Our March 2026 Study Day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00am - 3.00pm (coffee is served from 10.30am). There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow. The cost is £35 per person, which includes morning coffee and lunch.  The booking form can be downloaded here.

This study day looks at two wonderful public collections, the Wallace Collection in London and the Frick Collection in New York. The Wallace Collection was bequeathed to the nation in 1897 and opened in 1900.   A visit to the Wallace by the American industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), helped to inspire him to create the Frick Collection. Someone in particular, Sir John Murray-Scott, links the two collections with the vast Kentish house of Knole, in Sevenoaks, Kent. We will see how. It is a great story.

The Frick Collection, New York, is one of the most superb museums in the world. It was created mostly during the Gilded Age of American connoisseurship. Frick's agents and dealers, Berenson and Duveen among them, were very effective in sourcing great works of art.  This outstanding collection includes fine French furniture, enamels, porcelain, paintings by Bellini, Van Eyck, Holbein, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Dyck, Rubens, El Greco, Velázquez, Fragonard, Ingres, Renoir, JMW Turner, Constable, Whistler and many others. These are all set within an outstanding mansion in Manhattan. It is topical to reconsider this splendid collection as the Frick has undergone major redevelopment and reopened in April 2025.

This Study Day is presented in three lectures divided by a break.

Lecture 1: Sir Richard and Lady Wallace, their collection in Hertford House, London. 

Lecture 2: The Frick Collection, New York: a feast for the eyes.

Lecture 3: A legacy of collecting. The story of the Wallaces’ Parisian collection, its fate and the link with Knole.

Formerly a curator and Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, Hilary Williams is now Art History Education Officer in the Department of Learning & National Partnerships at the Museum. She lectures for the British Museum and for the Wallace Collection. She was the founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society of North Kent Evening. Hilary is a specialist in 17th century art and has published on Rembrandt. She has vast experience of giving gallery talks, of lecturing and of leading art history tours in UK, Europe, New York and Boston. For the Royal Collection Trust, she has guided Special Interest Private Tours of the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace.

NOW FULLY BOOKED WITH WAITING LIST
Our November 2025 Study Day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00am - 3.00pm (coffee is served from 10.30am). There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow. The cost is £35 per person, which includes morning coffee and lunch.  The booking form can be downloaded here.

This is a chance to explore old and new as we examine the very best of British architects from Christopher Wren to the present day.

It is not a technical talk, but an informative and lively examination of some brilliant designers and their legacy. 

Lecture 1: The Gleaming Spires of London from 1066 to 2066

Lecture 2: The Brilliance of Thomas Heatherwick – a Modern Leonardo

Lecture 3: The Classical Re-invented – the legacy of Sir Christopher Wren

A Londoner with a contagious enthusiasm for art and architecture, Ian Swankie is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St. Paul’s Cathedral. He is also a freelance London tour guide.  Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his hometown of Richmond in west London.  He is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, one of the city livery companies.

Please note this is now fully booked, with waiting list only

Our March 2025 Study Day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00am - 3.00pm (coffee is served from 10.30am). There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow. The cost is £35 per person which includes morning coffee and lunch.  The booking form can be downloaded here.

Douglas Skeggs follows the course of this hard, determined, often brutal dynasty which ruled Russia for over three hundred years, from Peter the Great, the founder of St Petersburg, through his eccentric daughter Elizabeth, to Catherine the Great, the most powerful of all the Empresses of Russia who had no real claim to the throne, and on to the tragic figure of Nicholas II, the last Tsar and one of the most poignant figures in history whose death in a cellar in Ekaterinburg ended the reign of this turbulent and ill-fated family.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. He was the director of The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at The Study Center, Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses.  He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably an 'Omnibus' programme on Whistler and an exhibition video on William Morris. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 foreign languages, and his book on Monet, River of Light, has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France. 

Our November 2024 Study Day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00am - 3.00pm (coffee is served from 10.30am). There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow. The cost is £35 per person which includes morning coffee and lunch.  The booking form can be downloaded here.

Art Deco has the reputation of being the most glamorous and popular style of the 20th century. Over three lectures this study day reviews the development of the style within the context of its social and economic environment during the 1920s and 1930s and looks at specific examples of objets d’art, including silver, jewellery, furniture, ceramics, clocks and architecture.  The range of designers, craftsmen and artists includes E-J Ruhlmann, René Lalique, Tamara de Lempicka, Jean Dupas, Georgia O’Keeffe, Eileen Gray, Romain de Tirtoff (Erté), René Vincent and the ceramicist Clarice Cliff.  In addition to some examples of domestic and civic Art Deco buildings in the UK, Pamela Campbell-Johnston will also touch on certain architectural buildings in New York, Miami, Mumbai, and Napier, thus confirming Art Deco’s full global reach and appeal.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston has an MA Hons in Art History from the University of St Andrew's. She has over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Adult Education Department's programme of events. She has also conducted numerous guided tours and focused gallery talks on individual works of art. Pamela specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art, with over 12 years' experience at the Royal Academy. Pamela is now a freelance art consultant and lecturer and recently curated a collection for the Lansdowne Club.

