Brothers Gentile and Giovanni Bellini are among the most highly regarded artists of Renaissance Venice. They painted Doges portraits, grand altarpieces, private devotional works, scenes of public ceremony and miracle, personal portraits, and depictions of foreign dignitaries – a panoply of paintings covering all aspects of Venetian life and of the self-image this mythical city consciously presented to the world. Through their art we will explore their visions of the public arena, the religious traditions, and the personalities and locations of political and civil life in this complex city-state, as it enjoyed its ‘golden age’ in the late 14th and early 15th centuries and as it continued to promote the ‘Myth of Venice’, even as its power began to decline.

 Art historian with a BA (Birkbeck College) in art history and an MA (Courtauld Institute of Art) in medieval Spanish art history. Specialist in the nearly 800 years of Moorish occupation and Christian reconquest of medieval Iberia.  Founder and director of an art tours company, specialising in guided cultural tours in Spain and other areas in Europe, and lectures for The Arts Society, plus occasional lectures at institutions such as the V&A, SOAS, Christies Education, and the London Art History Society. Formerly a Chartered Accountant and senior manager in multi-national IT companies, with extensive public-speaking experience.

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the quintessential English landscapist John Constable.  Enormously popular and endlessly reproduced, his paintings today are familiar – perhaps over-familiar.  But his modern reputation masks a radical, experimental artist who pushed the boundaries of art of his time just as much as his near-contemporary (and far more successful) rival Turner.  Tate Britain will be showing a major exhibition of their work from November 2025 until April 2026.  This lecture will examine Constable’s career and propose five reasons why he should be considered revolutionary and Britain’s greatest landscape painter.  Time to re-assess an artist who sold more tea towels than he did canvases in his lifetime.

Alan has a master’s and first-class honours degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a gallery guide at Tate Britain and regularly lectures at both London Tates. For twenty years he was a gallery guide and lecturer at the National Portrait Gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. He also works as a London Blue Badge Guide.

The true pioneers of visual effects in the movies were the musicals. In the glory days of the studio system Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly were involved in an artistic arms race to put the most ingenious dance routines on screen. Join writer, teacher, and composer Christopher Budd for an appreciation of blue screens, rotating stages, and two extraordinarily talented men.

Christopher Budd is a writer, teacher, and musician, with a specialism in music for film. His research interests range from silent cinema to electronic music via Hollywood from the studio system to the experimental ’70s, and British and European film and music of the 1960s and 70s, as well as special effects, movie posters, and fashion on film.

He lectures for various community arts and adult learning organisations including the WEA, U3A, many local groups within the Cambridgeshire Alliance of Lifelong Learners, and further afield including the French and Italian film clubs at the Letchworth Settlement and the Kings Lynn Film Festival.

Christopher has written on diverse topics for publications including EMC Media Magazine, Music Teacher, Classical Music, Bass Guitar Magazine, and US record-collecting bible Goldmine, and contributes regularly to music magazine Shindig!, penning a monthly column on album covers. He also teaches private instrumental lessons and records as a session musician.

This lecture explores the way in which the East India Company developed its methods of trade and facilitated the increasingly sophisticated and profound exchange of ideas between East and West. It focuses on textile design as the vehicle for this analysis, but also includes other works, such as wallpaper, porcelain and furniture, as well as the vast commercial trade in spice and tea. Examining first the 17th century textile trade with India, the lecture shows how the East India Company established a methodology for sending out patterns to be copied by the local weavers and dyers, paving the way for the production of chintz – now considered to be a classic expression of English style. The lecture then turns to the 18th century and the trade with China. Using the same methodology of sending out Western patterns to be copied for export goods, the Company rapidly expanded operations in the Far East. The currency and balance of trade with China is examined, and methods of production are illustrated with a number of Chinese export pieces, predominantly Chinese painted silks but also including furniture and porcelain. The distinction is then drawn between Chinese export and Chinoiserie, a fantasy style produced by Western artists and designers based on the exoticism of China – known to Westerners as ‘Cathay’ – and combining with the prevailing Baroque and Rococo styles in Western design

