In this lecture, we consider the most intimate art of the Tudor age: the portrait miniature or ‘limning’. We trace the genre from its origins in illuminated books to its celebrated blossoming at the Elizabethan court. We explore the distinctive techniques and material ‘special effects’ of this peculiarly English craft, consider the lives and careers of the most famous miniaturists, and reveal how the art form inspired the most brilliant poets of the age.

The ancient Egyptians had extremely elaborate burial practices and funerary beliefs. This lecture sheds light on the mysterious world of the Ancient Egyptian afterlife by exploring the art on the walls of tombs. She will focus on the tombs of the New Kingdom period (c1500 – 1000 BC), when Egypt was at the height of its power and prosperity under pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. She will explore the scenes on the walls of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the nearby tombs of their high officials, and the small but colourful tombs of the artists responsible for all funerary art on the west bank at Luxor during this time. She will also introduce you to the stunning array of funerary goods with which high-status ancient Egyptians chose to be buried – both a feast for the eyes, and of much religious significance.

Beethoven became one of the greatest and most disruptive figures in the history of classical music; by the time he died in Vienna he had completely transformed music's cultural landscape. This talk presents an overview of this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer. Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits, while musical examples are drawn from his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, and from the revolutionary opera Fidelio. It explores how Beethoven became a true Romantic artist, or as he preferred to describe himself, a “poet in sound".

In the 19th century, Denmark lost territory and regional power but produced its finest art. This talk looks at how landscape painting was powerfully used to re-imagine a new, smaller Denmark, to create a different sense of the nation and to unite its diverse regions. To those unfamiliar with Danish art, these works will prove a revelation.

Norman Rockwell’s folksy images of middle America were dismissed for decades by art critics as over-sentimental and banal.  But his reputation has soared in recent years as a new generation comes to appreciate his humanity and inventiveness and he is revered by film directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for his brilliant storytelling. His paintings reconcile midwestern values with progressive ideals and artistic traditionalism with optimism about the modern world.  This lecture traces the roots of Rockwell’s art through his immediate predecessor and idol J.C. Leyendecker, back to the 19th century work of Winslow Homer and Howard Pyle.

An addition to our published programme, and delivered on Zoom, the palaces around Madrid, and the personalities of their occupants are the subject of this talk. We make a tour firstly to Philip II’s great monastery-palace of El Escorial, and to La Granja near Segovia with its gardens reminiscent of Versailles. The Royal Palace in Madrid, designed for Philip V, a grandson of Louis XIV of France, has Tiepolo ceilings and a chinoiserie porcelain room. Aranjuez and its delightful Casa del Labrador, the Pardo Palace, and Riofrio, all reflect sophisticated Bourbon taste.

This lecture examines Oscar Wilde’s great literary & theatrical successes, beginning with The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890.

We give special attention to "The Importance of Being Earnest", one of the funniest, most performed and most frequently quoted plays in the English speaking world. Described as ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’ it satirised the shallowness and superficiality of upper class Victorian society. Exploring some of the hidden elements which the audience then (and perhaps now) were not aware of and discovering that for the author, this glittering triumph heralded the beginning of his own fatal final act… 

The topic is timely as 2025 marked the 130th anniversary of the premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest!

Why do we bring a tree into our homes at Christmas? How did Santa become the patron saint of pawnbrokers and what has a snake got to do with it all?  The truth about some of our Christmas traditions may surprise you.

Hilary Williams tells the stories of Moll Hackabout in 'The Harlot's Progress' (1732); of Tom Rakewell in 'The Rake's Progress' (1732-34) and Viscount Squanderfield in 'Marriage-a-la-Mode' (1743-45). Looking at the narrative and markets for that, through paintings then prints, in Hogarth's native London, when it was about to burgeon into the Capital of the World. But it was to become a metropolis of extremes of poverty and wealth with social deprivation. Hogarth uses his prints to highlight and 'reform some of the reigning Vices' of his age. He was an artist with a social conscience and keen sense of humour.

The serenity and  control of Japanese gardens have long inspired Western gardeners to create their own versions. But is it possible to create a ‘Japanese’ garden outside Japan, or do we merely give it a Japanese voice?

Discover how the wonderful ancient frescoes of Santorini, destroyed in a volcanic eruption in 1625 BCE and recently restored, illustrate the society of that time. Could this be the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis?

Although Sargent painted dazzling portraits of wealthy and respectable ladies, he also scandalised Paris by indicating human sexuality. Learn how Sargent reflected the seismic changes of the time.

Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ is his greatest painting. Why is it so special? What does it tell us about developments in portraiture and Dutch society? 

A fascinating lecture on why so many visual artists from northern Europe were drawn to the Mediterranean coast of France. How did it impact their work? Was it a good decision to go?

Delve into the beguiling art of bookbinding. Why was the best paper made from worn out peasant clothes? Why is gold leaf measured in atoms not carats and must not touch human hands?

This lecture will explore how the relationship between actors and audiences has changed space and architecture within theatres from the Greeks to the Elizabethans and on into the modern era.

Delving into the reality behind the seemingly happy world of professional family pantomime to explore when it works- and when it doesn't.

Nicknamed 'Il Furioso', Tintoretto played fast and loose in the 16th Century art market, under-cutting prices and delivering more quickly than his competitors.  What drove his ambition, and why did he give so much of his work away?

Vibrant and energetic, personal and intimate, prehistoric art constantly surprises us and makes us re-evaluate our perception of our ancient ancestors, asking us what part art continues to plays in our modern lives.

A history of the Vincennes-Sèvres factory and its productions up to the French Revolution. This lecture will begin by looking at the patronage of Louis XV and Mme. de Pompadour, the establishment of the factory in the disused royal château of Vincennes, the fashion for porcelain flowers, the development of the early ground colours, such as bleu lapis and bleu celeste and the influence of François Boucher. It will go on to discuss the move to Sèvres and the creation of a truly Royal factory, the development of the later ground colours, the royal table services, the taste for porcelain- mounted furniture and the fashion for biscuit porcelain figures.

One of the pioneers of abstract modern art, Wassily Kandinsky exploited the evocative interrelation between colour and form to create an aesthetic experience that engaged the sight, sound, and emotions of the public. He believed that total abstraction offered the possibility for profound, transcendental expression and that copying from nature only interfered with this process. Highly inspired to create art that communicated a universal sense of spirituality, he innovated a pictorial language that only loosely related to the outside world, but expressed volumes about the artist's inner experience. In this lecture we will look at paintings by Wassily Kandinsky and the origins of his first abstractions, as well as other Russian artists, who developed non-objective art in Russia.

So many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art. Not only can these windows into the past show us what the instruments looked like but also the social context in which they would have been played. Music and different instruments also play a strong role within symbolism in art. Sophie explores the instruments in selected works and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted.

Giovanni Segantini’s life-story was a remarkable instance of rags to riches.  As a boy growing up in Milan, he experienced years of poverty and hardship – parentless, homeless and stateless.  Yet he grew up to become one of the most celebrated painters of his day.  It was even claimed that his landscapes more expensive than those of any other living artist.  Galleries across Europe, from Vienna to Liverpool, acquired examples of his work, and soon after his death in 1899 the Segantini Museum in St Moritz was established as a permanent memorial to his achievements.   

Segantini was a painter of the Swiss Alps.  He devoted himself to depicting the landscapes of the high mountains and the working lives of their inhabitants.  In common with many artists of his time, he rejected the sophisticated materialism of modern urban life, leaving Milan to find a simpler, more authentic type of existence.  This search led him by stages from the foothills of northern Italy to the remote heights of the Engadine region in eastern Switzerland.  There he made nature his studio, working outdoors in even the harshest conditions, and using the latest divisionist techniques to capture the crystalline light of the high Alps and create images of a scintillating luminosity.   

Yet the results were never just descriptive, even in paintings with seemingly straightforward subjects, like the Getty Collection’s Spring in the Alps of 1897.  In this work we see a farm girl leading horses to a water trough against the backdrop of a high Alpine plateau and distant mountains.   But Segantinti’s treatment of this subject takes us beyond factual description.  Brilliant, incisive and intense in lighting and colour, the image seems to penetrate beyond the surfaces of things and to open up another level of reality.  And for Segantini this was the whole point.  Characterising his art as a kind of ‘naturalist symbolism’, he expressed a wish to reveal the mystical unity between people, nature and God.   Whether or not we can share Segantini’s goals, his vision of the mountains is unforgettable. 

Before the British arrived in India, the Indian subcontinent was ruled by the Mughal Emperors. The stunning buildings and gardens they constructed from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century have left an indelible stamp on India’s architectural and cultural landscape. Mughal architecture fused elements from Islamic, Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural traditions, and gave rise to some of the most beautiful and iconic buildings in the world. From the Jama Masjid in Delhi, to the Taj Mahal in Agra, to the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, this lecture will take you on a tour of some of India’s greatest buildings, and provide insight into the historical contexts and colourful personalities involved in their construction.

Fitting in with the 2023 exhibition at the National Gallery, this lecture looks at how Frans Hals' portatraits reflected the society of his time, including connections to the Dutch East India Company, the transatlantic slave trade and the ruthless regime in the colonies.

Unlike Vermeer or Rembrandt, little is known about the life of Frans Hals. Despite being one of the three great artists of the Dutch Golden Age few books are written about this master and few exhibitions on his work organized.

This all changed just before Covid when the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium brought together pieces of a large family portrait, long cut up and dispersed all over the world. The Wallace Collection followed suit with a most wonderful exhibition on the male portrait.

This autumn the National Gallery in London will be hosting the largest collection of his works brought together for the first time in years, and Mariska will be talking about why this artist is worth rediscovering!

His masterly, confident brush strokes only depict the bare necessity, but they manage to capture life so brilliantly. The people he portrays, men, women, but most especially children, seem to move and laugh and talk right in front of you and you feel a sense of connection not often achieved with people who lived 300 years before us!

In 2022 the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) celebrated its 150th anniversary. It was founded to keep hand embroidery alive and to offer suitable occupation to educated women who would otherwise have been destitute. Today it is a thriving centre of hand embroidery education to the highest level.

This lecture, goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the last 150 years and the School’s changing fortunes including: being part of the ‘Kensington set’; the links with the Arts and Crafts and Aestheticism movements; the connection with the SAS; the move to Hampton Court Palace and the variety of commissions the RSN has undertaken from wedding dresses to Oscar gowns and from runway garments to ecclesiastical vestments.

Investigating the pocess of creating, through collaboration between A A Milne and E H Shepard, the iconic images for one of the all time favorite chidren's books.  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 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. A wonderful opportunity to see behind the scenes of these marvels of childhood for a hundred years. 

The National Gallery's collection spans nearly 6 centuries,  and the stories behind the pictures are interesting, amusing, unexpected and sometimes surprising.

Hollywoods first black superstar in te 1950's, how he overcame decades of prejudice to be finally awarded the oscar for Best Actor.

How the art of gardening has changed (or not) in four centuries in Oxfordshire and how the Oxford Botanic Garden now reflects garden design at the beginning of the 21st century.

How Bruegel pioneered a new way of thinking about the environment and our individual places within a shifting cosmos.

Tracing his life story from the town of Carravaggio to the cities of Milan, Rome, Naples and the islands of Malta and Sicily.

An insight into how art can be used to break the cycle of offending and re-offending in our gaols.

A light hearted seasonal lecture, describing what we actually know about the three kings - or rather what we don't know!

An independent career woman at the forefront of artistic innovation from her first impressionist paintings to her bold late works.

This is a story filled with larger than life characters and great art, alongside stirring historical events, occasional assassinations and the eventual decline of a remarkable dynasty.

This lecture told the story of how Peter the Great and Catherine the Great accumulated this vast collection, still one of the greatest in the world.

Best known for his pictorial maps for the London Underground, this illustrated talk by Max Gill's great-niece presented a colourful overview of this versatile artist's personal life and artistic achievements, including his local connections.

Joaquin Sorolla captured, like no other, the light of the Mediterranean beaches he loved and the energy of Spanish life.

This talk included many exampes from the local area and brought to life this ancient art which continues to the present day.

Imogen gave us the most interesting lecture on a subject which most of us may never have addressed She was taken into a cathedral as a child and that was the beginning of her wonder and determination to find out how these high and spectacular buildings were built. How, why and for whom were her questions. Who designed them? She showed us slides of mediaeval paintings with men at work in the construction. There were no photographs in those days but the paintings were colourful, detailed and human. Inevitably, many fell to their death in the construction. Imogen showed us some fine slides of cathedrals and churches in Britain and in France.

Imogen’s professional presentation was most entertaining and her personality and sense of humour shone through with amusing asides. Inspired by her genuine love and in-depth knowledge of the subject, she has written her first book, “Stone on Stone, the Men who built the Cathedrals”, published in 2019.

This lecture followed the AGM and was given at The Assembly Rooms and also on zoom for those watching at home.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Anthony gave us a most interesting and informative lecture with the background of his profound knowledge of Blenheim Palace and the family for whom it was built. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. It is one of England’s largest houses, and was built between 1705 and 1722. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

The palace is named after the 1704 Battle of Blenheim and was originally intended to be a reward to John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, for his military triumphs against the French and Bavarians in the War of the Spanish Succession, culminating in the Battle of Blenheim. The land was given by the Crown and construction began in 1705 with some financial support from Queen Anne. The project soon became the subject of political infighting with the Crown cancelling further financial support in 1712, Marlborough’s three-year voluntary exile to the Continent, the fall from influence of his duchy and lasting damage to the reputation of the architect, Sir John Vanbrugh. It was built in the English Baroque style which was short lived and is unique in that it combined as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. Following its completion it became the home of the Churchill family (later Spencer-Churchill) for the next 300 years. It is notable, of course, for being the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill.

At the end of the 19th century the palace was saved from ruin by funds gained from the ninth Duke of Marlborough’s marriage to American railroad heiress, Consuelo Vanderbilt. This was a loveless marriage but one which gave the heiress a title and the ninth Duke the money he needed to save the palace. This sort of thing was not unusual at this time and many great families married American heiresses to save the country’s great mansions from ruin. Anthony told us amusing tales of the goings-on of various members of the aristocracy at this time and it appeared to be the women who wielded the power and these so-called great men were very often weak. Famous artists painted their portraits with the subjects wearing all their military regalia but in reality that meant nothing.

The Twelfth Duke of Marlborough and his family now live at Blenheim Palace which was pleasing to hear at the end of the lecture.

Anthony delivered his lecture fluently with a light touch and his amusing asides and stories of those involved gave his audience a most entertaining and memorable morning.

This lecture was given at The Assembly Rooms and also on zoom for those watching at home.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

An exploration of India's greatest buildings including the historical contexts and colourful personalities involved in their construction.

It had been planned that this lecture would be delivered both live in the Assembly Rooms and streamed on Zoom.  Unfortunately our lecturer was still recovering from Covid and so the lecture had to be delivered on-line only.

This was a fascinating lecture describing how, in the second half of the nineteenth century, a group of artists built studio-houses on the edge of London’s Holland Park. The key members of the group were George Frederick Watts, Frederic Leighton, Valentine Prinsep, Luke Fildes, Hamo Thorneycroft and William Burges. The first to be built was that of Frederick Leighton from the mid-1860s. Leighton House with its vast arab hall was the inspiration for other artists to commission houses of their own. These were successful artists and their houses showed their status, wealth and taste. They lived, entertained and painted in these houses which was something entirely new. They invited those sitting for portraits to sit in an elegant studio. Daniel showed us a slide of one of the artists painting the King in his studio.

Daniel showed us slides of Holland House in which Lord Holland lived and which, in the 1960s, suffered the demolition of a wing. The Holland Park Opera takes place on this spot and the house and grounds are now Holland Park. Melbury Road is the road on which most of these artists built their houses. Only one remains the same today. That was the one commissioned by Luke Fildes. It was lived in by Michael Winner until he died a few years ago. It now belongs to Robbie Williams.

G.F Watts lived in Little Holland House which no longer exists today but Daniel showed us a slide of the house and another showing Watts creating his famous ‘Physical Energy’ statue. The Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey is a thriving exhibition gallery.

This talk was much appreciated and particularly by those who are familiar with this area of London. Daniel put across the subject in a knowledgeable and pleasing way . Our members are keen to have a visit to Leighton House sometime soon and invite Daniel to be our guide.

Elaine Leaver

Programme Secretary

Tessa gave us a fascinating talk on Grace Higgins, the housekeeper to the Bell family for fifty years. Charleston Farmhouse in East Sussex was their rural escape from London and where the Bloomsbury Set could enjoy their artistic ambitions and complicated love lives. Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf were sisters. Grace kept a daily diary and her son found these after her death which, along with letters and photographs, are now owned by the British Library. Vanessa, Virginia and Vanessa’s daughter, Angelica Garnett, kept writings and diaries and these have been complied by Tessa. Included in this group were Duncan Grant, Clive Bell, Vanessa’s husband, Roger Fry, Lytton Strachey, Frederick Ashton and others. They lived a Bohemian lifestyle which was facilitated by servants who did everything for them although they wished they weren’t around. Vanessa married Clive Bell and had two children, a son Quentin and a daughter Angelia. Duncan Grant was the father of Angelica although Clive Bell was known to her as “Dad”.

Grace was born in 1903, one of seven children and, had she been born into the higher echelons of society, she could have gone far. She appreciated literature, opera and travel. However, that was not her lot. She left school at 13 and joined the Bell family at the age of 16 and stayed until she retired at the age of 68. She would have started work in a humble way and later, as the housekeeper, she would have managed the budget and the politics of the family. She earned half as much as a butler who only looked after the men. She would have lived in a small uncomfortable space in the attic amongst a seething mass of servants.

Dickens was a grandson of a country house housekeeper and described graphically these conditions in his novel, Hard Times. Tessa reminded us of Mrs. Danvers in “Rebecca” written by Daphne du Maurier in 1938. “How loyal were servants really?” Mrs. Bird in the Paddington books written by Michael Bond in the late 1950s, did everything and Grace became like that.

Cressida Bell, Vanessa’s granddaughter and son of Quentin, renovated Charleston due to damp in about 1970. There was a lot of work to be done to get the house ready for the summer. It got damp and infested over the winter with being shut up. Until 1971 water was pumped from the well and Grace would only have had one bath a week. The servants were not allowed to walk in front of the house. They were never to be seen and their entrance was from a “Pill Box” or tiny porch built on the side of the house. From there they would go straight into the kitchen quarters. Grace’s social life in the early days would be restricted to the farm hands, the boys who came into the kitchen. Grace got advances from Clive Bell who gave her an easter egg with silk stockings inside. He used her as an artist’s model. She had good bone structure and an aristocratic look. She was a parlourmaid, a nursemad, Angelica’s nanny and she learnt French. She had two proposals of marriage which she turned down.

There was a closeness between Grace and Vanessa. They sometimes had meals together and enjoyed each other’s company but, realising they had no ground in common, Vanessa would suddenly relegate her to the kitchen . Tessa stressed that Grace was a good specimen of the lower classes, always trying to better herself. In 1934 aged 31 she decided to marry Walter Higgins who was ten years older than her. He was described as a boring little man who never does anything right. Grace said he could do nothing wrong and in 1935 their son, John, was born. In 1940 they all moved into the house. Vanessa’s son, Quentin, lived there and he and John could be seen running around together. There was just Grace to look after everyone. Vanessa’s relationship with Duncan Grant was difficult as he was gay. It was said she lived in Squares and carried on in triangles!

