Up until the early 19th century, Russian painting consisted almost entirely of academic styles and subject matter dominated by the west, Paris in particular. Artists such as Alexey Venetsianov, encouraged by Czar Nicholas I’s promotion of ‘national trends’ began to change the focus towards more home grown themes, such as the status of the Russian peasant. Already by mid century the class system and village structure, dominated by landowner and the orthodox church was under more critical scrutiny, led by artists such as Vasily Perov, but it wasn’t until the pioneering work of the group known as 'The Wanderers' that Russian society was put more fully under the microscope. By then the serfs had been liberated, in many cases ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of their new found freedom, as were their masters who suddenly found themselves with vast estates and a much reduced workforce. This lecture reveals the fascinating insight into this moving story afforded by the paintings of more than a dozen superb artists, yet whose work is still relatively unknown in the West.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

A senior modern languages teacher in an independent grammar school for many years, Brian Healey has also enjoyed a successful parallel career since the 1980s as a professional artist and interior designer. Since 2006 he has been regularly appointed by a number of prestigious ocean and river cruise lines, either as resident artist, guest lecturer on art history or as destination speaker, for more than forty countries. Most recently this work has successfully extended to art guiding through important towns and museums in France, Belgium, Holland and Spain.

Between 1750 and 1850 one of Britain’s most successful exports was the Georgian House. It was elegant and versatile, particularly suitable for hot climates and a wide variety of building materials. British or local architects might provide plans but a carpenter or bricklayer equipped with a pattern book could produce a satisfactory product. In this lecture we travel from England across the Irish Sea and then across the Atlantic to the American Colonies. We go on to the far side of the world, looking at Georgian buildings in Australia and New Zealand before heading for home with a brief stop in Cape Town. The whole journey can be achieved in a one hour lecture or in a slightly less hectic day of special interest.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Roger Mitchell studied History at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel and study in USA. He is a former College Vice-Principal who now lectures for University of Liverpool and for Adult Residential Colleges. Roger organises and leads country house study tours, and tries to find time to do research on British and American Country Houses.

One of the world’s most popular athletic events commemorates Pheidippides’s epic run from the battlefield of Marathon to his native Athens. Apart from the amazing courage of Pheidippides, why remember a battle that took place over two and a half thousand years ago? Since the 19th century, historians have argued that it was a crucial event, one that had decided ‘the whole future of human civilisation’. As John Stuart Mill put it, ‘the Battle of Marathon, even as an event in English history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings’. Rupert re-creates the background and the battle itself in thrilling detail. He looks at the various ways in which ancient Athens has influenced our art and culture, and argues that Marathon was, indeed, the battle that saved ‘Western Civilisation’. Eye-opening, edge-of-your-seat stuff.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

A prize-winning historian who specialises in the domestic and social life of the past. A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London, Rupert Willoughby is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, of guides to castles owned by English Heritage and Hampshire County Council, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village and Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. He contributes regular obituaries to The Times and The Daily Telegraph, writes privately-commissioned histories of houses, and is an experienced lecturer - and occasional broadcaster - on a broad range of topics, with a particular interest in architecture, interior decoration and costume.

Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century - This lecture is one in a series of lectures by retired graphic designer Howard Smith.  All are possibly in living memory or near living memory. Today's lecture is an in depth fully researched exploration of extraordinary creativity, sometimes in unbelievable circumstances. Because subjects are recent, there is a wealth of actual information to support the stories, which are both nostalgic and entertaining. The lecture will be lavishly illustrated and contain vintage film clips.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International Advertising Agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury. His website on http://www.howardsmith.me.uk has full details. He was delighted to gain accreditation as an Arts Society lecturer in 2017.

So many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art. Not only can these windows into the past show us what the instruments looked like but also the social context in which they would have been played. Music and different instruments also play a strong role within symbolism in art. Sophie explores the instruments in selected works and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:- info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Sophie is a musician well-known for her prowess on the English border bagpipes and has become one of the foremost players of the instrument in the UK. She also plays a variety of early woodwind instruments such as shawm, rauschpfeife, crumhorm and recorder. She’s also one of a handful of British players of the baroque musette, an 18th century French bagpipe similar to the Northumbrian smallpipes.

