Lecture One at 10.30

This lecture explores the many sides of Marilyn Monroe: Civil rights activist, Feminist crusader and Sexual revolutionist. She was the most exciting and powerful woman of the 20th Century. A Screen Goddess and Cultural icon who is the symbol of our secret desires today.

Lecture Two

He was Hollywood’s definitive leading man, ‘the best and most important actor in the history of Cinema’. Born in Bristol, Archibald Leach set out to become Cary Grant. But who was the real Cary Grant? In this lecture we will explore his journey to fame and celebrate his screen genius.

Lecture Three

Alfred Hitchcock created several masterpieces of cinema including Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). Together we will explore Hitchcock's dark films with themes of power, identity and sexual obsession. Hitchcock remains by far the most studied and revered film director of all time.

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served from 10am and again during the lunch break

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC LUNCH 

Price: £38

Click here to book via Ticket Tailor

Places can also be booked in person at the monthly lectures

If you require any further information, please contact Zoe Parris, Special Interest Day Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

In this Study Day we examine the artistic tastes and art collections of three kings, King Charles I, King Charles II and King Charles III. Without King Charles I’s passion for collecting we would not have the Royal Collection, the largest privately-owned art collection in the world; without King Charles II we would have lost the magnificent collection his father had amassed, and King Charles III is the owner of the Royal Collection today.

Lecture One 10.30

On becoming King, Charles I purchased the fabulous art collection of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua. He engaged Rubens to paint the ceiling of the Banqueting House and he appointed van Dyck as his court artist, but in amassing his great collection he bankrupted England and alienated his people. Charles I was our most tragic monarch and yet he was also our single greatest royal collector of art.

Lecture Two

On being restored to the throne in 1660 Charles II’s first act as monarch was to recover as much as possible of his father’s magnificent collection of art. He received 28 paintings and 12 antique sculptures, the so-called "Dutch Gift”, from the States of Holland and realised that art could be used as bargaining chips in diplomacy.

During his reign he amassed over 1000 paintings and was instrumental in creating his own image as King. He transformed Windsor Castle into a magnificent Baroque Palace in the manner of his cousin King Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles and used art as a symbol of power.

Lecture Three

King Charles III is a keen artist and has painted watercolours since the 1970’s. In 2000 he co-founded the Royal Drawing School to address the lack of observational drawing in art education and he has set up a Traditional Skills Centre at Dumfries House.  

In 2018, in an exhibition marking his 70th birthday, he selected his personal top 25 historical works from the Royal Collection. King Charles III is our most culturally attuned monarch in over a century.

Tea, coffee and bisuits will be served from 10am and again during the lunch break

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC LUNCH

Price: £38

Last two tickets available

Click here to book via Ticket Tailor

Places can also be booked in person at the monthly lectures

If you require any further information, please contact Zoe Parris, Special Interest Day Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you) 

We all think we know Jane Austen, but do we? Beyond the bonnets and romance of the film and TV adaptations, there is so much more to be discovered about her work. This Special Interest Day will highlight aspects of her life and writing with which you may not be so familiar.  

Lecture One 10.30 - Material Girl: Jane Austen’s Things

The day starts with the material culture of Austen’s life by focusing on selected artefacts from the period which tell us more about Austen as a woman, as a writer and as a literary celebrity.  Each object will reveal an aspect of Jane Austen’s story, giving us insights into her life, her times and her work.  Annalie will use items from her own collection and these will be on view during the day.  

Lecture Two 11.45 - Making Sport:  Jane Austen and the Art of Satire

In the next two lectures, we look more closely at Austen’s writing. First, we’ll focus on Austen’s use of social satire by exploring links between her work and that of visual artists of the period, including Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray. We’ll explore to what extent Jane Austen may have enjoyed, and been influenced by, their work.  

Lecture Three 13.45 - Girls Behaving Badly: Jane Austen’s Wicked Women 

After lunch, we’ll spend an hour in the company of Jane Austen’s fictional women. This lecture will explore how far Austen subverted her readers’ expectations in depicting badly behaved women; from the riotous and rebellious girls that populate her teenage writings to the more famous heroines of her mature works. 