Post war Britain brought with it advantages of freedom and in 1948 came the vacuum cleaner and in 1953 the television. You could have your hair permed, own a passport, fly to Paris and live in a horrible room in a hotel! Clive Bell bought a Hoovermatic washing machine for Grace for £90 in 1958. Vanessa died in 1961. Grace was so sad, she burnt everything she could of Vanessa’s. In 1965 aged 68 Grace retired. She lived on at Charleston and the family kept bringing friends to the house presuming Grace would look after them all but she was old and tired and dismayed when they turned up at 10.30pm expecting dinner when Grace had it ready hours earlier. In 1971 Grace and Walter bought a chalet in Ringmer and she lived on for another twelve years joining the Womens’ Institute and walking the dog. Walter was happy in the allotment. Grace died in 1983 aged 80.

Tessa summed up Grace’s relationship with the Bell family by saying “I think in their own way they loved her in some sort of fashion”.

This lecture was most interesting and Tessa kept us engaged throughout. It was lovely to hear the “other side” of the Bloomsbury Set.

Tessa was unable to give her lecture at The Assembly Rooms as her teenage children both had Coronavirus so she had to stay at home and give it on zoom only.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

This lecture was presented live in the Assembly Rooms and was also streamed on Zoom.  Despite a couple of early glitches with the Zoom link, the lecture was much enjoyed in both formats.

Mark Hill gave us a brisk, engaging and entertaining lecture on a subject of which many of our members were unfamiliar. His enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject was infectious. He showed us brilliant slides of colourful glass pieces, some of them decidedly bizarre, but nevertheless interesting and most with stories behind them. He explained how they were made and from which European countries they came.  Amongst others he featured Mdina Glass, Wedgwood and Czech glass factories.

Elaine Leaver

Douglas Skeggs gave us a fascinating lecture delivered fluently, with humour and huge interest.
His extensive knowledge of David Hockney’s life and career came across in a concise way and enabled us to understand this naturally gifted draftsman, with his love of ingenious devices. He experimented with a whole range of techniques which led, for example, to his stage design for The Magic Flute at Glyndebourne, his early abstract expressionist images and his famous Californian scenes of swimming pools to the photo montages of the mid-eighties. Each stage was illustrated with examples from his amazing collection of slides.

Douglas gave us a great insight into one of our great artists and how his paintings have shown a charm and humour that sets them apart from others of his generation.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Andrew gave us the most wonderful lecture. His presentation had just the right mix of humour, anecdotes and was full of facts that most of us knew nothing about. He told us how he had made the jewellery for the cast of Downton Abbey and produced amazing slides which we could see close up. That was the upside of a virtual lecture but, had we been in the Assembly Rooms, he would have brought the jewellery with him and we could have looked at these stunning pieces as they belong to Andrew. They were given back to him after the production instead of payment. They are fake of course and he even said he wanted to be buried with them!!

Andrew showed us slides of American heiresses decked out with heavy jewellery so they could hardly move. They wore tight corsets under their dresses as well. The jewellery was worth a fortune and their rich husbands wanted their wives to wear these pieces, sometimes all at once, to show how rich they were. They were all in competition. Andrew’s descriptions were a bit daring at times and he was challenged for calling one lady “a pat of butter” and another “a sparkling rhinoceros of a woman”. We were treated to slides of both these apparitions. The centres for all this glamour was London, Paris and New York. Cartier made the jewellery and Worth the gowns. There was a fashion for architectural details in the jewellery which was made, for example ‘railings’.

In 1914 at the start of the First World War everything changed. Out went the corsets and elaborate gowns and women wore far simpler and more comfortable clothes. Helena Rubenstein was the first to produce make-up which women had never worn before and she became a lasting legend in this field.

In 1922 the Tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered and jewellery designers got ideas for their jewellery from the treasures found in the long lost tomb. Art Deco followed in 1926/27 and fashions moved on but the desire for jewellery never faltered.

We were treated to a most entertaining and memorable morning. Andrew’s lecture was a perfect ending to our lecture season. Tony Clark described it as “A Tour de Force” and it was.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Linda gave us a most informative and engaging presentation. The Royal Collection is the largest in the world. There are more than a million objects in it. There are less than 2,700 in the National Gallery and 7,000 in the entire Royal Collection including the crown jewels. It has been passed down over 500 years to Elizabeth II. The Queen is the guardian of the Royal Collection and has been criticized for hardly increasing the Collection during her long reign. There is no public funding for the Collection, only admission fees from the Royal Palaces.

Official gifts form part of the Royal Collection and can be used by the Queen but are not hers. Less than £150 can be given to a member of staff or one of the family. Over the years there have been some bizarre gifts. President Pompidou presented the Queen with a wine cooler in the shape of a grasshopper. This is on display at the V & A. There were sloths from Brazil which went to the Tower to begin with and on to London Zoo! The Cameroon presented her with two elephants and Prince Philip was given a pair of cowboy boots from Texas. Possibly the funniest of all was an Oyster Card in 2013. I think we are unlikely to bump into the Queen on London Transport.

Henry VIII started the Royal Collection during his reign in the early Renaissance period. He wanted to copy what Francois of France was doing at the time. Linda showed us a slide of Guido Mazzoni’s “boy” aged seven. This was painted around 1498 when Henry would have been seven years old and it is thought to be him. Linda selected interesting works of art to show us, describing them in a most confident and relaxed way. There were paintings by Hans Holbein and Anthony van Dyck among others. Abraham van der Doort (1575–1640) was Dutch and a troubled man. He was the keeper of the Royal Collection. He committed suicide because he thought he had lost one of the paintings which was later believed to have been found after his death. Charles I (1600-1648) was a collector but died at the age of 48 on the scaffold as we all know so well. Van Dyck painted him on a horse as he was only 5’4” tall and this camouflaged his height. Orazio Luni Gentileschi (1563-1639) was a colourful painter of the time and was buried in the Queen’s Chapel. One of his works was Joseph and Petipher’s Wife painted in about 1630. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) sold off paintings but fortunately they were bought by nobles and returned to the Collection.

Charles II (1630-1685) was crowned on St. George’s Day in 1661. Van Dyck died in 1641 and Peter Lely (1618-1680), a Dutchman, took over court painting. In the 1660s Lely painted a series of paintings called ‘The Windsor Beauties’ depicting the ladies of the Court, some of whom were the mistresses of Charles II.

George III (1738 -1820) was next and he was painted by Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) who was the famous Scottish artist of the time. There was a Life Mask by Madame Tussaud who was born in France in 1761 and died in London in 1803.

Canaletto (1697-1798) was living and painting in London in the 1750s and many of his works form part of the Royal Collection.

George IV (1762-1830) Thomas Lawrence did a painting of his coronation which forms part of the Collection.

Jan Steen (1626 -1679) was Dutch and from Leiden. She opened taverns and painted village folk going about their daily tasks and enjoying a hearty time in the tavern . This subject matter was quite new to the art world of the day.

Queen Victoria was painted in 1843 aged 24 by Franz Xavier Winterhalter. He also painted Prince Albert aged 40 standing with Queen Victoria sitting down. This painting is exceptional as the monarch is normally standing and the consort sitting down.

Sir Edwin Landseer (1803-1873) painted dogs and other animals. One work was Isaac van Ambrugh and his animals with a tiger in a cage and a lion. Landseer was shown in another painting in his studio carving the famous lions for Trafalgar Square. There were lions in the studio which are very realistically stuffed! This was painted by John Ballantyne. He used Sienese soil to get the reds in his terrcotta colours.

Queen Elizabeth II added the following to the Royal Collection:

• A watercolour painting of the Queen Mother lying in state.

• The portrait of the Queen by Lucien Freud in which it is said there is a bit of the artist in the sitter and the sitter in the artist!

• An image of Andy Warhol (1928 -1987)

• A painting of four Queens’ heads, all reigning during her reign - Queen Elizabeth II, Queen
  Margarethe of Denmark, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands and Queen Ntombi of Swaziland.

Linda’s lecture wove history with art history and, with her skilfully selected slides, made for a
most informative and enjoyable morning.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Caroline gave us a very colourful lecture on Catherine de Medici and the characters surrounding her life in the French Court. She was born in 1519, the daughter of Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, duca di Urbino and Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne. Both her parents died when she was very young and she was educated by nuns in Florence and in Rome. In 1533, at the age of 14, she was married by her uncle, Pope Clement VII, to Henri II of France who was the same age. Henri was crowned in 1547 whereupon she became Queen Consort of France until his accidental death in 1559 at the age of 40. Henri had an abiding attachment to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, and Caroline’s lecture centred on this, the story of three in a marriage. (She even showed us slides of Prince Charles and Princess Diana to show how the monarchy doesn’t change much in all the years!). Catherine’s legacy includes designing The Tuileries in Paris and the Chateau of Chenonceaux on the Loire which was unfinished at her death. Catherine lived privately from Henri and, although admired by those in the French court, it was Diane who was the King’s favourite. However, Catherine bore him ten children. Seven survived including three future kings of France. Francis II was the first to rule and married Mary Queen of Scots, then followed Charles IX and Henri III. The span of the reigns of these three Kings was called The Age of Medici so she certainly left her mark on France. Catherine died in 1589 aged 69.

Caroline’s lecture was full of stories, facts and little gems of information which were portrayed fluently, vividly and with humour. It was certainly enjoyed by our members but there was so much going on that it was hard to retain all the information!

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Following our Annual General Meeting Rosalind Whyte gave us a very informative and well presented lecture. There was a lot to fit into an hour but it was much appreciated by our members.

She began her talk with four of the leading artists of the Scottish Enlightenment which ran from the middle of the 18th century to the early part of the 19th century.

• Allan Ramsay Jnr. (1713 – 1784), the son of the poet, Allan Ramsay, was a leading portrait painter of the mid-eighteenth century and painted members of the Royal Family. He moved to London when Joshua Reynolds was Present of the Royal Academy. Reynolds was critical of Ramsay’s painting. He eloped with Margaret Lindsay of Evelick, who was from a good family and went to Italy. We were shown a sensitive painting of her. He painted James Adam, brother of Robert, and David Hume. Jean Jacques Rousseau arrived in Britain in 1766 fleeing from France. Ramsay painted Rousseau in Armenian costume which he often chose to wear. Rousseau was paranoid about children needing more education, suggesting that they wear romper suits for more freedom. He put his own children up for adoption. It was said that Rousseau was “plainly mad”.
• Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) was born in Edinburgh and had a short spell in Italy before returning to Edinburgh. A portrait painter of leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment including Walter Scott. He was President of the Royal Scottish Academy and painter to George IV in Scotland. He is most famous for his painting of the Boy and Rabbit, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Campbell and the Skating Minister.
• Sir David Wilkie (1785 to 1841) painted lively scenes of everyday events in the genre of Dutch and Flemish paintings having travelled around Europe. ‘Village Politicans’ was the picture of the year at the Royal Academy in 1806. The young artist, JMW Turner, took on Wilkie at his own game. He admired him and was sad when Wilkie died and was buried at sea with no formal funeral. Turner painted “Peace – Burial at Sea” in 1842 in memory of his friend.
• Alexander Nasmyth (1758 -1840), born into an aristocratic family, was a pupil of Allan Ramsay. He began as a portrait painter and after spending time in Italy became more of a landscape painter.

Rosalind moved on to tell us about the Glasgow Boys, who were a group of about 20 artists who studied at The Glasgow School of Art during the period 1880 to 1900. They rebelled at Victorian convention and produced some of the most innovative of Scotland’s art. They painted rural scenes of children with animals, fields of cabbages, humble characters blending in with their surroundings. They were true to life and a revolution in art – a step closer to the impressionists which were to come. Some of the names which Rosalind mentioned were Peter Graham, James Guthrie, Gustave Corbet, Jules Bastien-Lepage, William York MacGregor, Edward Hornel, George Henry. Hornel and Henry travelled to Japan and came back to draw Japanese ladies and Japanese subject matter. David Gauld (1865 to 1936) did two paintings; one entitled “A Galloway Farm” and the other “A Breton Village”. They were, in effect, the same painting with the same rustic building and scenery! Gauld was a friend of Charles Rennie Mackintosh which brought us to the next stage of the lecture.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 to 1928) studied at the Glasgow School of Art with a group of students who called themselves “The Immortals”. We saw paintings of them, many girls, having a wonderful time outside together . He was an architect, designer, water colourist and artist and worked alongside his wife, Margaret Macdonald who he married in 1900. The Glasgow Institute of Fine Art was designed by Macintosh in 1895. He was a visionary and is famous for his high backed chairs and angular furniture. He was part of the modern movement of Art Nouveau. He lived at 120 Main Street, Glasgow from 1900 to 1926 and also The Hill House, a country house where Margaret did the stencilling. We were shown slides of the bedroom which was in sharp contrast to what had gone before. He had problems with building committees and suffered antagonism so in despair he went to Walderswick in Suffolk in 1914. The Mackintoshs went to France from 1924 to 1927 and he died in 1928 in a nursing home at the age of 60.

Mackintosh met the Scottish Colourists in London. They were a group of four artists who were ardent admirers of The Glasgow Boys and, like them, spent their formative years in Paris. They were Samuel Peploe, G. Leslie Hunter, FCB Cadell and JD Fergusson. They were in Paris at the time of the great exhibitions devoted to Whistler, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec, also encountering the Fauve and Cubist works of Matisse and Picasso. It was said that the difference between the work of the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists is like stepping from fog and murk into sunshine and air. The four worked with strong emotive colour, fluent brushwork and a keen sense of pattern which made their painting different from anything seen in Britain before. Throughout the 1920s they exhibited regularly in Scotland. Peploe painted still life with bottles, vases of flowers and fruit on tables like Manet; Cadell painted women in large hats like Whistler. ‘The Lady in Black’ is well known as is ‘Interior the Orange Blind’. He also painted the beaches of The Isle of Iona. Fergusson painted in Tangier in 1906 and there were scenes of Paris and his famous ‘Hat with a Bird’ like Manet. Hunter lost everything he owned in the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 but went on to produce wonderful works of Saint Paul de Vence, Paris, Loch Lomond and many Still Life paintings. Highland scenes were only a minor part of the work of the Scottish Colourists.

Our members really appreciated this lecture and 171 attended on zoom. 

Elaine leaver
Programme Secretary

Toby‘s lecture told us the story of why, 250 years after his death, Stradivari violins, and cellos, remain the most highly prized instruments in the world. Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644 in Cremona in Italy. This was the home of luthiers, violin makers. He became a pupil of Nicolo Amati, who was making the most renowned violins at the time. He married Francesca Ferraboshci in 1666 and settled in his new home in Cremona where his landlord was a wood carver. He learnt purfling which is inlaying, inserting three separate lines of wood along the length of the violin. His violins were of a classic outline always with a scroll at the end of the neck. The preferred woods used for his violins were alpine spruce for the front, being a soft wood, and maple for the back, being a hard wood. The front was to vibrate and the back a reflective plate. Stradivari was confident in his work and did what he wanted. In 1680 he moved to Cremona’s main square to a house with a roof terrace where he could put his violins to dry when he had varnished them. It is believed that he used very little varnish. He had commissions from the crowned heads of Europe. It is about this time that Amati dies. Stradivari had six children and two of his sons helped in his workshop. He was tall and thin and always working. He was quite the man about town. In the 1690s he experimented with trying to lengthen his violins by a tiny amount for long tones but they became unwieldy. He also tried flattening the bridge to get a greater sound than Amati.

In 1698 his wife died. He worked on in his workshop with his eldest son, Francesco. In 1699 he remarried Zambelli Costa and had five more children.

His Golden period was from 1700 to 1720 and after that some of his violins are not quite as good, using other woods, and some go into storage. In 1729 he writes his Will and in 1737 Antonio Stradivari dies aged 93.

His violins were valued and there were six at 1000 Cremone lire which would be about £1000 then and in modern money they would now be one million pounds.

He made Francesco his successor and left him everything. To Omabono, his youngest son, who also worked in his workshop, he left nothing reminding him in his Will that he had spent 2000 lire on him when he was in debt in Naples.

Antonio Stradivari was buried in the family tomb in the Church of San Dominico in Cremona. Francesco and Omabono had worked in the workshop for 50 years and when they retired they had over 100 unsold violins. They took on no apprentices and they died ten years after their father. The techniques were lost. Violins needed to age for fifty to a hundred years or so and at that time Amati violins were worth three times what a Stradivari violin was worth.

Toby’s lecture was absolutely fascinating and his knowledge and enthusiasm were infectious. He produced interesting slides showing Stradivari in his workshop, close ups of the violins at different stages of manufacture and slides of famous composers and violinists who performed all over the world using Stradivari violins in the cultural capitals of Europe. He also included some musical recordings.

In 1772 Giovanni Battista Viotti, the famous violinist, played his Stradivari violin as a solo instrument in the Tuileries Palace in Paris. His Stradivari violin, named the Viotti violin, was made in 1709 in the middle of Antonio Stradivari’s Golden period. Before Viotti, Stradivari was just one violin maker among many. After Viotti everyone wanted to play a Stradivari violin. Viotti was a companion to Marie Antionette and during the French Revolution he fled from Paris and moved to London in 1792. He made his debut at Johann Peter Salomon’s Hanover Square Concert in 1793, also appearing in Salomon’s Concert Series in 1793-1794. He took the musical world by storm and in London he went from success to success as musical director of the New Opera Concerts in 1795 and then as acting manager of Italian Opera at The King’s Theatre in 1794-1795 and as Leader of the Orchestra in 1797. He personally knew Haydn and Beethoven. Then with Britain at war with revolutionary France he went to live in exile in Germany. He became a wine merchant and went bust. Viotti returned to Paris to run the Opera. He died in London in 1824 and in his Will he requested his executors to sell his “violin” to pay his debts.

Joseph Bohm was a Hungarian violinist and a pupil of a pupil of Viotti. He played Beethoven’s late quartets but they were difficult pieces to play and his first performance was a failure. Joseph Bohm didn’t like performing in public in Vienna and in 1887 he gave up.

Nicolai Paganini performed in concerts in Vienna and toured Europe playing difficult pieces but only his own pieces in the 1820s and 1830s. Paganini was a bad teacher and made a lot of money. He was a showman. A string would break and then another and he would carry on until he was left with only a G string. Paganini owned ten Stradivari violins but for his own concerts he played his ‘Guarnerios Del Gesu’ violin. These violins were rivals to Stradivari violins. Toby described them as dark and woody. There are 600 surviving to this day. Over 1000 were made in his lifetime. There has been a lot of copying of Guarnerios Del Gesu violins and they are more roughly made.

Joseph Joachin lived in the second half of the nineteenth century. He lived with Joseph Bohm. He and owned five Stradivari violins. Another luthier and dealer in violins was Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume who lived from 1798 to 1875.

