Elsa Schiaparelli is celebrated as the leading fashion icon of the roaring twenties. Her groundbreaking collaborations with notable surrealist artists such as Dali, Cocteau, and Giacometti resulted in iconic creations, including hats resembling lamb cutlets with red python nails and the famous lobster dress worn by Wallis Simpson for Vogue. This lecture explores her innovative and influential career in fashion.

All lectures take place at The Guildhall, Sandwich, starting at 11.00am. Coffee is served from 10.15am until 10.45am, and attendees are kindly requested to be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7, but this must be arranged in advance with the Membership Secretary.

For the latest updates or notifications of any changes to the programme, please visit: www.theartssocietydds.org.uk

Berthe Morisot played a central role in the Impressionist movement, which transformed modern art with its vibrant depictions of contemporary life. Known for her passionate dedication, Morisot participated in the Impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886 and produced works that continue to captivate audiences.

All lectures take place at The Guildhall, Sandwich, starting at 11.00am. Coffee is served from 10.15am until 10.45am, and attendees are kindly requested to be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7, but this must be arranged in advance with the Membership Secretary.

For the latest updates or notifications of any changes to the programme, please visit: www.theartssocietydds.org.uk

Romain de Tirtoff, known as Erté, was a Russian-born French artist who became a leading figure of the Art Deco movement. Revered for his sleek lines and stylised forms, Erté’s designs defined the era’s aesthetic. His prolific career spanned set design for film, theatre, and opera, and his creative influence remained strong into his eighties before his death at the age of 97.

All lectures take place at The Guildhall, Sandwich, starting at 11.00am. Coffee is served from 10.15am until 10.45am, and attendees are kindly requested to be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7, but this must be arranged in advance with the Membership Secretary.

For the latest updates or notifications of any changes to the programme, please visit: www.theartssocietydds.org.uk

Before British rule, India was shaped by the Mughal Emperors, whose reign from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries left a profound legacy on the country’s architectural and cultural landscape. This lecture showcases their stunning palaces, mosques, landscaped gardens, and mausoleums, revealing the enduring influence of Mughal design.

All lectures take place at The Guildhall, Sandwich, starting at 11.00am. Coffee is served from 10.15am until 10.45am, and attendees are kindly requested to be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7, but this must be arranged in advance with the Membership Secretary.

For the latest updates or notifications of any changes to the programme, please visit: www.theartssocietydds.org.uk

Explore the creative partnership of Powell and Pressburger, whose visionary approach fused powerful and sensual surrealism to craft some of the most memorable and effective propaganda films during the Second World War. This talk highlights their innovative cinematic language and enduring impact on film history.

All lectures take place at The Guildhall, Sandwich, starting at 11.00am. Coffee is served from 10.15am until 10.45am, and attendees are kindly requested to be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7, but this must be arranged in advance with the Membership Secretary.

For the latest updates or notifications of any changes to the programme, please visit: www.theartssocietydds.org.uk

Delve into the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), the influential American art collector who established the renowned Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. From her beginnings as a collector in 1892 to the amassing of a remarkable art collection, this lecture traces her fascinating journey and concludes with the still-unsolved 1990 theft that shook the art world.

All lectures take place at The Guildhall, Sandwich, starting at 11.00am. Coffee is served from 10.15am until 10.45am, and attendees are kindly requested to be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7, but this must be arranged in advance with the Membership Secretary.

For the latest updates or notifications of any changes to the programme, please visit: www.theartssocietydds.org.uk

In this affectionate and entertaining talk, Tyler Butterworth revisits the beloved British television comedies and the memorable actors who brought them to life. The lecture explores the enchanting formula behind their enduring success and the laughter they continue to inspire.

All lectures take place at The Guildhall, Sandwich, starting at 11.00am. Coffee is served from 10.15am until 10.45am, and attendees are kindly requested to be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7, but this must be arranged in advance with the Membership Secretary.

For the latest updates or notifications of any changes to the programme, please visit: www.theartssocietydds.org.uk

This lecture reveals the extraordinary story of how the USA covertly used modernist design and Abstract Expressionism as cold war tools against the Soviet Block in the 1950s. It demonstrates how US designs were used to unsettle Soviet Bloc citizens. Would Abstract Expressionism achieve record auction prices today were it not for this secret political programme?

