Unfortunately, we have been advised by our lecturer Antonia Keaney that she is now unavailable to join us for our Special Interest Day on 28th January 2026.

I’m pleased to say that we have been able to secure Douglas Skeggs to join us that day. Many of you will remember Douglas’s excellent lecture on Velazquez last year.

The Programme for the day will be:

Lecture 1: “The origins of Venetian art” looks at the dawn of the Venetian style from the gemlike paintings of Carpaccio to the serene altarpieces of the Bellini. From their studio emerged the enigmatic Giorgione, the most poetic of Venetian artists, and then Titian, whose powerful brushwork and vivid imagination had a profound influence on generations of artists after him.  

Lecture 2 “The Golden Age” looks at the high years of Venetian art when Titian’s works were commissioned by every patron in Europe, from the Pope to the Holy Roman Emperor. How his style was then turned and reformed by Tintoretto into turbulent flights of fantasy, the paintings he made for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco flickering with an eerie light. And how the last glories of the republic glow in the ceiling paintings of Tiepolo and the crystal clear cityscapes of Canaletto. 

Lecture 3 “Poets, painters & private lives” looks at the years of decline when the faded beauty of the city was rediscovered by Turner who painted it lost in shimmering light, by James Whistler, Bonnington and John Singer Sargent, by Henry James who set stories of delicate melancholy in Venice, and by John Ruskin who measured every building of the city and published his report in the “Stones of Venice”, one of the most influential books of the 19th century.  

This Special interest day is led by Antonia Keaney, Social historian and Researcher at Blenheim Palace and will consist of 3 lectures.

1. World War II at Blenheim Palace– Evacuees and Espionage

The Marlborough family, Estate staff, and the Palace itself played a full and energetic part in the war effort. This talk tells the story of how the Palace prepared for the worst, survived the onslaught of 400 boys evacuated to Blenheim and kept the secrets of MI5.

2. The Unknown Churchill – Winston Spencer Churchill and Blenheim Palace

The private resources of Blenheim Palace are drawn upon to afford very new and refreshing insights into this remarkable man. We examine the breadth of talent, achievement and personality of the "Greatest Briton": soldier, politician, statesman, painter, writer, orator, family man - and bricklayer! 

3. A Passion for Fashion - 300 Years of Style at Blenheim Palace

A look at the clothes, underclothes, shoes and accessories which would have been worn by some of the more colourful characters in the Palace’s 300-year history – as well as a look at the House of Dior’s continuing special relationship with Blenheim Palace.

Antonia Keaney is a Social historian and Researcher at Blenheim Palace. Both roles have involved her curating and co-curating several exhibitions, including “A Passion for Fashion – 300 years of Blenheim Style” upon which her latest book is based. This will also be the subject of our afternoon lecture.

Antonia is an experienced public speaker, having taken part in a variety of Literary events as well as being a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live. She has also appeared on BBC’s Country File, Channel 4’s Phil Spencer’s Stately Homes and most recently with Pam Ayres when Channel 5 visited Blenheim Palace on their tour of the Cotswolds.  Antonia’s latest project has been to produce a series of podcasts - Behind the Scenes at Blenheim Palace - available on Spotify.

Tickets will be on sale at the lecture on Tuesday 14th October. The cost will be £48 per ticket.

Dr James Grant is a retired country doctor with a lifetime of working both  in NHS hospitals and a rural practise . He is passionate about all aspects of medicine , its history and the relationship to art and artists ‘

He says’ :

From earliest times man has linked the lustre of gold with the warm, life giving light of the sun. This talk illustrates four thousand years of the history of gold in medicine. The ancient Egyptians used it for its magico-religious properties. Mediaeval alchemists strived to produce it as a source of eternal youth. Today it is a substance used in medical instrumentation, investigation and cutting edge therapies. This lecture illustrates how artists such as Rogier Van Der Weyden, Joseph Wright and Gustav Klimt, as well as numerous goldsmiths and instrument makers, have defined medicine’s relationship with the most coveted of all the elements.

It is a pleasure to give medical and art study days. These lectures are supplemented with an exhibition and talk on a selection of antique medical instruments and artefacts from my own collection.’ There will be a fun quiz at the end of the day .

This lecture is it's all about the values of art. and the different ways we consider value; social value, economic value and of course monetary value. It will ask why somethings survive the test of time and others don't, it will also consider arts as an interchangeable commodity from the black market

 Emma  is an Art Historian , having a highly successful academic career in UK, Australia and Hong Kong , having developed adult education curricula, been active in policy, planning and on advisory boards for Heritage, Arts and Museums . She also has her own company which values fine art and antiques for insurance , dispersal and probate.

