The Art Fund and a guide for study tours and cruises.

One of the most extraordinary Spanish painters Joaquin Sorolla (1863- 1923) captured a world full of Mediterranean light and colour. Over shadowed after his death by the artistic avant-garde in recent years however the sheer beauty of his landscapes, beach and garden scenes has reignited his popularity. Anyone who saw the exhibition of his work at the National Gallery in 2019 could not have failed to be captured by the sheer energy and exuberance of his work.

The lecture will discuss and consider the techniques used to achieve this vibrancy.

Dr Cockburn is a linguist and art historian with degrees in French, Spanish and Art History. She is now the Managing Director of an art tour company and the publisher of a book entitled ‘A Taste of Art”.

Ian Gledhill began his career as an engineer, designing extensions to the London Underground. However, most of his working life has been spent in the theatre, mainly in opera and musical theatre, as a director, set designer and opera translator. He has also worked in television, music publishing, travel and tourism.

His lecture on the Magic of Pantomime is said to be hilarious. Just the thing to put us in a good mood for Christmas.

In May 1913, the Emperor Nicholas II, his wife and four children, set off in a flotilla of steamboats down the Volga, echoing the journey undertaken by the first Romanov ruler Mikhail three hundred years earlier. Their pilgrimages to ancient Russian cities formed part of an extravagant national celebration designed to celebrate the supposedly inviolable bond between the Tsar and his loyal people, but just a few years later the Russian Revolution brought the Romanov dynasty to an abrupt end. This lecture will explore the eventful reigns of the most illustrious of the sixteen Tsars and four Tsarinas who ruled Russia under the Romanov regime, including Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. As well as discussing questions of art patronage, politics and pageantry, we will look behind the closed doors of their magnificent palaces to illuminate the often turbulent dramas of their family lives, and those of the many colourful Grand Dukes and Duchesses who also bore the name of Romanov.

The extraordinary story of the rebuilding of the Cathedral as a symbol of peace and reconciliation and its’ inspiring commitment to the modern world.  Experience the work of the many world-class artists associated with its’ treasures including Epstein, Frink, Piper and Sutherland.  

Alexandra Epps is an official guide and lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, and Guildhall Art Gallery.  Pallant House Gallery Lecturer.  Qualified guide to the City of London, offering lectures and walks about many aspects of the arts for societies, corporations and private individuals.   Member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association.  Co-author of the book Lord Mayor’s Portraits 1983-2014 (2015). Alexandra’s background is in design having practised as a graphic designer running her own design consultancy for many years.  BA St. Martins’ School of Art;  MA London College of Printing. 

Hiding inside a porcelain bowl in the Percival David Collection at the BM is a small blue and white figure of a long-eared hare turning it’s head to the moon. The bowl, made in the 16th century, was so treasured by an Elizabethan gentleman, Samuel Lennard, that he commissioned precious silver gilt mounts decorated with rabbits to protect the fragile porcelain.

In Chinese mythology the goddess Chang E resides in the moon with her companion, a hare or a jade rabbit and night-time scenes involving the moon figure frequently in Eastern art. Chinese artisans used glazes and black lacquer inlaid with mother of pearl to imitate the effect of moon-lit nights. Japanese artists and woodblock creators frequently portrayed night-time and moon dominated scenes. In Korea ceramics use the luminous glazes and the swelling shapes on Moon jars to celebrate Asia’s lunar passions with simplicity and elegance.

A lecturer at the V&A and a guide for private tours of the State Rooms and The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace Ms Haworth is also a lecturer In British Painting for American students in London.From 1981 to 1995 she trained and became a senior ceramics specialist at Christie’s and Bonham’s head offices. In Autumn 2002 she catalogued he collection of Chinese porcelain at Kensington Palace.

Caravaggio was the definitive bad boy of art history  -  determined and ambitious yet irascible and highly volatile.  In 1606 his life was to change forever following a particularly violent and bloody brawl in which Caravaggio, himself badly injured, ended up killing a certain Ranuccio Tommasoni with his sword.  This lecture will explore the remarkable stylistic transformations that took place during the last four years of Caravaggio’s life, a period of restlessness and yet extraordinary creative activity when the artist was forced to leave Rome, realising that his own life was now on the line. 

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

The Nazis looted over 20% of Western art during World War II, confiscating art from Jewish families and emptying museums throughout Europe.  This lecture will provide an overview of Nazi looting by setting the scene in Nazi Germany, discussing Hitler’s obsession with art and how the Monuments Men recovered art after the war.  Several landmark cases will be discussed in detail, including Gustav Klimt’s celebrated portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer and the stash of over 1200 artworks found in possession of the son of a notorious Nazi dealer. 

Shauna Isaac has been active in World War II art restitution for several years and has worked with families and government organisations to recover Nazi looted art.  She set up the Central Registry on Looted Cultural Property and served as a member of the Working Group for the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague.  Shauna studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in the UK and Smith College in the USA.  She is a regular lecturer at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art.  Her publications include articles for The Art Newspaper, The Times Literary Supplement and Art Quarterly.  She is a contributor to the book Insiders/Outsiders : Refugees from Nazi Europe and their contribution to British Visual Culture.

In 1963 Euston station with its’ famous Arch was wantonly destroyed.  St. Pancras, just along the road, was to have been the next casualty but a campaign, led by Sir John Betjeman, secured a reprieve.