After the last lecture there will be an opportunity to ask questions and to have a close view of selected objects referred to during the day.

Join us for this in-depth look at one of our best loved writers; it promises to be an enlightening day. 

Please note: Bonnets not required!

Tea, coffee and bisuits will be served from 10am and again during the lunch break

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC LUNCH

Price: £38

Click here to book via Ticket Tailor

Places can also be booked at the monthly lectures

If you have any queries, please contact Zoe Parris, Special Interest Day Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you) 

The History of Embroidery is a fascinating story that is told mostly by the surviving work rather than the names of the makers. In these three lectures we will begin by looking at some of the earliest embroidery in this country: St Cuthbert’s stole from the 10th century.

We will then consider one of the most significant pieces of embroidery, the Bayeux Tapestry, and then move on to the high point of hand embroidery in this country, Opus Anglicanum, which was undertaken by male and female professional stitchers in the City of London. Sought out by Popes, it was for the church and royalty, although today almost all that survives was for the church.

Lecture two will take us to the courts of the Tudors and Jacobeans. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were great users of embroidery of many different types and we will explore early blackwork as well as goldwork. Then we will see how the themes and motifs transfer into Jacobean crewelwork and 17th century caskets with Stumpwork, before seeing the development of colour in embroidery through the 18th century with its focus on silk shading for botanicals as decorative pieces, as well as for fashion for women and men.

The final session will begin with embroidery in the nineteenth century starting with Berlin wool work, which became an international craze. The century ends with the movement for art embroidery espoused by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Walter Crane, along with the Royal School of Needlework, which was founded in 1872. We will then look at how embroidery developed in the 20th century, from the school curriculum to a leisure pursuit, and finally look at the range of work that is adorned by embroidery in the 21st century, from dresses to accessories, and from an embroidered car door to coronation robes.

This will be a highly visual day and no prior knowledge of embroidery is needed to enjoy it.

Tea, coffee and bisuits will be served from 10am and again during the lunch break

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC LUNCH

Price: £38

 Click here to book

If you have any queries, please contact Zoe Parris, Special Interest Day Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you) 

From the early 1900s to the present day, Britain has developed and maintained a leading world role in sculpture. This special interest day looks at six sculptors in detail, and a few more in passing, who have been at the forefront of sculpting in Britain during this time – which is often referred to as the modern and post-modern eras. As well as describing and explaining some of their iconic sculptures, plus some less-well-known but still powerful pieces, the lives and times of the six sculptors will be described and explored. How they related to each other (not always amicably) and reacted to the art world in particular, and society in general (not always plain sailing), will also be included.

Image: Anthony Caro at Hatfield House, 2011, with Henry Moore’s ‘King and Queen’, 1952-53

Lecture One: The sculptures of Henry Moore and Anthony Caro
 
Henry Moore established his unique approach sculpture from the 1920s based on Michelangelo, Cubism, abstraction and central and south American Aztec and Mayan cultures. He often sculpted family groups and reclining figures, and was a great believer in taking art into public places. By the middle of the 20th century, Moore was a dominant figure in world art. When Anthony Caro studied sculpture in the 1940s, he was taught by traditional sculptors.  Seeking to be modern he became Moore’s studio assistant for two years and made Moore-like sculptors. In 1959, Caro met with American abstract artists, and in consequence changed his approach, relying on sheets of steel to produce non-figurative sculptures. Subsequently Caro publicly criticized Moore for being a showman and thwarting younger talent. Moore took it badly and relations between them never fully recovered. This lecture traces the career of both Moore and Caro, and describes their time together, their falling out, and their respective impacts on modern sculpture.

Lecture Two: Gender and 20th century British Sculpture: The lives and times of Barbara Hepworth and Elisabeth Frink

This lecture explores gender in modern British sculpture through the lives and times of Barbara Hepworth and Elisabeth Frink. Hepworth is often overshadowed by Henry Moore and other male artists, which does a disservice to her work, where she took abstract sculpture to new levels of expressiveness and lyricism. These days her sculptures have a timeless quality to them, where form – and sometimes colour – take centre stage. Born a generation later, Frink ranks alongside Hepworth as a great British sculptor of the 20th century. The subjects for her work were usually birds, horses and men. In fact, she saw men as both heroes and villains, and her sculptures of fallen (male) angels, Greek warriors and a Dying King reflect this point of view. In doing so she was heavily influenced by wartime experiences and memories. She remained steadfastly figurative at a time when most sculptors – including Anthony Caro - embraced abstraction. The lecture argues that Hepworth’s abstract forms are ‘divine’; while Frink looked for the ‘divine’ and the ‘troubling’ in human form.

