PAST LECTURES AND EVENTS
Morning Lecture
Quest for the Holy Grail - The Tapestries of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones
19 June 2024
Jacqueline Hyman's personal experience in conserving these tapestries enabled her to give us a rare insight into their design and construction and the artistic skill with which they were made.
Outside Visit
Elton Hall and Peterborough Cathedral
13 June 2024
We visit Elton Hall, an extraordinary part-Gothic house with award winning gardens and a fine and varied art collection, which has been home to the Proby family since 1660. Then our coach takes us the short distance to Peterborough, where we will have a guided tour of Peterborough Cathedral, burial place of queens, to explore the architecture and history of this magnificent building.
Discovery Day
Art of the Pharaohs
4 June 2024
This Discovery Day explored the exceptional art created in the reigns of three pharaohs all remembered for being in some way extraordinary - an astounding body of awe-inspiring sculpture, relief and painting, expressing complex ideologies and often used as propaganda: the social media of Ancient Egypt.
Outside Visit
Henry Moore Studios and Gardens
23 May 2024
A full day visit with guided tours of Hoglands, the Moore family's much-loved home, and the studios where much of his greatest work was created.
Set within 70 acres of beautiful gardens, these give a fascinating insight into Moore's creative process. We will have ample time to experience his iconic sculptures in this superb country setting.
Morning Lecture
The Cultural Heritage of the Huguenots
15 May 2024
The Huguenots came to England in huge numbers in the late 17th century, bringing with them a wide range of skills - as silk weavers, silversmiths, clock makers, opticians, bankers, gilders, ironworkers, etc.
This lecture explored their lasting legacy.
Discovery Day
A History of Jewellery from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth Taylor
4 April 2024
In this Discovery Day we examined 400 years of international jewellery design, from the pomp of the enamelled gold work ot the High Renaissance to the glamour of Harry Winston diamonds. And after lunch our Speaker ran a private mini 'Antiques Roadshow' for us, in which he assessed and valued the pieces of jewellery our attendees had been encouraged to bring along on the day.
Morning Lecture
Gainsborough, Murder and a Small Fortune
20 March 2024
Gainsborough transformed British art. Portraiture and landscape painting were different things at the outset of his career in the 1740s to what they were at his death in 1788. This lecture traced how the son of a bankrupt Sudbury weaver become a national treasure and one of the greatest painters of his age.
Afternoon Lecture
Sri Lanka, Land of the Monkey God
7 March 2024
Shrines, stupas, cave temples, colonial grandeur and modernist architecture - a look at the history of the beautiful island of Sri Lanka through its intriguing art and culture.
The lecture was followed by Afternoon Tea in the Dining Room of Moor Park Mansion.
Discovery Day
Seeing Is Believing
8 February 2024
We live in an increasingly visual environment. Images are all around us, not just in art galleries and museums but from the media and the world in general. But how well and how accurately do we interpret our visual world?
What is colour? Can we believe our own eyes? This Discovery Day explored how colour and illusion affect our appreciation of art and showed us how deeply both influence our day-to-day lives - and in far more ways than we may realise.
Morning Lecture
Art and Astronomy in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites
17 January 2024
The Pre-Raphaelites sought to return to art in a purer, simpler form, emphasising the natural world in an almost religious-like devotion to 'truth'. Many of them were fascinated by the night sky and this lecture explored how they used astronomical imagery and symbolism to express their ideas.
Outside Visit
Bath Holburne Museum and City Visit
28 November 2023
A pre-Christmas visit to Bath, including a visit to the Holburne Museum, home of a permanent art collection which features many Renaissance treasures and painting masterpieces including by Gainsborough and Stubbs.
It is just an easy 10-minute walk from there into Bath city centre, where you may choose to have lunch, explore Bath or visit the Christmas Market.
Morning Lecture
Early English Furniture
15 November 2023
Early English furniture was extremely 'fit for purpose', reflecting the ever-growing skills of the artisans who made it. We looked at its development from medieval to Tudor times, its construction, its decoration, its usage and the Continental influences upon it.