An Essex Area Day of Special Interest

Little Baddow Memorial Hall, Little Baddow, Chelmsford CM3 4TA

10.30 - 14.30

Cost £38 per person to include morning coffee and lunch

PROGRAMME

10.00  Registration & Coffee

10.30  Lecture 1

11.30  Break

11.45  Lecture 2

12.45 -13.30  Lunch 

13.30 -14.30  Lecture 3

Over the course of three one-hour lectures we will explore the interaction between Italian cities and the Islamic World: a story of taste and status, international trade and diplomacy between the 14th and 17th Centuries, and a shared appreciation of the complex beauty of Islamic Art.

Dr Antonia Gatward Cevizli completed her PhD at the University of Warwick, specialising in cultural exchange between Italy and the Ottomans in the fifteenth century.  During her undergraduate degree in art history and Italian and her MA in art history, she studied in Siena and Venice.  She has taught art history at Sabancı University, Istanbul. Antonia is a Course Leader at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and also teaches on the Victoria and Albert Museum year course.  Her publications have focused on cultural and diplomatic exchange between Italy and the Ottomans.

Please address enquiries and to book a place to:  

Mrs Megan Bashir, Kumra Lodge, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood CM15 0JX. TEL: 01277 374314  Email: meganbashir@gmail.com

The Sultan Mehmet II, 1480, Layard Bequest, 1916  ©The National Gallery, London

Our March 2024 Study Day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00am - 3.00pm (coffee is served from 10.30am). There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow. The cost is £40 per person which includes morning coffee and lunch.  The booking form can be downloaded here.

Session One: Undressing Antiques
“Antiques. I don’t understand them and they’re beyond my budget. They’re not for me.” A persuasive introduction to buying antiques and integrating and using them in today’s homes. The state of the antiques market and the different meanings of the word value are considered, and we take a look at what current and future generations of collectors are buying, why they are buying it and how they are displaying it.

Session Two: Curves, Colours & Cool - an Introduction to Mid-Century Modern Furniture
The antiques market has changed dramatically and now pieces that were made during the 1970s can fetch many times more than a piece made in the 1770s. Why has the teak sideboard you threw out become so desirable? Who is this Eames guy? Drawing a blank with Timo Sarpaneva? Who’s buying what and what are they doing with it? This practical and inspirational lecture looks at furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and metalware, identifies key designs and designers, and examines the revolutionary design movements they began.

Session Three: Members are invited to bring in items for Mark to appraise.

Mark Hill studied History of Art & Architecture (BA Hons) and began his career as a porter and Junior Cataloguer at Bonhams, before moving to Sotheby's where he was a Specialist in the Collectors' Department. He became director of an internet company forming and running a ground-breaking deal with eBay Live Auctions. Mark was co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-17, and founded his own publishing company in 2005, publishing more than a dozen books on specialist subjects in the decorative arts. A Miscellaneous expert on the Antiques Roadshow since 2007, Mark has appeared on BBC2’s Antiques Roadtrip, and has co-presented three primetime TV series on antiques and collecting for BBC2. A Senior Vice President at a company offering digital solutions to the antiques industry, he has lectured across the world, including at the V&A in London, and contributed to many newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programmes. Mark is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Freeman of the City of London.

The Arts Society Blackwater are holding a Day of Special Interest on Monday 11 March 2024, 10.00am to 3.30pm, in the Village Hall, Church Road, Wickham Bishops CM8 3JZ, on Oriental Painting - its Mysteries and Influences Revealed.  For more information and a booking form please click here.

An Arts Society Essex Area Day of Special Interest

Monday 20 November 2023 10.00am -2.30pm

Little Baddow Memorial Hall, Little Baddow, Chelmsford CM3 4TA

During the course of three one-hour lectures Peter Medhurst traces the progress of the English Christmas Carol through seven centuries of continuous development, and explores the many fascinating stories that lie behind our popular seasonal songs. Carols discussed include God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Adeste Fideles, In the Bleak Midwinter, and many more.

Cost £38 per person, includes coffee and a light lunch with wine and soft drinks

For more information and to book a place please contact Megan Bashir, meganbashir@gmail.com

Our November Study Day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00 am - 3.00pm (coffee is served from 10.30am). There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow. The cost is £40 per person which includes morning coffee and lunch.  The booking form can be downloaded here.

This study day aims to explore the celebrated women artists in Western European painting; artists who managed to break the norm of Western European society by making a name and a living for themselves in a world of men. Despite achieving fame and recognition in their own time and being celebrated for their talent and skill, they were subsequently erased from the mainstream narrative of art history.

Lecture 1 –   Antiquity, the Renaissance and the Baroque: the daughter of Butades, Marcia, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Michaelina Wautier and Judith Leyster.

Lecture 2 –   The 18th & 19th Centuries: Angelica Kauffman, Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun, Mary Cassatt and Eva Gonzales.