The three lectures will cover understanding the value of art ,  antiques with examples of China  Furniture etc and in the last lecture she  hopes to be able to  talk about members own pieces (  she’s previously selected ) so that should be fun! 

Tickets will be on sale at the lecture on 8th October. If you have a small antique item that you would like more information about please bring along when booking so that it may be photographed and submitted to Emma in advance. You will be notified before the day if your item has been chosen.

Tirzah Garwood, wife of Eric Ravilious, was an English surrealist to whom Lewis Carroll would have felt akin. Before she was twenty-two she was making bold, intricate wood-engravings. When Eric died in 1942, Tirzah began making collages and oil paintings. Colourful, fantastical, and slightly sinister, they show toy soldiers and giant hornets, tiny houses and huge kittens.

As a student at the Grosvenor School in the 1930s, Suzanne Cooper was showing wood-engravings, and paintings, comparable to those of Christopher Wood, in West End Galleries. Then came the war. Cooper married, and laid aside her artistic ambitions. Her first solo show, 25 years after her death, at the Fry Art Gallery in 2018, was greeted by critics as ‘revelatory’, and a ‘rare and exciting event’.

It’s a joy to celebrate these two brilliant artists, especially as Suzanne Cooper was my mother-in-law !

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is a cultural historian and biographer. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she has written on books, theatre and the visual arts for publications including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New Statesman and the TLS. She was Chair of the Judges for the 2021 International Booker Prize.

This lecture examines the life and times of Oscar Wilde from his Irish roots to his days as a student at Oxford and his meteoric rise to the heights of celebrity. We travel with him to the United States and examine his starring role within the artistic & theatrical worlds of late 19th century London. We visit his home in bohemian Chelsea and some of his favourite West End haunts. Finally, we learn how ‘tired of being in the heights, he plunged into the depths’ and became famous for being INfamous.

Simon is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique and voice teacher and award winning London Blue Badge guide.

He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery guiding both public and private tours. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature.

Simon’s specialisms and passions are theatre, literature, fashion and art history but whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it.

Those of you who were at the lecture on Dick Whittington will remember Simon's confident  and humorous style. We are sure to be in for a treat !

Tickets will be on sale at our November 2023 lecture and we are pleased to advise that we now have a card reader for easier payment. Cash or cheque still acceptable.

'Gardens of a golden afternoon are glimpsed in black and white photographs and nostalgic cottage paintings. The Mediterranean inspired the architecture of Harold Peto’s designs and the colours in Gertrude Jekyll’s early paintings and later plantings. Peto’s richest client was Daisy, Countess of Warwick for whom he designed in the grand Italianate manner at Warwick House. Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens collaborated in 70 projects creating the Surrey Style as showcased in the architecture and gardens of her former home, Munstead Wood. The kitchen garden inspired visual and edible feasts in the ground and on the plates of contemporary gardening books.'

Caroline is a presenter and contributor on television and BBC Radio 4, and regularly lectures for the Royal Horticultural Society, travel companies and museums. She is an expert in garden design, and author of 12 books including Impressionists in their Gardens.
 

Tickets will be on sale at our June lecture, from 09.30am. Please ask a friend to secure yours for you should you not be there in person. We are delighted to advise that we now have a card reader for easier payment however cash or cheque still acceptable.

The definitive lecture on Britain’s favourite artist, by the author and lecturer who knows him best. Jacky has written the authoritative monograph on Grayson’s work, a bestselling book covering the artist’s life and work, his loves and artistic inspirations, from his earliest student projects of the 1980s to his very latest work. She has been a close collaborator of Perry’s for more than a decade, interviewing him numerous times and enjoying exclusive access to his archive, and in this study day  she reveals his techniques and sources, his favourite themes and subjects, and the diverse artworks he has produced across ceramics, tapestry, print-making, sculpture and architecture. How did Perry, almost unknown until his mid-40s when he unexpectedly won the Turner Prize, come to be Britain’s favourite artist since David Hockney and Lucian Freud? And where might this peculiarly British National Treasure be going next?

Tickets will be on sale at our last lecture of 2022 .

One of our greatest composers, Edward Elgar was an extraordinary man.  Brought up in a provincial town, his father a piano tuner and the owner of a music shop, Elgar was completely self-taught as a musician, evidence of the strong determination behind his original and unique genius.