There is quite a story behind The Messiah – Salabue Stradivarius of 1716, a violin made by Antonio Stradivarius. It is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in ‘as new’ state. It is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The Messiah remained in Stradivari’s workshop until his death in 1737. It was then sold by his son, Paolo to Count Cozio di Salabue in 1775, and for a time, the violin bore the name Salabue. It was then purchased by Luigi Tarisio in 1827 and upon his death in 1854, the French luthier, Jean Baptiste Vuillaume of Paris, a dealer, purchased The Messiah along with Tarisio’s entire collection. It got its name Messiah when Vuillaume’s son-in-law, Jean-Delphin Alard, exclaimed “Really Mister Tarisio, your violin is like the Messiah of the Jews; one always expects him but he never appears.” Thus the violin got the title Messiah. The Messiah was bequeathed by the family of W. E. Hill to the Ashmolean Museum for preservation as a yardstick for future violin makers to learn from.

When Antonio Stradivari died the family were in poverty and they had no idea how valuable this violin was. It was found amongst the junk in his workshop.

Toby told us about Marie Hall, an English violinist who was a sensation in Edwardian Britain and toured the world in 1904 with her Stradivarius violin. George Meredith wrote the poem, The Lark Ascending. Vaughan Williams wrote the music to this poem and dedicated it, his best known work, to Marie Hall. She was a pupil of Edward Elgar.

Yehudi Menuhin was, by the age of twelve, a child prodigy. Henry Goldman invited him to tea in his Fifth Avenue apartment in New York and said “Have any violin you want?” This was in 1920 and he decided on a Stradivarius violin made in 1733 in Stradivari’s 90th year. This violin is called the Soil Stradivarius and is one of the finest made by Antonio Stradivari. Yehudi Menuhin is widely known as the greatest violinist of the twentieth century. He was also a conductor.

Toby ended his talk with a joke! - How many violins makers does it take to make a violin? Answer: One to do it and two to argue about how to do it as Stradivari did.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

This lecture examined the stark contrast between pre and post 2nd world war theatre. Giles dealt with the whole spectrum of theatre from the 1920s to the 1970s in a clear and fascinating way. It was a superb presentation, very informative, entertaining and professional. It certainly wasn’t only about Terence Rattigan but it was he, on leaving Trinity College Oxford in 1933, who wrote plays with great regularity until his death in Hamilton Bermuda in 1977. The London theatres were very popular and there was a glamour about them. People dressed up for the occasion and black tie was the norm.
Rattigan plays went thus – 1934 First Episode; 1936 French Without Tears; 1939 After the Dance; 1946 The Winslow Boy; 1948 The Browning Version. Giles showed us a short video from The Browning Version of the famous scene when the boy comes into the headmaster’s study and his kind words unlocks his pent up ‘passion restrained’ reducing the headmaster to tears. Rattigan has been described as The English Chekhov. In 1952 The Deep Blue Sea ran in London. He went to live in Hamilton Bermuda and it was there he wrote A Bequest to the Nation which was put on in London in 1970. His final play was Cause Celebre staged in 1977. Giles showed us a slide of Rattigan going to the first night in a wheelchair. He died later that year in November 1977.

At the same time there were other great names writing plays. Patrick Hamilton wrote Rope and Gaslight. Agatha Christie, who lived from 1890 to 1976, writing continuously her thrillers for the theatre, and Edgar Wallis. Noel Coward lived from 1899 to 1973 and his familiar plays were staged in London in the 1920s and 30s. The Vortex, Fallen Angels, Hay Fever and Private Lives to name but a few. Giles filled us in with interesting tit bits of information. He told us that Noel Coward lived in Ebury Street next door to Edith Evans and Binkie Beaumont lived next door to Ivor Novello! The audience grew to expect drawing rooms with French windows looking onto immaculate lawns with the cast dressed in tennis whites.

Lilian Bayliss lived from 1874 to 1937 and she was running the Old Vic. and Sadlers Wells. Sybil Shorndike and Edith Evans were taking leading roles in Shakespeare’s plays, as were John Geilgud and Charles Laughton.

Giles told us that the Royal Court theatre was dedicated to putting on the plays of promising new playwrights.

In 1953, to mark the Coronation of Elizabeth II, Rattigan wrote The Sleeping Prince which was staged
with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier.

In 1953 Samuel Becket’s play Waiting for Godot was first staged in London. The audience were
shocked and many didn’t understand what was going on with two characters on the stage all the time and virtually nothing happening. Some were angry and most left wondering who on earth Godot was!

In 1956 comes John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger with Kenneth Brannagh and Emma Thompson. No longer the drawing rooms and the french windows, but the bedsit and the depressing kitchen.
The costumes were found by the cast and the glamour was gone. At about this time came The Entertainer with Laurence Olivier showing Britain in the 1950s.

These post war playwrights included Harold Pinter with The Birthday Party in 1958. This was dangerous and challenging and set in a study and kitchen. In 1958 Shelagh Delaney wrote A Taste of Honey addressing social issues which she felt were not being aired. It was set in a difficult working class environment. This was her first play written when she was only 19. Then there was The Room at the Top and in 1960 Lady Chatterley’s Lover from the book by D.H. Lawrence.

Giles told us about more changes in the theatre. In 1962 there was Beyond the Fringe. This was first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1962, then it went to the Fortune theatre and on to Broadway. It was satirical sketches and musical pieces showing people’s lives after the war written by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller. These four were the original cast and this was the forerunner of the long running programme on television “That was the week that was”.

Then comes Joe Orton in 1964 with Entertaining Mr. Sloane and Tear the World apart. In 1969 What the Butler Saw was staged – a daring and cutting edge play. Joe Orton was ultimately killed by his lover.

Giles explained that things had changed again and in 1968 Hair reached the stage and nudity was not censured. In 1969 there was Oh Calcutta!

Giles gave us a morning of pure pleasure and, according to the many comments the committee received, this lecture was thoroughly enjoyed and brought a ray of sunshine to a dull January morning in lockdown. 

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary 

This year's Christmas event was planned to be held at The Vicar's Hall.  However Covid-19 restrictions forced a change to an online lecture.

Ian Keable gave his talk on ‘Charles Dickens Conjurer - the story of Charles Dickens as a magician told through one of his playbills.’  Despite the constraints of zoom, Ian manged to illustrate the story with his own magical/conjuring tricks.

This was a very interesting and well presented lecture. David delivered it fluently with no notes, only his excellent slides. He led us through 7000 years of myth and legend surrounding the production and drinking of wine. This was a huge subject. He took us from ancient Egypt to Turkey to Greece to Italy to France. Who would believe that 29 amphora were found in Tutenkamun’s tomb? Despite his young age we now know he preferred red wine! In Pompeii Thermopolia, mini wine bars, have been discovered in the street. These are stone counters with holes to hold a few bottles. In Turkey off the coast of Kas all sorts of treasures have been collected from the bottom of the sea, mainly Amphora, the two handled carriers with pointed bases buried in the ground. In Burgundy in 1098 AD monks were given clumps of land. They discovered the best soil and how to plant their vineyards with walls surrounding them -“clos”, (enclosure).

We were shown slides of the Book of Hours with the calendar showing how in March they were tending the vines and in September harvesting them. David showed us 16th and 17th century Dutch paintings of Clipper ships transporting wine – the Dutch Merchant Fleet “Dutch Fluyt” . Jan Steen’s The Drunken Couple c 1660 in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Brothers Clark taking wine – Garwen Hamilton c 1735 in the Yale Centre for British Art. Then Thomas Rowlandson the cartoonist in 1801.

Another very familiar one is The Guingette (the Boat Party) by Renoir. All these works of art tell their story of the culture of the consumption of wine.

David went on to tell us about the importance of labels on wine which was interesting too.

This lecture was much appreciated.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Rupert gave us a fascinating and informative talk. However, this is a huge subject and he had a lot to say in an hour. He produced plenty of good slides. He described how the Normans invaded England. The invasion fleet crossed from Normandy by night in late September of 1066. This was a dangerous 12 hour crossing. They disbanded at Pevensey and, having fallen flat on his face, “Duke William” picked up shingle and announced “I have taken England in both hands”. They came to seize and conquer. The Battle of Hastings ensued and William the Conqueror and his eleven principal henchmen divided the land between them. These Norman Knights were ready to cut the throats of farmers to seize their land. The man who received most was William’s half-brother, Bishop of Bayeux. He took the Manor of Kent and built Dover Castle. They built castles, cathedrals and churches all over the country. Winchester Cathedral was built in 1079 and Durham Cathedral in 1093.

It was the Knights of 1066 who became the 12th – 13th Century Crusaders known as The Soldiers of Christ.

Rupert gave us great insight into the influence of the Normans with plenty of interesting historical facts complimented by many amusing anecdotes. He certainly kept our interest and gave us a most enjoyable morning.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

In order to hold a live lecture at appropriate social distance we needed a much large venue than the Assembly Rooms.  Happily, by teaming up with the Chichester and Lavant Valley societies, we were able to arrange a lecture in the Chichester Festival Theatre.  The Theatre was happy to have us and used the morning as one of their test runs for opening up the theatre.  The initiative was welcomed by The Arts Society Chief Executive, Florian Schweizer, and the Area Chair, Jillie Moss, both of whom attended as guests.  Susequently The Arts Society has sent a bulletin to other societies which you can read here.

The lecture was attended by an enthusiastic audience who had not experienced a live lecture since the lockdown in March due to the Coronavirus epidemic. “You could have heard a pin drop”!

This lecture by Simon Seligman had already been booked by The Chichester Society as their October lecture.

Simon had worked at Chatsworth from 1991 to 2010, ending up as Head of Communications .

When he was 12 years old he was given a book “The Great Houses of Britain” and on seeing a picture of Chatsworth, he decided that when he grew up he wanted to work there. His dream came true. At the age of 25, and with an Art History degree, he rang Chatsworth asking if there was a job available. After an hour long interview with the Duchess she told him there really was nothing for him but, seeing his enthusiasm, she took him on to clean the loos in the morning and man the car park in the afternoon. She told him that he would be the first person the members of the public came across as they entered the grounds of Chatsworth and it was most important that he gave everyone a suitable welcome. He was over the moon and they had clearly made a good choice in hiring him!

Deborah (‘Debo’), the youngest of the Mitford sisters, married Lord Andrew Cavendish, younger son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire in 1941. (His older brother William was killed in action in 1944). On the death of his father in 1950 Andrew became the 11th Duke of Devonshire and was faced with having to sort out horrific death duties with inheritance tax running at 80%. Although the Duchy owned other estates, including Bolton Abbey and Baslow, Chatsworth is where they lived out their lives. Chatsworth is the most emulated and popular historic house, gardens and estates in the country. Debo played a key role in the restoration of the house, the enhancement of the garden and the development of commercial activities such as Chatsworth Farm Shop which, unlike any other farm shop, employs 100 people. She was even known to man the ticket office! She ran the house and made it what it is today. They were determined it should not become a theme park as other grand estates had become. It was Debo who insisted on opening a farm shop, selling meat and produce from the estate and it has become very popular and lucrative. She approached visitors in the café and browsing in the shop asking them directly how they were enjoying their visit and where improvements could be made. She made their visit personal and was loved by all who knew her and worked with her.

Simon said she was his boss, mentor and dear friend. He said her energy, wit and passion for what she did was infectious and she just got things done. They clearly got on really well and his career at Chatsworth culminated in his appointment as Head of Communications. He absolutely loved the place and really admired Debo and all she stood for.

In 1999 the Duchess was awarded a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) by the Queen for her service to the Royal Collection Trust. Upon the death of her husband in 2004 their son, Peregrine Cavendish, was made the 12th Duke of Devonshire.

She wrote several books about her life, the Mitfords and life at Chatsworth.

She died in September 2014 and is buried in Chatsworth Parish Church.

This was an extremely professional and well presented lecture by an engaging lecturer giving an interesting insight into the life of both the Devonshires and the Mitfords.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Caroline gave us a most interesting and well researched lecture on a fascinating subject. She told us about the secret work done by heroic curators and dedicated people in the summer of 1939 to make sure that some of the country’s national treasures were safely stored in the event of bombing in the Second World War. As Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel artefacts from the National Gallery, the British Museum, The Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Public Records Office and the Royal Collection were removed and taken to safe places. Caroline’s slides showed how vans were loaded and travelled at dead of night to disused slate mines in Wales and to Cumbria. The Elgin Marbles were stored with other stone and marble statues from the British Museum, in the underground. Paintings and textiles needed to be stored in dry conditions and were taken to Stately Homes in the depths of the countryside . Important items from the Public Records Office were taken to Shepton Mallet, to Haddon Hall in Derbyshire and Clandon Park in Surrey. Caroline has almost completed a book she has written on the subject which is entitled ‘National Treasures’ and will be published by John Murray towards the end of 2021. The slides she produced were very good but there could have been more of them. I think the lecture would have benefitted from being given in the Assembly Rooms as Caroline read from a script. However, she certainly kept our interest and gave us a most enjoyable morning.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

This was a very informative, enjoyable and humorous lecture. Timothy began by telling us that in 1888 Gertrude Jekyll wrote “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”. As an accomplished watercolour artist, Miss Jekyll was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt that in gardens these principles had been greatly neglected. Boogaert was someone who hand coloured all 5000 shades! He showed an amazing slide showing all the colours.

Timothy had wonderful slides of borders with clashing colours such as bright pink and orange plants side by side and the use of different shades of green. He took us through the day with slides of the same border changing from early morning to evening according to the light and shade.

This illustrated talk showed us how contemporary work of the likes of Turner, Monet and Hockney evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

Timothy was full of amusing stories and anecdotes which went to make a most entertaining morning.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary
 

This was our first on-line lecture, delivered via both Zoom and YouTube to a combined audience of over 120.  Most people coped with the technical challenges really well and there was very positive feedback.

It was a most interesting lecture on London’s skyline. Ian began with slides of famous landmarks such as the Tower of London, the Palace of Westminster, St. Paul’s Cathedral before the Great Fire and the one we know now built by Sir Christopher Wren along with the City churches all of which are dwarfed by the towering skyscrapers we see today.

He told us about the tallest twenty buildings in London in order of their height, ending with the highest, being the Shard, built in 2013 and measuring 310 metres. Ian embellished his talk with amusing anecdotes and explained how some buildings were built and maintained. The current plan was not to make them so iconic that they become “listed”, meaning that they can never be taken down in the future.

Ian explained how these buildings are used as offices and for residential use. He said that we stand at a crossroads. Will the planned new office buildings ever be built and who will live in the tall residential buildings programmed to be built along the south bank of The Thames all the way to the old Battersea Power Station? As the world steers its way through the coronavirus epidemic and people have got accustomed to working from home we have to “Watch this Space”.

An excellent lecture well received by our members.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

This talk highlighted the architecture of historic swimming pools from the late Victorian and Edwardian era to the present day. These municipal buildings were the pride and joy of the towns and cities in which they were built. They were all over the British Isles. Simon came equipped with excellent slides which illustrated how huge and ornate some of these buildings were. There was terracotta carving on the outside in some cases and stained glass windows depicting the sport. There were also elaborate viewing galleries above the pools. In many cases, for example the Victoria Baths in Manchester, they had a hot water bath, a cold water bath and a tepid one in the middle. He took us through the decades showing pools built in the 1920s and 30s with very high diving boards and ended his talk showing us slides of indoor swimming pools as they are today.

The lecture was well received and some members of the audience said that it brought back happy memories of their childhood visits to the ‘baths’, albeit rather less salubrious than they are today and that the subject was a refreshing change.

Simon produced his book “Great Lengths” which he had written with wonderful illustrations. He spoke clearly, fluently and knew his subject inside out. His enthusiasm was infectious. The lecture was much enjoyed by the audience.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Artemisia Gentileschi was a baroque Italian painter of the seventeenth century and one of the most accomplished following the death of Caravaggio. She was a rarity in that she was one of only a few women painters. Born in 1593, her father was the artist Orazio Gentileschi. Chantal showed us paintings by each of them side by side. In some cases they painted similar subjects but used different techniques. Artemisia’s subjects were mostly savage. One of her most famous paintings is Judith slaying Holofernes – a gruesome beheading. This is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and it forms part of the group of subjects art critics have called the ‘Power of Women’ which show women triumphing over men. She used rich colours to paint sumptuous robes which were very striking. Artemisia painted voluptuous women and used herself as the model for many of her paintings. Susanna and the Elders and Judith and her Maidservant are well-known paintings of the same period.

She moved between Rome, Florence, Naples and London. Her work reflects the different tastes of these cities. She was the first woman to become a member of The Academia d’Arte del Designo in Florence and had an international clientele. it is thought she died in the Plague that swept Naples in 1656.

Chantal’s talk was well delivered. She spoke clearly without notes, displayed an excellent choice of slides showing a clear time line. Her enthusiasm and humour made the lecture most entertaining and was well received by her audience.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Andrew gave us an interesting, amusing and factual lecture about this fascinating subject and it was very well received by a full audience.  He was bursting with enthusiasm from start to finish and had no notes at all.  He was easy to hear and understand.

He explained that Londinium was a settlement established on the current site of the City of London around AD 43.  The site was chosen because of the proximity of the River Thames.  As  Andrew pointed out “No River, No London”.  Andrew showed us early maps and drawings and how the building of the first London Bridge over the River Thames turned the city into a major port and was the main means of transport for everyone.  He showed us paintings of Old London Bridge with shops on it and the first Tower Bridge with the Tower on the other side where it is today.  By 1500 artists began to flock to London and we were shown paintings by Canaletto, who spent ten years living in London, familiar ones by JMW Turner and more from Whistler to Monet.  These painting showed the lives of the people, the busy river and frost fairs on the Thames in winter.  We saw the changed skyline after the Great Fire of London, after which Christopher Wren rebuilt St. Paul’s Cathedral and the many City churches we know today.

We were treated to a very special morning.  We hope to welcome this speaker again in the future.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Two years ago Jacqueline Cockburn delighted us with her account of the relationship between Van Gogh and Gauguin. She returned to Chichester to tell us about Picasso and his women. Many people find the subject of Picasso and his art rather bemusing (pun intended) but Jacqueline, in her very clear style gave us such a succinct account of Picasso’s relationship with Marie Thérèse Walter and her place in his art that even those who remained confirmed Picasso sceptics were able to come away from the lecture saying “well I still don’t like Picasso but now I understand”. However, for those of us who find Picasso’s many styles of painting fascinating it was a most enthralling morning.

Picasso met the seventeen year old Marie Thérèse in 1927, when he was forty-four years old and married to Olga Khokhlova, with a small son, Paulo. She had no idea who he was when he approached her in the street, saying “You have an interesting face, I think we could do great things together – my name is Picasso”. She said of this first meeting “You don’t resist Picasso, a woman doesn’t resist Picasso”. She was his clandestine muse and one of the things which he loved about their relationship was its secret nature. He found her physically fascinating – she was very athletic and voluptuous, with a classical profile – her nose was to feature in so many of his paintings and sculptures over the coming years. He liked her nose, she hated it. Because he was still married he could not represent Marie-Thérèse physically and so her nose and her blond hair came to represent her in many enigmatic paintings. Her nose was very prominent in ‘Seated Woman’ of 1927, and ‘Bathers on the Beach’ of 1928 was extremely graphic and the key to the cabin is the key to the way they carried on their relationship. Brancusi was very influential in Picasso’s work of this period, Brancusi was working for Rodin and so Rodin was influential in both Brancusi’s and Picasso’s work of this period.