Lecture Three: Sculpture in Britain Today

This lecture begins with a focus on two great British sculptors who are working, astounding and sometimes shocking both the art world and the general public today. Both sculptors are fearless and deeply humane. The first is Rachel Whiteread, whose most abiding theme is the memory of places we once lived in and the objects we once used. The second is Antony Gormley, who often uses his own body as the basis for sculptures and installations that prompt us to think of our humanity and the personal and wider challenges we face. The lecture, and the special interest day, will conclude by a review of the sculptures and installation that have adorned (if that is the right word!) the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. The first sculpture appeared in 1999, and since then there has been an ever-changing  range of artworks from some of the most innovative artists working in Britian today, including Mark Wallinger, Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley, Heather Phillipson, Yinka Shonibare, and – most recently – Samson Kambalu. Looking at the Fourth Plinth sculptures, chronologically and in context, will give a real sense of the direction of modern sculpture in Britain, and what the future holds.

 Throughout the day, there will ample time for questions, discussion and reflection. A handout will be provided to give important background information and biographical summaries of the six sculptors. 

Tea, coffee and bisuits will be served from 10am and again during the lunch break

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC LUNCH

Price: £38

Click here to book

If you have any queries, please contact Zoe Parris, Special Interest Day Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you) 

This Special Interest Day will comprise three lectures, two in the morning and one in the afternoon

Lecture 1: The World of French Operetta

Operetta as an art form was invented in France, and derived from the lighter forms of Opera Comique.  With many musical examples we hear how it developed from the works of Auber and Adam and was perfected by, above all, Offenbach.  Offenbach dominated the Paris stage through the 1850s and 1860s, and then numerous other composers competed to take his crown. The music may be light, but the rivalry could be deadly serious! Learn about that rivalry, the scandal and the intrigue in the musical world of 19th century Paris - and of course listen to the wonderful music!

Lecture 2: Pink Champagne! The World of Viennese Operetta

The French may have invented operetta as a light and frothy entertainment, but it was the Viennese who brought real romance and glamour to the operetta stage to challenge the French at their own game. Franz von Suppé was the first great Viennese operetta composer, but sadly is today remembered only for his overtures, having been overtaken in popularity by Johann Strauss and Franz Lehar. We will hear examples from both the Golden and Silver ages of Viennese operetta, from the 1860s to the 1930s.

Lecture 3: The Birth of English Operetta and Gilbert and Sullivan

In the 1860s London couldn’t get enough of the music of Jacques Offenbach, but his shows frequently had to be rewritten for the London stage as the plots were rather too risqué for English tastes. Then along came Gilbert and Sullivan to provide wholesome home-grown entertainment. The result was one of the most successful musical partnerships ever, and even today over 130 years later their operas are still performed, while most of Offenbach’s are long forgotten. This talk tells the story of their partnership, with music from most of the G & S operas.

Tea coffee and biscuits will be served from 10am and again during the lunch break.

Please remember to bring your own picnic lunch.

Price: £38

Click here to book

If you have any queries, please contact Zoe Parris, Special Interest Day Organiser (clicking on her name will generate an email for you)

Session 1 - China and the East.

An introduction to silk and its early trading history, followed by a journey from East to West highlighting the art and history still to be seen today, through Chinese, Parthian and Roman territory. From their capital of Xian (ancient Chang’an and home of the Terracotta Warriors) early diplomatic missions developed into important overland trading routes across the length of China. Merchants passed through Dunhuang (one of the world’s greatest collections of Buddhist art) and around the Taklamakan Desert to reach Kashgar for access to India and Central Asia.

