| Date | Title | Lecturer |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Sep 15 | Double Dutch: Symbols, Emblems and Double-Entendre in Dutch Genre Painting | Lynne Gibson BEd MA |
| 14:30 19:00 |
The merchants of 17th c Holland filled their town houses with paintings. A favourite subject was scenes of every day life, depicting behaviour good and bad. They wanted nothing to alarm the in-laws, offend the guests or corrupt the children. Innocent objects hint at adult themes: lap dogs and plucked chickens, lutes and virginals amongst others. This is a world of subtle hints and double-entendre, spoken through a language of symbols, emblems and motifs. | Lynne has worked as a freelance lecturer in a variety of places as well as giving guided tours at a number of galleries and museums. She is also a professional artist specialising in oil painting and etching.
To learn more about Lynne Gibson, please see her website. |
| 13 Oct 15 | William Orpen (1878-1931): Still an Outsider? | Ann Clements BA |
| 14:30 AGM 19:00 |
Born into a wealthy Protestant family in Ireland, Orpen sympathised with the Nationalists, a stance that made him something of an outsider in Britain. As an official war artist in France during the First World War, he created controversial pictures. However, during the 1920s in London he became a hugely successful portrait painter, seen as Sargent’s successor, but soon to be forgotten in spite of his very colourful private life.
The EDFAS AGM will precede the evening lecture, starting promptly at 18:15. Papers for the AGM, the Agenda and the Minutes of the 2013 AGM will be posted on the EDFAS website, and will be available in hard copy immediately prior to the AGM. |
Ann has wide experience lecturing both at home and abroad. She catalogued English watercolours and drawings for the Whitworth Art Gallery, researched for the Mellon Foundation. |
| 10 Nov 15 | The Artists of Montmartre – ‘The Pilgrims of Babylon’ | Douglas Skeggs MA |
| 14:30 19:00 |
There is no name more evocative of Bohemian life than Montmartre. The garden cafes, dancehalls, cabarets, and studios of Montmartre became the inspiration to some of France’s greatest artists. From the Moulin de la Galette where Renoir painted Parisians dancing, to Toulouse Lautrec’s vivid images of the Moulin Rouge, to the shabby garrets of the Bateau Lavoir where a group of artists headed by Picasso painted canvases that shook the foundations of Western art, this lecture charts the course of this extraordinary artistic life. | Douglas Skeggs has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. He has written and presented an Omnibus programme on Whistler and the exhibition video on William Morris. He also wrote a highly acclaimed book on Monet, 'River of Light'. |
| 8 Dec 14 | Islam and the Mosque | Tom Duncan PhD |
| 14:30 19:00 |
The development and spread of Islam following the death of the prophet Mohamed led to the adoption of one particular building type for all Muslims, the Mosque. The lecture begins with the life of the Prophet and the astonishing spread of Islam after his death. The early Islamic monuments of Jerusalem and Damascus will be examined, as well as the spread to North Africa from where the religion spread to Spain and the building of the great mosque at Cordoba. | Tom Duncan studied History of Art and Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lectured at university level and to many heritage and arts organisations. |
| Please remember that, from January 2016, and until further notice, EDFAS lectures are held at Central Hall, Tollcross. |
| 12 Jan 16 | ‘Bestriding the World like a Colossus’: The Life and Works of Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865) | James Bolton BA, MBA |
| 14:30 19:00 |
Joseph Paxton was the ultimate Victorian example of rags to riches: the child of a Bedfordshire farm labourer who rocketed through 19th c English society to become MP for Coventry, director of several railway companies, creator of The Crystal Palace, knight and boon companion of the Duke of Devonshire. The lecture looks at the social, political and horticultural background of Paxton’s life: as architect and gardener at Chatsworth, where he worked and lived for 32 years, as well as projects in England, Ireland and France, culminating in the triumph of The Crystal Palace itself. | James Bolton lectures extensively on gardens and garden history, having been a working gardener in Farnborough and the Palais des Parcs et Jardins in Paris.