Gradually, over the years they were together, Picasso’s body became fused with Marie-Thérèse’s head in many of his works (eg The Dream of 1932). She spent much time in his studio whilst he was working, either reading or sleeping – he loved to paint her asleep – his painting ‘Asleep’ of 1932 is very touching, focussing on her eyes and her lips.

During the 1930s there were lots of paintings of Marie Thérèse in his exhibitions. In 1933 she contracted a disease which caused her to lose all her hair. He depicts her in that year without her hair in “Woman with a Vase”. When she got pregnant their relationship was more or less at an end and it was not long until the photographer Dora Maar attracted his attention.

It’s well known that Picasso’s style changed with each of his women and with Dora Marr his style became more figurative – ‘Mother and Child’ 1938. When Guernica was bombed by the Nazis in 1937, Picasso responded by painting the anti-war mural Guernica and also a number of additional paintings – Weeping Woman is the last of these and is based on Dora Maar. However, mostly his paintings of Dora were tender but not overtly sexual as his Marie-Thérèse paintings were.

Picasso supported Marie-Thérèse and their daughter Maya financially and after Olga died he asked her to marry him, but she refused. Picasso died in 1973 and four years later in 1977 she committed suicide.

Celia O’Shea

Patricia gave us the benefit of her extraordinary research into this fascinating subject which went down well with the audience and which was a piece of history which was both interesting and shocking.

In 16th century Venice families could only afford the dowry required for one of their daughters to marry. If they had more than one daughter, they were forced to enter convents at the age of 10 to 12 years old. They underwent a ceremony whereby their heads were shaved and they were put into nuns’ habit. To begin with they lived in what could best be called a boarding school. They never came out of the convents although there were one or two who tried to escape. They could be visited occasionally by their families who would be beautifully attired and leading the life of the nobility. The nuns could only watch them from behind high windows with grills on.

At the same time there was huge growth in the number and wealth of Venetian Courtesans who flourished in this distorted society and who were notorious throughout Europe. They enjoyed unique privileges. Dressed richly in red, they read, composed poetry and music and discussed affairs of state with the men who governed the Republic. With the influx from the trade route it was necessary for Venice to sustain the tourists and merchants that came and went from the City.

The lecture included slides of paintings by Pietro Longhi, Gabriel Bella, Francesco Guardi and others.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Julia Musgrave gave us a well-researched, enlightening and humorous talk on the life and work of Salvador Dali. His father was a lawyer in Figueres where he grew up. He was born in 1904 and at the age of five Dali was taken to his brother’s grave and told by his parents that he was a reincarnated image of his brother who had died a few months before. They even gave him the same name. He started believing that this was true and it had a profound influence on his life.

Cadaques was one of his greatest sources of inspiration. Some of Salvador Dali’s paintings are based on the coastline of the town in North Eastern Spain. The sky, the sea, the rocks of Cadaques were very dear to Dali because it is where he used to spend his time during the holidays with his family. Julia showed slides of the rocks and explained the double images which Dali saw in them.

He had an unusual marriage. In August 1929 Dali met the love of his life, Elena Ivanova Diakonova, better known as Gala. Unfortunately she was already married to the French surrealist poet Paul Eluard. Dali didn’t mind “She was destined to be my wife” he said!

Julia brought to life for us this Spanish surrealist painter and printmaker influential for his exploration of subconscious imagery. Dali depicted with realistic detail a dream world where commonplace objects often metamorphosed in a bizarre and irrational fashion. He went through a period of impressionist painting, then he followed Serat before going into his surrealist period of eccentric and erotic painting with dual images. He met Sigmund Freud in 1939 after which he renewed his psychoanalysis.

Apart from being a painter, he was a writer, a poet, engraver, sculptor, architect, photographer, theatre designer and jewellery designer. He was as interested in science as he was in art and brought mathematics into his paintings. He was a complex psychopath, a rebel and a genius and we shall never see the like of him again.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Graham likes to call it a presentation as that is what it is. He illustrates the life of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, seated at his piano keyboard together with associated slides. Mozart was composing pieces for the piano by the age of five but at first he could not write music so his father wrote it down. By the time he was eight Mozart was already a prolific composer and that is when the family came to live in London in Ebury Street. This is described with images of 18th century Chelsea. He played at the Royal Court of George III. He was a child prodigy and defied the medical profession who were brought in to examine him.

Graham involved the audience, asking questions and playing numerous short pieces by Mozart, explaining how they came to be unmistakenly identified as his by the inclusion of “appogiaturas”. It was fascinating to both those who call themselves musical and to those who do not. To end the morning, he played an astonishing Polonaise melancolique by Mozart’s own child-prodigy, Franz Xaver, the son he never knew who was born a few months after he died.

We were treated to a most entertaining and memorable morning by a highly accomplished musician who knows how to interact with his audience.

Elaine Leaver
Programme Secretary

Tony Rawlins started his career in advertising at J.Walter Thompson and worked in a number of other advertising agencies before setting up on his own in 1985. He was responsible for the Guinness account and showed us several advertisements which were familiar to our audience. He showed a slide of a rustic wooden handmade sign at the edge of a field saying FRESH EGGS. The eggs would be tempting unlike FLYING LESSONS being offered with the same sign in the same place! A bit dodgy maybe?

Tony went on to show us how the advertising industry uses old master paintings in their advertisements. He showed us Michelangelo’s David and in the next slide the David in Levi shorts! Pears soap was advertised in a Millais painting of a child with a pipe and a perfect complexion, sitting in the street with the soap on the ground. Mona Lisa appeared with a mop of curly black hair advertising a hair product. Botticelli’s angels on clouds are used frequently.

The lecture was clever, amusing and informative. Tony kept the audience’s attention. There was much laughter, particularly over the final video of young people posing in famous paintings, dressed (or undressed) as appropriate for the era – some playing musical instruments. A really enjoyable morning and something quite different for us.

Elaine Leaver, Programme Secretary

Élisabeth Vigée le Brun (1755-1842) was born in Paris, the daughter of an artist Louis Vigée, and as a child was always sketching, but at that time the professions were denied to women. Her father died when she was twelve and a year later her mother married a wealthy jeweller. Élisabeth hated him; by the time she was in her teens she was painting portraits professionally but her stepfather took all her earnings when she was young. At the age of seventeen she painted a stunning portrait of her brother who later became a playwright and poet.

In 1776 she married Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, she wasn’t too keen but her mother encouraged her and they married when she was twenty, and had a daughter, Julie in 1780. LeBrun (great-great nephew of Charles LeBrun, founding member of the Académie Royale) was a painter and art dealer so she began exhibiting her work at their home in Paris and the Salons she held there enabled her to make important contacts.

The Salon was closed to women, however, she painted ‘Allegory of Poetry’ in 1774 especially to show the Salon that she could produce Salon-worthy paintings, which conformed to expectations of the Hierarchy of the Genres (History Painting was the most important genre descending in importance to Still Life at the bottom). In 1783, with support from several recognised male painters, including Joseph Vernet and Hubert Robert, of whom she painted a particularly good portrait,.she was accepted as a member of the Academy, one of only fifteen women to be granted full membership. The painting which gained her membership was Peace Bringing Back Abundance, not only conforming to the highest genre (mythological, historical) but also very timely – the American Revolution had just ended.

Women were accepted into important families and at court to teach the women and paint ‘wife’ portraits. So she became Court Painter to Marie Antoinette and painted her in various guises. They developed a very close relationship and Vigée le Brun painted her thirty times before the revolution. After a visit to the Netherlands with her husband in 1781 she became greatly influenced by the Flemish masters and in a direct comparison to Rubens’ portrait of his second wife Hélène Fourment, painted herself in a straw hat. Her two self-portraits with her daughter, in the Louvre, show her as a beautiful young woman and mother – almost a Greek goddess!

In 1788 things were changing in Paris and becoming very difficult. Soldiers came into her studio and threatened to arrest her; they told her to get out of Paris because of her association with royalty (she had good friends who were guillotined because they stayed). Then began her life of peregrination. She arrived in Italy in 1789, enormously relieved to have escaped and was welcomed with open arms. She saw as much art as she could in Tuscany and was invited to provide a self-portrait to go into Vasari’s Corridor at the Uffizi , for which she painted herself painting Marie Antoinette. In France she became known as an enemy of the state and was placed on a blacklist. From Florence she went to Rome and then on to Naples where she painted Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen Consort of Naples and sister of Marie Antoinette. Emma Hamilton was there at the same time and so Vigée LeBrun painted her four times. From Italy she went to Vienna where she spent three years and then on to St Petersburg and spent a further six years in Russia working for Catherine the Great.

She lived through extraordinary times. Her husband had to divorce her for political expedience and when she finally returned to France in 1801 she was rather wary of her reception. However, she lived with her ex-husband and Napoleon commissioned her six times to paint his sister. When she was in England she could demand three times what Reynolds could charge for portraits. From England she went to Switzerland, where she painted not only portraits but also a few landscapes. However, these were not as lucrative as portraits, so she returned to Russia and to portraits.

She lost all her money several times but could always paint another portrait! During her lifetime none of her works were exhibited in France but with the Restoration her paintings gradually found their way into all the major art galleries.

Celia O’Shea

The first ever political cartoon depicted Henry VIII trampling on Pope Clement VII. This was Henry wanting a divorce, which of course, lead to the split in the Church. Henry was not satirised at all. However, when we think of cartoons we expect humour and in particular satire. The first real satirical cartoon satirised James I’s arrival in 1588 and the gunpowder plot in 1605 and was called ‘Double Deliverance’ . It is an anti-Catholic satire in three parts, in which the destruction of England is plotted by the Pope, a cardinal, the Devil, a Spanish grandee (probably Philip II) and a Jesuit, all seated at a table with three monks in attendance and to the right, Guy Fawkes.

The eighteenth century saw biting satirical cartoons – a famous image of Walpole with trousers round his knees and those seeking preferment forced to walk through his bare legs – the message being that you have to ‘kiss the ass’ of the Prime Minister in order to progress through the corridors of power. The most famous cartoonist of the eighteenth century, Hogarth, was more of a moral satirist with images like Gin Lane, showing the dire effects of gin on the people, but he also set the trend for political satire with two plates concerning the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War. In the second plate British troops are seen sitting outside an inn named ‘Duke of Cumberland’, referring to the last time the French attempted to invade England and were defeated at Culloden. Hogarth shows a disciplined British army with a high morale.

James Gillray’s ‘The Plum pudding in Danger’, took political satire to new heights in the Georgian period, with Napoleon and William Pitt attempting to carve up the world. Gillray invented the term ‘The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street'.

Ian took us through the centuries with Edmund Burke, followed by George Cruikshank, who gave us ‘Little Boney gone to pot’ where Elba is represented by a flat-topped rock emerging from the sea and a ragged and bare-legged Napoleon sits on a huge chamber-pot. Cruikshank dealt mercilessly with the Prince Regent, showing him fat and debauched.

At this time cartoons were stand alone prints, sold in print shops, not part of a newspapers. Not until wood engraving developed could an image be positioned next to text and Cruikshank’s cartoon was paired with a nursery rhyme The House that Jack Built . The Political House that Jack Built, a radical political satire by William Hone and George Cruikshank was published in the year of the Peterloo Massacre.

Once the Prince Regent ascended the throne in 1821 it became no longer acceptable to mock the monarch and with William IV and Queen Victoria there came a complete change in tone – so ending Cruikshank’s career. When Punch was founded in 1841 Cruikshank thought it too middleclass! It contained very wordy captions. John Leech worked as a caricaturist and illustrator for Punch, combining verbal and graphic political satire with social comedy. He was succeeded by John Tenniel who produced political cartoons for Punch for over ten years. Other (now) household names followed in quick succession – Max Beerbohm, Bruce Bairnsfather who was famous for his cartoon of the two ‘Tommies’ with the caption ‘Well, if you knows of a better ‘ole, go to it’.

Coming into modern times Ian introduced us to HM Bateman and his ‘the Man Who’ cartoons, David Low, Ronald Searle – who was not political but very influential, and Gerald Scarfe.

Moving on to World War II, Cyril Kenneth Bird, known as Fougasse, also worked on cartoons for Punch and was famous for his propaganda posters “Careless Talk costs lives”. Giles, also working in World War Two has been compared with Hogarth in that he includes a huge amount of detail. The cartoonist Vicky gave us Gaitskell and Bevan riding into the Blackpool conference on a tandem, he also invented ‘Super-mac’ in 1958 – referring to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

In the 1960s Private Eye heralded a complete change of style. Steve Bell of the Guardian. invented the image of John Major with his Union Jack underpants, and Ian brought us right up to date with Theresa May Kicking the bare bottom of Boris Johnson, called The Chastising of Boris. And no talk on Cartoons and Cartoonists would be complete without a mention of Charlie Hebdo, the French Equivalent of Private Eye. Ian finished with a Matt Brexit cartoon showing Theresa May pulling a stabbed rabbit out of a hat.

This was a fast flowing talk, very informative but also extremely entertaining – our members had a most enjoyable morning!

Celia O’Shea

What a treat for our first lecture of the year!

Adam is himself a lutenist and had brought with him not only his lute but also his theorbo. The lute is considered the queen of instruments – the king being the human voice – since it is God-given! Music and art have become separated, but we should consider the language used to describe the textures and timbres of paint – so often musical terms, especially in relation to architecture. Vasari, the first art-historical writer, in his ‘Lives of the Artists’ in the sixteenth century, writes about the musical pursuits of artists. Leonardo played the lute and included lute players in many paintings. Giorgione in Venice, played and sang, and the lute takes a prominent position in his ‘Fête Champêtre ‘. In the fifteenth century Masaccio features two musical angels in the central panel of his Pisa altarpiece.

How old is the lute?  It was imported into England from the Middle East In the thirteenth century, originally called the oud, and was first seen in religious paintings. Europeans added more strings, although the myth about cat gut is just that – it was actually cattle gut. The rose sound-hole is very middle eastern and typical of Islamic art. Originally the lute was played with a plectrum, one note at a time, and gradually lute players achieved a polyphonic sound using fingers – Adam demonstrated both of these styles.

By studying these paintings, lute makers are able to see how lutes were once made. In the sixteenth century some were very elaborate and highly decorated, and became the instrument of the accomplished courtier. Henry VIII owned twenty six lutes! Music became a symbol of harmony and Titian’s painting of two boys shows the boy on the left holding his lute (the other boy has his hand on the music sheet). But in Holbein’s painting ‘the Ambassadors’ the broken string on the lute symbolises discord and disharmony – relating to the split with the church and Henry’s divorce. This painting is full of symbolism, for example, the German for lute is laute, which sounds like Luther. From Brueghel to Titian paintings have featured Orpheus – the message here is that music has the ability to move us.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the golden age of lute music, it suited the fashion for melancholia, and Adam illustrated this with John Dowland’s ‘Flow, my tears’. Musicians made excellent ambassadors, since many of the most important courtiers were also musicians. Nicolas Lanier, courtier to Charlies I, was famed for playing the lute. His portrait in 1613 shows him playing the lute and he became the first to hold the title Master of the King’s Music; he travelled to Italy to collect paintings for Charles I.

In Caravaggio’s ‘Four Boys’, the lute takes centre stage and gives us an allegory denoting the relationship between music and love. Songs written for lute players and singers were often written for falsetto and castrati voices, and in this painting Caravaggio is telling us that learning about love is like learning an instrument – both can be painful. Caravaggio was to have a most profound and huge influence on the course of western art and Ter Brugghen (one of the leading Dutch followers of Caravaggio) appears to have taken his subject almost directly from Caravaggio - especially in the use of feathers, symbolising the flippancy of youth.

The lute has associations not only with youth and beauty but also with death. Vanitas paintings are essays on the vanities of life: life is as short as a note played on a lute. Vermeer showed us that music played on a lute works best in small groups, and Adam explained that old music needs to be heard in old buildings with hard floors etc.

As the lute went out of fashion its place was taken by the Theorbo, which was much longer, louder, very complex and felt to be rather ridiculous – Watteau’s early eighteenth century painting ‘the Music Party’ features a theorbo player ‘centre stage’, whose instrument is almost as big as the person playing it. The Dolmetsch family revived the popularity of the lute in 1919, and our most recent famous lutenist is Julian Bream, perhaps more commonly known for his classical guitar music.

Adam finished by suggesting that next time we see a lute in a painting we ask “What does that painting sound like?”

Celia O’Shea

It was all Pope Gregory’s fault!

Mary Magdalene was much maligned and shaking off a reputation as a reformed prostitute has been no easy task. However, there is no biblical evidence that she was a reformed prostitute! All we know is that she came from Galileo and Christ cast out seven devils – devils or demons were responsible for all kinds of mental and physical problems – from insanity to headaches.

She plays a very important and significant role in the story. She was the first person to see the risen Christ; she led the three Marys who arrived at the tomb. In very early depictions she is shown as a very respectable lady, and it is now thought that she may have been a wealthy lady and been responsible for financing Christ and his followers. Despite the fact that at the time, legally, women’s testimony was considered invalid, all four gospels carry the story that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome were the first to find the tomb empty and be instructed by the angel to go and tell his disciples; this leads current experts to believe that this version has historical validity. For the Eastern Orthodox Church she was known as ‘the apostle to the apostles’.

All this changed when Pope Gregory the Great decided that there were too many Marys in the bible and conflated some of them and from then on her reputation was ruined. In short Mary Magdalene has been confused with several other women in the Bible, most significantly and problematically with the unnamed sinner of Luke’s gospel. He tells of a woman who bathes Jesus’ feet with her tears, anoints them with ointment and then dries them with her hair. It gets more and more complicated when the unnamed sinner who washes Christ’s feet gets muddled with Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus. It seems that the combination of tears and ointment jars is the basis for the confusion. Geri showed a painting by the fifteenth century Polish artist Haberschrack of the Three Marys at the Tomb, each carrying a jar of myrrh to anoint the body.

During the Renaissance, from Voragine’s Golden Legend, she acquired a new image, and one of the legends claimed that she was the abandoned wife of John the Evangelist, on whom Christ took pity. Also according to Voragine, after the crucifixion she fled to France and performed many miracles. She retired to the hills and became a hermit, clothed only in her long hair, and every morning she was lifted to heaven for food. Tilman Riemenschneider, German sculptor shows her as covered in hair!

Some artists became fixated on her suffering - Donatello’s emaciated and very moving Mary in the fifteenth century, others focussed on images of the distraught Mary – often in green – a very non-Christian colour. Grünewald’s Isenehim altarpiece focuses on her hands as does Van der Weyden in his Descent from the Cross where she is so distraught that she has to hand her jar of ointment to someone else.

There are many, many relics of Mary all over Europe – bones, fingers, arms crop up all over the place. She came to exemplify the faithful and repentant sinner, which suited the Catholic doctrine for many years that no-one is beyond redemption.

Celia O'Shea

An engineer by training, educated at Winchester and Oxford, John spent much of his working life in the City of London.  He now runs his own business advising owners of historic houses and landscapes.  Among his clients he counts The National Trust and the Crown Estate as well as several privately owned properties.