 Session 2 - Central Asia

Many trade routes criss-crossed Central Asia, which were determined by seasonal climate, natural disasters and political upheavals. We look at the daily practicalities of life in the caravanserais. The region is also known as 'The Stans', bringing us historically from the Sogdians and Bactrians to the Seljuk Turks and Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane). Wealthy trading centres such as Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva in Uzbekistan display some of the grandest Islamic designs, whilst Merv in Turkmenistan was the largest city along the entire Silk Road.

 Session 3 - Persia to the Mediterranean and Venice

Ancient Zoroastrian beliefs underpin much of the art and architecture to be seen at Persepolis, capital of the Ancient Persians. More than 1,000 years later, Isfahan became the capital of the Safavid Empire where we investigate the difference between Shia and Sunni Islamic art. From Iran we can take different routes to the Mediterranean through places like Palmyra with updates on the current situation following minor destruction by the Islamic State group. Following the Great Schism of 1054 within Christianity, Constantinople (modern Istanbul) was later replaced by Venice as the major destination of silk and the other luxury goods.

Price: £38 per person

Click here to book

Places can also be booked and paid for by card at Arlington Lectures

"A Photographic Odyssey” Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition Captured on Camera

 Tragedy and Triumph

The Heroic Ages of Polar Exploration

This Special Interest Day will focus on polar exploration from the search for the North West passage and the North Pole to Ernest Shackleton’s attempt, the Endurance expedition, to cross Antarctica via the South Pole.

Session 1 will focus on attempts to discover the north west passage from Frobisher and Davis in the 16th century to the Norwegian Amundsen in the early 20th century.  We will also look at attempts to reach the North Pole up to the English explorer Wally Herbert’s expedition in the late 1960s.

Session 2 will focus on the race between Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen to be first at the South Pole.  This will be partly based on Herbert Ponting’s photographs with reference to Edward Wilson’s water colours. These provide a visual and evocative record of this frozen world and these early pioneering expeditions into the unknown.

Session 3 will focus on Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica in 1914.  His ship, the Endurance, got trapped in the pack ice and crushed. After camping for months on the ice, Shackleton’s men rowed to a remote island. From there, Shackleton sailed to South Georgia, about 800 miles away to get help to rescue his men. Frank Hurley was the expedition’s official photographer. We will follow this epic journey through his photographs– they capture eloquently one of the greatest survival stories of polar history.

(includes tea/coffee/biscuits on arrival and at lunchtime: Please bring your own packed lunch)

Price : £35.00 per person

If you have any queries, please contact Zoe Parris 

(clicking her name will generate an email for you)

Join Mark Hill, author, publisher, TV presenter and leading specialist dealer appearing on BBC Antiques Roadshow and several BBC2 Series.

This Special Interest Day will comprise of two morning lectures and an interactive afternoon session.

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served from 10am and again during the lunch break.

Please remember to bring your own picnic lunch.

LECTURE 1:  UNDRESSING ANTIQUES

‘Antiques.  I don’t understand them and they’re beyond my budget.  Nobody even collects anymore.  They’re not for me.’

This lecture is a persuasive introduction to buying antiques and using them in today’s homes. We explore the state of the antiques market and the different meanings of the word value.  We shall also look at what current and future generations of collectors are buying, why the are buying and how they are displaying their items.

LECTURE 2:  CRACKING GLASS

The second lecture gives an overview of Britain’s ‘Big Four’ post war glass companies, comprising Whitefriars, King’s Lynn (Wedgwood), Caithness and Dartington.  Delving into company and designer histories and using special slides, we shall examine company and designer histories and compare and contrast ‘Good, Better, Best.’  The emergence of these factories is put into context with a discussion on the major influences behind them.  The current glut of Whitefriars fakes is covered, including tips on how to spot them.

Both lectures will be illustrated and end with a lively and challenging Q&A session.

AFTERNOON SESSION

This will be an interactive identification, valuation and Q&A Session – a personal ‘Antiques Roadshow’

Guests are invited to bring small items of 20th century glass and ceramics for identification.

Please do not bring jewellery as Mark is not an expert in this field.

Contact:  Zoé Parris, Special Interest Day Organiser - clicking Zoé's name will generate an email for you

PRICE:  £35.00 per person

Programme:

Coffee, tea and biscuits will be available from 10.am

The first two lectures will take place in the morning.  Each lasting about an hour.  There will be a break for lunch at about 12.30pm.  