 Lecture 3 –   The 20th Century and Contemporary: Gwen John, Frida Kahlo, Marina Abramović, Sonia Boyce, Carrie Mae Weems.

Born in Paris in 1976, Aliki Braine studied at The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, The Slade School of Fine Art, London and The Courtauld Institute where she was awarded a distinction for her masters in 17th century painting. After working for the National Gallery for 20 years, she now teaches for Christie’s Education and the Wallace Collection and is an Associate Lecturer for the Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts London. Aliki is also a practising artist who regularly exhibits her photographic work internationally.

Gwen John, c1902, (c) National Portrait Gallery

This study day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH.   There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow.   The cost is £40 per person, which includes morning coffee and lunch.  

Lecture 1 –  First catch a squirrel

This talk will take us through the physical side of making a painting, and will also explain how the difficulty in using many of the historical materials has affected the finished look of paintings, making them sometimes seem odd to our modern eyes.

Lecture 2 –  A closer look:  Pigments and the struggle for colour

Of all the aspects of producing a painting, finding substances in the natural world which could be used for colour was the most difficult. This talk will examine the ingenious and often laborious ways in which artists managed to create the colours they needed.  Chantal will bring samples of the pigments discussed for you to look at during the talk.  

Lecture 3 –  Why does it matter:  Clues for the connoisseur

The first two talks will have looked at a number of physical aspects of how paintings were made, but does understanding these facts add up to anything more exciting still? This talk will take us into the realm of connoisseurship, and of using the understanding of materials to help us determine a date and a place of production for a painting – and possibly even to identify the artist. 

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe has an MA in the History of Art from Edinburgh University, and a PhD from the Warburg Institute of London University. Since 1989 Chantal has taught on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts degree at Sotheby's Institute of Art, and has many years experience as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies in London, Italy and America. Having also trained as a conservator of paintings, she brings a deep understanding of the physical process of making a painting to her lectures and study sessions.

Booking form with further details here

The Seine Estuary and the Ups and Downs in the Lives of the Impressionists

By Carole Petipher

Wednesdays 18 and 25 January 2023, 1.30pm – 4.00pm at Nayland Village Hall

Our January Study Days will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 1.30am – 4.00pm on Wednesday 18 and Wednesday 25 January 2023.  On each day there are two lectures.  There is parking at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow. The cost is £40 per person, which covers both days and includes tea.

Wednesday 18 January

The Seine Estuary and Belle Epoque Paris

1.  Boudin, Monet, and the artists surrounding Honfleur harbour.

2.  The spawning of the ‘cradle of Impressionism’ within a city revitalised by Hausmann.

Wednesday 25 January

The Path to Success and Ongoing Influence

1.  Adapting to the upheavals of the Franco-Prussian War.

2.  The careers and influence of Monet, Sisley, and Pissarro along the ‘River of Light’.

Download booking form here

Contact Sally Furlonger, 01787 249789 or sallyfurlonger@hotmail.co.uk

Cheques, made out please to The Arts Society Colchester, to

Sally Furlonger, Malting Farm, Little Waldingfield, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 0SY.

How did the British view themselves and their subjects in the era of imperialism? How did imperial subjects view the British? This study day considers these questions by exploring a range of images, buildings, objects and art forms from across the British Empire. Beginning with a broad view of the empire and imperial art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we will then focus more closely on imperial India, examining the arts and architecture of the capital city of Calcutta, the ‘second city’ of the British Empire throughout the nineteenth century, and look at the life and art of one of India’s cultural giants, Rabindranath Tagore. 

A Day of Special Interest presented by The Arts Society Essex Area, at Little Baddow Memorial Hall, Little Baddow, Chelmsford CM3 4TA. 

Three lectures 10am to 14.30pm.  

Cost £38 per person, which includes morning coffee and lunch. 

For further information and to book a place please contact: 

Mrs Megan Bashir, Kumra Lodge, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood CM15 0JX.

Email: meganbashir@gmail.com  Tel: 01277 374314

This study day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, on Thursday 17 March 2022 from 11.00am to 3pm.   There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow.   

The cost is £35 per person, which includes coffee from 10.30am, and lunch.  You can download a Booking Form here.

The Mughal emperors of India commissioned the art and architecture of their magnificent palaces and tombs, culminating in that most sublime of monuments, the Taj Mahal, constructed by Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved queen. The Rajput rajas and maharajas, subject first to the Mughals and then the British, were well rewarded for their loyalty and service. They built majestic fort-palaces in their state capitals where they held glittering courts.  Over three lectures Sue Rollin looks at these rulers and their world, the artists and craftsmen who they sponsored, and explores the buildings and distinctive artistic styles which are their legacy.

Sue Rollin works as a tour guide and lecturer in India and the Middle East, and as a freelance interpreter for the European Union, United Nations and other international organisations. She has worked as an archaeologist, as tutor and lecturer in Assyriology and Ancient History at the Universities of London and Cambridge, and as an interpreter on the staff of the European Commission.  She is co-author of Blue Guide: Jordan and Istanbul: A Traveller's Guide.