 John began his lecture by explaining that most British architecture tends to look back to classical Greece and Rome – citing the Pantheon in 126 AD.   Man has always built, but the first peoples whose building style you could call ‘architecture’ were the Greeks.   

Architecture is a language, it communicates ideas.   Every country names its architectural periods after reigning dynasties – Norman, Elizabethan, Georgian and so on, except for ‘Palladian’ (so called after Andrea Palladio).   

John quoted Osbert Lancaster and his rather simplistic but memorable system of recognising various forms of architecture:-

   Greek – columns and pediments

   Roman – triumphalist e.g. the Arch of Constantine

   Byzantine – combining Christian and Islamic iconography – The Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia in Istanbul) began as a Christian Church in the Greek style in the 5th century with 15th century detail turning it into a mosque.   

   Romanesque – rounded arches (we call them Norman arches – after the Norsemen,the Vikings, who brought the style with them –  an example of this is Durham Cathedral with its interlaced Romanesque Arcading and chequerboard patterning.

   Gothic – pointy (as John described them) arches –  seen in France at Beauvais and in England in Salisbury.

Many English cathedrals started as Romanesque and then as additions and alterations were made, became Gothic – (Chichester).

He then moved on to discuss architecture of the Renaissance – Italianate, Baroque, Neoclassical and so on.  In Italy, anything which is ‘post-Gothic’ was labelled Renaissance, and he spoke of Neoclassical dialects – Renaissance Baroque, Rococo, Palladian and Italianate.    Moving on to discriminate the styles of English Architecture he described Winchester as an essentially Romanesque Abbey.   Built on the site of the Battle of Hastings, Battle Abbey was part memorial to the Norman victory and part a penance for the slaughter during the Norman Invasion.   Gloucester cathedral is a fine example of the English Perpendicular style, and the Victorians loved the highly decorated style exemplified by Lincoln cathedral, a favourite of Ruskin.

Political Revolutions bring a wish for architectural reform.   With the Industrial Revolution came a need/desire for factories, canals, schools, and so on, but there was a dichotomy between Neoclassical and Victorian Gothic.   Birmingham and Todmorden Town Halls are fine examples of the  Neoclassicism of the early Victorian period.  However, the Catholic emancipation Act of 1829 brought a surge of new cathedral building, mostly in Gothic style.   The British Museum, begun in 1823, was designed in the Greek Revival style, emulating classical Greek architecture, including columns and pediment.   This style came from Italy during the Renaissance and was based on the work of Andrea Palladio, whose most famous work, the four Books of Architecture (I Quattro Libri dell’Architectura) published in 1570, had far reaching influence all over Europe.

John showed us the three basic orders of architecture inherited from the Greeks – Doric, Ionian and Corinthian and to these the Romans added – Tuscan, a simplified version of the Doric and Composite, a more ornamented version of Corinthian, as described by Palladio.  Inigo Jones studied Palladio and classical antiquity and was the first person to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.   In the early nineteenth century in Britain the debate continued between Neoclassical and Gothic;  John Nash designed Neoclassical buildings like All Souls, Langham Place, whereas Vanbrugh (also a playwright) designed Baroque structures like Blenheim Palace.   In Chichester we have a fine example of Neoclassical architecture in our Corn Exchange.   

So why did the Victorian era favour gothic so strongly?   Possibly because Prince Albert wanted to be seen as very English and Neoclassicism was rather European.   John Ruskin, the most influential art critic of his day was particularly interested in the decoration and colour of buildings.      After the fire of 1834, it was Sir Charles Barry who won the contract to rebuild the Palace of Westminster, creating a Gothic exterior with a highly decorated Gothic interior designed by Pugin.

The later Victorian age saw several other Victorian Gothic edifices in London -  the Law courts, designed by George Edmund Street and St Pancras Station by Gilbert Scott.   Gothic has continued into the twentieth century with Gilbert Scott’s design for Liverpool Cathedral.  Guildford Cathedral designed by Edward Maufe and built in mid twentieth century shows us how Victorian Gothic can not only survive but ‘modernise’ itself.

C O’Shea

Fiona’s interest in the Arts & Crafts Movement began in her teenage years when she fell in love with William Morris’ textile prints.   Soon she found she had fallen in love with the man.

William was the third of ten children, born in 1834 to wealthy middle class parents in the then largely rural area of Walthamstow. 

He studied classics at Oxford where he developed a keen interest in Medieval history and Medieval architecture.   This had echoes with Britain’s growing Medievalist movement.  William was influenced by the novels of Walter Scott and the legends of King Arthur.   It was at Oxford where he met ‘Ned’ (Sir Edward) Burne-Jones.   Together they visited Northern France to study cathedrals.   Both he and Burne-Jones had intended to be priests but  Morris decided instead to become an architect.   He began training, apprenticed to George Edmund Street, under the supervision of Philip Webb, with whom he formed a close friendship.  Webb later designed The Red House, in Bexleyheath, for William and Jane, in medieval style with gothic arches and a pitched roof;  Morris called it more of a poem than a house.

He was not suited to architecture and he decided that like Burne-Jones he wanted to be a painter.   Burne-Jones had become apprenticed to one of the leading Pre-Raphaelite painters, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and it was Rossetti who spotted Jane Burden, a ‘stunner’, his medieval maiden, and introduced her to Morris.   They married, but it is thought that the marriage was not especially happy – she went on to have a fairly public affair with Rossetti.

The Morrises invited friends, in particular Rossetti and his wife Lizzie Siddal and Burne-Jones and his wife Georgiana to stay at weekends and invited them to decorate the house with murals.   In 1861 he founded ‘The Firm’ (Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.), with six other partners, including Philip Webb, Burne-Jones and Rossetti.   Morris saw the company less as a business, more as a means to reform art through good design to the benefit of both consumer and creator.  

In 1871 Rossetti and Morris had taken a joint tenancy for Kelmscott Manor.   Morris adored the building, describing it as ‘Heaven on Earth’, and a place for his family to spend time away from the pollution of the city.   However, Rossetti was unhappy there and eventually suffered a mental breakdown.   In 1871 Morris left Jane and his children with Rossetti at Kelmscott for a visit to Iceland to study Icelandic myths.   When the lease was up Morris cut Rossetti out and took complete control of the Firm and it was during this time he learned the skills necessary to revive the production of organic dyes,and, finally, weaving.   

Through living and working in close proximity to the pollution and deprivations caused by industry, he began to understand the extremely poor conditions under which the proletariat worked and lived.   He was troubled by the contradiction between his concern for the poor and socially deprived and the wealthy elite who were his clients; and towards the end of the 1870s  Morris became increasingly involved in political activism and helped form the new Socialist League in 1884.  

The Firm was becoming extremely successful and in 1881 Morris took out a lease on a former silk weaving factory at Merton Abbey in Southwest London.   In 1889 he moved the family home again to a mansion in Hammersmith (this he renamed Kelmscott House).

He was a prolific writer – poetry, fiction, essays and translations of ancient and medieval texts and his final novel The Sundering Flood was in the stage of being finally polished when he died.   However his utopian socialist “News from Nowhere” is probably his most important work in terms of gaining an insight into Morris’ political views.

Morris’s ethos was that one should “have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”.  He also believed that “No work which cannot be done with pleasure in the doing is worth doing”.    He was a poet, a designer, author, publisher, entrepreneur, weaver, translator, calligrapher, visionary, socialist and environmentalist, said Fiona.      It’s no wonder that on his death, at the age of sixty-two his physician declared that the cause was “simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men”.

Celia O’Shea

Through our lecture programme we try to cover as many of the arts as possible, and on 28th June Elizabeth Merry came to Chichester to speak to us about William Blake, whose work makes the link between literature and art. We are familiar with works like ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘The Ancient of Days’, with his Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and of course The Tyger but Elizabeth put them into context by telling of us of the man: poet, painter, printmaker, but also a romantic, a visionary. Blake was mainly educated by his mother and was heavily influenced by the Bible which remained a key inspiration to his work throughout his life.

As a boy Blake was apprenticed to an engraver and became a professional engraver. He developed the technique of relief engraving instead of waxing the plate. And it was during this time he developed the concept of Albion, the mythical story of the founding of Britain. Blake’s work of this time drew heavily on Biblical and Celtic mythology, plus his own mythology. As a painter he was an admirer of Raphael, Dürer and Michelangelo and this is evident in his illustration of Melancholy for Milton’s “Il Penseroso” and it is known that Blake had a copy hung by his engraving table of Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia (a much more dreary figure than Blake’s very pious figure of Melancholy).

He met his wife in 1782. It was love at first sight; he taught her to read and write and she became not only his devoted and loving wife, his “sweet shadow of delight”, but also his valued assistant. His beloved brother Robert died in 1784 and from then on William claimed that Robert communicated with him in visions. And on his death he was happy to think that Robert would be waiting for him.

Whilst in Sussex for three years, Blake had the misfortune to be accused of sedition – he apparently ejected a soldier from his garden in Felpham, who then accused him of assault and seditious words. He was tried (and found innocent) at the Guildhall in Chichester. It was during his sojourn in Sussex that Blake began work on the poem we know as “Jerusalem” and Elizabeth mentioned the variety of meanings which have been attributed to the poem, including the thought that the ‘feet’ of the poem might be Milton’s feet, or Joseph of Arimathea and Albion, Britain, since Joseph of Arimathea is supposed to have provided Christ’s funeral and perhaps carried the Holy Grail to England.

Blake lived in turbulent times, Europe was in a turmoil of post-revolutionary France, Gilray was producing disturbing cartoons and predicting the end of the world and old certainties were gone. His work was diverse and symbolically rich - the Tyger symbolised for him terror and carnage, wrath and fear (we might think here of Henri Rousseau’s Tiger in a Tropical Storm). His work was neglected for many years after his death until he was taken up by the Pre-Raphaelites and in the twentieth century his work became fully appreciated and his influence increased – Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Aldous Huxley are among those for whom he was influential.

Aliki Braine gave us a wonderfully refreshing new look at some aspects of modern art which people can find ‘difficult’, and obscure, by relating the subject matter and devices back to many old master paintings.

We are used to symbolism at work in Renaissance paintings, in seventeenth century Holland and, of course, the Pre-Raphaelite painters in England were very fond of heavy symbolism. Aliki compared some of these paintings to the way twentieth century artists have used similar devices. Van Gogh’s unflowers refer to the cyclical nature of flowers, a constantly repeated theme in Dutch Still Life and Vanitas paintings and Aliki compared this to Damien Hirst’s Fly works. His “A Thousand Years’ symbolises the cycle of biological life and death. Maggots hatch inside a white box, turn into flies and feed on a severed cow’s head lying on the floor. The flies circle within the vitrine, some hit the insect-o-cutor and die, others survive and the cycle continues, creating the cycle of birth, death and decay.

She moved on to Damien Hirst’s tutor, Australian artist, Michael Craig-Martin, and his work entitled An Oak Tree. The work consists of a glass of water on a glass shelf, and a text concerning the colour, feel, weight, size and so on. Craig-Martin tells us in the accompanying text that he has changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree, but he hasn’t changed its appearance. “the actual oak tree is physically present, but in the form of a glass of water”. We are traditionally asked, said Aliki, to suspend our disbelief in believing that what we are looking at is real. This work was on its way to an exhibition when Australian Customs officials quarantined it – had it indeed become an Oak Tree? The Catholic Herald compared the work to the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation – Craig-Martin spoke of the confident faith of the artist and the willing faith of the viewer in accepting the transformation.

We moved back to the seventeenth century to consider Zurbaran’s image of a Cup of Water with a Rose which refers to the Song of Solomon where the Virgin Mary is likened to a thornless rose. Then into the nineteenth: from Byron’s play about Sardanapalus, the slothful, decadent ruler of Assyria, Delacroix took the subject for his painting, the death of Sardanapalus. He shows the defeated Assyrian King atop a huge bed/funeral pyre littered with the detritus of over-indulgence and over-consumption and surrounded by his treasures including his concubines. Aliki compared this to Tracy Emins’ unmade bed as a metaphor for her life. Art allows us into worlds that are not our own.

Aliki spoke also of the notion of isolating an object which has a limited life span – Damien Hirst’s Shark!, She showed us Pierre Mignard’s seventeenth century portrait of the Marquise de Seignelay and her sons where the seashells isolated at the bottom, represent all the seas. Duchamp in the twentieth century turned this idea on its head and gave us the object rather than an illusion of the object

These are just a few of the parallels Aliki drew on to illustrate meaning in modern works through comparison with older works. It was an ambitious and complex task which left the audience awed, fascinated and stunned in equal measure.

Local artist Richard Whincop began his talk with an interesting question – was Louis XIV the champion of French culture who made Paris the art capital of Europe, taking over from Rome, or was he a paranoid, megalomaniac who exploited art for his own purposes.

He came to the throne of France as a 3 year old, on the death of his father Louis XIII. When Louis finally took control, on the death of Mazarin, he embarked on a programme of virtual nationalisation of French culture. He was responsible for the establishment of Academies in every aspect of culture, science, music, inscriptions and medals, architecture, French language and literature, hence the statement ‘l’État, c’est moi’ He embarked on the renovation and rejuvenation of the Louvre Palace, the home of French Kings for centuries until in 1682 when he moved the French royal court to Versailles. He lured Bernini from Rome to design the new East façade of the Louvre, but Louis rejected Bernini’s highly ornate Italian baroque design in favour of Claude Perrault’s classical collonaded design. This former royal palace became the first home of the newly created Royal Academy, founded by Louis XIV and modelled on Italian examples, like the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. There was already a Guild of Saint Luke in Paris, however, under the Directorship of Charles Le Brun the new Royal Academy had as its goal the glorification of the King and the promotion of a new wave of classicism in French art, an ethos which continued until the late nineteenth century.

Louis moved the royal court out to Versailles which his father had built in the seventeenth century as a hunting lodge and Louis enlarged, decorated and furnished in very extravagant style at enormous cost. It was to be the showcase of France and all the furniture, tapestries – everything for the palace was made in France. He brought Venetian artisans over to create the Hall of Mirrors, French master craftsmen created floors of wood mosaic, inlaid panelling and marquetry and he established the Gobelins factory, under the direction of Le Brun to make all the tapestries (with Flemish weavers).

Establishment of the Académie was the catalyst for Paris to become the art capital of Europe, taking over from Rome, although one of the most important traditions established in the new Académie was the institution of the Prix de Rome in which students competed for a year’s tuition and experience in Rome. Poussin, at this time the greatest exponent of neoclassicism and most successful French painter, actually lived in Rome. With Le Brun as Director of the Académie, art became subject to scientific rules. The rise of neoclassicism, formulated on the art of classical antiquity brought with it a desire to subject all aspects of culture but particularly art, to scientific and mathematical principles, especially geometry. Disegno (Drawing/Design) became the most important part of an artist’s training, way above painting. Disegno carried with it notions of, above all, an intellectual basis for art. With such strict rules governing training, production and display at the Salons, the Role of the Critics grew. Fragonard’s ‘The Swing’ was criticised for not following Poussin’s rules.

The Académie became gradually more prescriptive and controlling than the old guild system it replaced. André Félibien, Louis’ court historian laid down a list of priorities for what constituted good art – the Hierarchy of the Genres, with History Painting at the top and Landscape at the bottom, based on art which required the most intellectual effort and that which was ‘merely copying appearances’.

The young rebel artists – Manet, Monet, Degas, Pissarro and others effectively brought the reign of the Salon and therefore the Académie to an end in the late nineteenth century, and Richard concluded by saying that perhaps when we now regard modern art as ‘challenging’ we should remember that it is still to be seen as a challenge to the strict academicism of the Salon art of the Académie Royale.

Celia O'Shea
​Programme Secretary

The Astor family originated in Germany and went first to New York and then to England. William Waldorf Astor, the richest man in America, purchased Hever Castle in 1903 and did much to restore it. In 1893, however, he had bought Cliveden and brought a new lease of life to the Estate. On his son’s marriage to Nancy Langhorne Astor, Virginia-born and the first female Member of Parliament, Wiliam, the 1st Viscount gave Cliveden to the couple in 1906.

The Astors maintained Cliveden as their home for over half a century and it became one of the centres of European political and literary life, with guests as diverse as Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Ghandi and Charlie Chaplin. In the 1930s the parties took a more political tone and the group became known as the ‘Cliveden Set”.

Caroline reminded us that the Romans brought the first great garden traditions to Britain, and in 75 AD Fishbourne Roman Palace had one of the most important Roman gardens. The Romans were the first to plant trees for shade and their traditions of planting herbs, artichokes, peas and so on were continued by the monks. And of course we can look back to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for evidence of early love of gardens.

The Rothschilds tended to marry within the family (keeping the wealth contained!), and Lionel de Rothschild married his first cousin from the Naples Banking branch of the family. He bought the Exbury estate in 1919. It was his love of gardening which led him to choose Exbury, for its gentle climate and acid soil, ideal for his passion for rhododendrons. Here Lionel grew orchids and developed hundreds of new hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas for which the estate has become famous.  Lionel also remodelled Exbury House with neo-Georgian designs by William Jenkins, and he created an idyllic family home bounded by the New Forest, The Solent and the Beaulieu river.

We visited the beautiful Villa belonging to Ephrussi de Rothschild in the south of France recently and only this month visited Waddesden Manor – another amazing Rothschild mansion. Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, born in Paris and brought up in Frankfurt and Vienna, married his cousin Evelina of the English branch of the family. Sadly Evelina and their child died in childbirth a year later in 1866 and he never got over it. He channelled his energies into travelling and collecting and Waddesden is the fruit of this – every wall, every surface is covered with the most exquisite furniture, carpets, tapestry, silverware, porcelain etc. etc. He was particularly intrigued by French history, not only in the arrangement and decoration of the rooms, but also in the furniture he collected. He never remarried and his estate was left to his sister, also a great collector – but her great passion was gardening.

Vita Sackville West was the daughter of the 3rd Baron Sackville. She married journalist and diplomat Harold Nicolson and together they bought Sissinghurst Castle in 1930. At the time it was a ruined Elizabethan manor house and Vita, not a gardener, being first and foremost a poet and writer, threw her energies into a passion for gardening. Harold Nicolson designed the garden along classical lines, and his ideas for alleys of trees and the notion of planting for future generations are still in evidence. They were pioneers of garden design and introduced the notion of single colour borders. They divided the garden into separate ‘rooms’ providing informal planting schemes with a sense of intimacy and privacy whilst not losing the extensive views.

Throughout several generations, the Astors, the Sackville-Wests and the Rothschilds have had gardening in their blood. William Waldorf Astor, Lionel de Rothschild and Vita Sackville-West were all passionate gardeners. Hever, Exbury and Sissinghurst are among the most visited gardens in Britain.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

In a late change to the published programme, we were fortunate to secure the services of Lynne Gibson to speak to us about Alchemy and Adventure: A History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments.

It’s easy to take colour for granted in our man-made world. But before organic chemistry the most desirable pigments were often rare, exotic or poisonous. Merchants supplied cochineal ‘grana’ from the holds of Spanish galleons, pungent golden nuggets from India and lapis rock carried by camel train from the mountains of Badakhshan. Alchemists prepared deadly King’s Yellow, mysterious Vitriol of Venus and Moorish Gold concocted from basilisk powder and human blood. Small wonder artists kept their paint recipes closely guarded in Books of Secrets.