Members are asked to bring their own picnic lunch.

The third lecture will be given after lunch.  The day will finish at around 3pm.

This day of lectures first tells the story of the Russian monarchs and aristocrats who collected masterpieces of European art, and acted as patrons to the great composers, including Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.  By far the most illustrious was Catherine the Great, founder of the Hermitage.  Next we explore how Moscow merchants eventually upstaged the Tsars as art patrons in the late 19th century. Here the main figure is Pavel Tretyakov, who founded the first national gallery of Russian art.  Finally we turn to the Moscow businessmen Sergey Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, who in the early 20th century travelled to Paris and built up unrivalled collections of radical modern Western paintings by artists who are now household names, such as Picasso and Matisse. 

1. By Appointment to the Tsars: Russia's Imperial and Aristocratic Patrons

Peter the Great started the Russian passion for collecting by bringing back a stuffed crocodile from his first trip abroad and inaugurating the nation's first public museum in his new city of St Petersburg.  But it was Catherine the Great who was to achieve greater renown in this field.  She planned her buying sprees like military strategies, and was just as aggressive in carrying them out.  Soon she was having to build extensions to the Winter Palace to house the collection she quaintly named her “Hermitage” and which is now the largest in the world.  

2. The Re-Discovery of Russia: Tretyakov and Moscow's Merchant Patrons

Russia's business elite traditionally engaged in philanthropy.  In the 19th century, they also began to invest in art. Comparatively little is known about Moscow’s “merchant patrons” in the West.  This lecture focuses on the textile magnate Pavel Tretyakov, who in the 1850s began changing the fortunes of struggling nationalist Russian artists by buying their work.  He then founded the first national gallery of Russian art in 1892 by opening up the collection in his Moscow house to the public. 

3. Russia's Art Patrons on the Eve of Revolution

This lecture is devoted to the early 20th century, when Russian art patronage was at its most vibrant.  Ilya Ostroukhov was one of the first to collect icons, not just as religious objects but as works of art, and was involved in their restoration.  Sergei Shchukin went to Paris to buy scandalous works of modern French art by artists such as Monet, Gauguin, and Matisse, whom he brought to Moscow in 1911.  Ivan Morozov was the first Russian to buy a Van Gogh, and also the first to collect Chagall.

Rosamund Bartlett, writer, lecturer and translator whose work as a cultural historian ranges across the arts. She is the author of several books, including biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, and a study of Wagner's influence in Russia. She is currently writing a history of the Russian avant-garde. Her new translation of Anna Karenina for Oxford World’s Classics was published to acclaim in 2014. She writes on art, music and literature for publications such as The Daily Telegraph and Apollo and lectures widely, contributing regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts on the BBC.

Price:  £30.00

Venue:  Sutton Hall, Stockcross (unless Covid Restrictions are in place in which case these lectures will be transmitted via Zoom).

Image: Portrait of the painter Ivan Shishkin by Ivan Kramskoy

Neil Faulkner (with colleague Gary Rossin) is pioneering the archaeology of cinema.

He has been working especially on the location sites from David Lean movies. Armed with insights into the artistic process gleaned from work in the field, he will provide a comprehensive introduction to ‘David Lean’s art of cinema’.

Lecture 1: The Life and Work of David Lean

An overview of David Lean’s career as a film director and character as an artist.

He will use examples from his work to illustrate the way in which Lean used a wide range of cinematographic techniques to situate the audience, set the mood, drive the narrative, and communicate key themes. 

Lecture 2: Tragic Triangles

A recurring subject of David Lean’s films is human tragedy, occasionally that of an individual, like Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai or T E Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia.  However, more often that of a classic ‘love triangle’ (Brief Encounter, The Passionate Friends, Madeleine, Doctor Zhivago, and Ryan’s Daughter).

The second lecture will take an intimate and critical look at tragedy in Lean’s cinema.   

