Programme – Page 3

‘Now you see it, now you don’t’ – The Art of Deception

April 16, 2025 10:30 am

This is one of the quirkiest lectures you will ever see and is given enthusiastically by a Member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star.

‘Quiet Sentiment and Mysterious Magnitude’: The Paintings of William McTaggart (1835 -1910)

March 12, 2025 10:30 am

This evocative description was applied to one of McTaggart’s early paintings by his close friend and fellow painter Paul Chalmers.

‘And so to Vauxhall’ – a walk around the celebrated gardens

February 12, 2025 10:30 am

Vauxhall Gardens today are described rather prosaically as ‘a medium sized public park’ in London’s Kennington, but it has a rich history dating back to the 18th century.

Top of the Bill: Music Hall and Variety

December 18, 2024 10:30 am

From Music Hall to Variety, a journey through two centuries of the popular entertainment of the day.

Gaudi: Turning Nature into Stone

November 13, 2024 10:30 am

The story of Spain’s most iconic architect, Antoni Gaudi, from his childhood spent roaming its beaches, forests and mountains, to his final years spent dedicated to the realisation of his ultimate fantasy, the “Sagrada Familia”.

Hogarth: Harlots, Rakes and Crashing China: Hogarth’s pots

October 16, 2024 10:30 am

William Hogarth was an English painter, engraver, social moraliser and occasional writer on art whose career coincided with a critical moment in England’s ceramic history.

Lucien Freud: The Art and the Man

September 18, 2024 10:30 am

Possibly the greatest figure painter of the second half of the 20th century, Lucian Freud also led an extraordinary life from his family’s escape from the Hitler regime in the 1930’s to his colourful and combative life in London.

Daniel Wilson: a Glasgow Art Collector in Paris

June 12, 2024 10:30 am

The amazing and little-known story of the Glasgow-born chemical engineer Daniel Wilson, who in 1820, settled in Paris where he played a major role in launching the French industrial revolution. From his vast profits he formed a remarkable art collection, which numbered over 350 works.

Sheer Folly: A History of Gardens

May 15, 2024 10:30 am

The history of gardens is punctuated by people telling other people how they could do it better, but Caroline’s talk is far from academic and dry, it is informative and amusing, starting with an Italian vision of the palace and gardens of Scotland’s James I.

The Art of the Poster: the Poor Man’s Art Gallery

April 17, 2024 10:30 am

Andrew Davies delves into the persuasive powers of the posters that have brightened, enriched and informed life in Britain since the 19th Century.