Today the newly refurbished St. Pancras, an invigorating mix of Gothic fantasy castle and innovative engineering, stands proudly as a masterpiece.

 London’s stations have always been powerful and iconic structures, used every day by many more people than pass through our dull airports.  We will explore their history and architecture, from Charing Cross and Waterloo to Victoria and Liverpool Street. 

 We will also look at London’s underground stations, from Metroland and the inter-war Piccadilly stops to the gleaming Jubilee line masterpieces ( Foster’s Canary Wharf, Canada Water).  Also featured is the colourful array of posters encouraging travellers onto the railway network.  

Andrew Davies is an Extra-Mural Tutor for London, Essex and The Open University.  Author of 9 books, including The East End Nobody Knows.  Frequent contributor to radio and television;  has lectured all over the world; organises walks to complement his lectures.

Gainsborough matched his conviction that painting should be about sensation and direct experience of the visual world with an acute awareness of the character of his sitters who inhabited that world.  In the process of recording their humanity he liked to mask the context of clients “sitting” for a portrait and set them instead out walking in invented romantic landscapes.  He associated landscape painting with ease and tranquillity and in his final years claimed “I am sick of portraits and wish very much to take my Viol da Gamba (cello) and walk off to some sweet village where I can paint landscapes and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease”.

Sarah Stopford is a guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern.  Studied art history as part of her first degree at Harvard.  After a further degree in English at Cambridge and a career as a teacher of English literature in both the United States and England, she has returned to the world of art history where her special interests are in British and post-1900 art as well as the connections between literature and the visual arts.

The bleak midwinter held little appeal to the artist for many centuries until Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow in the 16th century. From pristine backdrop to the tempestuous snow storms of Turner to the capturing of ‘snow effect’ by the Impressionists, the ability of artists to convey snow as a symbol of peace but also of grandeur and terror is compelling.

Originally in art and design publishing (Phaidon and Yale University Press), Sue Jackson now lectures for the National Trust, U3A, City Literary Institute. A qualified Blue Badge Guide, she gives guided walks on various themes and has published work on the lost world of the River Fleet.

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

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

The extraordinary story of the nine weeks that van Gogh and Gauguin spent together in Arles in southern France in 1888 is one of the most famous in the whole history of art. So many powerful emotions are swept up in it - friendship and rivalry, ambition, jealousy, contempt and admiration - while of course it also led to some of the most celebrated paintings of early modern art. The encounter between these two tempestuous characters, including the episode of Van Gogh cutting off his ear, forms the subject of this lecture which also places the artists' stay in Arles in the context of their careers and within the wider history of late nineteenth-century painting.   

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

Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God, got its title from his mother’s characteristic exclamation whenever he had a crazy idea – ‘For the love of God, what are you going to do next?’ Now in his fifties, Hirst has been having startling ideas since he had a friend take a snapshot of him with a dead head when he was sixteen. As an art student he master-minded the seminal Freeze exhibition with his fellow students at Goldsmiths, and his 1991 shark suspended in formaldehyde, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, has become a familiar image throughout the world. In 2008 his Beautiful Inside My Head Forever auction at Sotheby’s marked the first time an artist has engaged directly with the market on such a vast scale. His work poses innumerable questions - does every society gets the art it deserves?  

Sarah Stopford is a guide and lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern.  Studied art history as part of her first degree at Harvard.  After a further degree in English at Cambridge and a career as a teacher of English literature in both the United States and England, she has returned to the world of art history where her special interests are in British and post-1900 art as well as the connections between literature and the visual arts. 

The vision and genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel underpins this global story of hopes and dreams, disasters and triumphs. This talk features a wide range of ships, including Great Britain and Great Western, Lusitania and Mauretania, Olympic and Titanic, and arguably Britain’s most popular liner the Queen Mary, brought to life through historic and contemporary artworks, including striking Art Deco posters. A selection of interior views of the famous liners are featured. 

Dr James Taylor studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Manchester, and is a former curator of paintings, drawings and prints, and co-ordinator of various exhibitions and galleries, at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, also lecturer and ships' historian on board cruise ships. Publications include illustrated histories of Marine Painting (1995) and yachting art Yachts on Canvas (1998) and many others. He does guided tours of the buildings and artworks of the National Maritime Museum.

Richard Parkes Bonington and Eugene Delacroix, both in their twenties, shared a studio in the hothouse of romanticism that was Paris in 1826.  Bonington’s virtuoso technique was a lifelong inspiration for Delacroix and his powerful colouring and spontaneous effects of light were a revelation to artists trained in the French academic tradition.  But Bonington’s own dazzlingly successful career was tragically cut short just two years later.

David Phillips studied History at Oxford and from 1968-82 worked for Nottingham Castle Museum.  From 1982-98 Lecturer in Museum Studies and Art History at University of Manchester.  Published a book about museum practice with Manchester University Press – “Exhibiting Authenticity” 1997.

The story of Abraham is a series of ten tapetries commissioned by Henry VIII and made in Brussels in the mid 16th century. The series depicts scenes from the life of the prophet Abraham and has both historically and contemporarily been considered one of the finest pieces of decorative artwork from the period.