Suggested background reading:

Kevin Brownlow, David Lean (Faber & Faber)

Stephen Silverman, David Lean (Andre Deutsch)

Ian Christie, Doctor Zhivago (BFI Film Classics)

Adrian Turner, The Making of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (Dragon’s World)

Kevin Jackson, Lawrence of Arabia (BFI Film Classics)

Richard Dyer, Brief Encounter (BFI Film Classics)

Michael Tanner, Troubled Epic: on location with Ryan’s Daughter (Collins Press)

Suggested viewing:

David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Ryan’s Daughter (1970).

Price £10.00/per person

  To book a place email Zoé Parris

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth (December 1770), we’ll be exploring the composer’s great works.  

Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits. While musical examples are drawn from his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, as well as from the revolutionary opera Fidelio. We’re talking about much more than just a musician here - Beethoven was a true Romantic artist, or as he preferred to describe himself, a “poet in sound”.

The time table is as follows:-

• 10.00  Coffee, tea and biscuits on arrival
• 10.30  Start of Morning Session 1
• 12.00  Start of Morning Session 2
• 13.00  Lunch
• 14.00  Afternoon Session
• 15.15  Depart

Price £25.00

(includes tea/coffee/biscuits on arrival and at lunchtime; bring your own packed lunch and we will give you a glass of wine/soft drink to go with it!)

Venue: Sutton Hall, Stockcross Church Road, Stockcross, Newbury RG20 8LN.

Contact:  Katy Weston

FROM MONOCHROME TO POLYCHOME: how colour transformed the art of garden design

A history of the art and colours of garden design

by Timothy Walker

Timothy is a well-known and highly thought of figure in the gardening world. He currently teaches Biology at Somerville College in Oxford and was formerly Director at the Oxford Botanical Gardens and Harcourt Arboretum. He is an excellent presenter and we are looking forward to a very interesting Study Day.

Botanic gardens are often described as living museums. Garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Gardens are often thought of as a place where science and art meet on equal terms. Timothy will investigate this relationship.

The lens through which the study day is focused will be the 400-year-old Oxford Botanic Gardens as well as gardens created by Timothy and his wife. Included in his talk will be examples of gardens from around Britain and other parts of the world.

Please download the Booking Form for this lecture.

Lunch:

Homemade soup and a glass of wine, together with tea and coffee are included in the price.  Members are requested to bring their own sandwiches.

Price £25.00

Venue: Sutton Hall, Stockcross Church Road, Stockcross, Newbury RG20 8LN.

Contact:  Katy Weston

A Study Day on the World of the Baby House:

Social History in Exquisite Miniature.

Tuesday 5 March 2019 with Amanda Herries

'Baby' Houses have been created for over 500 years.  From the European 'cabinets' representing the complexity of an aristocratic or merchant household in miniature to 'dolls' houses toys developed in the 20th century, detailed and enchanting houses have fascinated children and collectors alike.

Styles and interiors mirror social and domestic changes over the decades, and remind us of objects and habits long since forgotten.

Two morning sessions will cover the history of the baby house from the 15th to the 21st century.  The afternoon will focus on furnishings and accessories, with time to look in detail at objects.

Amanda will bring a number of examples of contents, both antique and modern, and a range of books on the subject.  Participants are encouraged to bring along anything that might have a connection to a baby or dolls house (silver toys were originally made for baby houses, and many items such as thimbles and pin cushions have found a purpose in a dolls house) and these can be discussed - even a whole house, if you like and are that ambitious! No valuations will be made.

Amanda Herries is an archaeologist by training and worked in the Museum of London for ten years, specialising in social history and the decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries.  With her family, she lived in Tokyo for seven years and wrote extensively on Japanese culture and gardens. Amanda is an expert on dolls houses and their furnishings, and is passionate about sharing her love of them with others.

Booking for this Study Day opens on 22 January 2019.  The booking form and flyer is available to print (go to Our Society and Documents) for members unable to attend the lecture on that day.