We were extremely fortunate that when our February speaker was taken ill, Lynne Gibson happened to have a free slot in her very busy diary and could return to Chichester to lecture to us. Lynne came to City of Chichester some years ago to speak about the colour Red, this time she brought us her new lecture, which tells the story of how the pigments which give us the beautiful colours in many of our paintings came to be made or discovered.

Historically, the choice of primary colours was limited by the availability of suitable pigments. Until the late nineteenth century bright greens (not a primary colour) would have been mixed say, using blue and green for bright green. The Egyptians used natural earth and malachite until the Greeks introduced Verdigris, one of the first artificial pigments. Green was a very fugitive colour (note the faded greens in Titian’s paintings), but thanks to a knowledge of chemistry a new generation of greens was introduced at the beginning of the late eighteenth century – cobalt green, emerald green and viridian.

The first ever pigments Lynne tells us were the earth pigments, from minerals. Black came from charcoal, from charred wood or from burnt bones; white from chalk or calcite – calcium carbonate – still used today. The first blue pigment was azurite, a natural mineral and the manufacture of Egyptian blue quickly spread throughout the ancient world. This recipe was lost during the Middle Ages and so azurite and expensive ultramarine from Afghanistan were the only sources of blue available until, in the fifteenth century, a finely ground blue glass came into use for painting.

And so Lynne took us through the ages with her extensive knowledge of pigments, their history , their development and their use right up to the modern day. For example Yellow ochre from silica and clay was used in pre-historic times right up to the time of the Minoans and the Egyptians, primarily for tomb paintings. Indigo is among the oldest dyes to be used for textile dyeing and printing, and is the blue often associated with denim cloth and blue jeans (although a large percentage of indigo dye produced today is synthetic. However, Indigo was probably used as a painting pigment by ancient Greeks and Romans. Marco Polo reported on the preparation of Indigo in India (probably from woad).

Such a wealth of information and such a fascinating subject! I hope we shall have the pleasure of welcoming Lynne another year for another of her wonderful subjects.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Monica’s lecture led us from the arrival in England of artists like Van Dyck and Holbein in the seventeenth century to Syrian artists living and working in London in the twenty-first century.

It’s over 400 years since the first recorded immigrant artists arrived in England, then 150 years later around 50,000 Protestants left Catholic France because they were being terrorised in their own homes and the word refugee entered our language. Since then the centuries have seen wave after wave of immigrants and refugees arriving on our shores for a variety of reasons. One of the biggest influxes of European artists into London came with the Huguenots and then the Jews into the East End of London. This area has always been a place of settlement and now of course is home to a large Bangladeshi community. The Whitechapel Art Gallery is a testament to this area of London as an important centre of immigrant art.

The early years of the twentieth century saw another wave of immigrants into the East End of London. A large proportion of these new arrivals were Jewish and Eastern European, escaping Russian progroms and bouts of anti-Semitism on the continent and many spoke Yiddish. At that time, London’s East End was famous for its Yiddish theatre scene and the first Strindberg concerts at the Pavilion Theatre in Whitechapel were conducted in Yiddish. But Jewish artists in general struggled to be accepted.

Lily Delissa Joseph was born in the UK, but shows herself as a traditional Jewish woman in her Self Portrait, about 1910, with candles and traditional Jewish robes (she was also a suffragette). Jacob Kramer, Jewish artist of Ukrainian birth, settled in Leeds with his family after anti-semitic disturbances in Russia following the assassination of the Tsar. By virtue of a scholarship from The Jewish Educational Aid Society he was able to study at the Slade where he had the good fortune to meet and befriend David Bomberg amongst other Jewish artists. When Mark Gertler painted The Merry Go Round in 1917 DH Lawrence said of the painting that “Only a Jew could have painted it”.

Jacob Epstein’s monument in Hyde Park was reviled when it was unveiled, and elicited Racist graffiti. Of the many artists decried by Hitler as ‘degenerate artists’ many came here: John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld), George Grosz (Georg Grosz) Otto Dix, were able to pursue their anti-Nazi subject matter. However, they weren’t all welcomed unconditionally, Hans Feuerbach for example was interned when he arrived.

Monica brought us right up to date with recent Eastern European and Middle Eastern immigrant artists. Lynette Yiadom-Boakey, Ghanaian artist and writer has won a number of prestigious awards and has been shortlisted for the Turner Prize. Yinka Shonibare was born in England, returned to Nigeria at the age of three and spent his childhood there. Back in England, he uses his art to explore culture, identity and difference. Issam Koubaj was born in Syria and trained in Damascus. He now lives in Cambridge and in his work, inspired by and based on the Syrian Refugee crisis, he uses distinctive black lines, based on Arabic calligraphy.

Whatever the reason for these repeated waves of immigrant artists arriving in our country, we can draw one common thread – these artists have brought with them a wealth of artistic talent, and the British art scene has been thereby very much enriched.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Richard came to the throne at the age of 10 and at the age of 14 showed remarkable bravery when he rode out to meet the rebels of the Peasants’ Revolt, promising to meet many of their demands. However, our focus for the morning was the particularly rich artistic production of the latter part of Richard’s reign. Perhaps the two most famous works are the Wilton Diptych and the Angel Roof of Westminster Hall, the largest medieval timber roof in Northern Europe.

Mark began with the Wilton Diptych, which he declared to be arguably the most beautiful yet enigmatic work in the whole of English art, produced in 1397/8. Its whereabouts have been unknown for much of its history but it first appeared in the collection of Charles I, and after that passed into the collection of the Earls of Pembroke whose seat is Wilton House, where it remained until in the 20th century the National Gallery acquired it. That it has survived in such good order is remarkable, since there is very little medieval art around today. The personal altarpiece would have travelled with Richard on campaigns and around the country and France, and indeed it may well have been painted in France.

Its symbology is very complex, and it took Mark half of the lecture time to explain it to us! It can be read from left to right or from right to left. Left to right – Saints Edward, Edmund and John were all significant to Richard. He acceded to the throne on the vigil of the feast of St John the Baptist, who touches Richard’s shoulder and all three present Richard to Christ and the Virgin (on his death?), where he will join The Virgin and Child in a heaven symbolised by a flowery meadow. Read from right to left Christ is presenting the flag of St George (which is also the flag borne by Christ at the resurrection in many paintings), thus confirming Richard’s right to rule under the Divine Right of Kings. The angels all wear the livery of Richard II and Richard himself wears a cloak showing his white hart, (his personal emblem which is also shown on the exterior) and a collar of broomcods, an allusion to the Plantaganet Kings’ claim to the throne of France and to Richard’s second wife, who was French. The three saints also representing three previous kings stand in a bare wasteland in contrast to the flowery meadow, symbolising paradise on the other side. Also the composition can be compared to depictions of the Adoration of the Magi where the first King is usually shown kneeling to Christ – Richard was born on 6th January, the Feast of the Epiphany.

Westminster Hall is the largest medieval timber roof in Northern Europe. and the hammerbeams of the roof are decorated with 26 angels, bearing the arms of the King, the fleur-de-lys of France quartered with the three lions of England, carved out of solid beam. The King’s personal emblem, the white hart is repeated along the Hall’s string course and the white hart also features in the corbels for the south window. The intensive use of the King’s emblems was unprecedented. – ironically the first event in the remodelled Hall was Richard II’s own deposition in September 1399. Westminster Hall is one of the most important examples of International Gothic and Richard commissioned the ceiling as a way of establishing his authority.

Mark then took us on a ‘whistle-stop’ tour of some of the great Cathedrals and churches built at this time, the great period of International Gothic, a preponderance of which are in East Anglia, but also York Minster and Canterbury Cathedral which was also largely funded by Richard II, featuring the beautiful perpendicular style.

Finally, we looked at some of the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the period. The most popular type of devotional book of the time was the Book of Hours, containing prayers to be recited at different times of the day (they corresponded to the times for monastic services and like those services included readings from The Psalms). The Annunciation from the Beaufort/Beauchamp Book of Hours, belonging to Margaret Beauchamp, mother of Henry VII, has obviously been well cared for, hence it has survived in very good condition… Mark showed us The Annunciation from this Book with the two donors, almost certainly John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset and Margaret Holland, the great grandparents of Henry VII. And finally the Sherborne Missal – the most famous early fifteenth century medieval service book to survive from the Middle Ages. This one luckily survived the iconoclasm of the Reformation, and contains 347 pages of highly coloured and decorated vellum.

What a wonderful morning – an hour of very informative lecture and slides, delivered in a fluent, easy style – the members were enthralled.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

In no other country did art play such an important role in national life in the 20th century as it did in Russia. The Revolution in Art took place just before the 1917 Revolution. Nicholas II had abolished censorship and there was much more freedom for the liberal intelligentsia. Parisian art was coming in to Russia – Sergei Shchukin, Matisse’s Russian patron, was collecting paintings by Gauguin and Monet, he bought his first Monet in 1897, became infatuated with Gauguin and when he discovered Henri Matisse he bought 38 canvasses. Schcukin also bought cubist work by Picasso and crucially his collection was open to the public. The Jack of Diamonds exhibition in Moscow in 1910 featured Ilya Mashkov, who displayed a clear debt to Matisse; there was a distinct war on tradition. Futurism came to Russia and cubo-futurism with Malevich’s The Knife Grinder in 1913, a clear rejection of Western art. He designed the sets and costumes for a futurist opera.

Igor Stravinsky wrote his Firebird suite for the 1910 Paris season of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the beginning of significant collaboration between Diaghilev and Stravinsky which produced Petrushka, The Rite of Spring and others. All this was seen in 1912 as a slap in the face of Public Taste. Kandinsky meanwhile was finding his own path to abstraction in 1910 inspired by native folk tradition. In the Nietzschen concept of ‘God is Dead’ art has to take over.

Then came World War I and years of turbulence and upset. Anti-Semitism drove Chagall to Paris, but during the war he was trapped in Vitebsk (his home town) and started to depict the war. Kandinsky went to Switzerland and then to Moscow. Many artists were conscripted. Malevich produced the first version of his Black Square in 1915. He called this painting style Suprematism and saw it as a new Realism in painting, the paradox being that he used fine art techniques for a painting which broke all the rules of (figurative) painting tradition. Others, like Olga Rozanova (who incidentally had a huge influence on Barnett Newman) chose to show the destruction and chaos of war.

Artists of the avant-garde had taken a leading role in early Soviet culture but by 1918 all had changed. Rodchenko and Popova mounted an exhibition in 1921 which was intended as a Farewell to Painting. There was a feeling of alignment of leftist art with Constructivism. Prokoviev’s ‘Love for Three Oranges’ was considered Constructivist music. These were the last years of freedom in art.

With Stalin came the end of the avant-garde. No more private ownership of art, all artworks were in public ownership. Agit-prop, (from the Department of Agitation and Propaganda) became the omnipresent activity in the Soviet Union. There were agit-prop palaces of culture, agit-prop trains and cars covered with slogans and posters. Socialist Realism dominated with painters like Deineka and Brodsky glorifying work and the future of the Soviet Union and featuring healthy, typically smiling people, often engaged in vigorous activity; it put an idyllic gloss on country life, showing the land and its people transformed by technology and modern farming techniques – and of course glorifying Stalin, as in Vladimirsky’s “Roses for Stalin”.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

As a female artist in the nineteenth century, Mary Cassatt was fortunate to have been born into an enlightened American family. They viewed travel as integral part of education and so she spent five years in Europe visiting many capitals and there came across the work of Ingres, Delacroix, Courbet and of course Degas and Pissarro. Her father objected to her becoming a professional artist and refused to pay for any of her training but she was determined and began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 15. Her lifelong friend, Louisine Havermeyer, became an avid collector of Impressionist paintings, with advice from Mary, and the dealer Durand Ruell sold Imressionist paintings to the US.

Cassatt returned to the United States as the Franco-Prussian War started and travelled to Chicago, catching the attention of the Archbishop of Pittsburgh, who commissioned her to paint two copies of paintings by Corregio, a lasting influence on her own work. Before returning to Paris, she travelled to Madrid and Seville, studying the Spanish masters, encountering the work of Velazquez, another major influence on her work… In 1874 she settled in France and her sister Lydia joined her in Paris. Mary had been entranced by Degas’ paintings and in particular his pastels and he invited her to show with the Impressionists in 1878. The two worked side by side for a while, and he had said that women could not paint in his style… She gave her painting, ‘Girl Arranging her Hair’ to Degas and when he died it was thought to be by him!

Sadly she burnt all their letters – a woman in the nineteenth century would feel the need for privacy and her mother and older sister, who were very supportive of her chosen profession, came to Paris to be with her and to give her that very important respectable family background. Indeed her mother was a highly educated and intelligent woman, multi-lingual and with a very alert mind. Mary painted her mother in 1878, reading Le Figaro, not a womanly pursuit, and there are strong feminist undertones to many of Cassatt’s paintings.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Gavin’s enthralling lecture painted a picture in paintings and music of two great artistic rebels who inhabited the intellectual, buzzing atmosphere of Fin-de Siècle Vienna.

Klimt, born in 1862, was the second of seven children, His mother would have liked to be a musical performer, his father was a gold engraver and the other sons Ernst and Georg also had artistic talent. He never married, but had affairs with many of his models as well as several of the upper class women who commissioned portraits from him. He is said to have fathered fourteen children. Rumours abounded, however, his work is indisputably a celebration of the erotic and of femininity in all its aspects including pregnancy and age.
However, one of the enigmas of his life is his known lifelong relationship with Emilie Flöge. Indeed rumour has it that ‘The Kiss’ is actually of Klimt and Flöge embracing. Probably his best known painting, it certainly evokes the decadence of wealthy Fin de Siècle Vienna, with shades of the Arts and Crafts movements in Europe., and although Klimt travelled very little during his life, it is known that he visited Ravenna where he may well have been influenced by the Byzantine mosaics he saw there.

Mahler was born just two years before Klimt into a much humbler background, in Bohemia. His father was a coachman and later an innkeeper, and Gustav was the second child of fourteen. He graduated from the Vienna conservatory in 1878. He conducted all over Europe and finally in 1897 was appointed Director of the Vienna Court Opera, all the while enduring the fierce anti-semitism which pervaded Austria at the time. During the ten years he was in Vienna he continued to compose whilst conducting to earn a living. He was rebellious as a student and just avoided being expelled from the Conservatory.

Influenced by Wagner and Bruckner he shocked and shook up the intellectual climate of central Europe. And at the same time Klimt was rebelling against the conservative art institutions in Vienna in 1897 when he became one of the founding members and president of the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession) in 1897 and of the group’s periodical, Ver Sacrum (“Sacred Spring”). His work produced a public outcry and indeed his ceiling paintings for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized for their radical themes and called “pornographic, and were to be destroyed by the SS in 1945.

In 1902 Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the Fourteenth Vienna Secessionist exhibition. The face on the Beethoven portrait resembles Gustav Mahler – Mahler had arrived to take up his post at the Opera House in Vienna in 1897, the year that Klimt and friends founded the Vienna Secession.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Isabella d’Este was the eldest and favourite daughter of her father Ercole d’Este, Duke of Ferrara and Eleanor of Naples. She was highly intellectual, naturally gifted and received an excellent humanist education. As well as being fluent in Greek and Latin, she was a talented singer, musician and dancer. She had a passion for antiquities and almost immediately after her marriage to the Duke of Mantua, she set about creating her own studiolo, traditionally a male preserve, since a woman’s role was to bear children, heirs for the Duchy of Mantua and she fulfilled that role in exemplary manner.

At the age of six she was promised to Francesco Gonzaga heir to the Marquess of Mantua and at the age of 15, by which time he had succeeded to the title and ruled Mantua until his death, she married him. It was a love match (they had eight children) – she was beautiful, he was not handsome but she admired his military success, strength and bravery. Six of the eight children survived into adulthood, three boys and three girls, the eldest boy, Federico became the next Duke of Mantua and Ercole became a Cardinal

Sarah drew our attention to a fascinating comparison between Leonardo’s portrait of Isabelle and his Mona Lisa. There has been much speculation that Isabella was the model for the Mona Lisa, but it’s more likely that an ‘ideal’ of beauty is at play here.

Another fascinating comparison, although less flattering to Isabella was Titian’s two portraits of her. She commissioned the portrait when she was aged about 60, however, always very proud of her beauty (not to say vain) , she refused to accept it and made him redo it – using images of her as a young woman.

Although their marriage was a loving one, Isabella’s happiness was curtailed when in 1502 Lucrezia Borgia, who married Isabella’s brother Alfonso, became Francesco’s mistress. Isabella had felt a keen rivalry with Lucrezia from the outset and for the wedding, Isabella discovered what Lucrezia was going to wear and commissioned a dress for herself which would far outdo the bride, including one of her famous turbans, which became almost her trademark.

She was not only highly cultured and a very important patron of the arts, she was very successful politically – when Francesco was taken as a prisoner of war in 1509 she acted as regent of Mantua. And again when he died in 1519, their son Federigo was too young to rule, at 19, and she acted as his regent until he took power. During her time as ruler, she was popular with her people, defending them against French attacks in 1527 and being compassionate to refugees. Isabella funded a school for girls and transformed Mantua into a cultural centre.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

So much has been written and spoken of the relationship between Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin it’s difficult to find something new. However, Jacqueline Cockburn did just that – ‘painting in” the background to the two artists’ lives and a psychological insight into their relationship. Two very strong characters and two very different personalities – it was amazing they lasted a whole nine weeks living and working together in the Yellow House in Arles.

Using slides of paintings by both men and letters between Vincent and Theo she brought a new perspective to these very different personalities, their friendship in Paris and the disastrous period of cohabitation in Arles.

Van Gogh admired Gauguin’s paintings and they became close friends in Paris. Vincent began to nurture the dream that he and Gauguin would settle in the south of France and form the nucleus of an artists’ colony along the lines of the other painters’ colonies of the nineteenth century. But they couldn’t have been more different. Gauguin, five years Vincent’s senior, was brilliant, histrionic and unique. He spent his early years in Peru and came back to France with his mother at the age of 17. However, his mother died when he was only 19, and his wealthy guardian found him a job as a stockbroker. He did well, painting in his spare time, until the stock market crash of 1882, after which he decided to become a fulltime painter. Thereafter he was always in debt though Theo Van Gogh, Vincent’s art-dealer brother, settled Gauguin’s debts on the understanding that he would go to Arles and live with Vincent. Vincent’s mental health was always fragile and Theo (younger than Vincent) supported Vincent financially and emotionally.

Van Gogh began life in protestant Holland (Gauguin had attended a prestigious Catholic school). As a young man he had worked as an art dealer, but suffered from depression even then. He attempted a career as a teacher and then as a protestant missionary in southern Belgium but failed at both of these, taking up painting full time in 1881. His early works are mostly still lifes and peasants, drab and colourless, and Jacqueline drew our attention to the way his palette lightened and brightened after he moved first to Paris and then to the south of France.

