Lectures for Decorative and Fine Arts Societies

DFAS members can use this page to see further details of my lectures and the reIated services I am able to provide. Members can also view my NADFAS profile at https://www.nadfas.org.uk/.

All lectures last 60 minutes but can be extended and/or 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 your DFAS 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.

Please also look at the list of short talks. These are nominally of half an hour’s duration and they are topics taken from my full-length lectures that are explored in more detail and augmented with supplementary illustrations. These talks can be expanded and/or be used as part of a study day programme.

Contact me to request details of my fees, terms and conditions to be emailed to you. Alternatively, phone me on 01322 381565.

Click the lecture titles marked with a * for further details and a synopsis

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.

Renoir and the development of the Impressionist Portrait.

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

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.