When not touring with Green Matthews, Sophie also makes instruments (she made her own baroque oboe) and works with respected luthier Tony Millyard on his flutes. Sophie is self-taught on all of her instruments

STOP  PRESS .....

This lecture will now be transmitted by Zoom only, with a recording available until midnight on Wednesday 19 January.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact: info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

In 1932 the artist Edward Bawden and his wife Charlotte moved into Brick House, in the Essex village of Great Bardfield, initially sharing the house with another artistic couple, Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood. It was to be the beginning of a fascinating artistic community.

In the years before and during the Second World War painters, printmakers and designers settled in the village, relishing the peace while remaining within easy reach of London.  While Bawden and Ravilious saw active service as War Artists (Ravilious dying in 1942), other artists captured the soon-to-change world of rural England through the Recording Britain project.

By the mid-1950s a diverse, innovative but highly creative group had made Bardfield their home – much to the bemusement of the local villagers, who found the complex relationships and artistic focus of the newcomers rather baffling. In 1954 the artists invited the public into their homes and studios to see their work, starting the increasingly popular ‘Open Studios’ movement that now covers the country, and persuading some of their neighbours that artists could be quite normal people after all!

At the age of five Jo decided to become an archaeologist – but later changed her mind when she discovered how cold and wet it could be digging in the rain.

Luckily her parents loved visiting interesting places, so her childhood love of history was enthusiastically (and much more comfortably) encouraged with frequent trips to art galleries and museums. When Jo first had the chance to study art history, as a sixth former, she found that she was meeting paintings and sculptures that were already old friends – and continued to be intensely curious about art and its histories.

Reading art history at Leicester University, Jo went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Oxford, specialising in the art and architecture of fifteenth century Italy. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore one of the most vibrant and exciting periods in history – and to do so surrounded by the marvellous collections of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

A job in a bookshop turned into a happy and successful twenty-year career in the book trade, eventually running a specialist art bookshop in London, and working with the auctioneers, Christies. Jo also taught art history at adult education classes and, for twelve years, was a volunteer guide for Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Much of Jo's work now is with The Art Society (NADFAS), but she also lectures for The Art Fund and for local art groups and societies. 

Jo really enjoys lecturing and introducing audiences to the periods, places and artworks that she loves. She says that travelling for The Art Society has introduced her to many areas of Britain that she didn’t know, and given her the chance to meet fascinating people and learn so much from their experiences and their responses to her talks.

‘The utmost fulfilment of Leonardo the scientist is seen in his artistic creations. These reveal the most amazing  and inseparable affinity of his scientific and artistic concepts’  - Ludwig Heidenreich 1958. Leonardo would say nature must be his guide and that art was based on a scientific understanding of everything depicted. He used his powers of draughtsmanship and astute sense of observation in his scientific drawings making an incredible contribution to our early understanding of anatomy, aeronautics, warfare, cartography and water engineering to name but a few. It would take centuries of science and technology to catch up with his thoughts. This talk follows Leonardo’s pursuit of these investigations whether they be on his own initiative, his pursuit of remunerative employment or in response to a particular set of circumstances in his life.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Guy Rooker comes to The Arts Society not with a background in the arts but from the world of science in general, and surgery in particular. He describes himself as a retired surgeon with a lifelong passion, fascination, and admiration for the work of Leonardo da Vinci.  Guy considers that the contribution he has made to both the world of art and the investigation of scientific concepts to be quite unique and extraordinary in the way that so many of his pioneering investigations have contributed to the understanding of our world today.

In 1888 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, and Hockney evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Since 1986 Timothy Walker has given 1,500 public lectures. This was originally part of his work as director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden from 1988 to 2014. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Since 2014 Timothy has been a college lecturer and tutor at Somerville College, Oxford.  Gardens are often thought of as a place where science and art meet on equal terms. This lecture investigates this relationship.

