• Henley DFAS

Past lectures

Thursday 17th January 2019

Lecturer: Dr Paul Roberts


Last Supper in Pompeii

For the Romans, getting together to eat and drink, in a pub or at a banquet was a central part of life and this lecture celebrates the Roman love affair with food and drink. 

Thursday 21st February 2019

Lecturer: Tony Rawlins


Art in Advertising

Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their campaigns.

Thursday 21st March 2019

Lecturer: Julian Halsby


Pierre Bonnard – Painting with Light
Bonnard is one of the most popular modern artists, and Julian will explain this popularity by looking at his life and work.  He started out in Paris producing lithographs influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec,
Wednesday 3rd April 2019 – AGM Morning

Lecturer: Howard Smith


Rupert – The ‘Anthropomorphic’ Bear
Come and hear how Mary and Herbert Tourtel and others created Rupert over 100 years.
Thursday 18th April 2019

Lecturer: James Taylor


Great Ocean Liners 1800 - 1950
Following his very popular AGM lecture last year on the Art of the Postcard and the many requests for his return, James is back to tell the extraordinary story of maritime design through art.
Thursday 16th May 2019

Lecturer: Sue Jenkins


St George: A visual history from the 7th to the 19th century of this soldier, dragon-slayer and saint

Although a patron saint in many countries, the earliest documented mention of St George in England comes from the Catholic monk the venerable Bede.

Thursday 20th June 2019

Lecturer: Alexandra Epps


Art of the River Thames through Artists Eyes
This is going to be a lovely lecture for a June day. The River Thames has inspired artists for over three hundred years and continues to do so today.
Thursday 19th September 2019

Lecturer: John Osborne


Heaven on Earth: The Art of Byzantium
This fascinating lecture looks at the main characteristics of the art of the Orthodox Church from the time when Constantinople was established as the capital of the Eastern Roman – and Christian – Empire
Thursday 17th October 2019

Lecturer: Antony Buxton


William Morris: The Life of Art & The Art of Life
William Morris is celebrated as a designer and craftsman, who as a young man decided to dedicate his life to art to counter the ugly industrial world he saw around him. 
Thursday 21st November 2019

Lecturer: Nigel Bates


In the Kingdom of Sweets
The Nutcracker has delighted audiences at Christmas for many decades yet it was deemed a failure at its first performance.
Thursday 16th January 2020

Lecturer: Linda Smith


Rossetti's Women

Dante Gabriel Rossetti exerted a tremendous influence over British art towards the end of the 19th century. From the days of his early involvement with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to his death, women were enormously important in both his life and his art. 

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Thursday 20th February 2020

Lecturer: Peter Medhurst


The Secret Mozart

Writing to his father on 28th December 1782, Mozart remarked of his latest batch of Piano Concerts – No. 11-14 – “[They] are just the medium between being too heavy and too light … here and there it is possible for the connoisseur alone to get satisfaction - but such – that the laymen can be contented without knowing why”.  

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Thursday 19th March 2020

Lecturer: Fenella Billington


The Great Twelve Revisited: London's Senior Livery Companies

Livery Companies originated when medieval merchants banded together to form guilds or fraternities.  The guilds were probably in existence before the Norman Conquest and were to be found, not only in London, but in cities in other parts of the country and in cities in Europe. 

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

AGM Wednesday 1st April 2020

Lecturer: David Wright


A Brief Story of Wine

This should be very enjoyable! His lecture is full of rich evidence, going back 7,000 years, in the form of paintings, decorated drinking vessels,

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Thursday 16th April 2020

Lecturer: Jo Walton


'So! They do cook after all!' Ravilious, Bawden and the Great Bardfield Artists

In 1932 the artist Edward Bawden and his wife Charlotte moved into Brick House in the Essex village of Great Bardfield, initially sharing the house with another artistic couple, Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood. 

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Thursday 21st May 2020

Lecturer: Steven Desmond


The Odd Couple: The Gardens of Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll

In the spring of 1889 the young 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 and a generation older than the young man.  

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Thursday 18th June 2020

Lecturer: Pamela Campbell-Johnston


The Art of 1935

Through this lecture audiences are transported back to this fabulous time and learn about this pivotal year.  From the Silver Jubilee celebrations for King George V and Queen Mary; the work of the celebrated portrait photographer, Cecil Beaton; to magazine and poster design and the fashions of the time.

(Please click on the blue priint above to continue reading)

Thursday 17th September 2020

Lecturer: Shirley Smith


Man the Measure of All Things: The rise of portraiture in Renaissance Italy

We cannot imagine a world where the only faces we recognize are those with whom we have physically come into contact.  Yet that was the situation in Medieval Europe when, with power vested in the Church, the glorification of man was frowned upon. 

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Thursday 15th October 2020 Online at 2.30pm

Lecturer: Ian Swankie


The World’s Most Expensive Art - Where Leonardo Meets Picasso

In the last few years the top end of the art market has flourished beyond all expectation, and collectors have been prepared to pay astonishing amounts to own a modern masterpiece.

                                                            Amedeo Modigliani Nu couché (sur le côté gauche)

This lecture is about the works that have sold for over $100 million and is an excuse to examine some beautiful and varied art. These works would not achieve such sky-high prices if they were no good.

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Thursday 15th October 2020 Online at 10.30am

Lecturer: Stella Grace Lyons


All the Lonely People: The Work of American Realist Edward Hopper

Hopper was a painter of loneliness and melancholy; from solitary figures in offices, motel rooms and diners, to deserted towns.

                                Office in a Small City                                                                       Western Motel

He portrayed a changing America and the isolation of the individual in the modern city. His works are visually stunning; characterised by striking colours, cinematic and cropped compositions which heighten tension.

(Please click on the blue print above to continue reading)

Pages