Image: Taj Mahal

Our January study course will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland, CO6 4JH, on Wednesday 19 January and Wednesday 26 January, from 1.30pm to 4.00pm. There is parking at the hall and in the meadow behind. The cost is £35 per person which includes tea.

These two study days will concentrate on less well-known aspects of Spain, firstly Habsburg and Bourbon Palaces, and the painters of the Generation of 1898.

The first study day will focus on Habsburg and Bourbon Palaces in and around Madrid - their occupants and treasures. Beginning in Philip II’s vast 16th century Monastery Palace of El Escorial north-west of Madrid, we then go on to the Pardo palace, a former royal hunting lodge near Madrid, where General Franco once resided. We will end with a brief look at San Ildefonso de La Granja near Segovia; once a farm, it became a splendid baroque palace with French gardens. We will glimpse Elizabeth Farnese’s Italianate palace of Riofrío near Segovia, before moving on to delightful Aranjuez and its neo-classical Casita del Labrador on the Tagus river near Toledo. We will finish with Madrid’s imposing 18th century Royal Palace, which replaced a Habsburg Alcázar built on the site of an earlier Moorish fortress.

The second study day will focus on the painters of the Generation of 1898. Spain ruled over a vast empire in the 16th and early 17th centuries, but by 1898 she had lost her last colonies of Cuba and the Philippines to the United States. Initially this had a devastating effect on national selfconfidence, and writers and artists critically re-evaluated how they viewed Spain. We will look at powerful paintings by some of the ‘dark’ artists, such as Zuloaga, Romero de Torres, and Solana and then at brighter works by Regoyos, Iturrino and Rusiñol. Many of their paintings can be seen in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and the Thyssen Museum in Malaga. We move on to  the even brighter and more optimistic painters, such as Aureliano Beruete, and his internationally acclaimed contemporary Joaquín Sorolla, whose light-filled paintings - many of them set by the sea or in gardens - were the subject of a major National Gallery exhibition in 2019.

You can download a booking form and payment details here.

Gail Turner is an art historian, lecturer and artist with a special interest in Spanish history and art. She read Modern History at Oxford, and completed her MA at the Courtauld. She has worked at Tate Britain, the Arts Council, as a consultant for Christie’s and at the Courtauld, and lectures for various institutions including the National Trust and the Art Fund. She also teaches on courses at the V&A and the Courtauld Institute Summer School. In 2015 she was awarded an Encomienda de Isabel La Católica for her promotion of Spanish culture in the UK.

A Member Society of The Arts Society

The Marquesses of Bute were some of the wealthiest and most discerning patrons of the arts of the nineteenth century, and their legacy of spectacular buildings and exquisite workmanship includes Mount Stewart on the Isle of Bute, Dumfries House in Ayrshire and Cardiff Castle.

Matthew Williamson trained as an art and architectural historian before undertaking postgraduate Museum Studies. He lectures widely on the subject of design, and is especially interested in that of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  With 30 years’ experience as Curator of Cardiff Castle, Matthew is an experienced lecturer, writer and broadcaster, and a long-standing member of The Arts Society. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2019.

Monday 22 November 2021, three online lectures presented by The Arts Society Essex Area:

Lecture 1 – 10.30 – 11.30.  Lecture 2 – 11.50 – 12.50.  Lecture 3 – 13.30 – 14.30.

Cost £12.50 per screen.

Information and how to book here.

Sir Christopher Wren was a polymath who knew many of the movers and shakers of his age, from Charles II to Isaac Newton, and showed a remarkable breadth of mind. He was the right man, in the right place, at the right time. His productivity was vast, across many types of activity, especially in architecture.

The Great Fire of London of 1666 brought immense opportunities for Wren - 52 new city churches - their varied forms, functions, decorations and the needs and resources of the many and diverse parishes of London.   

St Paul’s Cathedral is Wren’s masterpiece, but is it what it seems from the outside, inside and above? How did he solve architectural problems, find enough materials and manage a large workforce? How did he complete such an enormous building in his lifetime? 

Hilary Williams was formerly Print Room Superintendent at the British Museum, now Art History Education Officer. She lectures for the British Museum, London Borough of Bexley and the Wallace Collection. She was founding Artistic Director of The Arts Society of North Kent Evening. She guides special interest private tours of the State Apartments in Buckingham Palace. 

Tuesday 9 November 2021, two online lectures presented by The Arts Society Sudbury:

Lecture 1 – 10.30 – 11.30.  Lecture 2 – 12.00 – 13.00

Cost £10 per screen.

Information and booking form here.

On Monday 5 July The Arts Society Essex Area will present “Beethoven at 250 – Classical Music’s Greatest Revolutionary” two lectures by Sandy Burnett.  Cost £10 per screen. For more information, and to reserve a place on this webinar, please contact Megan Bashir.   Tel: 01277 374314.   Email: meganbashir@gmail.com

Our January Study Course will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH on Wednesday 22 January 2020 and Wednesday 29 January 2020, from 1.30 pm to 4.00 pm. There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow.

The cost  is £35 per person which includes tea.