For many years Scottish artists found it necessary to travel south to make their names and careers in art, but with the increasing importance of the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow from the end of the 18th Century, an independent Scottish art scene became possible. These developments will be traced through individuals such as Sir Henry Raeburn, the first artist to find success whilst remaining in his native Scotland, and Sir David Wilkie, important as one of the first to truly export Scottish art. This lecture will also look at the parallels between Scottish and other European art, as well as periods of divergence, touching on art movements such as the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists. 

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Rosalind has a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. She also lectures at the Tate and Dulwich Picture Galleries, to independent art societies and on cruises. In addition, Rosalind leads art appreciation holidays.

Alchemy & Adventure: A History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments

It easy to take colour for granted in our man-made world, but before organic chemistry, the most desirable pigments were often rare, exotic or poisonous.

Merchants supplied cochineal ‘grana’ from the holds of Spanish galleons, pungent golden nuggets from India and lapis rock carried by camel train from the mountains of Badakhshan. Alchemists prepared deadly King’s Yellow, mysterious Vitriol of Venus and Moorish Gold concocted from basilisk powder and human blood.  Small wonder artists kept their paint recipes closely guarded in Books of Secrets.

This lecture tells the stories of alchemy and adventure behind some our most beautiful and colourful paintings.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Lynne Gibson now works as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, Critical and Contextual Studies, as well as in practical Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. For many years Lynne lectured for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme and residential summer schools. She gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of organisations and institutions including ARCA colleges, the National Trust, National Gallery, art museums and art societies. Also, when time permits, she works as a professional artist specializing in oil painting and etching. Solo and group shows have included the RWA, British Museum and the Barbican.

Tite Street was one of the most influential artistic quarters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Throughout its turbulent history, it was home to innumerable artists, writers, suffragettes and madmen.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes is an experienced guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and lectures at various art societies and institutions. She has a special interest in British and European art of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Having gained an MA in film and television practice, Jennifer had a long-standing career spanning twenty years as a television producer/director making documentaries and factual programmes for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. She was also a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck, University of London and a senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society.

What skills did it take for a woman to become a painter in 17th c Europe? Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654) was by no means the only woman painter of her period, but she was a rarity, and ranks amongst the greatest painters of the 17th century. Her career spanned a time of great change in Italian taste, from the power and earthiness of Caravaggio, to the more elegant classicism of Reni and Domenichino. Her family connections meant that she moved between a number of different centres in Europe - Rome, Florence, Naples and London, and her work reflects the different tastes of these centres. 

This lecture considers her training in the very male world of the roman studio, and explores her skills in painting in a style which is both individual but which also put her in the forefront wherever in Europe she found herself working.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe has an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh and a 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 in London, Italy and America. Having also trained as a paintings conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures.

Wine merchants, poisoners, mine owners and creators of afternoon tea - the colourful history of one of England’s oldest aristocratic families and the fascinating art that surrounds them.  The story of the Russell family from the 15th to the 20th century.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Geri is a former Fleet Street journalist and film PR. She has a first-class honours degree in History and Theology, a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology doctorate from Roehampton University in London. She has been lecturing for the past 14 years both in the UK and internationally. She is also principal lecturer on The Arts Society South West Area’s History of Art course and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Roehampton University.

For those who have read about, or seen and enjoyed the recent film The Dig about Sutton Hoo with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan will be able to understand the real facts behind the dig and the Anglo-Saxon treasures that were unearthed. 

In his talk, William Forrester will cover:

• The setting and topography of the burial ground.
• 1938: Basil Brown opens three mounds for the land owner, Mrs. Pretty.
• The discovery, the 1939 dig and its ship.
• The British Museum returns, the 1965 dig and results.
• The investigations of 1983-92 by Martin Carver the new discoveries including the sandmen and the Prince’s Grave.
• Considering the finds in detail including the shield, sceptre, lyre, silverware, sword, coins, stupendous jewellery and, of course, iconic helmet from Mound 1.
• The dig of 2000 reveals a new Anglo-Saxon cemetery.
• The National Trust Visitors Centre and its opening in 2002 by Seamus Heaney.
• The parallels to the Staffordshire Hoard and the Prittlewell burial.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