Discovery Day
The Golden Age of Song
7 November 2023
In this event we celebrate the lives and works of three of the greatest songwriters who ever lived - Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Come and enjoy their beautiful songs, as fresh and inspiring today as they were when they were first written, and hear about the lives of these musical geniuses who cast their spell on us all.
Morning Lecture
Magnificence and Splendour - The Royal Art Collection in the Court of King Henry VIII
21 June 2023
Henry VIII can be considered the founder of the Royal Collection, using the arts to enhance his own personal image. In today's lecture we discover why certain works were created when they were, and how the King was viewed within his own lifetime.
Outside Visit
Eltham Palace and Ranger's House
15 June 2023
Today we tour the once medieval Royal Palace of Eltham, transformed by the Courtauld family into a striking Art Deco mansion with extensive gardens. After lunch we visit nearby Ranger's House, a red brick Georgian mansion in the Palladian style now home to the Wernher Collection of art.
Afternoon Lecture
Bruegel - The Seasons and the World
25 May 2023
In 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was commissioned to create a series of paintings for a dining room in Antwerp. This lecture explored the images he created, charting the course of a year, which changed the way we view the world through art.
The lecture was followed by Afternoon Tea in the Dining Room of Moor Park Mansion.
Outside Visit
Batsford Arboretum and Sezincote
11 May 2023
Batsford Arboretum, near Moreton-in-Marsh, is a glorious sight in early May. From there we travel to Sezincote, a 200 year old Mughal Indian palace nestled in lush gardens full of grottoes, temples, waterfalls and canals, all set in 3,500 acres of rolling Cotswold countryside.
Escorted Tour
The Art and History of Liverpool
23 April 2023
A five day escorted tour to Liverpool, staying for four nights half board at the 4* Crowne Plaza Hotel, Liverpool. Travel by Executive Coach. Blue Badge guided tours. Entrance fees to non-National Trust properties included. All excursions and gratuities included.
Morning Lecture
The Stirling Prize - British Architecture's Oscars
15 March 2023
Some Stirling Prize winners have become enormously successful and appreciated by the wider public. Others have proved harder to love. In this lecture we look at some of the hits, some of the misses and also at several buildings that arguably should have won, but didn't.
Discovery Day
Impressionism in Music and the Arts
2 February 2023
In these three lectures Peter Medhurst examines some of the great works by Debussy, Fauré and Ravel, side by side with the world of late 19th century art (Monet, Degas, Renoir, Manet), to determine whether or not there is a link between impressionism in music and impressionism in art.
Morning Lecture
The Life and Times of Georgiana Jane Keate (1771-1850)
18 January 2023
This lecture takes us into the Enlightenment - a social, economic and cultural history seen through the eyes of the talented female artist Georgiana Jane Keate, her parents and family. A plethora of artists, actors, socialites and military personnel come and go - among others Captain Bligh, Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington; notables such as David Garrick, the Chevalier D'Eon and Sarah Siddons, and artists including JMW Turner and John Russell.
Outside Visit
Christmas at Mottisfont and Winchester
13 December 2022
Mottisfont in Hampshire, a romantic house and gallery with a medieval priory at its heart, sparkles at Christmas. After our tour we lunch in the historic city of Winchester and visit the Christmas Market for some last-minute Christmas shopping.
Morning Lecture
Bombin' With Banksy and Co
16 November 2022
Discover how the huge growth and popularity of Street Art is reflected in the transformation of once seedy, deprived areas such as Spitalfields and Shorditch into some of the most fashionable, most vibrant, most 'happening' areas of London today.
Escorted Tour
Holland and the Dutch Masters
12 September 2022
A five day escorted tour to the Netherlands staying for four nights half board at the luxury 5* Grand Hotel Karel V, Utrecht and visiting Apeldoorn, Amsterdam, The Hague and Ghent. Travel by Executive Coach and P&O Club Class Dover-Calais. All excursions, entrance fees and gratuities included.