Please note the change of day from the usual Monday to Wednesday.

Between 1050 and 1200 Western Europe became more settled, politically and economically, than it had been since the demise of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. The church flourished, and as pilgrims, monks, and crusaders travelled extensively aesthetic ideas were disseminated, leading to the evolution of a remarkably international style of European church architecture, dubbed "Romanesque" by 19th-century architectural historians because it was influenced heavily by Roman models.

The first of this pair of study days will focus on Romanesque churches such as the Abbey of Sainte Foi, Conques, in south-western France, the cathedral of Durham, and San Marco, Venice, to consider their debt to antiquity, how they share common design principles and yet demonstrate regional characteristics, and how their exteriors and interiors, embellished with sculpture, wall paintings and coloured glass windows, were intended to conjure a foretaste of Heaven.

The second day will be devoted to the sumptuous array of artefacts that furnished Romanesque church interiors: illuminated manuscripts clad with bejewelled covers, cast baptismal fonts and candlesticks, enamelled reliquaries set with carved ivory panels. We will explore the properties and origins of the materials used; the techniques utilised by craftsmen; and how objects functioned within the liturgy. The final session will consider surviving commissions made for secular patrons; a chance to look at castles, such as those at Orford and Framlingham in Suffolk and town houses in Cluny, Burgundy; items like the Lewis chessmen made for leisure; and rare pieces of jewellery intended for display.

Sally Dormer is a lecturer and tutor for the Early Medieval Year course at the Victoria & Albert Museum. She is Dean of European Studies for two universities in the USA, and a freelance lecturer for The Art Fund.  She leads study tours and works on cruises and in tour groups. Her history degree at Durham university was followed by her PhD in Medieval Manuscript Illumination and an MA in Medieval History of Art at the Courtauld Institute.

Our March Study Day will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00 am - 3.00pm (coffee is served from 10.30am). There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow.   The cost  is £30 per person which includes coffee and biscuits and lunch. 

11.00 Lecture 1 – The ‘Signature’ Paints

This introductory lecture outlines the biographies of the two artists and traces their life stories from beginning to maturity, including those interesting moments when their paths crossed.

12.05 Lecture 2 – The Technical Challenge:  Sketches, Sketching and Sketchbooks

One of the ways Turner and Constable revolutionised landscape painting was through fresh approaches to the act of sketching, a process that went hand-in-hand with close observation of the natural world.   This talk explores their differing and preferred forms of sketching activity including drawing and painting on the spot.

2.00 Lecture 3 – The Hay Wain vs. The Fighting Temeraire: Late Style, Reputation and Legacy

The final session compares the two artists at the ends of their lives and reveals how their respective late periods differed radically from their earlier outputs.

Nicola Moorby is an independent art historian specialising in British art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She studied at the University of York and Birkbeck College, London. Formerly a curator at Tate Britain she has curated a number of exhibitions and has published widely on J.M.W. Turner, including contributions to the forthcoming online catalogue of the Turner Bequest. She is also co-editor and author of How to Paint Like Turner (Tate Publishing, 2010). In addition, she has published on Walter Richard Sickert and is co-author of Tate's catalogue of works by the Camden Town Group.

Our January Study Days will be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 1.30 - 4.00 pm on Monday 21 and Monday 28 January 2019. There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow.   The cost  is £30 per person which covers both days and includes tea.  

Monday 21 January - As a background to the National Gallery 2019 exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci, Painter at the Court of Milan, Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Painting will study various works of Leonardo and how they pushed the boundaries of art to a new level.

Monday 28 January - The Medici rose from being one amongst many wealthy merchant and banking families in Republican Florence to become Grand Dukes and absolute rulers of all Tuscany.  Renaissance Florence under the Medici will chart this shift in power by looking at their patronage of art and architecture.

Please click on the date for briefing notes on the respective topics - 21 January and 28 January.

This Study Day consists of three lectures and lunch, to be held at Nayland Village Hall, Church Lane, Nayland CO6 4JH, 11.00 am - 3.00 pm on 22 March 2018. There is a car park at the hall, and behind the hall on the meadow.   The cost is £30 per person which includes coffee & biscuits and lunch. 

Lecture 1.  Dreamtime, convicts and early settlers.  An examination of some indigenous works and the significance of Dreamtime symbols, and of new immigrants recording the early years of convict settlement.  Increasing immigration and artistic responses to life in the strange new continent were seen through European artistic traditions.

Lecture 2.  Australian Impressionism & the ‘Heidelberg School’.  European influence continued to dominate throughout the 19th century but with Australian artists’ growing contacts with Paris, modernism began to challenge the dominance of the ‘Victorian’ style.  Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and others produced works which are now Australian icons.

 Lecture 3.  Art after the First World War.  The Great War was a watershed in Australian and New Zealand history.  No longer subservient to Europe, artists found their own language to depict the modern world and the unique landscape and culture Down Under.  The art of indigenous artists, which responds to contemporary life while retaining many of the traditions of their ancestors, is now much admired. In the wider world, Will Longstaff, Sydney Nolan, Brett Whitely, Arthur Boyd and many others achieved international recognition.