William Forrester

MA from Oxford University, a Diploma in Art History (with distinction) and is a qualified teacher (PGCE from Reading University). Lectured for the National Portrait Gallery (where he worked in the Education Department), the British Museum, the National Gallery and the National Trust. Organised and led study and orientation programmes for the Universities of New York, Illinois and New Jersey (Rutgers. An Adult Education tutor for the Universities of Surrey and Warwick. Publications include The Collins Guide to the Lake District and Access in London (latest edition 2014) and he is a contributor to The Time Out Book of London Walks and Time Out's Open London (2012). Wrote and presented programmes for Central TV, Thames TV and BBC Radio 4. Blue Badge Guide/Lecturer for London and Cumbria, particular expertise in guiding at the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral and the British Museum. Awards from the Lord Mayor of London, the Evening Standard and the British Tourist Authority for his work and was made Man of the Year in 1990 and Guide/Lecturer of the year in the inaugural year of the award, sponsored by the British Museum.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, born in December 1770, Sandy guides us through the life and work of this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer, a man who tore up the rule book of classical music. Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits, while musical examples are drawnfrom his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, and from the revolutionary opera Fidelio. We’re talking about much more than just a musician here – Beethoven was a true Romantic artist, or as he preferred to describe himself, a “poet in sound”.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Sandy is one of the UK’s most authoritative broadcasters in the field of classical music. His varied career has seen him as author, bassist, conductor, broadcaster and presenter, sharing his passion for music.

After studying music at St Catharine’s College in Cambridge, Sandy worked as music director for the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and in London’s West End.  Following this, Sandy became a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3, where he stayed for more than a decade. His 26-part radio series for Irish radio station RTÉ Lyric FM: Great Moments in Classical Music, won silver in the Specialist Music category of the PPI Radio Awards.

When he is not on our airwaves, Sandy is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music and presenter of a related online course covering a thousand years of classical music from the medieval to modern eras. He also devises and leads cultural lecture holidays across Europe to flagship events such as the Leipzig Bachfest and the Sibelius Festival in Finland.

The Borgias - a family which dominated the Papacy and Italian politics in the last decades of the 15th century.  In an age of brutality and church corruption were they really so bad by the standards of the time?

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to try us out, free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Novelist, broadcaster and critic, Sarah read history at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2), and Night Waves (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen novels, taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis, is a visiting tutor on the MA in creative writing at Oxford Brooks and has lectured around the world at festivals and conferences.

BONUS  CHRISTMAS  LECTURE

Launched 100 years ago, Rupert has had three official artists and this is the story of each of them and their creativity that has made Rupert the longest standing strip, thrilling generations with his adventures.

In addition, Howard Smith has written a book on the same subject.  A committee member has a copy and highly recommends it, as it brought back so many happy memories from the 1950s of the Rupert Annual in his Christmas stocking.  The price is £15 (inclusive of p&p) and you can order it through Howard’s website:  www.howardsmith.me.uk.

This lecture will be delivered via YouTube, starting at 11 a.m.  Invitations will be sent to members.

Howard Smith

Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International Advertising Agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury. He was delighted to become an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society in 2017.

In Northern Europe landscape painting has a powerful hold on our visual culture, especially in Scandinavia where far northerly folk have found a kinship with nature to be indispensable. This relationship is powerfully expressed in paintings of snow and sun, rock and forest, mountain and fjord and helped confirm their difference from Mediterranean culture and to shape national identity.

This lecture is an introductory survey of Scandinavian art; a little known treasure trove of stunning images of the Northern landscape and the country people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

Tim’s involvement in art began with the practical; for a number of years he was a professional painter/ ceramicist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults.

For the last 30 years Tim has been a freelance cultural/art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society. Tim has recently completed a second lecture tour of Australia.

Tim now lectures for Cambridge University, the WEA, The Arts Society and The Art Fund, and presents residential study courses in Britain and Europe.

Many of Dickens' characters - Mr Micawber, Fagin, Abel Magwitch - remain with us long after the books are put down.  The talk is interspersed with readings from his works: a truly Dickensian experience.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

Bertie Pearce has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, Bertie has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. He has written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.