One of Britain’s greatest painters, he was a visionary artist whose name became synonymous with Cookham, the picturesque Thameside village he immortalised, which for him was the scene of heavenly visitations.  Cookham shaped his work throughout his career, as the setting for subject pictures as well as beautiful realistic landscapes.  Thus on the river by Cookham Bridge, the artist showed Christ preaching to the crowds at the Cookham Regatta he recalled from his boyhood.  In a series of masterpieces, he also created some of the most original response to the two great conflicts of the 20thC. Aside from his work as an Official War Artist, his mural decorations at the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, commemorating the First World War, are one of the great achievements of 20thC painting.  His turbulent private life can be traced through his figure paintings.

For many years, Carolyn Leder was Curator of the Old Speech Room Gallery, Harrow School. As an art historian she has written widely on Stanley Spencer, including a book on his autobiographical “Scrapbook” drawings.   Adviser to the Stanley Spencer Gallery and a former trustee, she has featured as a talking head on TV and radio, as well as curating and cataloguing many exhibitions of his work.  She is the consultant on three volumes of the artist’s writing, edited by his grandson, and is regularly consulted on Spencer by Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

Barcelona emerged as a modern industrial city in the late 19thC, expanding on the basis of a grid layout devised by the engineer Idelfons Cerda in the 1850s.  Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) and his contemporaries were involved with the remarkable expansion of the city beyond the historic walled core with the “Quadrat d’Or or Golden Quarter”, with its’ sumptuous town houses and apartment blocks.  The flowering of architecture was a visual expression of the Catalan Modernisme.

In this lecture some of Gaudi’s boldest work, will be examined including the Palau Guell and Pac Guell.  The lecturer will also present Casa Battio and Casa Mila, apartment blocks on Paseo de Gracia, arguably Gaudi’s secular masterpieces.

Dr Miller is an architect, town planner and historian.  His passion for the history of architecture and planning embraces the international context of the Arts and Crafts and Garden City movements.  He is a trustee of The Lutyens Trust and a Past Master of the Architects City of London Livery Company (2012-2013).  He was an Arts Society lecturer for 25 years. He has written the histories of Letchworth Garden City and Hampstead Garden Suburb, and an English Heritage best-seller “Introducing Garden Cities (2010).  In 2017 Dr Miller was awarded a Fellowship of the RIBA for his contribution to the advancement of architecture. 

On the basis of new evidence from archaeological fieldwork, the lecturer will contrast the legend of Lawrence of Arabia with the true story of what happened in the famous desert war of 1916 to 1918.  Is the legend a myth? Was Lawrence, as some claim, a liar and a charlatan? Or does the legend reflect reality?  Was he, in fact, a brilliant military commander and a sincere advocate of the Arab national cause? 

Lawrence of Arabia is an early 20thC instance of celebrity culture. The lecturer will analyse the invention and re-invention of the legend from 1919 onwards through memoirs, photos, films, paintings and documentaries. He will contrast the legend with the biography of the man himself, focusing on key aspects of his early years and his character which equipped him to play – or seem to play – a particular role in the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918.

Dr Neil Faulkner was educated at King’s College, Cambridge and Institute of Archaeology UCL.  Works as lecturer, writer, archaeologist and occasional broadcaster.  Research Fellow Bristol University.  Editor of Military History Monthly.  Director of both Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project and Great Arab Revolt Project.  Author of The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, Apocalypse, Rome – Empire of the Eagles and The Ancient Greek Olympics, a visitor’s guide. Major TV appearances include Channel 4’s Time Team, BBC’s Timewatch, Channel 5’s Boudica Revealed and Sky Atlantic’s The British.

For centuries the birth of the Christ has signified the beginning of twelve festive days of celebrations and music making.  In this lecture-recital Peter Medhurst explores the wealth of Christmas music, traditions and curious legends that are connected with them.

The celebration of the period following Christmas can be traced back several millennia, and to at least two cultures  -  neither of them Christian.  One of them is the southern, Roman feast of Kalends on the lst January, and the other, the northern, Nordic festivals of Yuletide surrounding the celebrations of the winter solstice.  However it was Pope Julius I who decided to subvert the gluttony, drunkenness and sun worship to Christian purpose and, by choosing the 25th December to celebrate the birth of Christ, he neatly bridged these cultures and paved the way for future Christmas jollifications.  And so it is that some of our modern Christmas customs and carols bear references to traditions that have little to do with the birth of Christ. 

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Peter Medhurst 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. 

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.  In the context of prisons, it is clear that the arts are not simply decorative or commercial pastimes but absolutely crucial and potentially life-changing. 

 This talk is moving, informative and very original and has kept audiences across the country engrossed. 

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Angela Findlay is a professional artist, writer and freelance lecturer with a long-standing interest in the role the arts and the creative process can play in bringing about changes, on a personal level or within societies.  Her long career of teaching art in prisons and Young Offender institutions in Germany and England, followed by her role as the former Arts Coordinator of the Koestler Trust in London, gave her many insights into the huge impact the arts can have in terms of rehabilitation.  She is currently advising the Ministry of Justice and presenting the case for the arts to be included in their new rehabilitation and education policies. 

L S Lowry found his subject matter – the industrial north-west – in the 1920s. when he missed his train one day and walked around Pendlebury as workers were leaving the Acme Spinning Mill.  With all the mill’s many floors of windows lit against the darkening sky, Lowry said he was in rapture and painted such scenes again and again.  He filled his paintings with slumped characters, weighed down by their lives under soulless skies.  Those who dislike Lowry point to his simplistic depiction of the north-west;  those who like him refer to the snobbery of his detractors. 