 I am an art historian, curator, author and journalist with over 25 years’ experience in the art market. I teach at several Higher Education institutions, including Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, where I lead the professional certificate in Art History, as well as the University of the Arts London, Imperial College, SOAS (University of London) and the City & Guilds of London Art School. In 2021 I received the Geoffrey Bond Bursary for Art, an annual prize awarded by the Worshipful Company of Educators to an “outstanding educator” nominated by their institution. 

My articles, essays and reports have been published in numerous specialist journals, newspapers, catalogues, handbooks and websites, aimed at both the academic and general readership in print and online. 

Since 2011 I have been Senior UK Consultant to Singapore gallery One East Asia and have co-curated many exhibitions of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art in London and Singapore. When time allows I lecture as an on-board art historian for cruise lines.

Eighteenth century jewellery is largely misunderstood and is sadly neglected today.  In a world wholly focused on fabulous gems, jewellery which fetch millions at international auction and diamonds bought for investment rather than their innate beauty there seems to be little time and even less interest in Regency shoe buckles, dainty Posy Rings and intimate lockets conveying messages of love.  John Benjamin’s new talk examines the jewellery of what, in reality, was an innovative and fascinating period of jewellery design and explores many of the key themes, inspirations and gems used in this most elegant of eras – from the soft twinkling diamonds of Queen Anne to the sumptuous Parures typifying the stylish exuberance of William IV.

John Benjamin is a jewellery historian, lecturer, author and broadcaster. Formerly International Director of Jewellery at Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers, since 1999 he has been an independent jewellery consultant on behalf of the private client network. John is well-known from his appearances over 30 years on BBC Television’s ever-popular Antiques Roadshow. He is a Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company, a Court Assistant and Founder Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and in 2021 was appointed Honorary Jewellery Adviser to the National Trust.

Emerging from the ensembles that played for dancing in the nineteenth century under the influence of new styles of popular music imported from the United States of America, dance bands defined and sustained the musical mainstream in twentieth century British popular culture. British dance bands provided music for social dancing after the First World War, but also became key components of variety theatre, radio and television. During what has become known as a “golden age” (roughly 1920s-1940s), the top bands were resident in London’s hotels and clubs, broadcasted on the BBC and recorded prolifically, their leaders becoming household names. Dance bands also provided entertainment in cities, towns (especially seaside resorts) and even villages across the country, often involving non-professional musicians. This lecture, based on substantial original research and illustrated with numerous recorded examples, explores the music of dance bands in the “golden age”.

 Professor Catherine Tackley (née Parsonage) is an internationally recognised musicologist, specialising in jazz. The lectures that Catherine offers for The Arts Society are all based on her original scholarship and informed by her teaching experience at Leeds Conservatoire, The Open University and now at the University of Liverpool (where she was Head of the Music Department from 2016-2022), as well as numerous high-profile public talks and media appearances (BBC Radio 3 and 4; BBC television) over more than two decades.

Catherine has written two books – 'The Evolution of Jazz in Britain: c.1880-1935' and 'Benny Goodman’s Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert' - and co-edited 'Black British Jazz: Routes, Ownership and Performance'. In 2018, Catherine curated 'Rhythm and Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain for The Arts Society', an acclaimed exhibition in London based on her research. In recognition of this and her work with many other organisations, Catherine won 'Outstanding Contribution to Public Engagement' in the University of Liverpool's Staff Awards in 2019. She is active as a musician, including directing Dr Jazz and the Cheshire Cats Big Band.

London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’. 

Starting on Oxford Street’s ‘golden mile’, we’ll set off on a cultural tour of the capital’s big stores – from snooty Marshall & Snelgrove, to Ponting’s, ‘House of Value’; from Kennards’ wart-removal service to the live flamingos atop Derry & Toms; from Bodgers of Ilford, to Bon Marché of Brixton.

