Past lectures
Thursday 17th January 2019Lecturer: Dr Paul RobertsLast 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. |
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Thursday 21st February 2019Lecturer: Tony RawlinsArt in Advertising Fine art has provided advertisers and their agencies with a great deal of material to use in their campaigns. |
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Thursday 21st March 2019Lecturer: Julian HalsbyPierre 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,
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Wednesday 3rd April 2019 – AGM
MorningLecturer: Howard SmithRupert – The ‘Anthropomorphic’ Bear Come and hear how Mary and Herbert Tourtel and others created Rupert over 100 years. |
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Thursday 18th April 2019Lecturer: James TaylorGreat 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.
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Thursday 16th May 2019Lecturer: Sue JenkinsSt 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. |
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Thursday 20th June 2019Lecturer: Alexandra EppsArt 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. |
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Thursday 19th September 2019Lecturer: John OsborneHeaven 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
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Thursday 17th October 2019Lecturer: Antony BuxtonWilliam 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.
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Thursday 21st November 2019Lecturer: Nigel BatesIn the Kingdom of Sweets The Nutcracker has delighted audiences at Christmas for many decades yet it was deemed a failure at its first performance.
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Thursday 16th January 2020Lecturer: Linda SmithRossetti'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) |
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Thursday 20th February 2020Lecturer: Peter MedhurstThe 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) |
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Thursday 19th March 2020Lecturer: Fenella BillingtonThe 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) |
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AGM Wednesday 1st April 2020Lecturer: David WrightA 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) |
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Thursday 16th April 2020Lecturer: 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)
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Thursday 21st May 2020Lecturer: Steven DesmondThe 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)
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Thursday 18th June 2020Lecturer: Pamela Campbell-JohnstonThe 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) |
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Thursday 17th September 2020Lecturer: Shirley SmithMan 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) |
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Thursday 15th October 2020 Online at 2.30pmLecturer: Ian SwankieThe 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) |
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Thursday 15th October 2020 Online at 10.30amLecturer: Stella Grace LyonsAll 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) |