Lectures

The cult of Beauty dominated the second half of the 19th Century. Ruskin, Rosetti and Morris were its promoters but Oscar Wilde, self-styled ‘Professor of Aesthetes’, its leading spokesman. In time, not only Oscar but Art itself were put on trial.

Anne Anderson is a graduate in Art History and Archaeology, having worked for eight years as an archaeologist. Amongst other posts, she is currently Hon. Research Fellow at Exeter University. Her television credits include Flog It!

We look at how the Russian impresario Diaghilev created a ballet company, bringing together a dazzling array of painters such as Picasso and Matisse, composers such as Debussy and Stravinsky, with dancers of the calibre of Nijinski and Pavlova.

Elizabeth Rumbelow has honours degrees in English and Music, having been Head of English at Guildford High School. Her speciality is the inter-relationship of painting, music and drama. She works for the Chopin Society of Warsaw.

Exploring the Northern Renaissance, that flowering of art in Bruges in the 15th Century, we learn not only of the great artists of that age, such as Van Eyck and Hans Memling, but of their political, cultural and religious context.

The Right Revd Dr Christopher Herbert retired as Bishop of St Albans in 2009. He has lectured at the National Gallery, Kings College London, the Courtauld Institute and Westminster Abbey, and was awarded an MPhil by the University of Leicester.

Since 1905 the Art Fund, the national art charity, has helped museums and galleries all over the country to acquire over 860,000 works of art of all kinds. This lecture takes us behind the scenes at The Art Fund and provides a lively account of its history, achievements and future aspirations.

Mary has a MA in 20th Century British Art. She was responsible for the Art Fund’s grant-giving from 1992–2006, and during that time she was involved with countless museum acquisitions, and with major campaigns to save great treasures like the Becket Casket, the Macclesfield Psalter and Botticelli’s Madonna and the Sleeping Christ Child.

The scene of the Adoration of the Magi is central to our image of the Christmas story. It may surprise to learn that their representation was a later addition to the biblical account. By the 16th century even more changes had taken place.

Shirley Smith is a graduate of the University of East Anglia, her History of Art degree specialising in Italian and Renaissance Art & Architecture. A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, she is also a part-time lecturer to the Art Fund.

Please note there is a separate charge for this event.

We will hear of the great churches of Britain, especially Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s, their magnificent sculptures of the good, the brave and the notorious, all works by the finest British craftsmen of the 18th & 19th centuries. Dramatic, tender – even funny – these sculptures tell us not only about their subjects but the people who commissioned them.

Jo Walton established and managed the Atrium Bookshop in Cork Street, the heart of London’s art world. She has also worked at Christie’s, the fine art auctioneers, and is a guide for Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Our Special Interest Day will be held at the Park Farm Hotel, Hethersett. The day will explore how, at around the turn of the last century, ambitious painters in Paris were consumed by an overwhelming ambition: to build on the achievements of Seurat, Van Gogh, Gaugin and Cezanne, in order to become the first modern artists of the 20th century. The battle between Matisse and Picasso to achieve that goal will introduce some of the most beautiful, powerful and challenging paintings ever made.

Michael Howard is one of our most popular lecturers. A practising artist, who has exhibited at the RA, he is author of many books whose subjects include Lowry, Goya, Whistler, the Impressionists, Monet and Cezanne. He is also a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.

A richly illustrated history of the art form that incorporates all others. From the birth of opera in late Renaissance Italy, we move through Louis XIV’s Versailles, Handel’s London, Mozart’s Vienna, Verdi’s Italy and Wagner’s Germany up to the new technologies of the current day.

Daniel Snowman worked at the BBC, responsible for various radio series on cultural subjects. A long-time member and former chairman of the London Philharmonic Choir, his publications include the subjects Placido Domingo and the Amadeus Quartet.

The Shakers were a small group of religious dissidents with origins in mid-18th century England. Today they are better known as a North American sect who created exceptional furniture and buildings. Their furniture still fetches remarkable prices at auctions.

Recent Director of Studies at the University Bath, John Ericson is a freelance lecturer on a wide range of topics, ranging from Beauty, Norman Rockwell, The Art of the Wine Label to Colour & Illusion.

Featured are artists who travelled with the inspirational explorer, their remarkable illustrations and paintings of people and places encountered. The achievements of Sir Joseph Banks and John Harrison are also profiled.

James Taylor is a former curator at the National Maritime Museum. He is a lecturer and historian aboard cruise ships. His publications include Marine Painting and Yachts on Canvas.

George III is perhaps remembered for having been mad and losing the American colonies. The lecture corrects this impression, describing his family life, his patronage of the arts and important additions to the Royal Collection.

Oliver Everett was with the Foreign Office, then Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, and later Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales. His is the official guidebook and audio tour of Windsor Castle.