Gauguin accepted Theo’s terms and moved to the Yellow House in Arles to be with Vincent. The partnership lasted nine weeks and ended in a confrontation in which part of Vincent’s ear became severed. He took the severed ear to a local prostitute and then went to bed! After this he spent time in psychiatric hospitals in the south before returning to Paris to be near Theo. He committed suicide in 1890, his work unrecognized until well after his death. Gauguin, always seeking to find again the idyllic Arcadian life of his childhood returned several times to live and paint in the South Seas, Tahiti and finally the Marquesas where he died in 1903.

Celia O’Shea

Fanny began writing at the age of 15. However, her father disapproved, believing that it was unfitting and would damage her prospects of marriage. After her mother died, a loss which she felt all her life, her father remarried and her new stepmother was particularly disapproving and Fanny felt even more pressured to give up her writing as being unladylike. It was at this time that she burnt her first manuscript ‘The History of Caroline Evelyn”, which she had written in secret.

Fanny began writing her famous diaries around the age of 16 and continued for the rest of her life. They formed a wonderful record of and commentary on her own young life, self–educating in her father’s library, as well as the interesting social circle of the Burney household, including David Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. The diaries also chronicle public events from the early reign of George III to the dawn of the Victorian age.

When she was 26 her first novel, Evelina was published anonymously, she even disguised her handwriting since the publishers would have recognized her hand from her work as a copyist for her father. Jane Austen read her work and drew upon it in her own work. And it was this novel which made her father accept his daughter as a novelist and even made it acceptable and respectable to society for women to write novels.

During the 1780s she was at court as Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, during the time when George III’s illness came to crisis point, and her own health suffered Her writing ceased during this time, but her journal entries continued, and after five years Queen Charlotte released her from her position.

In the 1790s Fanny met a French émigré who had settled nearby, a career soldier named Alexandre D’Arblay, a hero of the French Revolution. Fanny’s father disapproved of the marriage and refused to attend the wedding. They married and had a son, Alexander, in 1794. Fanny and her son followed D’Arblay to Paris where Alexandre was employed by the government of Napoleon, but when war broke out between France and England they were forced to remain for ten years. However, during this time Fanny was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was treated by one of Napoleon’s top physicians who performed a mastectomy with no anaesthetic other than a glass of wine! She thus made medical history by chronicling her experience (she was conscious throughout). Amazingly she survived (doubts have been since cast on the diagnosis), returned to England in 1812 and lived to the great age of eighty-seven. She left four novels, eight plays and one biography and twenty volumes of journals and letters. Her novels were popular during her lifetime but after her death her works fell into obscurity until today when her novels and plays are receiving renewed interest as a chronicle of the social lives and struggles of women in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

The late Christopher Hitchens, who knew a thing or two about feuds, once wrote that a really first rate bust up requires one of at least two things: a clash of strong personalities, and a conflict of principles. The history of art is peppered with first rate bust ups: between the great early Renaissance artists, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, between Constable and Turner in the early 1830s, between Salvador Dali and the Surrealist leader, Andre Breton in the 1930s and, most recently, between the graffiti artists Banksy and ‘King’ Robbo, who painted out and amended each other’s works. There are many more. They are highly entertaining but they also tell us a great deal about key issues in art history.

Barry presented his lecture as five “rounds” of a contest and spanned six centuries, from 1401 to 2014. Beautifully illustrated throughout and presented with an easy style his talk was both highly illuminating and very entertaining, whilst not always showing the artists’ personalities in a very good light.

The competition to design the baptistry doors in Florence sparked his first round, the rivalry between Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. Whilst Ghiberti won, “for 20 years that air in Florence stank with the bile of the competition”. Brunelleschi’s subsequent triumph was the design and building of the marvellous cathedral dome, during which he managed to get his own back on Ghiberti.

In round 2 we heard about the battle between Johann Joachim Winckleman nd the whole of British Art. Winckleman was a critic and so scathing were his criticisms that they provoked extraordinary responses, such as Hogarth’s decoration for the staircase at St Bartholomews and James Barry’s decorations for the Great Room at the Royal Society of Arts.

Sometimes feuds develop between people who had formerly had a regard for each other’s work. The feud between Constable & Turner was one such. For round 3 Barry used the scene at the varnishing day in the Royal Academy, shown in the recent Turner film, to illustrate how cleverly Turner drew the eye away from Constable’s painting to his own by the simple addition of the red buoy in the foreground.

In round 4 the collector Ileana Sonnabend entered the fray with her struggle against the federal government of the USA over what was art, what could be imported and in particular whether or not a stuffed American Bald Eagle could be used as part of a work of art.

Barry concluded his talk with a highly entertaining review of the spat between the grafitti artists Banksy & King Robbo.

Tony Clark

Anne Sebba is a writer, broadcaster and historian. Her subjects include a film and a book based on her discovery of an unpublished series of letters from Wallis Simpson to her second husband Ernest Simpson, but it was The Dollar Princesses who were the subject of her lecture to us this month.

In the television series Downton Abbey, Robert, heir to Downton, marries the American heiress, Cora for her money before he eventually falls in love with her, but the reality was often very different for the so-called Dollar Princesses. The supposed inspiration for the character of Lady Cora was Mary Leiter, daughter of a Chicago millionaire, who became Lady Curzon at the age of 25. Usually girls from families who had made their money in armaments, railways and so on, they were considered nouveaux riches, their money had been made after the Civil War (new money) and were not easily accepted into elite American society and so to cross the Atlantic and gain a title and a ‘crumbling pile’ was very attractive to girls who had been sneered at back home as social climbers.

Jennie Jerome set the trend when she married Randolph Churchill in 1874. He was the second son of the Duke of Marlborough, she was the daughter of a wealthy New York stockbroker and within three days of meeting they decided to marry. She was a great help to Randolph in his political career and her son, of course, was Winston Churchill.

However, many of these marriages failed. Consuelo Vanderbilt became the ninth Duchess of Marlborough at the age of 18, was a bright girl who had passed entrance examinations to both Cambridge and Oxford but found marriage to an English aristocrat incredibly dull. Her legacy was the restoration of Blenheim Palace paid for by her £2.5 million dowry (until the Married Women’s Property Acts women surrendered all rights to money and property on marriage to their husbands). It was quite a cattle market, these were marriages of convenience engineered by matchmakers and usually their mothers. Consuelo’s mother was a tyrant, determined she would make a great marriage, she had her educated at home, she learned several languages and would whip her daughter with a riding crop to admonish her and Consuelo was forced to wear a steel rod, which ran down her spine and fastened around her waist and over her shoulders to improve her posture. She was in love with an American when the match was made, the young couple made plans to elope so mother locked her in her room and threatened to murder the young man. She and Charles Spencer-Churchill (who was also reputedly in love with a woman in England), dutifully married in New York in 1895 She provided an “heir and a spare” before they separated in 1906 and divorced in 1921.

By this time, wealthy Americans were living in homes with modern comforts like central heating, and showers, and to have to bathe in a tin bath filled with hot water carried upstairs by a maid in a cold, draughty house must have been quite a culture shock to these girls.

The Prince of Wales adored the Dollar Princesses and a playboy himself, he once said that the American girls were “livelier, better educated and less hampered by etiquette” and apparently made a few matches himself. However, this trade of wealth in exchange for titles which began in the 1870s began to wane when Edward died in 1910, and a more serious tone was adopted at court and in society. The Americans also began to resent the fact that so much wealth was leaving the country – it is estimated that at today’s values around the equivalent of £1billion crossed the Atlantic during this 40 year period. But by then the American Buccaneers (the title of Edith Wharton’s uncompleted novel) had made quite a mark on British Society.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Our final regular lecture of the year had a wintry theme: “Artists Responses to Snow” where Ann Clements took us through five centuries of paintings to send a shiver through the audience.

She began in the fifteenth century with one of the earliest known representations of snow, one of the winter scenes (February) from the Book of Hours known as Les Très Riches Heures, an illuminated manuscript commissioned by the Duc de Berry in France. Books of Hours typically contain a similar collection of texts, psalms and prayers and often calendars of the months suitably illustrated.

Bruegel, in the sixteenth century, in one of a set of six panels painted for an Antwerp merchant, foregrounds a group of hunters, bare trees and a group of women preparing a fire on which to cook the boar which they hope the hunters will bring back. But he also gives us a birds’ eye view of a winter Alpine landscape, drawing on images he sketched on his journey to and from Rome in mid century. Ann also showed us a painting frequently used in Christmas cards nowadays, the Massacre of the Innocents, the biblical event which Bruegel transports to a snowy seventeenth century Dutch village. There followed several winter scenes from Dutch artists Avercamp, Isaac van Ostade and Abraham Hondius, a Dutch artist who came to London and painted several scenes of the Thames during the great freeze of mid seventeenth century, including a Frost Fair on the Thames in 1683/4.

We were all familiar with Sir Henry Raeburn’s ‘The Reverend Robert Walker’, the skating vicar from Scotland. Raeburn was drawing on his knowledge of seventeenth century Dutch skating scenes, but the painting also allowed Raeburn to indulge his fascination for figures silhouetted against the light. Anne also described how the artist achieved the effect of layers of ice with layers of paint, working up from dark grey, then a greyish white, scored with a tool and finished with white tips of paint.

Ann finished with two turn of the century paintings – Edward Stott’s atmospheric and rather romantic painting of two horses in a snowy field in 1891 and finally Dame Laura Knight’s cool restrained tones of the melting snow, in her painting “Cheyne Walk, Chelsea” of 1909, in which the bright red pillar box features prominently as the focal point. In her autobiography Dame Laura remembers setting up her easel in the freezing cold on the Embankment and painting all day despite having to hold her easel with one hand and paint with the other.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

We were privileged to hear this lecture by Deborah Lambert on English Furniture in the Eighteenth Century. She very skillfully wove together trends in the visual arts with the rise in the demand for luxury consumer goods, enabled by our very successful trade situation, and the consequent demand for fine furniture.

In the seventeenth century the English were producing heavy oak furniture, chests, tables, chairs, with simple joints and inset panels, often with box-like forms. The eighteenth century ushered in a more sophisticated taste. Improved cabinet making with mortise and tenon or dovetail joints enabled more complex decoration. Interest in the wood itself developed and furniture makers began using walnut veneers and marquetry to decorate the simple oak carcase.

Walnut became popular and the very ornate patterning available according to how the wood was cut enabled a lighter more decorative style to emerge; better markings or figurings are to be found where a tree is cut across the base where the roots start to spread,

As the baroque style in painting gave way to the lighter Rococo so with furniture. However, British Rococo tended to be relatively restrained. The importation of mahogany was the most important change as it ended the common use of walnut. Mahogany is very strong, seasons quickly and is highly resistant to woodworm and so quickly became popular in cabinet making. Key designers of the period were Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Robert Adam. Chippendale’s furniture designs kept the curves and feet, but stopped short of the French heights of whimsy. Characteristics of rococo were shell, acanthus and assymetrical patterning.

Palladianism in furniture as in architecture arrived as a reaction against the extravagances of the baroque and rococo styles, and with it a desire to return to the basic principles of classicism, based on Andrea Palladio’s writings on architecture in the sixteenth century. Furniture designs were symmetrical with decorative features such as columns and pediments, derived from architecture.

Woven into the story of the various woods used in furniture making, Deborah showed us the development of pieces like the bureau from simple chest to gentleman’s cabinet with writing top; it then acquired a portable box with a sloping lid used as a writing surface and by the end of the century the bureau had incorporated a desk with a chest of drawers, with pigeonholes, inkwell, slots and secret drawers to store letters, papers and pens. A bookcase was the final addition, set above the bureau often with glass panel doors.

Such a fascinating and informative lecture.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Returning to Chichester after several years, we were privileged to welcome back Linda Smith for our September lecture. Linda holds two first-class degrees in Art History. She is an experienced guide and lecturer at Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and lectures to secondary school audiences and independent arts societies.

Her subject this time was Augustus John and Gwen John – or as Linda put it should it be Gwen John and Augustus John since Gwen is now considered to be superior to her brother (not so in her lifetime).

Augustus and Gwen both attended the Slade, and there absorbed avant-garde attitudes. For Gwen the Slade offered her the chance to train equally with the male students – able to attend the life class, so central to artistic training then.

Augustus was a ladies’ man from the start. He married Ida Nettleship with whom he had five children but two years after their marriage Augustus met Gwen’s friend Dorothy McNeill. She became his mistress and bore him four children. Dorothy (Dorelia) and Augustus were intoxicated by the romany lifestyle and Dorelia gave birth to their first child alone in a gypsy caravan. A ménage-à-trois continued, often in a gypsy caravan (‘the Augustus John roadshow’), and when Ida died after the birth of her fifth son in 1907, Dorelia and Augustus stayed together until his death, in 1961, and brought up all nine children. Augustus was renowned for his promiscuity and fathered countless children, many of whom he acknowledged.

Augustus portrayed himself as the ‘wild, sexy’ man at art school and was influenced by and compared, in his early work with Gauguin and the avant-garde work coming out of Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century. He was a major exponent of Post-Impressionism in the UK, and was very much influenced by the free style of Matisse, but by the 1920s he was Britain’s leading portrait painter. He painted many distinguished contemporaries as well as his well known ‘swagger’ paintings.

Gwen was much more in tune with Cézanne’s laborious method of working; she studied under Whistler and spent most of her adult life in Paris. She became Rodin’s model and then mistress and although he was 63 when they met and she 27, she became obsessed by him but he eventually rejected her, to her absolute dismay and distress, and kept her at a distance. She was very self-critical in her painting and not well known during her lifetime. The influence of Whistler is apparent in the brushiness of her style, although her solitary figures have since been compared with Vermeer’s women, her Pilgrim series with Monet’s series paintings and her series of convalescents in particular with Picasso’s so-called ‘blue period’.

Linda’s very informative and superbly illustrated lecture was very well received by a full audience, who appeared to love every moment!

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Most people know Edward Hopper’s iconic ‘Nighthawks’ of 1942, fewer of us knew that he began his career as a commercial illustrator, rather unwillingly, but he was not wealthy and it paid the bills.   As soon as he was able he travelled to Paris and was greatly influenced by the Impressionists and their use of light.   He was always drawn to realism, in particular to Rembrandt’s Night Watch but it was the Impressionists’ quick, light strokes, and their engagement with modern life, which influenced his work from then on.     Throughout his long career Hopper was drawn to the solitary figure or figures in exaggeratedly lonely spaces, the theatre devoid of audience, a lone woman in a hotel room, an empty street at dawn with the shadows creating an eerie space.     Not recognised in his early years Hopper was well into his thirties before his career took a turn for the better and he is now accepted as the supreme realist painter of the American scene in modern times.   Some of his images are now icons in their expression of the isolation of contemporary life.

Eric Shanes led us through the artist’s long journey as printmaker, commercial illustrator, watercolorist and oil painter in a most fluent, seamless lecture.

Celia O’Shea
Programme Secretary

Jeremy Barlow is a musician and a writer on music who has written for and performed in the theatre for many years, including at the Chichester Festival Theatre. He presented us with a fascinating lecture which covered the broadside ballads, country dances and theatrical jigs of the streets as well as the court masques, music-making and dancing which would have taken place in the homes of the nobility in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. He explained the development of the violins of today from the lute and viola de gamba and viola da braccio in Shakespeare’s day, and included illustrations of Shakespeare’s use of music in his plays. The combination of slides and music worked well.

Comments from the audience included:

“As usual an excellent and well presented speaker however the subject was not, judging by the ‘sleepers’ everyone’s choice. A shorter version perhaps”

“Music, illustrations and description most memorable.”

“Very interesting talk and the music was particularly good to hear. I enjoyed.”

“A lot of research went into the lecture”

“He brought to life this particular period of history beautifully”.

Celia O’Shea
​Programme Secretary

In England, for about 200 years after the Reformation, portraiture was virtually the only subject in art. During this time most major painters working here were foreigners; the most important of these were Holbein and van Dyck. From the 18th century on, outstanding British portrait painters such as Reynolds and Gainsborough came to prominence, and the portrait has continued to intrigue and fascinate right up to the present day, as artists such as Lucian Freud continue to explore and expand the subject.

Valerie Woodgate delivered her very informative lecture without notes and with humour, bringing out out the obvious and not so obvious meanings behind many of the portraits we know so well, from the ‘vanitas’ symbols in seventeenth century portraits to the choice of costume and fabrics by the sitters to the use of different painting styles to convey message and meaning. She held the audience’s attention extremely well.

Celia O’Shea
​Programme Secretary

Anthea Streeter studied Fine and Decorative Arts in London and at Harvard University. Her special interest is in the architecture and design of the twentieth century. She is an experienced lecturer who has taught on courses in Oxford and London, lectured on the Country House course in Sussex and around the country.

Her excellent lecture heralded the British designer, Thomas Heatherwick, accepted generally as one of the most creative and original talents for many decades. Heatherwick has won many awards and honours: in 2004 he was the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry; he won a Gold Medal for his British Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo in 2010, and in the same year he was designer of the year in Japan. Sir Terence Conran spotted his talent early on and has described Heatherwick as “the Leonardo da Vinci of our times”. Heatherwick’s work received world-wide coverage in 2012 when with his studio team he designed the Olympic Cauldron at the London Olympics. The giant ring of fire rising up from the centre of the Olympic Stadium was a memorable sight, and the lecture explained how they achieved that spectacular moment. The Heatherwick Studio has also designed the new red London bus, the first re-design of such an iconic symbol of London for 50 years. A part-model of the bus was featured at the acclaimed exhibition of their work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2012. Heatherwick’s approach is multi-disciplinary, and with his colleagues he blends architecture, sculpture and engineering to produce elegant results, from large urban spaces to individual items such as his Zip Bag for the French firm Longchamp. His proposed Garden Bridge across the River Thames, due to be completed in 2017, is receiving extensive media coverage. If constructed, it will add another dimension to London’s many parks and gardens.

Heatherwick’s innovative approach is now in demand all over the world. Anthea Streeter’s structured talk clearly explained the thinking behind the designs and the impact they have had on the world at large. Most interesting and very well received by the audience.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Dr Anne Anderson was Senior Lecturer on the Fine Arts Valuation degree courses at Southampton Solent University from 1993 to 2007. She is Hon. Research Fellow at Exeter University and an Associate Fellow of Chichester University. She has published books on Roma pottery, Art Deco teapots and Edward Burne-Jones. She has been a NADFAS lecturer since 1994. Her television credits include the BBC’s ‘Flog It’.

The term Art Deco was not used to describe the style of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ or the Jazz Age until the 1960s. It was taken from the Exposition Arts Decoratifs held in Paris in 1925, where Paris emerged as the leader of style in the post World War period. The Germans were not allowed to show, the Americans had turned their back on Europe and the English it would seem had put all their energy into the Empire Exhibition of the previous year. Consequently the French came out on top, with the glass of Lalique, the furniture of Ruhlmann, the jewellery of Cartier and lacquer of Dunand. It was the world of haute couture and the Beau Monde or ‘beautiful people’. But Le Corbusier was also present at the 1925 exposition, one of the pioneers of Modernism, the style which was to make itself felt, in terms of popular culture, in the next decade.

