Previous Lectures We will be archiving the lectures as we go through the year, so you can look back on lectures, perhaps look at some of the links associated with them. 2025 Membership Year September 18th Tessa Boase Art Deco and the Department Store Bold publicity stunts, statement architecture, suave dining: the 1930s was a supreme era for London’s great emporia. Starting on Piccadilly with Joseph Emberton’s Moderne masterpiece, Simpsons, we’ll explore the capital’s department stores through an Art Deco lens – from Selfridges’ fabulous elevators, whizzing us up to roof garden fashion shows, to the jaw-dropping interiors of D.H. Evans, ready in time for the 1937 Coronation, to the live flamingos atop Derry & Toms. Then off to the suburbs where superb Deco buildings were springing up in surprising locations: Shinners of Sutton, Holdrons of Peckham, Bodgers of Ilford. June 19th Mary Alexander At Home everywhere and nowhere. Travelling with John Singer Sargent In childhood and throughout his life, Sargent was described as being 'at home everywhere and nowhere.' Born in Florence to itinerant American parents, he adopted a frenetic pattern of international travel throughout his life. The range and duration of his travels are truly staggering. Renowned as a society portraitist, in 1909 his dramatic decision to refuse further commissions provided a new found freedom. Sargent also indulged his fascination for all things 'curious' - a favourite word. Accommodation was variable - ranging from the White House in Washington DC to a tent in the mountains. Click here for a reading list from Mary Alexander on John singer Sargent Visit Harlaxton Manor - Tuesday 13th May 2025 We are delighted to be able to offer an exclusive a guided tour of Harlaxton Manor near Grantham on Tuesday 13th May 2025. Harlaxton Manor is currently used as a campus for an American University and is rarely open to the public. The house has an interesting history, some of which will feature in our March lecture on the English Country House. Harlaxton is a Grade 1 Listed Victorian country house which combines elements of Jacobean and Elizabethan styles with Baroque decoration, making it quite unique amongst English Jacobean houses! Originally built for local Squire Gregory Gregory it remained in his family’s ownership from 1758 to 1937 when it was sold to an American businesswoman and inventor. Requisitioned by the RAF during WW2 it was eventually taken over by Stanford University. There are beautiful gardens (please note there are some steps) and spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. May 15th Jennifer Toynbee Holmes The Ballets Russes: When Art Danced with Music When Diaghilev created ballet in the west in the early twentieth century, he brought extraordinary revolutionary energy from Russia. April 17th Mark Bills G F Watts and the Watts Gallery George Frederic Watts RA OM (1817-1904) was one of the greatest artists of the Victorian age. From 1897 until 1938 Watts had a permanent room devoted to his work at the Tate Gallery and was the first living artists to be given a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This lecture will explore the life and work of this extraordinary artist from his first works at the Royal Academy in 1837 when Queen Victoria came to the throne, to his creation of a purpose built gallery in Compton at the heart of a Surrey village, a year before his death in 1903. March 20th Mike Higginbottom English Country Houses- not quite what they seem Since the Second World War, visiting country houses has become one of Britain’s major tourist activities. Historic homes ranging from the great palaces of Blenheim, Castle Howard and Chatsworth to modest manor houses have opened their doors to the paying public. Visiting the fabulously rich cultural heritage of great houses provides a very broad range of experiences – from major monuments preserved apparently at a particular moment in time to homes which are palpably loved and lived in. February 20th Jo Walton The Art and Craft of John Piper An abstract painter in the 1930s, John Piper was also a writer, critic and typographer and his love of architecture – especially medieval churches and stained glass – made him a highly sensitive observer of his surroundings. During the Second World War he became one of the best-known Official War Artists, creating powerful images of the destruction of Coventry Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and of the city of Bath, as well as recording a wide range of buildings, from derelict Welsh cottages to the grandeur of Windsor Castle. Piper’s friendships with figures from the worlds of literature, ballet and music led him in further creative directions. January 16th Sarah Burles Lord Fitzwilliam and his Bequest to Cambridge The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge was founded on the death of Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1816, five years after the Dulwich Picture Gallery and eight years before the National Gallery in London. His bequest included paintings, drawings, prints, medieval manuscripts and books and, in addition, a sum of money to build “a good substantial museum repository for the increase of learning”. Who was Lord Fitzwilliam? How did he acquire his extensive collection? What prompted him to leave it to the University of Cambridge and why was Napoleon partly responsible for the founding of one of the great regional museums?

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