His path to recognition was hard and bitter.  He had to contend with the prejudices of the British musical establishment, religious bigotry (he was a Roman Catholic) and with the entrenched class-consciousness of late Victorian provincial society.  However, with his wife Alice as his staunchest supporter, from a hesitant start with pieces written for his local music societies, to cantatas celebrating Britain’s history, “King Olaf” and “Caractacus”, he finally achieved national and international success with his “Variations on an original theme (Enigma)” of 1899.  This work demonstrates remarkable technical mastery of form and orchestration and above all an individual and forceful personality.  He went on to create two of the greatest of 20th century symphonies, the magnificent oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius” and two concertos, for violin and cello, among the finest ever written. And of course, he expresses a vigorous patriotism in his “Pomp and Circumstance Marches”.

This study day , illustrated with many notable musical examples, explores the development of this contradictory musician, always wracked with self-doubt, and explains how his music expresses a quintessential Englishness.

The day will be divided as follows: 
Session 1:  Sir Edward Elgar’s life and some of his works. 
Session 2:  an examination of the ‘Enigma’ Variations.  There will be audience involvement. 
Session 3:  an exploration of his great oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius”.  We will enjoy some of the many recorded interpretations.
The cost will be £38.00 to include lunch and morning refreshments. As usual booking will be 'in person' at the June meeting so if you anticipate being away at that time you will need to find a member to make the booking on your behalf.

Tickets will be on sale at our June 2022 meeting

**Tickets on sale from 9.30am at our meeting on 9th November**

A stimulating and enjoyable Special Interest Day exploring how and why the city of Paris has acted as both a magnet and cauldron of talent for aspiring artists and designers. Discover more about the key events and personalities shaping the 'City of Light' during the first half of the twentieth century. Looking beyond  the mainstream, we will identify the creative individuals, including newly emerging female talents, who shaped the Parisian concept of 'modernity' in art, design, interiors, fashion, and photography.

Whether strolling along Haussmann's new boulevards, ascending the magnificent staircase of Garnier's Opéra House, calling into an artist's studio, cafe, nightclub, or couture fitting, we will recreate the sense of 'being there'. Literary descriptions by Zola, Stein, Cocteau, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald will accompany the sumptuous visual details photographed especially for this purpose. Comparisons between the international Paris exhibitions of 1900, 1925 and 1937 will shed light on changing social/cultural issues, rapid technological change, and the key role of couture and fashion in French identity, especially during the German  Occupation, and immediately after the Liberation.

An inclusive and exploratory approach is used with location maps, using both contemporary and old photographs of the city, various art and design media, to share many of the questions which have fascinated us over the years. Whether you know the city well or not at all, there will be new and exciting discoveries for everyone.

• Session One : La Belle Époque - city of pleasure and reinvention 1890s – 1914
• Session Two: Partying into the Future 1920s and 30s
• Session Three: Paris Exposition 1937, Occupation and Defiance

The moving image has been a powerful source for imagination from the first moment a magic lantern flickered into life in the 17th century.  In this day of special interest we will be looking at how the Motion Pictures industry first developed throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries and how it was inspired by and inspired in turn some of the greatest artists of the early 20th century.

The day will be split into 3 sessions

10.30am        Session 1:  From Shadow shows to Magic lanterns – the art of the moving image

11.30am        Coffee

12.00pm        Session 2:  Smoke and Mirrors to Nickelodeons – early moving pictures and the artists whose work inspired its birth.

13.00pm        Lunch in bar area (seated)

14.00pm        Session 3:  The birth of Hollywood, epic movies and the cult of the silent movie star.

Reservations may be made through Hilary Mathews –  Email: specialinterest.tasbs@gmail.com .

The moving image has been a powerful source of imagination from the first moment a magic lantern flickered in to life in the 17th century . The lecture will  look at how the motion picture industry developed in the late 19th and early 20thy centauries, and how it inspired some of the greatest artist  of the early 20th century .

Geri Parlby has a first class honours degree in History and Theology, and a  Masters in History of Art , from the Courtauld Institute . She worked as a fleet street journalist and in film P.R. so is very experienced in this field

Tickets will be on sale on June 9th , before our June Meeting .

During today we will find out what motivates thieves to steal art, and particularly during WWII. In most cases it’s to make money but for the Nazis it was a way to destroy a culture. We shall hear about the greatest art thefts in the 20th and 21st centuries and what makes these works so intriguing.

Shauna Isaac lives in London and is a very experienced Art Society lecturer.  She has been very active in art recovery working with families and governments. She set up the Central registry on Looted Cultural Property. She regularly contributes articles for Art publications.