Lectures

All lectures last 60 minutes but can be extended as appropriate, and can be flexibly tailored to meet any more specific needs of your society. Lectures can also be combined with interconnecting material to form a programme, for study days, or even a whole course series. Should any society require an introduction to an area of interest, I am able to develop customised lectures to order, or to act as guide or facilitator on field trips where the venues are within my subject specialities.

Click the lecture titles marked with a * for further details
The Impressionists and Nineteenth Century Paris
The Gardens of Impressionism
Monet and the other Impressionists as gardeners and painters of gardens in the context of the craze in France for horticulture as a middle-class leisure activity.
Women Impressionists
The neglected modern mistresses – Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzales and Marie Bracquemond.
Fashion and Impressionism
Modernity, la Mode and aspects of femininity – dress, millinery and the shopping experience as shown in the works of Degas, Manet, Renoir, Tissot and Cassatt.
Toulouse Lautrec and 'Bohemian' Paris*
The atmosphere and excitement of Fin de Siècle Paris, the world's capital of entertainment, as depicted and documented by Lautrec and his contemporaries.
Movers and Muses – the patrons and inspirers
The Sun King
Louis XIV of France – the most magnificent of monarchs. An evaluation of how his patronage of art and edifice was used for propaganda, and dominated the taste and style in other European courts.
Let them eat cake!
The cultural and artistic world of Marie Antoinette, France's ill-fated queen.
'Not tonight Josephine'
The life and court of the Empress Josephine Bonaparte – her patronage of the arts, fashion and rose gardening.
George IV – Connoisseur or Conman?*
An examination of his legacy to Britain of Regency period architecture and the collection of paintings and decorative arts, together with the costs of this to the taxpayer.
Nelson's Mistress and Artists' Muse*
The life, times and reputation of Lady Emma Hamilton.
British eighteenth century – art and architecture in its social context
The Grand Tour*
British aristocrats and the lure of Italy in the eighteenth century.
The Country Seat
Understanding the architecture and historical context of the early Georgian ‘stately' home.
Eighteenth Century Gardens – Parterres and Panoramas
Formal, landscape and picturesque garden designs in Britain and France.
The 'Quintessential' English Landscape
Concepts of modernity, nostalgia and realism in the landscape paintings of Constable and Turner.
Venice and the British
How the historic love affair with the 'Jewel of the Mediterranean' has created the modern ideal of the Venetian ‘experience'.
A Lady's Reputation – women under the public gaze in Georgian Britain.
The depiction and portrayal in painting and popular prints during this period of fashion-setters, demi-mondes, actresses and even of a queen or two.
 
The Tudors – aspects of the English Renaissance
Henry VIII – Image and Magnificence
Palace building and patronage of the visual arts in the reign of Henry VIII.
Images of a Queen
The portraits of Elizabeth I and the development of the cult of Gloriana.
Other subjects
The Secrets of the Bayeux Tapestry
An English artistic masterpiece and the Norman 'spin' on the events of 1066.
Artists of the First World War – the Triumph of the Avant Garde*
How early twentieth century modernist artists responded in visual terms to the challenges of the Great War.
Tulip Mania!
The story in context and art of the infamous bulb speculation bubble in seventeenth century Holland.

Martin Heard
Independent Art Historian
Accredited NADFAS lecturer
Email: info@arthistorylecturer.co.uk
Tel: 01322 381565