The lecture will describe Lowry’s life and explain his art through a discussion of a selection of his paintings.  It will conclude with an assessment of his contribution of British art.  This lecture will be jargon-free with audience engagement, backed by high quality slides. 

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Raymond Warburton studied Art History at the Open University and the University of Buckingham. A guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern who leads public tours of all the permanent displays and also undertakes exhibition tours.  An experienced public speaker who has presented and lectures on a wide range of themes to diverse audiences over many years. 

This lecture traces the development of French landscape painting from its humble beginnings to the gradual acceptance of landscapes by the art establishment. The story covers the battles landscape painters fought and won to gain acceptance and recognition for their subject, culminating in the high point of landscape's popularity, with the acceptance of the work of the Impressionists.

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Rosalind Whyte has degrees from Goldsmith's College and from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. She lectures at the Tate and the Dulwuch Picture Gallery. She also lectures on cruises and leads art appreciation holidays

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

His “Ambassadors” is recognised by the National Gallery of London as one of its greatest treasures.  It dates from a tradition in the arts when no object was without meaning and symbolism.  However, practically all of this meaning has been lost to the modern observer. 

This lecture considers the tempestuous circumstances of the creation and the hidden messages concealed within it.  The painting tells us much about the state of Europe at the time and the hopes and fears of its major players. 

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Anthony Russell is a cultural historian, writer and artist.  He has travelled much of the world combining painting with tour lecturing – principally to American university students on bespoke tours and to the Arts Society (formally NADFAS). He spent six years as a consultant for Luke Hughes advising on the furniture needs of prestigious buildings throughout Britain. Now based in London, he spends much of his time lecturing and undertaking research.  Committed to the search for civilisation and as an advocate of nonviolence, he is the founder of Chandos, on the committee for Uniting for Peace and a contributor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma.  His book “Evolving the Spirit – from Democracy to Peace” has been commended by Ang San Suu Kyi, , the Nobel Peace Laureate. 

Begun in 1220 the cathedral at Salisbury, built to replace a smaller building at Old Sarum, was completed in as little as 38 years.  It is the first and most complete early English cathedral in the country.  Then came the tower and spire which were added after 1315.  Built on the existing foundations which are only four feet deep, the spire reaches just over 400 feet, the tallest in England.

The glory of the building was captured by both Constable and Turner just as it was being unsympathetically restored by James Wyatt, “the Destroyer”.  The building was subsequently “re-restored” to its’ medieval glory by George Gilbert Scott after 1860.  This lecture explores the different phases of the cathedral’s history through the centuries and focuses on the 18th and 19th century restoration and the controversies generated. 

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Christopher Rogers read Geography at Oxford.  Formerly Head of Geography, Downe House School, Newbury.  Became interested in country house architecture whilst at Oxford and has lectured on the subject ever since.  Regular 5 day summer school courses at Marlborough College Summer School.  Lectures for the National Trust.

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957) have iconic status in Mexico.  The Mexican revolution of 1910 swept away the old regime and banished European influence in the arts.  Kahlo and Rivera, in their different ways, helped to shape the cultural identity of 20th C. Mexico.  Together they made Mexico a magnet for the rest of the world.

The Mexican mural movement, born during the 1920s, was destined to produce some of the greatest public art of the last century.  Diego Rivera’s panoramic images adorn the walls of public buildings, combining social criticism with a faith in human progress.  Inspired by early Italian fresco painting, as well as by Aztec and Maya imagery, his intricate visual narratives incorporate allegory and symbolism. 

Compared with the monumental scale of Rivera’s work, Kahlo’s work is small in format.  Arguably Mexico’s most original painter, she made herself the principal theme of her art.  Her paintings reflect her experiences, dreams, hopes and fears.

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Chloe Sayer is a freelance specialist in the art and culture of Latin America.  She leads cultural tours to Mexico, and has lectured for galleries, museums and cultural institutions in Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Mexico.  She has written several books on Mexican textiles and crafts of Mexico, as well as books on Mexican architecture and Mexican festivals.

In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Ohtli medal by the Mexican government, in recognition of her long-standing commitment to Mexican culture.

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

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James was the first Renaissance PhD from the Royal College of Art and the V&A.  He has convened and presented at international conferences, lectures widely in the UK and overseas and is currently the fine art underwriter in the City.   He has written articles on diverse aspects of the Renaissance and his book entitled “The Renaissance Palace in Florence – Magnificence and Splendour in fifteenth century Italy” was published by Ashgate Press in 2007 to widespread critical acclaim. 

Edward Lear, eminent Victorian and friend of Laureate, Tennyson, was an eccentric.  Loved by earlier generations of children for his nonsense verse, he was an adventurous traveller who earned a reputation as a brilliant watercolourist and painter of Italy, Greece, Egypt and India.  This lecture, set firmly in the context of an illustrated and fascinating biography draws on the poems, paintings and present day locations to evaluate a colourful and creative life.

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Denis Moriarty leads cultural tours  :  music, English festivals, Schubertiade in Austria, Dresden, Vienna, Budapest and Prague

Architecture and history :  India, America, Egypt, Portugal, Malta for private parties. 