A briefing sheet on Australian history and a bibliography can be downloaded here.

Valerie Woodgate is a lecturer and guide in Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and for Tate on cruises. She also lectures in other major galleries, including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and on religious art in churches and cathedrals.   She is a script-writer for the Living Paintings Trust (art for the blind and partially-sighted).  

This study course will take place on three consecutive Monday afternoons, January 15, 22 and 29, from 1.30pm until 4.00pm including an interval for tea and cake. The total cost of the complete series of lectures is £40.  

Venue: Marks Tey Parish Hall, Old London Road, Marks Tey, Colchester CO6 1EN. There is plenty of car-parking space available.

Here is an opportunity for members to review the many changes and influences on British architecture over the last 100 years and to bring themselves up to date with the variety of forms of architecture we see today.

We begin with Neo-Georgianism, which became established in the years before the First World War as a result of a renewed interest in the late 17th century work of Sir Christopher Wren.   New ideas were developing on the European Continent, where a different direction in architecture was sought encapsulating Modernist principles, and we will look at how these were received in Britain during the inter-war period.  After the War, a lighter Contemporary Style was developed in the USA as a more acceptable face of Modernism, and this was reflected in the bright, colourful Fifties designs showcased at the Festival of Britain.  Many Arts Society members will enjoy reminiscing as we move from the Fifties to the Sixties, when the clarity of geometrical forms, paralleling Mary Quant’s ‘the look’, was followed by severe Brutalism, now admired by enthusiasts for its tough, structural integrity. The lecture will explain the ideas behind Post Modernism, with its tongue-in-cheek, even jokey evocation of the past;  and how admiration for the engineering aesthetic of ‘High Tech’ architecture enabled British architects to stride the global stage as world-class architects.  We end with a survey of recent projects, both in the UK and Europe, many of which have either won or been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize, Britain’s most prestigious architectural award.

Anthea Streeter studied the Fine and Decorative Arts in London and continued her studies at Harvard University. It was while at Harvard, where there was great enthusiasm for American design, that she became interested herself in 20th century architecture. Since returning from America she has taught on courses in Oxford and London, lectured on the Country House course in Sussex, and for several private groups around the country.  Her special interest is in the architecture and design of 20th century.

This Study Day will take place at the Marks Tey Hotel, London Road, Marks Tey, CO6 1DU from 11.00am to 3.00pm. The cost is £25 per person, which includes tea/coffee on arrival and a light lunch with coffee/tea.  Booking opens at the lecture on 12 January 2017.

From Victoria herself in the Scottish Highlands to Mary Kingsley in West Africa and Isabella Bird in the Rocky Mountains and Hawaii, this is a world tour in exciting company.

In Session 1 Roger Mitchell defines ‘feistiness’ and then celebrates the achievements of Victorian Women Travellers, starting with Victoria herself and taking the story of travel and travellers into the age of railways and steamships.

Session 2 covers a wide range of women travellers and writers, including Mary Kingsley and Margaret Fountaine

After lunch in Session 3 Roger concentrates on two of his heroines - Marianne North (1830–1890) and her paintings, and Isabella Bird (1831–1904) and her books.

Roger Mitchell studied History at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds. Awarded Churchill Fellowship to travel and study in USA. Former College Vice-Principal who now lectures for University of Liverpool and for Adult Residential Colleges. Organises and leads country house study tours, and tries to find time to do research on British and American Country Houses.

This study course will take place on two consecutive Monday afternoons from 1.30pm until 4.00pm including an interval for tea and cake. The total cost of the complete series of lectures is £35.  

Venue: Marks Tey Parish Hall, Old London Road, Marks Tey, Colchester CO6 1EN. There is plenty of car-parking space available.

Drawing is central to the way artists work and think. This study course focuses on how and why artists draw, using examples ranging from Renaissance Italy to today’s England. It promises to look in detail at materials and techniques as it considers drawing’s vital role in artistic creation.

Day One

1) Art Education 

For centuries drawing and learning have been closely connected. As a means of coordinating the mind and hand, and teaching habits of observation, the practice of drawing has since at least the 16th century been considered essential in preparing the aspiring artist for a career as a painter or sculptor. So far so good: but what exactly were students supposed to draw? And did it matter how they drew? This lecture looks at the very different ways drawing has been taught in art academies, both in Britain and on the continent, beginning with the earliest Italian schools where the focus was on drawing from the life model. It also reveals how artists such as William Hogarth and William Blake disagreed fundamentally with their tutors’ methods and rebelled. 

2) Master Drawings Close Up

What is a silverpoint drawing? How can you tell the difference between the marks made by a quill pen and a steel nib? When did artists start drawing with graphite? This lecture focuses on drawing media, and looks at works on paper by the greatest of the old masters, including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rubens and Rembrandt. Drawings show us the work in progress: an artist’s inspiration, the ideas forming and taking shape – even the false starts, offering insights into the creative process itself. This lecture takes you behind the scenes by looking at examples of master drawings in detail and exploring the reasons why these artists chose particular materials and techniques, from the extreme delicacy of silverpoint to the crude vigour of a reed pen.