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

Tony will play and sing excerpts from some favourite carols and try to answer important questions such as who wrote them and when? Why should the merry gentleman rest and not be dismayed? He will compare these wonderful carols with some of the best/worst modern Christmas songs of all time e.g. “I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”. “Please Daddy don’t get drunk this Christmas”.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

The beginning of the 16th century in Florence was an exhilarating place for an artist to work. For a brief but intense period the lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael coincided in Florence. This lecture explores the rivalry between these artists and the impact that their work had on the young Raphael.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

For over a century W. Heath Robinson has been famous for drawing rickety, bizarrely complicated devices that carry out the simplest of tasks. But he was also a fine painter, an outstanding literary illustrator and a brilliant satirist who poked gentle fun at modern life in cartoons that are still laugh out-loud funny.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

“Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money” remarked Joseph Duveen. It was a simple enough observation, but there was only one man who was perfectly positioned to combine his quintessential English charm with an unparalleled gift for creative salesmanship.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

During its traumatic struggle, Ukraine is trying to protect its art and reclaim its heritage. Russian and Ukrainian art were intermingled for 250 years. This outline of a dynamic century includes superb painters little known in the west as well as others who became key figures in modernism.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

He is recognized as one of the most important architects of all time who designed over 800 buildings including revolutionary structures such as The Guggenheim Museum and Falling Waters. In his 92 years he fathered 7 children, married three times and suffered great personal tragedy.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

This talk covers the early years in jazz up to WW2. Musical illustrations range from the blues, ragtime and the very first jazz recordings through to classics by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the dawn of the swing era.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

Between 1911 & 1914 Kandinsky and Marc worked together to create a new art but this endeavour was interrupted by WW1.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital - and its women. From shoppers to shop girls, publicity stunts to wow - factor window dressing - a fascinating slice of social history with wonderful period images.

Lectures in The Guildhall, Sandwich at 11.00am. Coffee served from 10.15am until 10.45am. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Members are welcome to bring guests to lectures for £7 by prior arrangement with the Membership Secretary.

Franz Hals was a 17th century artist of the Dutch Republic. His paintings demonstrate how, through bold poses, masterly brush strokes and emotional connections to his sitters this virtuoso revolutionised portraiture into something entirely fresh and novel. A National Gallery exhibition is scheduled for September 2025.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Pantomime has been a popular form of entertainment for over 300 Years. In the early 18th century Pantomime was used to describe performances based on the Italian Commedia dell’arte.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

The mass faking of the Soviet Avant Garde. Kandinsky, Chagall etc. blazed a trail through art history for a brief period before the advent of Socialist Realism in 1923. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall a flood of dubious work began to appear, up to 95% had no viable provenance. The scandal reached a crescendo in 2018 in Belgium.

The Forty-sixth Annual General Meeting will be held prior to the lecture so please assemble from 10am onwards. The lecture will run from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session.

The films of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. This lecture aims to better understand the films in the context of Jewish history during their lifetimes. We will also look at the cultural landscape of America in an era that included Jack Benny, Milton Berle and Sid Caesar.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

The Japanese painter and printmaker best known for his Great Wave which has been reproduced on numerous items. His work is thought to have influenced Van Gogh and Monet. He died two years before JMW Turner. They both came form humble beginnings but Hokusai was never welcomed into the art establishment.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

This Georges Seurat painting is one of the best loved in any British collection. Painted when he was just 24 - he took two years to complete it and developed the new technique of Pointillism. It is an impressive, light-filled canvas showing Parisians at leisure by the river Seine. Seurat developed new colour theories and a novel technique - Pointillism - to capture the shimmering effects of sunlight on water, grass and in the air itself. This lecture looks at the painting in detail, explores Seurat's vision and ambition, his bold new ideas and contribution to the history of modern art.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Perpetual, cold darkness descended on Europe and changed the world of art. Previous sunny paintings were overtaken by those depicting a dark sun. We will explore this event and its effect on the arts.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

The American artist who became synonymous with images of loneliness and isolation.
We will look at his contribution to American art.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

One of the most extraordinary painters from Valencia, known as the Master of Light. He lived from 1863-1923 and his most typical works are characterised by a dexterous representation of people and landscape under the bright sunlight of Spain.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

The birth of political satire can be seen in Hogarth’s ruthless Election series of prints from the 1750’s. He set the stage for Gillray, Private Eye and others. The many jokes will be explained.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