A comparative analysis of the architectural remains of these two great medieval cities, one representing the triumph of the Capetian monarchy, the other the Plantagenets.  Although linked by a common culture and language, there are striking differences in the way each developed in this age of Chivalry.  Paris by the mid-thirteenth century was the wonder of the age, combining the seat of royal power with the intellectual, ecclesiastical and commercial heart of France.  London by comparison struggled to compete, although she was far and away the largest and most successful city in the British Isles.  Her Plantagenets kings, dazzled by the splendour of their Capetian cousins, sought to recreate the glories of Isle of France but only with mixed success. 

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

The current art collection at the Lansdowne Club highlights the fascinating architectural, social, and political history of Lansdowne House, now home to this private members' Club.  Through 18th century prints, oils, photography, modern silkscreens, lithographs and mixed media works, the image and history of this Grade II building comes to life.  Located in Mayfair, central London, the internal fabric of this building fuses 18th century neo-classical architecture with fashionable Art Deco style, and serves as home for the current modern British art collection.  This talk will examine the original floor plan as designed by the celebrated Scottish architect, Robert Adam, and the changes thereafter by renowned architects George Dance the Younger, Sir Robert Smirke and TH Wyatt.  The lecture will highlight key works in the modern British collection by artists such as Nigel Bengstrom, Jennifer Dickson RA, Michelle McKinney and Richard Heep.  Lansdowne House is the former home of a past British Prime Minister, Lord Shelburne (1st Marquis of Lansdowne) and of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the department store magnate, and members will be regaled with stories of intrigue and passion as reflected in the art collection.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston has an MA Hons in Art History from St. Andrew’s University.  She has over 20 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts.  Also she has conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art.  She has over 12 years’ experience at the Royal Academy and has undertaken other work experience at Bonhams, Art Loss Register and National Trust.  Now she is a freelance art consultant and lecturer.

Using illustrations from carvings, wall paintings, pottery, mosaics, sculpture, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, and 18th and 19th century paintings, Sarah traces the history of one of the world's most ancient and beloved musical instruments, from thousands of years BC to its arrival in northern Europe, including the huge developments and improvements during the renaissance and 19th century that created the highly mechanised and beautiful instrument we see played in orchestras and as solo instruments today.  Performing on her own reproduction and antique instruments, Sarah will demonstrate the development and evolving sound and repertoire of the harp through its history.

Sarah Deere-Jones performs, writes and lectures in the UK and abroad as a musician and scholar, having been a graduate and prize-winner from the Royal Academy of Music.  She has appeared on national radio and TV in the UK and America, and lectured for the National Trust, English Heritage, schools and colleges, and in the USA.

This lecture will look at the rich culture of Sicily – a crossroads of the Mediterranean and of history. The fertile island, blessed by the volcanic soils of Mount Etna, drew traders and invaders, such as the mighty Carthaginians, Hannibal’s people, then the Greeks, with legendary cities such as Agrigento and Syracuse, filled with beautiful bronze and stone sculptures, superb jewellery, bronzes and terracottas.  The peace and prosperity of Rome followed, with beautiful public buildings in the cities, and sumptuous villas like Piazza Armerina with its stunning mosaics of mythology and everyday life.  Finally, the island passes to the Eastern, Byzantine Empire, then to the Arabs and finally we see Norman Sicily with its glorious churches and breathtaking mosaics.

Paul Roberts is a former Curator of Roman Archaeology in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, and senior Curator since 2008. He has degrees in Classics (Cambridge) and Classical Archaeology (Sheffield). He has excavated in Britain, Libya, Turkey and Greece. He has written books on Roman daily life, Roman Emperors, mummy portraits and Roman cameo glass. He is the newly appointed Sackler Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University. .  

Fabulous Roman mosaics, imposing monuments and impressive villas attest to the great wealth of Leptis Magna, Cyrene, Oea, Sabratha and Carthage. We plunder the wealth of the Bardo and Tripoli museums to see the finest mosaics and statues of North Africa. In the 7th century Islam swept in from Arabia bringing a new architecture and decoration, which has remained ever since. Mosques, tombs and private houses in Fez, Rabat, Kairuwan and Tripoli often re-used Roman columns, but were lavishly enhanced with 'Zillij' tilework and delicate arabesque decorations.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is usually labelled a French Impressionist, principally because he participated in a number of the Impressionist exhibitions mounted after 1874.  However, he maintained that he was a realist, not an Impressionist, simply because his approach to art was radically different from the one held by his Impressionist comtemporaries. In his talk, Eric Shanes will explore Degas' responses to history, the ballet, horse racing, cafe concert singers, washerwomen and prostitutes going about their business, including washing themselves.

Eric Shanes is a painter and author of ten bestselling books and catalogues on Turner.  Also, he has frequently contributed articles on Turner to specialist and popular journals and newspapers, and was the founding editor of Turner Studies, a scholarly journal published by the Tate Gallery.  A Vice-President of the Turner Society, he served for many years as its Chairman.  He has curated several important Turner exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, and elsewhere.  He has written a book on Impressionists in London, as well as books on Brancusi, Dali, Warhol, Hockney, and other leading artists.  A professional lecturer since 1966, and a NADFAS lecturer since 1983, he has lectured all over the world.

James Gilray was the natural successor to William Hogarth but differed in concentrating on political, as opposed to social, satire.  .  His uncompromising, and fearless, caricaturing of politicians and the royal family introduced a new level of vitriol that made Hogarth seem tame by comparison.  Combined with Gillray's brilliant draughtsmanship and engraving skills was a love of modern and classical art and literature which he seamlessly weaved into the subject matter of his prints.  Although his reputation plummeted during the Victorian climate of moralistic righteousness, Gillray is now generally accepted as the first, and the greatest, political caricaturist - an influence even today on the likes of Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell and the television programme Spitting Image.