Day Two

1) Drawing in England

In early 17th century England, drawing was barely given a thought: drawings were considered to be nothing more than ‘rude drafts’. But by the end of the century collectors had come to regard them as precious works of art, and for artists themselves the practice of drawing was considered to be essential. Telling the fascinating story of the development of drawing in England, this lecture explores the many ways in which artists have used drawing media, whether to capture fleeting inspiration or to make fully-fledged exhibition pieces. It will look at the inventive ways in which artists such as Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, William Blake, Aubrey Beardsley, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Lucian Freud have used graphite, chalk and ink, and conclude with a look at some innovative contemporary drawings. 

2) Artists as Printmakers  

Many artists have drawn their own designs onto copper plates, woodblocks and lithographic stones to create different expressive and formal effects. This lecture demystifies the idea of the ‘original print’, and offers clear explanations of the processes involved in each printmaking technique. It unfolds stories of artists’ great skill in creating printed images, such as Albrecht Dürer’s astonishing Apocalypse woodcuts, and stories of experimentation, such as William Blake’s wood-engraved illustrations to Virgil – which looked so unconventional they were nearly rejected by his publisher. Etching was the most important artists’ medium because it allowed the artist to draw freely onto the copper plate, and this lecture will look at fascinating and beautiful examples by Rembrandt, Whistler, Picasso and Freud.

 Dr Susan Owens is a writer and freelance curator who has published and lectured extensively on drawings. She was formerly Curator of Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she wrote The Art of Drawing: British Masters and Methods since 1600 (V&A, 2013) and curated numerous displays of drawings. Before joining the V&A she was a curator in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. She recently organised an exhibition of self-portrait drawings at the Courtauld Gallery.

Illustration: Edward Francis Burney, The Antique School at New Somerset House, pen and ink with watercolour, c.1780, Royal Academy of Arts 

This study course consists of three Monday afternoons from 1.30pm until 4.00pm including an interval for tea and cake. The total cost of the complete series of lectures is £35  

Venue:
Marks Tey Parish Hall, Old London Road, Marks Tey, Colchester CO6 1EN. 

There is plenty of car-parking space available.

DAY 1 – Monday 18 January 2016 1.30-4.00 pm

The Early Georgians and the Neo-Palladian house

 William Kent: England’s first ‘interior decorator’

On George I's accession, the triumphant Whigs defiantly rejected the French-dominated Baroque style, which smacked of Catholicism and foreignness, by choosing to build their country houses in a  classical style influenced above all by the villas of Andrea Palladio and his famous treatise.  There was a growing feeling that England needed a new national style, a national taste, and from this would follow the raising of national prestige – Britain would even become ‘the principal seat of arts’.

William Kent had the most astonishing career; his journey from fairly humble Yorkshire beginnings to becoming 'an oracle of taste' at the heart of fashionable society - a painter, interior decorator, landscape gardener and architect - has a parallel with the versatile artist/architects of the Italian Renaissance. He is the first Englishman to design an interior in its entirety, complete with furnishings that complemented the textiles on the walls and decoration of cornices and ceiling. 

DAY 2 – Monday 25 January 2016, 1.30-4.00 pm

Chinese, Gothic or French: Exotic Tastes in Rococo England

 Life in London's townhouses

A commentator in 1754 noted disparagingly ‘how much we are improved in architecture; not merely by the adoption of what we call Chinese, nor by the restoration of what we call Gothic; but by a happy mixture of both’.  The taste for the Chinese and Gothic as well as the new rococo style from France were all fashionable alternatives to the prevailing Palladianism and provided opportunities for unrivalled flights of fancy both in the garden and inside the house, with often charming results.

The well-to-do spent much more time in London than in the country. A few built impressive town mansions - Devonshire House and Spencer House for example - but most were happy to take, on long or short lease, a typical terraced townhouse on one of the newly-developed estates in the West End. While dirty and unsocial trades were kept out of residential areas, all manner of shops, showrooms and trades rubbed shoulders with the new terraces of houses.

DAY 3 – Monday 1 February 2016, 1.30-4.00 pm

Capturing the Spirit of Antiquity: James Stuart, Robert Adam and their followers

 The Regency House

Stuart and Adam were the leading architects to introduce patrons to the new antique taste being adopted across Europe from the late 1750s.  Robert Adam's genius for invention is seen in his suites of reception rooms which contrast in shape and decoration one from another and in which he created an unparalleled harmony of design in the ornament and furnishings.  His name has become synonymous with the classical taste of the later Georgians though the more restrained but equally elegant work of James Wyatt and Henry Holland rivalled Adam's in the last two decades of the century.