The remarkable story of Peter Butterworth and his wife Janet Baker - best known for her impressions of Margaret Thatcher. Tyler reveals the private story behind his parents’ public life.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

The 1700s were a period when people of England seemed to be especially gullible. The believed a woman gave birth to rabbits, a man could climb inside a two pint glass bottle and sing and where a blond European man could write a book claiming he was born in Taiwan. The hoaxes were not just written about but also depicted by satirical artist of the day.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

One volume of a lost private journal of John Margesson Esq. (1794-1866) was discovered in a quantity of books bought on ebay in 2010. Covering two years of his life, the journal begins with his return from exile in France to a Sussex country house and on to London. It includes a scandalous story behind his mysterious exile. His walks through and observation of Regency London. His obsessions on weather, health and meaning of life. His daily life and finances. His love of gardens and botany. His sexuality.

The Forty-fifth Annual General Meeting will be held prior to the lecture so please assemble from 10am onwards. The lecture will run from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists in their independent exhibitions. When Edgar Degas persuaded her to stop exhibiting her work at the Paris Salon the official art exhibition in the capital and exhibit with her artistic colleagues she stated ‘I accept with joy’. Cassatt went on to make outstanding contributions to four of the eight impressionists exhibitions.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

An aristocratic fugitive from the Russian Revolution to later taking Paris by storm, as a successful artist she became an icon of the Roaring Twenties.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

This thought-provoking lecture reveals how jewellery has been worn and used, across time and across place. Based on the collections of the British Museum, where the speaker has worked for 43 years, this lecture takes you from ancient burial ornaments by anonymous masters to the big names of the modern world.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Artists have depicted the British landscape for over a thousand years. This lecture tells the story of landscape art in Britain, beginning with its origins in manuscripts, maps and miniatures before going on to describe the picturesque scenes created by Richard Wilson, Paul Sandby and Thomas Gainsborough.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

Between the wars something extraordinary happened to the British Seaside. It became glamorous, exciting and modern. Enticed by eye- catch railway posters holidaymakers grabbed their new cameras and slinky new bathing suits and headed for the coast. Artists found inspiration on the beach, Laura Knight in Lamorna, Eric Ravillious in New Haven, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore in North Norfolk.

Coffee is available from 10.15am and the lecture runs from 11.00am to 12.00, followed by a brief question and answer session. Please be seated by 10.50am.

This talk is about the most celebrated 20th century residents of the Whitehouse. No other couple who inhabited the Whitehouse were ever so glamourous, sophisticated and celebrated. Professor Hopkins will examine the contribution made by JFK and his wife Jackie to the aesthetic and artistic aspects of the White House.

In 1870 the US was largely an agricultural nation. In 1900 it was an industrial giant. During this period known as the Gilded Age great fortunes were amassed fuelled by technical innovations, cheap labour and laissez-faire regulatory regime. This was the age of Henry Clay Frick self made millionaire Pennsylvanian steel and coal industrialist. How to spend all his accumulated Wealth? This was uncomplicated for Frick a passionate lover of classical European Art. Joseph Duveen the predominant British art dealer at the time expressed “Europe has a great del of art and America has a great deal of money” He and other art dealers facilitated a trans-Atlantic exchange of art for dollars in which Frick was a devoted participant. We will explore Frick’s controversial role in the industrializing of America and wander through his New York mansion discussing his astonishing collection of European art.

The Portland Vase arrived in Britain by 1783. In 1810 it was placed on loan in the British Museum where it remains today as one of the most intriguing and popular examples of Ancient Roman Cameo glass anywhere in the world. This unique vase was a starting point for a whole range British cameo glass in the later 19th century. A technique that has been lost for hundreds of years was rediscovered in the glasshouses of Stourbridge.

The glass factory of Emile Galle in Nancy became a new centre for cameo glass in the new style of Art Nouveau. This lavishly illustrated talk looks at the origins of Cameo glass and considers the best of British and French pieces.

Even though work was the bedrock of Victorian progress and improvement, Queen Victoria’s reign saw the greatest upsurge in leisure pursuits ever witnessed.

We are all familiar with Alfonse Mucha as an icon of fin de siecle Paris. Less well known is the work to which Mucha devoted over 20 years of his later career, The Slav Epic, conceived as a gift to the Czech people.

Garibaldi was one of the leading figures in the fight for unification of Italy during the nineteenth century. He captured the imagination of the Italians and the British.