Image © Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division

Ian Keable graduated from Oxford University with a PPE, qualified as a Chartered Accountant and then became a professional magician. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle and has received The Magic Circle Comedy Award. He has written and presented a Radio 4 documentary on mind readers. He has performed in a show about Charles Dickens, who was an amateur conjuror, called The Secret World of Charles Dickens. He has written a major paper for the Dickens 200 Conference at Pecs University, Hungary 2012 entitled "Dickens, Spiritualism and the Cock Lane Ghost".

This lecture explores the history of Persian tilework, primarily through the monuments of the most beautiful of all Persian cities, Isfahan, though it will also make reference to buildings elsewhere in Iran.  From simple monochrome turquoise inlays in the 12th century, tilework in Iran developed in both polychromality and decorative complexity until by the 17th century enormous architectural surfaces were covered in brilliant ornament.  But then comes the surprise, for in the 19th century tiles are used for the first time to tell a story.

Professor James Allan read Arabic at Oxford and is curator of the Islamic collection and keeper of Eastern art at the Ashmolean Museum, where he also set up an inter-faith exhibition service.  For the last few years he has been teaching Islamic art at Oxford University.  He leads tours in the Middle East and has published numerous articles and books on Islamic art, the most recent being "The art and architecture of Twelver Shi'ism: Iraq, Iran, and the Indian Subcontinent".

The past few years have seen the meteoric rise of this extraordinarily versatile young designer with his acclaimed Olympic Cauldron, the iconic new London bus and designs for a spectacular garden bridge across the Thames.  Over the last 20 years the Heatherwick Studio has used an intriguing combination of curiosity and experimentation to produce a vast range of solutions to design challenges around the world.  This talk looks at the problems presented and the creative ways in which Heatherwick and his team have responded to those problems.

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’s Cathedral.  Also he is a qualified freelance London guide and a member of both the City of London and Westminster Lecturer Associations.  Clients include Nadfas, Transport for London, the National Trust and London Open House.  In 2012 he established a weekly independent art leisure group in Richmond.

This lecture will investigate the important role played by the French sculptor, Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917) in the evolution from traditional to modern sculpture – as he succinctly put it himself “I am the link, the bridge between the past and the future, between yesterday and tomorrow”.  This talk will focus on Rodin’s famous masterpieces such as The Age of Bronze, The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais and Balzac – looking at the ideas behind these works as well as the new techniques employed by the sculptor.

Eveline Eaton grew up in Germany and always had a keen interest in art history. She moved to London and began studying for a degree in art history, firstly at the Study Centre for Fine and Decorative Arts and then at The Courtauld Institute where she obtained her degree.  She is a former lecturer at Surrey University and now a lecturer and tour guide with various organisations. In 2013  she was was elected Chairman of The Dresden Trust, an organisation helping with the rebuilding of Dresden.

Mr Punch – the most famous puppet character of all time. His comic irreverence gave “Punch” magazine its title. His anarchic vitality has inspired opera, ballet and punk rock and his enduring popularity has seen his likeness on goods ranging from Victorian silverware to computer video games. Appearing in England in 1662, Punch is descended from the Italian Clown Pulcinella of the 15th C Commedia Del’Arte tradition. Even today This Lord of Misrule uses his slapstick to dispense with oppressive authority, be it politicians, Political Correctness, or the devil, while proclaiming his notorious refrain; ‘That’s the way to do it!”

Bertie Pearce has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University and a Diploma Internationale from the Ecole Internationale du Theatre, Jacques Lecoq. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. His past experiences include lecturing to cruise ship audiences, the Women’s Institute, theatre clubs and the Sussex Magic Circle, as well as NADFAS. He has written an article on entertainment for the Guardian newspaper.

Mark Corby is a freelance lecturer in history and architecture, and an occasional lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London. He is praelector and tour leader on various overseas tours. He was a TV historical documentary presenter for The Real Spartacus, and the Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Rupert Willoughby is a prize-winning historian who specialises in the domestic and social life of the past. He is the author of Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, and of various guides for English Heritage and Hampshire County Council. He writes on privately commissioned histories of houses, is an experienced lecturer and occasional broadcaster on a wide range of topics, including architecture, interior decoration and costume.

Colin Davies is an architect who until recently was Professor of Architectural Theory at London Metropolitan University. He is a former editor of The Architects’ Journal and a regular contributor to architectural magazines worldwide. He is currently writing a history of modern architecture.

Toby Faber has written two works of narrative history, Stradivarius and Faberge’s Eggs. He has lectured at the V&A, Bath Theatre, the Library of Congress and the Huntingdon Library. He spent five years as managing director of the publishing company founded by his grandfather, Faber and Faber, where he remains on the board. He is also a trustee of Yale University Press (UK).

Anthony Russell is based in London and spends much of his time lecturing and assisting at the British Museum on various outreach projects. He has travelled widely combining painting with lecturing. As an advocate of non-violence, he is the author of the book “Evolving the Spirit – From Democracy to Peace”, a book commended by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate.