The Regency period, which from a stylistic point of view dates from the 1790s to the 1830s, was dominated by the exotic figure of the Prince of Wales, who became Regent in 1811 and succeeded to the throne as George IV in 1820.  It sees the beginning of the ‘battle of the styles’ when the Chinese, Gothic, Egyptian and even the Hindustan styles were vying with those from Greece and Rome, providing many challenges and pitfalls for decorators and patrons alike.   The old formal pattern of living gave way to informality and the use of rooms such as the library was to change. According to the Repository of the Arts in 1809, “Fashion is ever creating change and variety”, and the thirst for novelty led to the constant introduction of new types of furniture, such as sofa tables, chiffoniers, Greek couches and ottomans.

  PHILIPPA BARTON

Philippa Barton specialises in the history of English domestic architecture, interiors and furniture with a particular interest in the planning of houses, the changing use of room types and the arrangement of furnishings from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries.  She is a lecturer on the V & A's year courses and short courses and is co-founder of Dilettanti which organises series of lectures together with visits to exhibitions and country houses.

This consists of three Monday afternoons from 2pm until 4.30pm including an interval for tea and cake. The total cost of the complete series of lectures is £35.

Venue:
Marks Tey Parish Hall, Old London Road, Marks Tey, Colchester CO6 1EN. 

There is plenty of car-parking space available.

Study Days 2015

Mondays 12, 19 and 26 January 2015
Cost: £35 for the course including tea.

Greece, Rome and the Classical Revival

Weeks One and Two:
Greek and Roman Art and Architecture 
by Paul Roberts 
Week Three:
Palladio and Palladianism: an Architectural Legacy
by Charles Hind

Lecture 1 Rome: Art and Emperors

Rome’s Emperors are amongst some of the most notable figures in history, while her art and architecture provide some of man’s finest creations. This lecture will look at the Emperors and the palaces, temples and other buildings which they created – from Augustus’ sublime Altar of Peace and Nero’s luxurious Golden House to Hadrian’s majestic, eternal Pantheon. Then there is Roman art – from beautiful sculptures to bright mosaics and wall-paintings and exquisite glass and gems.

We also look at Roman society – from the bustle of the Forum to the danger and excitement of the amphitheatre and racing stadium. This combination of objects, people, history gives fascinating insight into the life of the Eternal City. 

Lecture 2 Leptis Magna and Cyrene: Cities of the Sands

Two of the mightiest cities of Roman Africa, both today in the troubled country of Libya, are our focus today. Lost under the sands for centuries and now once more brought to light, to the east lies Cyrene founded by Greek colonists, while to the west is Leptis Magna, first built by Phoenicians the ancestors of Hannibal – spreading out from their capital at Carthage.

Both cities boast a staggering array of beautiful remains, the temples and sacred precincts of Greek Cyrene, the immense forum, basilica and other buildings of the huge Roman building programme at Leptis, and the baths, theatres and colonnades common to both. We will also look at some of the wonderful finds now in the British Museum and elsewhere, which were discovered in these cities of the sands.

Week 2 19 January 2015

Lecture 3 Mirrors of Stone: The Mosaics of Greece and Rome

This lecture explores the diversity and beauty of mosaics, from their origins in the pebble mosaics of 8th century BC Greece to their adoption in the 5th century AD by Christianity. We focus on the Roman period when mosaics made of tesserae, cubes of stone and glass, portrayed an almost infinite variety of subjects. There is a range of scenes from daily life on estates, fishing and hunting, to gladiators, chariot races, gods and heroes, and even food.

Mosaics are in effect beautiful ‘mirrors of stone’ which can offer us an unparalleled reflection of real life in the ancient world.

Lecture 4 Pompeii and Herculaneum 

Few can fail to have heard of these two towns, snuffed out on 29 September AD 79 by the fateful eruption of Mt Vesuvius. Together they provide an archaeologist’s dream, a time capsule of artefacts, buildings and people frozen in time, offering unparalleled insight into the culture and lifestyle of the empire.

We look at sculptures of emperors, gods and benefactors, stunning mosaics and wall paintings showing everything from mythological scenes and famous people to bakers shops, and even bordelloes, innumerable pieces of silverware jewellery, glassware and even objects in wood miraculously preserved, all part of the daily life of these two very different towns, Pompeii the larger of the two with its industrial quarters and dense urban pattern, Herculaneum, smaller and more genteel with its elegant sea-side promenade.

The cities of Vesuvius and the treasures which they have preserved are perhaps one of the most immediate, astonishing and moving experiences we can have of antiquity.

Part II Palladio and Palladianism: An Architectural Heritage

Week 3 Monday 26 January 2015

Lecture 5 The Life and Career of Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)

This lecture looks at the life and career of Palladio and the reasons for his fame and influence.

Lecture 6 Anglo-Palladianism

The name for the style that Inigo Jones created in early 17th century England, drawing on the work of Palladio and of Jones’s French contemporaries.

Anglo-Palladianism underlay the development of architecture in Britain for the next two centuries, promoted from the 1720s by Lord Burlington. It was also exported not only to the American colonies and to India, but back to Europe, where it remained an active style into the 19th century. It is particularly in the USA that it has remained a style in use to the present day.

The lectures will also act as an introduction to a major exhibition curated by Charles on Palladio and the Palladians that will open in September 2015 at the RIBA.