For more information on James Bolton, please see his website. |
| 09 Feb 16 | Great Tarts in Art: High Culture and the Oldest Profession | Linda Smith BA, MA |
| 14:30 19:00 |
This lecture examines the portraits and careers of some of history’s most notorious mistresses and courtesans in order to take a generally light-hearted look at changing attitudes to sexual morality down the ages. Starting in seventeenth-century Britain, the talk takes a look at portraits of some of Charles II’s best-known mistresses before moving into the eighteenth century and the era of Hogarth, Reynolds, and Gainsborough. From there the discussion moves into the nineteenth century and widens into France, where works by Manet and Degas are examined. In the twentieth century, radical new artistic techniques were applied to this age-old subject matter by artists like Picasso and continues to the present day. The talk is very much a social history but also full of scandalous stories and anecdotes. | Linda Smith is a well-qualified art historian with a broad range of knowledge, and a special interest in British Art, and the art of the twentieth century. |
| 08 Mar 16 | Lady Ottoline Morrell: A Passionate and Eccentric Patroness of the Arts | Sandra Pollard BA, MA |
| 14:30 19:00 |
Lady Ottoline Morrell was a remarkable woman. A flamboyant and eccentric aristocrat, she loved to dress extravagantly and entertain. She was friend (and often mistress) of many artists, including Augustus John, Henry Lamb, Roger Fry and Stanley Spencer, of writers like D H Lawrence, and intellectuals like Bertrand Russell). By providing places for them to meet each other and new patrons at her ‘salons’, she was able to nurture and promote new talent. Many, however, enjoyed her hospitality but then abused her generosity, and she was much maligned. This lecture is about her fascinating life lived through art. | Sandra Pollard has a BA in History, and an MA in Art History. She has lectured for over 35 years, and is a trustee of the Bowes Museum. She is a founder member, past chairman and now president of North Yorkshire and South Durham DFAS. |
| 12 Apr 16 | Catherine the Great and The Formation of the Hermitage Collection | Colin Bailey PhD |
| 14:30 19:00 |
The vast collection of outstanding old master paintings that lies at the heart of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg owes its origins to the voracious appetite for art evinced by Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. This lecture considers the various ways in which she amassed the array of pictures so enormous that it necessitated the building of two special 'hermitages' to house them! Her methods involved the purchase 'lock, stock and barrel' of some of the most significant collections to come on the market in the late eighteenth century and her use of agents deployed throughout Europe to acquire individual works by artists such as Poussin, Velazquez, Rubens, Ruisdael and Rembrandt. | Colin needs no introduction to EDFAS, having lectured the Society for many years as well as being a member. He was assistant Keeper at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and Head of Humanities at the Edinburgh College of Art. He now lectures widely and conducts art tours all over Europe. |
| 10 May 16 | Expressionism – Emotion vs Intellect: The Blue Rider Group (Blauer Reiter) | Eveline Eaton BA |
| 14:30 19:00 |
The story of Expressionism begins as a reaction against Impressionism, an idea first explored by the Post-Impressionists (Gauguin, van Gogh, Cézanne and Seurat) and then taken up by young French and German artists in the turbulent times of the early 20th c. By means of bright colour and bold brushwork, the ‘Wild Beasts’ or ‘Fauves’ (Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck) expressed their ideas in a highly aggressive mode. The German Expressionists in Dresden and in Munich also looked to the importance of African/Oceanic ‘primitivism’ and the decorative elements of painting and sculpture to produce a forcefully emotional art which nevertheless was justified by intellectual argument. | Eveline studied History of Art at the Courtauld and lecturers widely throughout Britain and Europe. Since 2013 she has been Chairman of The Dresden Trust, an organisation helping with the rebuilding of Dresden.
For more information about Eveline Eaton, please see her website. |
| 14 Jun 16 | William Beckford, Patron of Silversmiths | Timothy Schroder DLitt |
| 14:30 19:00 |
William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey was one of the greatest art collectors of all time. He was also an obsessive collector of new silver, often made to his own designs and of astonishingly high quality. The lecture shows that his silver is as much a window into his personality as Fonthill Abbey itself. But the silver survives; the abbey does not. | Timothy was silver specialist at Christies and later Curator of Decorative Arts at the Los Angeles County Museum. By the time of his lecture, he will have stepped down after his second time as Warden of the Goldsmith’s Company. |