Louise Schofield has been working in Ethiopia since 2006, living for much of the year in a small tent in a village in the north-eastern province of Tigray. This lecture looks at the art, archaeology, legends and landscapes of Ethiopia and recounts some of the adventures Louise has met along the way during her time in the country

From Bottger’s first experiments with red stoneware and white porcelains in the early 18thC., the superb decorating of Horoldt’s workshop and the genius of Kandler as a modeller, Meissen porcelain has always been considered innovative and exciting. This lecture examines the chronological development of these pieces that so inspired other European porcelain manufacturers.

Anton Gabszewicz is a former Director and Head of European Ceramics at Christie’s London and course organiser for Christie’s Education. He is an international specialist in English and European Ceramics for over 40 years. He appeared on the very first BBC Antiques Roadshow and broadcast with them for over a decade. He has published several books and articles on English porcelain and has lectured extensively worldwide.

Christopher Herbert has lectured at the National Gallery, the Courtauld Institute, King’s College London, Westminster Abbey and the University of Rikkyo in Japan, and at churches and cathedrals throughout England and in Italy. He was until recently Bishop of St. Albans and a member of the House of Lords. He holds honorary doctorates and is an honorary citizen of Fano, Italy. .

Tom Duncan was educated at Trinity College, Dublin where he studied History of Art and Ancient History & Classical Archaeology, moving to England in 1984 to complete his PhD. He lectures widely to heritage and artistic organisations, nationally and internationally.

Anne Sebba is a biographer, historian and author. She makes regular television appearances and has presented radio documentaries about women pianists. She is currently working on a history of Paris between 1939-1949 through women’s eyes, to be published in 2016.

Mary Acton has recently retired as Course Director of the Undergraduate Diploma and Advanced Diploma in the History of Art at Continuing Education, Oxford University. She continues to teach there. She is the author of Learning to Look at Paintings (1997 and 2008) and Learning to Look at Modern Art (2004), both published by Routledge. She is currently working on the third in the series Learning to Look at Sculpture.

Peter Warwick is an author, historian and an authority on Admiral Lord Nelson. He chairs the 1805 Club, which conserves the monuments of the Georgian sailing navy and the New Waterloo Dispatch/Waterloo 200, the official body arranging the bicentenary commemorations for Waterloo in 2015. He lectures at the Defence Academy, National Maritime Museum, National Museum for the Royal Navy and Royal Institution.

Linda Smith is an art historian with a broad range of knowledge and a special interest in British art and art of the 20C. She is an accredited NADFAS lecturer and an experienced gallery guide and lecturer at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London.

Suzanne Perrin is visiting lecturer at the University of Brighton Art & Design School and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She teaches on the Asian Arts course at the British Mueum and the V&A. She founded Japan Interlink in 1995 to promote the understanding of Japan in educational and cultural circles. She studied Nihonga (traditional Japanese painting) at Nagoya University of Arts, Japan 1986-87.

Jo Walton has a BA Dip Hist Art (Oxon) . She 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 NADFAS, the Art Fund and Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery and local art societies.

Nicole Mezey studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris. She was senior lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast until 2009, teaching on both part-time degree and extra-mural programmes as well as conducting annual international study tours. She also established the Department of Art History, the first in the north of Ireland. Currently a freelance lecturer, working for a broad range of organisations including the National Trust and the National Museum of Northern Ireland.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Arts at Magdalene College, Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. He has lectured widely in Europe and has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on “Whistler”. He is the author of five novels, including his book on Monet “River of Light”.

Daniel Snowman is a writer, broadcaster and professional lecturer, with degrees from Cambridge and Cornell. He was Chief Producer, BBC Radio (Features) and is now a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (Univ. of London). He is a long time member (and former Chairman) of the London Philharmonic Choir. He leads music tours to many of the world’s great cultural capitals.

Ian Kelly is an actor, writer, and author. His biography of Giacomo Cassanova was named Sunday Times Biography of the Year when it was published in 2008. He is a familiar face to many from his TV documentaries, the Harry Potter films (in which he plays Hermione's father), and from the National Theatre's Pitmen Painters in London and on Broadway.

Nicola Smith spent 14 years as an inspector of Historic Buildings for English Heritage before becoming Senior Lecturer in History of Art & Heritage Management at the independent University of Buckingham. She is currently a director of an arts tour company, specializing in cultural visits and study days. She has published several articles and books on aspects of English art history and heritage.

Clive Barham Carter studied Egyptology at Cambridge. He has lectured to Probus, The Rotary Club, U3A, the City Literary Institute, and the Guildford Institute of the University of Surrey. He is a member of the Egypt Exploration Society, being awarded an ESS Scholarship to the Saqqara Expedition of 1964-65.

It begins in the 16th century with Sir Thomas More’s home in the waterside village of Chelsea. We then move through the centuries, tracing the development of other large estates in the two boroughs up to the latest major building project of the 21st century – the move of The Design Museum to the old Grade II listed Commonwealth Institute in Kensington. Using maps, engravings and old photographs we watch how the former outlying villages of Kensington and Chelsea gradually became integrated with the great metropolis. Among the other buildings we shall look at are The Royal Hospital at Chelsea, Kensington Palace, the Museum and the famous department stores of Harrods and Peter Jones.

After reading Theology at Kings College London, Sarah Lenton has spent all her working life at The English National Opera, The Royal Opera House, and now Glyndebourne. She writes programme articles, lectures on the rep and talks about opera for BBC Channel 4, on podcasts and during Radio 3 live broadcasts from The Royal Opera House. She is also a cartoonist.