How did it feel to enter a great store in 1850 – and in 1950? What was it like to serve? From shoppers to shop girls, publicity stunts to wow factor window dressing, a fascinating slice of social history, with wonderful period images.

 Tessa Boase is a freelance journalist, author, lecturer and campaigner with an interest in uncovering the stories of invisible women from the 19th and early 20th-centuries – revealing how they drove industry, propped up society and influenced politics.

She’s the author of three books of social history: The Housekeeper’s Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House (2014); Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds (first published as Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather in 2018), and London’s Lost Department Stores: A Vanished World of Dazzle and Dreams (2022).

Since uncovering the feminist origins of the RSPB, Tessa has been campaigning for public recognition of its female founders with plaques, portraits and a statue. 

The lecture will trace the story of Banksy’s humble beginnings as a tagger on the streets of Bristol in the 1980’s to one of the most recognisable names in the art world.  We will examine the reasons behind his incredible rise, looking at some of his famous stunts and discuss what his influence has been on the art market today and look at what his legacy, if any, might be.

 I qualified as a London blue badge tourist guide in 2011, graduating at the top of my class. Since qualifying as a guide, I have specialised in the graffiti and street art of East London. Prior to becoming a London blue badge, I was a tour manager for 15 years, travelling extensively, all over the world.   I can organise and arrange lecture facilities in central London. I can also combine a lecture with a walk of street art and graffiti in the East End and I can also organise a practical spray session, giving your group an opportunity to have a go at creating their own works. 

This talk is on how magicians have appeared in art throughout the centuries, whether in paintings, satirical prints or cartoons. Early artists used the magician to symbolise the mysterious and the unknown, associating them with astrology. In the 16th century, Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch produced two of the most famous and striking pictures of the conjurer performing the Cups and Balls trick. The 18th and 19th century saw a proliferation in engravings and lithographs showing the magician both indoors and on the streets. Bringing it right up to date there are examples of how cartoonists and satirists delight in linking politicians with skulduggery with images of them featuring Sawing a Woman in Half, Vanishing illusions or pulling a Rabbit out of the Hat. Some of the tricks talked about are performed by Ian.

Ian Keable gained a First Class degree from Oxford University, qualified as a Chartered Accountant and then became a Professional Magician. He is a Member of The Inner Magic Circle. In 2014 he published Charles Dickens Magician: Conjuring in Life, Letters & Literature. He now divides his time between performing magic, giving talks and researching and writing. 

His latest book is The Century of Deception: The Birth of the Hoax in Eighteenth-Century England.

Was Napoleon killed by his green wallpaper? 

This story begins in 1775 with a German chemist and his experiments with arsenic. The resulting powerful green reached its height of popularity when worn by "Queen of Fashion", Empress Eugénie. It was printed on wallpaper by Morris & Co. and was a favourite of plein-air artists, such as Monet, Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh, keen to capture the freshness of nature. But a century later, it was rebranded as rat-poison.
In 1856 a chemistry student took home a school project to make synthetic quinine. He failed his home-work, but accidentally invented a vibrant purple dye. Queen Victoria and Empress Eugénie wore dresses in the season’s must-have shade. Punch magazine dubbed the craze: “the mauve measles”! Scheele’s Green and Perkins’ Mauveine were forerunners of hundreds of synthetic dyes and pigments. You will hear fascinating stories – of serendipitous discoveries, industrial enterprise, and some very sinister secrets.

Lynne Gibson

Now working as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, Lynne originally trained as a fine artist and has taught painting, drawing and printmaking in higher and adult education. She lectured as an art historian for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme and residential summer schools. Gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of organisations and institutions including ARCA colleges, the National Trust, Art museums and Art societies. She has worked as a professional artist specialising in oil painting and etching. Solo and group shows have included the RWA, British Museum and the Barbican. All titles available as lectures or study days.