In her lecture Dr Anderson traced the development of Art Deco and the impact of Modernism in the 1920s and 1930s through dress, architecture (e.g Le Corbusier), interiors, furniture (e.g Ruhlmann), glass (e.g Lalique), ceramics (e.g Clarice Cliffe), metalwork and jewellery (e.g Cartier). The lecture was taken at a pace with numerous images – all relevant – in a lively, amusing, interesting and very knowledgeable talk.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 4000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies, including numerous lecture tours in Europe. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 Headquarters, the Captain’ Room at Lloyds and an aircraft hangar in a German NATO base. He has written and presented various TV documentaries, 3 one man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland and he has published 5 novels. His book on Monet ‘ River of Light’ sold 30,000 copies in England, France and America.

Dutch Art in the seventeenth century was quite different to anything else at the time. It dealt with the real lives of its people and this lecture looked at why this is so. It showed how Holland achieved its independence through its bitter wars with Spain, how its new Protestant mentality allowed astonishing advances in science (as Rembrandt showed in his portrait of Dr Tulp), how its merchant wealth was reflected in the seascapes of Van der Velde and Van Goyen, its civic pride in the portraits of Hals and its insistence on moral order and well scrubbed households in the paintings of Vermeer.

Douglas Skeggs gave a really excellent lecture, beautifully illustrated, showing how art is truly the mirror of its age and how that age is preserved in its art. This lecture was a wonderful beginning to our 2016 year.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Our lecturer for this special Christmas Event was Alan Read, a NADFAS lecturer with a masters and first class honours degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College. He has extensive lecturing experience and is also a gallery guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery and a London Blue Badge Guide and a City of London Guide.

Alan gave us a sparkling, amusing and very festive lecture on the character and personalities of the people who began the timeless Christmas traditions – the Inventors of Christmas.

At 12.30, after a short break, we all reconvened (still in the Assembly Room) for an excellent lunch, prepared and served by Linda’s Pantry to their usual high standard.

A most enjoyable day and, for many, one which led the way into the Christmas festivities.

Betty Smith
Vice Chairman

Peter Medhurst is a musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures on music and the arts. He studied at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

He told us that the Bible gives us very little information about the wise men who came from the East bearing gifts. All reference to them is housed in the opening chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel and what information is given is surrounded by ambiguity and approximation. However, by contrast, there is no shortage of music, poetry and art inspired by these men. His truly excellent lecture examined the impact of the Three Kings on the culture of later generations, beautifully illustrated by images of the art which they inspired and, not least, by Peter Medhurst’s lovely singing and playing of carols and Christmas music. Music performed included: The Three Kings – Cornelius, The People that Walked in Darkness from Messiah – Handel, The Coventry Carol – Traditional, I Saw Three Ships – Traditional, Where is He that is Born King of the Jews? From Christus – F Mendelssohn.

A real pleasure.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Eveline Eaton is an Art Historian who lectures in Fine Arts and is also a tour guide to Berlin, Dresden, Munich, the Cote d’Azur, Normandy and New York. She is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dresden Trust.

Eveline is a well established NADFAS lecturer – a fact which was amply demonstated in the professionalism, knowledge and experience she brought to her talk on Piero della Francesca. Nearly forgotten during the centuries, Piero della Francesca’s work strikes us now as very modern in its calm serenity, grave solemnity and stark geometry. The lecture traced the oeuvre of this fifteenth-century master of the Renaissance, both in his frescoes and in his panel paintings. With the help of lovely illustrationsWe were able to follow the Piero della Francesca trail in Italy and to ‘see’ his paintings in the few museums fortunate to own a Piero.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Linda Collins is a lecturer of many years’ standing. She was employed by the Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court for 22 years and still spends a lot of time there with her own private groups. She lectures regularly to groups from NADFAS, the National Trust, U3A and various UK universities. She works on a freelance basis at Tate Modern and the National Gallery in London.

Linda gave us a sparkling, amusing, fast paced lecture on 100 years of Modern Art. She considered some of the avant garde art movements that were formed in the 100 years between 1900-2000 – principally in Paris, London and New York. She suggested why these works were produced when they were – and what was happening in the life of the artist at the time they were produced. She enabled us to put the ‘isms’ into boxes – cubism, surrealism, conceptualism, minimalism etc – as we were treated to an illustration and explanation of some of the most well known modern works of the last century. She says that she explains her subject with scepticism and humour – she did and gave us a rivetting lecture.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Leslie Primo has a BA in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College. He was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Reading and gives lectures and guided tours at the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, at the City Literary Institute, the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute.

His excellent lecture explored the lives and achievements of a unique group of men who formed a club known as the Lunar Society in the second half of the eighteenth century. In an age of discovery where science and industry went hand-in-hand, 18th century England saw not only the flowering of the Industrial Revolution, but also that of the self-made man, who came not from money but from industry. It was a time of gentlemen’s clubs, in their true original meaning rather that the corruption of this term we unfortunately experience today, and one of these clubs would become synonymous with investigation and discovery characterised by the individuals that were associated with it. But this age of discovery also witnessed the end of an era with the rise of the Anti-Slavery movement. Those who were on the periphery of this club were also achieving great things, for example the voyages of Captain Cook, the work of Joseph Banks, the work of Sir Hans Sloane, and the inception of the Royal Academy under its first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds. In his lecture Leslie, through the paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby, Reynolds and others, explored the lives, achievements, common interests and connections between a unique group of individuals from this period who either attended this club or were associated with it; men such as James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley and others. The industrialists amongst these men would be, in their time, referred to as philosophers practising what we would now call joined-up thinking. Eventually we would invent a new name for them – scientists. However, they would call themselves the Lunar Society.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Dr Rosamund Bartlett has a Doctorate from Oxford and has held senior University posts. She is the author of several books, including biographies of Tolstoy and Chekhov, whose works she has also translated for Oxford’s World Classics. Currently she is writing a book on the Russian Avant-Garde and European Modernism. She has extensive experience lecturing and broadcasts regularly on the BBC.

A hundred years ago, Diaghilev decided it was time to showcase Russian culture to the world fearing it was about to be swept away (as indeed happened with the 1917 Revolution), and fervently believing it had something unique to offer. Beginning with art exhibitions, he steadily became more ambitious, taking first concerts of Russian music to Paris (works which now form the standard repertoire), then operas, then ballets, using well-regarded artists as set designers. After Tchaikovsky had made it into a serious genre in its own right, Russian ballet was at its prime, with Nijinsky and Pavlova amongst its greatest stars. In 1910 began Diaghilev’s famous collaboration with Stravinsky, the enfant terrible of 20th-century music. After The Firebird came Petrushka, and then in 1913 the Parisian haute monde was shocked to its core by the epoch-making The Rite of Spring, one of the key works which catapulted Russian artists and musicians into the forefront of the European avant-garde.

Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes contributed prominently to the ‘Russian Renaissance’ in the early part of the twentieth century and Dr Bartlett’s excellent lecture graphically described how this happened and was indeed a celebration of the magic, creative energy and passion which lay at its heart. A thoroughly interesting talk, beautifully presented.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Jane Tapley lectures regularly to theatre going societies, history and Fine Arts groups. She is a NADFAS lecturer of 20 year’s standing. She is a Blue Badge Guide for the West Country Tourist Board, a consultant to various TV productions of Jane Austen and a Special Events Organiser for the Theatre Royal in Bath.
 
Her lecture on Charles Dickens vividly presented the life of the man and the times in which he lived, highlighting not only his wonderful novels but also the fact that they effected social change within Victorian society. He was adored by the British, French and American public and Jane Tapley clearly showed that his story is one of the most intriguing biographies of the time.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Oliver Everett was educated at Cambridge University. Following service in the Foreign Office he became Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales (1981-83) He was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle from 1984 to 2002 when he retired. He lectures widely in Britain and abroad.

George III is unjustly remembered solely as having been mad and having lost the American colonies. The lecture corrected this impression. He was a discerning art collector, patron of the arts and artists, friend of America and Americans, and a committed family man. He was also a keen architect who added the future Buckingham Palace to the Royal residences, and reinhabited Windsor Castle. The lecture described his life, family and wide interests, his patronage of the arts, his important additions to the Royal Collection and his relationship with North America and Americans.

A sparkling, amusing lecture enjoyed by all.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Elizabeth Strang has a Humanities degree with Modern Art as the main subject. She has been a guide at Tate Modern since 2000 and also at Tate Britain. Through the Tate, she has also lectured on cruises, specialising in 20th century art.

This look at the life of Barbara Hepworth started with her childhood in Yorkshire, and her attachment to its landscape. We looked at artistic influences too – those of Moore and other artists of the 30s, such as Skeaping, Nicholson, Gabo, and Mondrian. Motherhood surprisingly strengthened her move to abstraction and was later responsible for her move to Cornwall, where her work was further influenced by the land and sea. The inspiration she received from nature, together with her work ethic, helped her face a life alone and cope with the worry of an ill child. It also resulted in the wonderful works in stone wood and bronze that we can see in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, St. Ives and the Hepworth Museum.

Elizabeth’s lecture was clear and coherent, with a good mix of biography and art, and gave an illuminating picture of the sculptor.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Julian Halsby was a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Croydon College of Art. He has published a number of books on art, is an art critic and, as a practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.

Édouard Manet is one of the most remarkable and fascinating artists of the 19th century. His life is full of contradictions – he loved to dress well and be a ‘man about town’ but he also worked extremely hard and was devoted to his art; he was sharp tongued and had an acerbic wit, yet was also generous and compassionate; he was outwardly a respectable married man, yet had a succession of lovers and admirers; he had a great influence on the Impressionist painters yet refused to exhibit with them. Born into a wealthy Parisian family, Manet attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Thomas Couture where he learnt to draw and to admire the great classical painters of the past, but he challenged the academic system of art training. The Dejeuner sur L’Herbe of 1863 shocked the public and art establishment by making references to the great paintings of Giorgione, while depicting a notorious nude model sitting with two men dressed in contemporary fashion. Olympia, exhibited at the 1865 Salon, went further suggesting a prostitute receiving flowers from a male client. Manet made references to the work of Titian and Giorgione as well as to contemporary pornographic images. In 1867, he began work on his most political painting, The Execution of Maximilian which attacked the government of Napoleon III, which Manet as a staunch Republican could not tolerate. During the 1870s Manet produced his most Impressionist paintings influenced by Claude Monet and by Berthe Morisot, whom he adored. He painted some wonderful café interiors, culminating in The Bar at the Folies Bergère, 1882. Manet was also great portrait painter, able to capture the sitters’ character in a few seemingly effortless strokes of his brush. He painted many of the great figures of his day – Zola, Cemenceau, Mallarmé, as well as a succession of beautiful women. Manet’s private life is intriguing. He met Suzanne Leenhof when he was very young, having a son by her and eventually marrying her, but his heart lay with Berthe Morisot, who conveniently married his brother Eugène. He died a painful death aged only 51.

Julian delivered an excellent lecture with speed and fluency and illustrated beautifully with his many slides. He gave his audience a detailed picture of Manet the man, of Manet the artist and his influence on Impressionism and Modern Art and of Manet in the world in which he lived.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

John Ericson was formerly a lecturer at the University of Bath where he was Director of Studies in the School of Education. His principal areas of research were course design and the role of pictures in both teaching and learning. He has worked extensively overseas as an educational consultant. His presentations as a NADFAS lecturer are as diverse as his many interests.

To the City of Chichester DFAS, he gave a lively and colourful lecture on ‘’Pub signs: the Artwork and the Stories They Tell’’. His excellent slides took us through the most interesting and distinctive pub signs as he explored their fascinating stories. A highly entertaining lecture for the end of the year.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Brian Stater has taught architectural history at University College London since 1997 and he became a NADFAS lecturer in 2003. He is a member of the Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography and an exhibition of his own photographs has been staged at UCL. He has begun to work with a pre- War Leica camera, as used by his great hero, Henri Cartier-Bresson.

His lecture was lively and interesting. He examined a series of brilliant photographs of the twentieth century and explained what made these images so special. He looked mostly at photographs taken in a spirit of optimism and compassion by photographers such as Jaques-Henri Lartigue, Bill Brandt, Bert Hardy, Martin Parr, Andreas Gursky and Cartier-Bresson. It was all very informative and absorbing.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Mary Alexander has an MA in History of Art and 30 years’ experience as a lecturer including museum lecturing, visiting lecturer at Christies, museum curator at Platt Hall, Manchester and tutoring for the Open University. She has worked for Pentagram design consultancy in London and New York organising conferences and special events. She has recently lectured for ADFAS Australia and New Zealand. She is a freelance lecturer with a background which combines academia with visual communication skills.

All of which was brought to bear in her lecture in which she told the fascinating story of John Singer Sargent and his iconic painting of Madame Gautreau in the ‘’little black dress’’ which so shocked Parisian society in 1884. The painting was examined in the context of Sargent’s other works both before and after the scandal.

Mary Alexander’s lecture brought to vivid life Parisian society at the time, she told her story in absorbing detail and her slides of Sargent’s work were a pleasure to see.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Valerie Woodgate is a lecturer and guide in Tate Britain and Tate Modern and a lecturer in other major galleries, churches and cathedrals. She is on the teaching team at the Dulwich Picture Gallery and she is a script writer for the Living Paintings Trust.

Stanley Spencer was one of the most creative and imaginary painters of the twentieth century – his art was dominated by his personal life and by his profound religious faith. Valerie Woodgate’s excellent presentation, in a sparkling lecture complemented by illuminating slides, covered the life and art of this extraordinary man whose basic optimism shone through every event, good or bad, in his strange life.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Martin Ellis is an experienced curator, lecturer and broadcaster. Until recently he was Principal Curator and Head of Collections Research and Development at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. He has acted as specialist adviser to the Art Fund and on research programmes at the universities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. A regular contributor to Radio 4’s Making History, he has written and presented several documentaries for Radio 4.

His excellent lecture celebrated the outstanding contribution to English stained glass of one of the greatest and most idiosyncratic of Victorian artists. Edward Burne-Jones worked exclusively for William Morris and his companies from 1861. Martin Ellis, with the help of some illuminating slides, showed the extraordinary range and number of designs of Burne-Jones and of their progression over the years to an often startling modernity. He put Burne-Jones into context in a – literally – eye opening delivery.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Caroline Knight is an architectural historian, trained at the Courtauld and specialising in 16th to 18th century English and Scottish architecture. She lectures for the V&A, for the Art Fund and for the Royal Oak Foundation in the US. She has published a history of Kensington Palace and a book on London’s Country Houses and contributed work in other books and articles.

Her excellent lecture on Grinling Gibbons described the virtuoso style of woodcarving which he brought to royal palaces, country houses, public buildings and parish churches. She also considered his works in marble in country churches and cathedrals. Little was known about the early life of Grinling Gibbons but his developing style, his influence and prolific output were clearly described in an interesting and informative hour by Caroline Knight.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

The full title of Karin Fernald's lecture was "Virginia Woolf on Life and Art: Works by Vanessa Bell and the Camden Group".  This reflects the fact that Virginia Woolf never painted or drew, but her writings can be seen as a bridge between the two worlds of French Impressionism and the literary Anglo Saxon world. This lecture was taken from Woolf’s writings and illustrated by the paintings of her sister and the Camden Group.

Eric Knowles has over 25 years’ experience lecturing to museums and galleries around the world. He hosts Fine Art, Antiques and Architectural trips in the UK and USA and Europe and has broadcast for thirty years with the Antiques Roadshow. He is a very well known figure and gave us an entertaining, enjoyable presentation on the Scottish architect, designer and artist who was the main representative of Art Nouveau in the UK and who influenced the movement in Europe. Mr Knowles’ knowledge, emphasised by his informal approach, brought to life the man and his importance in the world of art, design and architecture.

Betty Smith
Programme Secretary

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) remained deeply loyal to his humble Russian-Jewish origins whilst also wishing his art to have a universal appeal. This lecture traced his long, chequered and colourful career from Vitebsk to St Petersburg to Paris to Berlin to America and back to France in 1948.

Giacomo Puccini is the mainstay of the operatic rep. Every opera he wrote is a guaranteed success. Yet there are only 7 full length works. This lecture took us through his roller coaster life and offered some solutions for the limited output of this great but complex genius.

Held over 5 months at London’s South Bank, the 1951 Festival showcased the best of new British industry and design. Eight million people visited the site with attractions including the ‘Skylon’ sculpture and the Dome of Discovery. The Festival had a huge impact on people’s perception of design.

This lecture followed the development of the 2 factories against the background of London in the mid -18th century. The products of both factories were discussed in tandem, allowing the differences and similarities of their porcelain manufacture to be emphasized.

Le Corbusier was a Swiss architect who lived and worked mainly in France. With the emergence of ‘the modern movement’, it was Corbusier who set down certain rules to which modern buildings should adhere. He built many important structures in the 20s and 30s, which impacted hugely on worldwide architecture.

Turner is considered the greatest of the English watercolourists. His style is unique and he worked during the ‘golden age’, when numerous artist realised the potential of the medium to capture light effects and atmospheric conditions. Shunned by the Royal Academy, which considered watercolour inferior to oil, they set up their own society. Heather Birchall’s talk considered the rise of watercolour painting in Britain, and the careers of some of the country’s most important watercolourists.

The Spanish artist Francisco de Goya’s long life spanned the reigns of four Bourbon monarchs and a period of considerable social and political upheaval, including the Peninsular wars. His early works were designs for the royal Tapestry Works in Madrid, but by the 1790s he branched out into portrait painting, political satire, imaginative commentaries and experimental works. Goya was an energetic and restless artistic genius whose paintings reflected the turbulence of his age.

In 1928 after an exacting apprenticeship, Harry Murphy set up the Falcon Studio where he designed and created a prodigious amount of silverware, as well as some startling gold, silver and enamel jewellery.

A very entertaining, humorous and knowledgeable delivery on Harry Murphy – a man largely unknown to the audience, one of whom wrote in their assessment that Mr Benjamin “opened a door in a room of a hitherto unknown treasure house”. Mr Benjamin’s professionalism and his talent for telling a story shone through.

Commissioned by the Bishop of Bayeux who fought at Hastings, executed by skilled English craftsmen, the Bayeux Tapestry is the last survivor of a vanished art form. With its lively illustrations of languid, party-loving, moustachioed Englishmen, cavalcades of noble huntsmen and snorting Norman cavalry poised to charge into battle, the Tapestry is the next best thing to a moving picture of the time, as well as a landmark in the history of Western Art.

Adam’s name has become an epithet for his architectural and interior design work, which is characterised by a remarkable and often overwhelming expression of stylistic and chromatic unity. Neither a furniture designer nor maker, he did, however, design a number of pieces for specific locations within his room designs. His style was interpreted and adapted by celebrated cabinet makers.

We were fortunate to be able to secure Janusz Karczewski-Slowikowski to come to us to lecture on The Genius of Robert Adam. By the end of his lecture none of us was in doubt of Adam’s genius, having been enthralled by seeing so many fine examples of his work. It was fascinating to see how he produced a total vision for the houses which he designed, including not just his unique architectural concept but also all the interior ornamentation and decoration down to carpets, wall hangings and furniture. His examples included Syon House, Kedleston Hall, Harewood House and Osterley Park: those of us who had visited the houses felt that we must have walked round them with our eyes shut!