Vivien Heffernan is an Art History tutor for continuing education departments at Cambridge and Essex Universities, colleges and adult education organisations. He is a long-standing lecturer with the Open University on Art History courses ranging from early Renaissance to the 20th Century. He has wide experience as a freelance lecturer since 1988. Also, he is a practising artist.

Rebecca Drew has been a lecturer at the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection since 1990. She has a BA (Hons) in the History of Art from the University of London as well as diplomas from the Sorbonne and the University of Perugia.

Denis Moriarty is a lecturer and Study Course director who spent most of his earlier working life as a BBC television producer. He joined the BBC in 1959 and after a short period in radio and personnel, he became a director and producer in television Music and Arts. His programmes included the series on English Towns with Alec Cifton-Taylor, Face The Music with Joseph Cooper and Joyce Grenfell, as well as films on Egypt in the Chronicle and Timewatch series. He lectures widely to various societies and is a tutor at Cambridge University Extramural Department. Denis Moriarty sang for a number of years in the Philharmonia Chorus and directs study courses at music festivals in the UK and Europe.

Rebecca Hossack studied at Christie’s and won a scholarship to work at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice. She set up the St James’s Sculpture Garden and then opened her own art gallery in London showcasing Aboriginal art. She has put on innovative exhibitions of Aboriginal artists in the UK, America, Russia and mainland Europe. She combines her cultural career with being a councillor for the Bloomsbury ward of Camden Council.

Yasha Beresiner qualified as a lawyer from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has lectured extensively to antiques collectors' clubs, the Rotary Club, and Red and Blue Badge Guide audiences. He is a qualified City of London Guide, and a past Master of the Worshipful Company of Playing Card Makers. His publications include The City of London Masonic Guide (2006), A Collector's Guide to Paper Money, and British County Maps.

Lynne Gibson is a freelance Lecturer and Artist. She specialises in Critical Studies in Art and practical painting, etching, and drawing. For many years she has lectured at Bristol and Sussex Universities, including Lifelong Learning summer schools as well as ARCA colleges. Also she conducts talks and advisory work for the National Trust, and Bristol and Whitworth Art galleries. Her own artwork has been exhibited widely, including the RWA, the British Museum, the Guild Gallery in Bristol, and the Barbican in London.

Eric Knowles has over 25 years expereince lecturing to museums and galleries around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum, Ashmolean Museum and the Art Deco Society of New York. He hosts Fine Art, Antiques and Arhitectural trips and has broadcast for 30 years with the BBC's 'Antiques Roadshow'.

Rupert Willoughby specialises in the domestic and social life of the past. He is author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England and a series of popular histories of places including Chawton: Jane Austen's Village.

Jo Walton is a freelance lecturer, specialising in Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture and in the British art of the 19th and 20th centuries. She works with the Friends of Dulwich Art Gallery as well as local art groups and societies across the UK and Europe. She is also a Volunteer Guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

Laura de Beden is a chartered landscape and garden architect, international lecturer and write on landscape issues. She is course leader in garden design at Kingston University, lecturer for the National Trust, the English Gardening School and the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Libby Horner is a freelance art historian, curator, film producer, lecturer and writer. She is also the world's leading authority on Frank Brangwyn and is currently compiling the catalogue raisonne of all his works.

Brian MacDonald travelled exensively in Iran during the 1970s while working there, and also in Afghanistan and Turkey. In 1972 he lived and worked amongst two tribal groups in Iran - the Afshar of Kerman province and the Qashqa'i of Fars. In 1990 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for his work among the Persian tribes. He is now a lecturer, dealer and consultant specialising in antique Eastern rugs. His book 'Tribal Rugs - Treasures of the Black Tent' was published in 1997.

Kevin Karney holds a Master's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge. After 2 years as a VSO school teacher in Borneo he spent 33 years in the oil business as a technical engineer and manager in exploration and production. He is now retired but sits as a JP in Gwent.

Bertie Pearce has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing to cruise ship audiences, the Women's Institute, theatre clubs and the Sussex Magic Circle. He has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and has written for the Guardian.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He has been a lecturer on painting since 1980, in that time giving over 4,000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He is presently a regular lecturer at Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies'. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are MI5, the Captain's room at Lloyds and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. His book on Monet, 'River of Light' has sold 30,000 copies in Britain, America and France.

Books of hours are probably the most famous illuminated manuscripts of the late Middle Ages, and they are filled with enchanting pictures and decorated borders. The lecture asks what a book of hours actually is, what it would usually contain and how it was used. It discusses who made the manuscripts, how and where, and how we can date and localise them today.

Christopher Bradley is an expert on the history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. He has led tours and written extensively on Arabia. As a film producer and cameraman he has made documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic TV and Channel 4.

Jane Gardiner trained at the V&A and became Research Assistant and Lecturer in their Education Department. She was then senior lecturer at Sotheby's Institute and Deputy Director of Sotheby's UK. She continues to lecture for both organisations as well as for The Art Fund, National Trust, London University, Michigan State University, L'Institut d'Études Supérieures des Arts in Paris and Crystal Cruise Lines.

Jane Tapley is Special Events Organiser, Theatre Royal Bath and a regular lecturer to theatre-going societies. She is also author and researcher of theatre programme notes on Hamlet, Sheridan's The Rivals and Jane Austen's Emma.