It is said in theatrical history that there was a Golden Age in British comedy, from the 1970s to the 1980s. This was in the branch of theatre known as Variety – it was a world of comedians and impressionists, of tv shows, and end-of-the-pier shows, of unusual acts and eccentric dances, of much-loved people like Morecambe and Wise, and Bruce Forsyth.  In this unashamedly nostalgic lecture, and sharing my personal connection with this world, I will go back and explore the acts, the places and the people that made us laugh. And I will also ask, “What’s happened to comedy today?”

Tyler Butterworth grew up in a theatrical family and spent twenty-five years as an actor working extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. He then worked as a development producer in television documentaries and was closely involved with NASA on a landmark commemorative tv series. Now, he produces walking audio guides to cities across Europe for private clients on whatever subject he’s commissioned to do. They’re just like the audio guides you get in art galleries and museums but they’re out on the street. He lives in Sussex where he walks on the South Downs and the South Coast.

Many art historians and critics have compared the work of Stubbs to that of Leonardo da Vinci, one even christening him the ‘Leonardo of Liverpool’ to reflect his humble origins as the son of a Liverpool leatherworker. The comparison can seem hubristic until one considers the intense scientific method and investigation that lay behind the production by Stubbs of his world-famous Anatomy of the Horse published in 1766 – a work which revolutionised the understanding and depiction of equine subjects. This lecture looks at the life and work of this country’s greatest animal painter, putting Stubbs in the context of British sporting artists of the eighteenth century more generally. It focusses on his depiction of equestrian subjects such as the National Gallery’s Whistlejacket but also looks at the broader themes he addressed.

CHRISTOPHER GARIBALDI

Independent Researcher. 2010–2019 Director of Palace House, Newmarket (National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art: www.nhrm.co.uk). 2008–2010 Co-Director of the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Historic Houses and Collections. 1998–2003 Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum: co-curator of Flower Power – The Meaning of Flowers in Art and Eat, Drink and Be Merry, the British at Table 1600 to 2000. 1994–1997 Catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal residences.

The AGM precedes this lecture at 10.00 a.m.

In the 18th and 19th century British collectors were obsessed with Spanish art, particularly the paintings of Murillo and Velázquez. This lecture considers the development of that taste and the downfall of Murillo's popularity initiated by Ruskin. We will also explore many of the great collections in Britain, from the Duke of Wellington’s at Apsley house to Pollok House in Glasgow and Kingston Lacy in Dorset.

Isabelle Kent is an academic and educator specialising in the baroque, with a particular focus on Spain and its empire. She received a BA and MPhil in History of Art from Trinity College, Cambridge, where she is currently completing her PhD on the art of Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán. From 2017 to 2019 she worked as the Enriqueta Harris Frankfort Curatorial Assistant at the Wallace Collection and in 2020 her book Collecting Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in Britain and Ireland was published by CEEH. Alongside her academia, Isabelle is an expert guide for a travel company, leading groups around Spain and beyond, and she also teaches regularly for the V&A, Art Fund, Royal Academy, Chelsea Arts Club, Wallace Collection and University of Cambridge.

I have worked with the fine and decorative arts all my life. I have worked as an auctioneer and valuer with a number of firms. I am currently a senior valuer and head of department at Lawrences in Crewkerne, one of the country's leading provincial auctioneers. I have also worked in Higher Education as Course Leader and a Senior Lecturer on the no longer extant Fine Arts Valuation Degree at Southampton Solent University. I taught on a range of subjects including furniture, silver art and design history. I completed a PhD in the Arts and Crafts Movement and have written on design history for a number of publications.

I have current research interests in ‘Great Exhibitions’, ‘Post War Design and Architecture’ and ‘The Crafts in Post War Britain’.  I love to give talks to all sorts of different groups on the fine and decorative arts, my interests in the various Great Exhibitions since 1851 and Post War architecture and design are amongst my current favourite talks which have been well received by a number of groups over recent months.

