15th June 2023 at 10.45am and 2.15pm at The Henley Rugby Club
Stephen Duffy
Unfortunately our June lecturer, Martin Lloyd, has pulled out of his commitment to us to present his lectures on 15th June, 'Secret Art in the Passport - How We Use It to Fox the Forger'. Martin was not prepared to allow us to stream the morning lecture and as we feel this is a very important part of our offering we were not willing to compromise on this.
Fortunately Stephen Duffy has very kindly agreed to step in at short notice and present the following lecture instead. This complements the wonderful lecture he gave in March 2022 on The Rise and Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. The lecture is entitled
The 'Incomparable' Empress Josephine
Napoleon’s Empress, Joséphine de Beauharnais, was a passionate gardener, patron and art collector. Her reputation for generosity, charm and gentleness of manner was of enormous value to Napoleon as a counterpart to the otherwise military and legalistic tenor of his regime.
This talk will explain the wide range of her cultural activities, including her wonderful gardens at her country house near Paris, Malmaison, and her acquisition of a large and distinguished collection of pictures – among them by far the most important group of works by an entirely new school of painting – the troubadours (who painted beautifully crafted historical scenes). Indeed, among female royal collectors perhaps her only superior is the incomparable Catherine the Great.
Stephen Duffy
Stephen Duffy was educated at New College, Oxford. He 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 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.