Study Day on 20th Century Theatre: 1900 to Now

Giles Ramsay
Tuesday 6 November 2018

In this Study Day Giles will look at the revolution in theatre that took place in the late C19th and its legacy on the European theatrical styles of the early C20th. He will examine the impact of the First World War and the Great Depression on the theatre and the extraordinary divide that emerged between the drawing-room dramas of Noel Coward and Terrence Rattigan in London's West End and the work of Lillian Bayliss, south of the river, at The Old Vic. Whilst Noel Coward and Terrence Rattigan had dominated the pre-war theatre scene by the 1950s they had begun to fall out of favour with the British public.  A revolution was taking place in the arts and new voices were beginning to be heard such as John Osborne and Harold Pinter.  Giles will examine the stark contrast between pre and post-war British theatre and how we, in the C21st, can now reassess which playwrights really stood the test of time.

Giles Ramsay is an independent theatre director and producer who specializes in creating new work with artists in developing countries. He is the Founding Director of the charity Developing Artists, a Fellow of St. Chad’s College, Durham University and Course Leader in Theatre at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Giles has run theatre projects in Botswana, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Kosovo, Palestine, Mexico, Thailand and Zimbabwe and given numerous talks for institutions ranging from The Foundation for Mexican Literature in Mexico City to The Royal College of Physicians in London. He regularly lectures on the history and practice of theatre on the Queen Mary 2 as it sails from New York to the UK. Giles combines academic analysis with hands on experience to bring a unique insight to the world of the theatre.

Booking for this Study Day opens on 25 September 2018.  The booking form and flyer is available to print (go to Our Society and scroll down to  Documents) for members unable to attend the lecture.

TRUE TO LIFE?

 A Study Day on Dutch Painting & Society in Vermeer’s Golden Age
Dr Sophie Oosterwijk
Tuesday 6 March 2018

The meticulous realism that Vermeer’s paintings exude appears to offer us insights into life in Holland in the seventeenth century.  Yet how true to life are they?  In the Special Interest Study Day we will look at the people depicted in these works and discuss whether Dutch interiors looked like this or whether this apparent realism is really an illusion.  Comparisons with genre paintings by Vermeer’s contemporaries such as Jan Steen and Pieter de Hooch will offer interesting comparisons and reveal potential hidden meanings.  Further evidence from portraits, maps, dolls’ houses, emblematical prints and proverbs will provide insights into art, society, and aesthetics of the Golden Age.

Session 1: Merchants, matrons and mites: family life in Dutch 17th century art: 

On the surface, seventeenth-century society in the Dutch Republic might strike modern viewers as staunchly calvinistic, especially in portraits of merchants and dignitaries with their wives, all in stern black outfits and stiff white collars. Nonetheless, there was clearly another side to society that portraits cannot show us. Genre paintings are often described simply as scenes of everyday life, but there is usually more to them than that. Here we may witness the interaction between parents, children and servants in a domestic setting.

Session 2: Wine, women and song? Dutch genre paintings by Vermeer and his contemporaries:

Paintings by Johannes Vermeer may seem above reproach with their sense of respectability and even serenity, but he did work in the same tradition as his contemporaries Pieter de Hooch, Jan Steen and Gabriel Metsu, to name but a few. An elegant couple in a well-furnished room may appear respectable enough, and not all that different from the image of society that portraits convey to us. However, when we also start noticing a glass and a jug, musical instruments, and perhaps a suggestive painting in the background, it is quite likely that the artist intended his viewer to read a bit more into his painting: perhaps a proper courtship, but possibly something rather less proper.

Session 3: Home, sweet home? The domestic interior in Dutch 17th-century painting:

Interior views were a popular subject in the Golden Age. Best known are the domestic settings with men and women reading, writing letters, making music or ‘simply’ drinking, as in the works by Vermeer, Ter Borch, De Hooch, and others. The room often includes marble floors, rich carpets and gleaming chandeliers. However, do these paintings really portray the actual appearance of Dutch middle-class interior in this period, with features that one could really find in homes of the period, or are they just an artistic illusion?

Sophie Oosterwijk  has taught at the universities of St Andrews, Manchester and Leicester.  She is a freelance researcher, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and co-editor of the journal  Church Monuments, and has published widely.  Born in Gouda, she grew up with Dutch art and culture.

Booking for this Study Day opens on 23 January 2018.  The booking form and flyer is available to print (go to Our Society and Documents) for members unable to attend the lecture.  For directions as to how to find the venue for this event please return to the Home Page and click on Our Society and then on Activities.