We love standing in a museum gazing at a painting by Titian or Caravaggio, but we rarely question where it was before it came to be in that museum, or who in earlier times stood in front of it and gazed, nor by what practical means it got there. When Napoleon invaded Europe, he had the best of Europe’s works of art sent back to Paris for his new Musée Napoleon. But HOW did they get four life -size bronze horses of San Marco down from their place on the basilica in Venice, over the Alps and all the way to Paris? What practicalities did shipping a painting over 15 feet high, or a statue such as Michelangelo’s David, involve? This lecture will delve into the astonishing history of the movement of art works.

Chantal Brotherton-Radcliffe
 
MA in History of Art from Edinburgh, PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, Chantal has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989, and as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies and institutions in London, including the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection. Having also trained as a paintings conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures and study sessions.

Ten iconic dresses within ten famous portraits from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Portraits that have shocked and delighted audiences in equal measure - the scandal of Sargent’s little black dress, Whistler’s ghostly women in white, Klimt’s golden visions fit for a queen to the swirling dreamlike drapery of Leighton’s Flaming June. Fashion and art have long been entwined and in the same way that every picture tells a story so too does every dress!

Alexandra Epps

Official Guide and Lecturer at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the Guildhall Art Gallery. Qualified Guide to the City of London, offering walks, talks and tours about many aspects of the arts for societies, corporations and private individuals. Member of the City of London Guide Lecturers Association. Co-author of the book Lord Mayor's Portraits 1983-2014 (2015). Alexandra’s background is in design having practised as a graphic designer running her own design consultancy for many years. BA Saint Martin’s School of Art, MA London College of Printing.

In 1882 Gertrude Jekyll wrote a short but seminal article in The Garden in which she urged the readers to “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”.  As an accomplished watercolour artist, Miss Jekyll was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt that in gardens these principles “had been greatly neglected”.  This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border, but it also looks at the ways in which a border is different from a painting.  However, it goes further than this and looks at how contemporary work of the likes of Turner, Monet, Rothko, Jackson Pollack evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

Timothy Walker is a renowned botanist, who has given more than 1500 lectures to audiences in Britain, Ireland, North America and Australia.  He was Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden from 1986 until 2014 and is now a college lecturer and tutor at Somerville college Oxford on Botany and plant conservation.

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

The talk examines paintings of Jutland - a part of Denmark overlooked by Copenhagen for centuries, but suddenly seen as a land of opportunity, sublime beauty and fin-de-siècle leisure opportunities. It concentrates on works of the great Danish Golden Age by artists such as C.W. Eckersberg, J.T. Lundbye, Martinus Rørbye and Vilhelm Kyhn, the Skagen School of painters including Anna Ancher, P.S. Krøyer and Carl Locher and the late 19th century symbolists Harold Slott-Møller and Ejnar Nielsen. The talk will also show how to decipher the paintings, to spot the allusions to Denmark's history and economic progress.  It compares the Academy-driven landscape painting programme with Kenneth Clark's 'Recording Britain' project here in the UK in World War II and reveals the remarkable similarities between the Skagen school and Cornwall's Newlyn colony of the same period. 

The presentation considers the change in painting styles over the century, the creation of new iconic Danish scenes, and the gradual shift from the depiction of historical landscapes to agricultural ones. In doing so, it introduces recent theories on how to interpret landscapes in art and clarifies the political and social messages behind the works.

James Vaux is a researcher and lecturer specialising in Nordic arts, culture, design and history. He has presented extensively on diverse topics throughout his career to demanding audiences across the globe, including CEOs and government ministers. His talks now focus on understanding artistic achievements through their historic, cultural and political context.

James took a law degree at Oxford with First Class Honours and qualified as a solicitor before switching career. As a managing director of the international bank Rothschild, he advised governments and corporates worldwide. James then gained an MA (Distinction) at UCL in Language, Culture and History (Scandinavian Studies).