During the Gilded Age the historic port of Newport, Rhode Island was often referred to as the “Queen of Resorts” or “New York by the Sea”.

If you want to find out more about the fascinating subject of looted art please see Arantxa's recommendations below:

Recommended Bibliography

1. The Rape of Europa - Lynn H. Nicholas
2. Monuments Men - Robert M. Edsel
3. Stealing History - Roger Atwood
4. Le Front De L'art - Rose Valland

Recommended Films

1. Monuments Men - dir George Clooney
2. The Rape of Europa - dir Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen & Nicole Newnham
3. Woman in Gold - dir Simon Curtis
4. The Last Vermeer - dir Dan Friedkin

When Velazquez moved to Madrid from Seville with his young family, his life changed and so did his art. This lecture will consider his time at court, his subjects and his development as a great artist. It will end with a discussion of his work Las Meninas.

Harry Venning has been an award- winning cartoonist for many years. His Guardian strip, Clare in the Community, was adapted by him for Radio 4. In this illustrated lecture he will be tracing the history of his profession, with examples from early practitioners like Hogarth to more contemporary artists such as Giles and Schulz, bringing events right up to date with cartoons produced fresh on the page of that day.

Hitler's filmmaker was undoubtably one of the most creative women of the twentieth century known for producing Nazi propaganda films, and of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Over 100 years old when she died, her legacy is fascinating, exciting, unbelievable and brought to life in this extraordinary lecture, with many film clips, photographs and ephemera.

This lecture is not available on Zoom.

Tony Rawlins will explore the rise in popularity of classical music particularly amongst young people and its influence on today’s media.

Tony will bring his own musical instruments and will sing at some point during his talk. He is a singer in church and chamber choirs.

This lecture is not available on Zoom.

The Camden Group was an innovative circle of painters who united to paint works of a modern character.  They combined the techniques and visions of the European post-impressionism with the changing modernity of Edwardian London.

At first glance Russian Icons and Russian Avant-Garde Art could scarcely seem to be more different - one sacred, the other secular.  One is traditional, the other mostly abstract but it transpires that the two art forms have much in common, the Avant-Garde artists being profoundly inspired by the Icon tradition.

Tirzah Garwood was the wife of Eric Ravilious. Before she was 22 she was making bold intricate wood cuttings. When Ravilious died, in 1942, Tirzah began making collages and oil paintings.

Suzana Cooper was showing wood engravings in West End Galleries before World War ll. When the war came she married and laid aside her artistic ambitions. Her first solo show in 2018, 25 years after her death, at the Fry Gallery was greeted by critics as rare and exciting.

Jasper Johns described Rauschenberg as the most innovative painter since Picasso.  The talk traces the evolution of Rauschenberg’s art from his early experiences at Black Mountain College to his later works. 

Gustav Klimt and his colleagues broke away from the imperially endorsed art institutions in Vienna in 1897 and founded the Secession.  In the same year, Gustav Mahler arrived to take charge of the city’s Grand Opera House.  This lecture places Klimt and Mahler in context asking what links and divides them.

Western Art from “Down Under” is often overlooked and neglected but a large number of talented artists rose to prominence in the post World War II era.  Knowledge of several of these Australian painters is essential to our understanding and appreciation of the modern art of Australia and its place in the history of Western Art.  This important group of artists includes:

• Sidney Nolan from the ‘Heide School’ working in a naïve and expressive style,
• John Brack’s figurative paintings which give a social critic of Australian post-war culture,
• John Olsen’s celebratory abstract expressions of the landscape,
•  Brett Whiteley’s personal vision of his life in Sydney,
• Fred Williams' landscapes, 
• Jeffery Smart’s surreal depictions of urban life.

The story of our National treasures in WW2.

This is a gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and custodians saved Britain’s national treasures during our Darkest Hour.

When her beloved Albert died in 1861 Queen Victoria donned widows’ weeds and gave into a fascination with death. Edward Vll had a glamorous wife and a glamorous mistress (Lillie Langtry). Her thoughts, emotions and account of the dress of the day in 1876, when presented to the Queen, form the core of this lecture.

Bob Dunay’s lecture will cover the story of the Nazi purge of modern art from all public museums and galleries in Germany.  The purge was of 20th Century art (1900-1933) and covered Expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), Dada, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, etc.