He has also studied interior design and art history at the Inchbald School, Mid-Century Modern at Sotheby’s Institute and electronic music at Point Blank.

Christmas is historically a time for feasting and celebrations, in large part because it occurs in the middle of the dark and cold days of winter, so a mid-season celebration with lots of food and drink helped spur people on towards the Spring.  In this talk we will look at how food and feasting is depicted in paintings, and hopefully help us through the dark days of winter as well!

Sarah Ciacci has an MA in History of Art (Late 19th century French Painting and 20th Century Art) from University College London.  She has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries, so relevant tours and visits for talks can be arranged.  Since 2008 she has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and for a period the National Portrait Gallery.  She is a gallery educator and Adjunct Faculty at Richmond University (since 2008) teaching the History of British Art, the History of Museums in London and the History of London and runs regular courses and independent lectures on a variety of art historical periods.

Andalucia conjures orange blossom, flamenco, fountains, patios and decorative plaster work. For nearly 800 years from 711 the Iberian Peninsula was dominated by the Moors.

In many intriguing ways, centuries of Moorish rule are still visible in Andalucia, and are vital to an understanding of the diversity of Spanish culture. 

Seville, Cordoba and Granada became centres of culture, learning, luxury and magnificence. Their history, architecture and paintings are traced as Moorish mastery gradually gave way to Christian Reconquest.

This lecture can also be titled: Three Andalucian Cities – Cordoba, Seville and Granada.

Gail Turner is an historian, art historian, and painter. She is passionate about Spain and Spanish topics.  She has been a long-time lecturer for The Arts Society, and before Covid she taught on courses at the V&A, and for Art Pursuits, the National Gallery and the Art Fund.

She has lectured on Cambridge University Summer Schools, the Courtauld Institute Summer Courses, Inscape, and for many arts organisations in Europe.  In the past she led tours to Spain for The Arts Society and Martin Randall Travel.  

Gail lectured in the Prado and Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid in the 1980s, and was Deputy Curator of Keats Shelley Memorial House, Rome, before that.  She was once a Christie’s consultant in Illuminated Manuscripts.

In 2015 Gail was awarded the Encomienda de Isabel la Católica (the equivalent of the CBE) by the King of Spain for promoting Spanish culture among British audiences.  She is President of The Arts Society Colchester.

London’s great drivers have always been finance and culture.  But while the arts are celebrated in the capital, physical culture is often overlooked.  In this lecture, Simon traces London’s sporting culture back to the 12th century, taking in manuscripts in the British Library, records of jousting at the College of Arms, and the obscure game of Pall Mall, from which the current thoroughfare takes its name.

Much of this story concerns the battle for open space, an issue for the Finsbury Archers of the 17th century no less than campaigners for playing fields in the 20th century East End slums.  Other themes include the story of the German Gymnasium, boathouses on the Thames and the mania for lidos in the 1930s.

Although focusing on London, several elements of this lecture (such as the Olympics, Lord’s, Wimbledon and the University Boat Race) will be of interest to audiences elsewhere.

Writer and historian Simon Inglis specialises in the architecture and heritage of sport and recreation.  From 2004-22 he edited the Played in Britain series for English Heritage.  He currently acts as an Ambassador for the Historic Pools of Britain.  

Although sport and recreation might seem an unlikely subject for The Arts Society, non-sporty types need have no fear.  Simon’s themes are architecture, design, heritage and popular culture.  

Since gaining a history degree at University College London, he has freelanced for various publications, been a regular contributor to radio and television, has edited numerous technical guidelines on stadium design and safety, has travelled and lectured extensively, and written a number of books.

Two were shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, while another, on British football grounds, was chosen by journalist Frank Keating as the best sports book of the 20th century.  One highpoint in his work for English Heritage was the listing of a 1970’s skatepark in Essex, a world first that made the 10 o’clock News.