On completion of the art purge in 1937, an infamous exhibition (Entartete Kunst – Degenerate Art) was organised to show selected works of art to the German public and to ridicule this art and the artists e.g., Kirchener, Nolde, Kokoschka, Beckmann, Dix, Grosz, Kandinsky, Klee, Ernst, Picasso, Chagall.

The questions ‘Why did the Nazis ridicule this art?’ and ‘What happened to the purged art after the exhibition?’ will be posed.

The lecture will also look at some examples of Nazi “Approved Art”, essentially 19th Century work and earlier styles, e.g., realistic landscapes, bucolic rural scenes, classical themes.

Much richer than the Guggenheims, the Rockefellers are, even today, the richest and most powerful family in the US.  They not only amassed one of the greatest art collections of the 20th century, which recently sold at Christies raising 800 million dollars, but they also donated their New York town house on 5th avenue to found MoMA.

Guests are welcome to join the webinar.  Details are on the 'Home' page of the website 

Mexican Artist Frida Kahlo, 1907- 1954, was often associated with the Surrealist Movement.   She denied this insisting she painted life as she experienced it. Her personal life was tumultuous. Injured as a teenager, she suffered pain for the rest of her life. She married, divorced and remarried Diego Rivera. She is recognised as one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century.

This lecture will be a Zoom Webinar

Wine has been part of global society for over 7000 years. The story tells of its origins and appearance in all societies across the Mediterranean and throughout Europe from the kwevris of Georgia in 5000BC to the symposia in ancient Greece, from the thermopolia in Pompeii to the hospices of Europe and thus to the tables of fine dining, wine has been ever present.

If you are an existing member an email invitation will be sent to you a few days before the lecture.  If you are not a member, please contact Denise Lyon (01227 728518) for an invitation.

The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.  It promotes the appreciation of art and horticulture.  Originally in Merion, the art collection moved to a new building in Philadelphia in 2012.  It houses an impressive collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Early Modernist paintings including works by Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso together with important examples of African Art.  The collection was assembled by Dr. Albert C. Barnes between 1912 and 1951.

This lecture will be a Zoom Webinar

From art which decorated the places where people ate, the lecture looks at how the activities of trading in food and its preparation and cooking have been made the subject of paintings.

If you are an existing member an email invitation will be sent to you a few days before the lecture.  If you are not a member, please contact Denise Lyon (01227 728518) for an invitation.

This lecture will be a Zoom Webinar

Founded in the wake of World War l under the leadership of Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus strove to create a design ethos of a brave new world.

Anne Anderson is an international speaker and currently a tutor at the V&A Learning Academy specialising in Art Nouveau and the Arts&Crafts movement

If you are an existing member an email invitation will be sent to you a few days before the lecture.  If you are not a member, please contact Denise Lyon (01227 728518) for an invitation.

At the time of his death, Frederick Leighton was the most celebrated artist of his generation.  This lecture explores Leighton’s life and work, his dramatic debut at the Royal Academy, and the construction of his studio–house in Kensington and his rise to international fame and recognition with the story of Flaming June and how it came to be in the Ponce Museum in Puerto Rico.

Daniel Robbins is Senior Curator, Museums with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is responsible for two of London’s most significant house museums: Leighton House Museum and 18 Stafford Terrace. Formerly with Glasgow Museums, he has organised many exhibitions and contributed to numerous catalogues and publications around nineteenth-century art, architecture and design, including the authorship of the companion guide to Leighton House Museum published in 2011. He was responsible for leading the award-winning project to restore the historic interiors of the house completed between 2008 and 2010 and is now leading an £7 million refurbishment project addressing the additions made to the building in the twentieth century.

A group of women artists and designers studied and worked in Glasgow at the turn of the 20th century. They contributed significantly to the development of the Glasgow style, a distinctive branch of the Art Nouveau movement.

Several of the girls contributed work to the suffragette banners and jewellery.

Illustrator and teacher – yet he remains an elusive figure. Today he is remembered for linocuts and humorous illustrations. During the 1930s he barely left his home in Great Bardfield but in 1940 he embarked on a career as a war artist.

When his paintings became less popular he began making prints on an epic scale.

In a letter dated 1649 she wrote “And I will show what a woman can do” and she did. She rose to become the first female member of the Florentine Academy counting the Medici, King Phillip of Spain and King Charles 1st among her patrons although less than 40 paintings have been attributed to her. In addition to the paintings, the lecture draws on her correspondence and other documents.