Note: to celebrate the 10th anniversary of TAS Trent Valley, this lecture will be followed with 'bubbles and bites'.  We hope you can join us to raise a toast to our very successful society.

The conventional story of modern art inevitably runs from Monet and Cezanne through to Picasso, Kandinsky, Duchamp and Dalí. This lecture showcases the lives and careers of many unsung female artists who contributed to the modernist European Modernist movement.  They include Berthe Morisot, Hilma af Klint, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Helen Saunders, Sonia Delaunay and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

Rosamund Bartlett is a writer, lecturer and translator whose work ranges across the arts, and across the cultures of Europe, from Italy to Norway. She began her career as an academic in Slavic studies after completing her doctorate at Oxford, and has held fellowships both in the UK and at the European University Institute in Florence. In 2024 she became a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. 

The author of several books, including biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, and a study of Wagner's influence in Russia, she is also well known as a translator - her publications include acclaimed editions of Anna Karenina and Chekhov's stories for Oxford World’s Classics. She has written on music and literature for institutions including the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and the Salzburg Festival, and about art for Apollo and The Burlington Magazine. She is currently writing a book about the revolution in the arts which took place in early 20th-century Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Odesa, and its connection to modernist developments in Paris, Munich and Milan. 

She has led art, architecture, design and music tours throughout Europe, and contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts on the BBC. Her lecturing work has taken her from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford where she lives, to the V&A in London, and to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.  

The voyages of Captain James Cook to the Pacific, undertaken between 1768 and 1779, represent feats of maritime achievement by the celebrated seafarer and explorer who has been described as ‘the British Christopher Columbus’.   Cook’s voyages of exploration also reflected the spirit of the Enlightenment in the quest for knowledge about the people, places, flora and fauna of the Pacific. Sir Joseph Banks brought scientific enquiry into the mix, collecting botanical and other specimens on the first voyage, while the accompanying official artists – Sydney Parkinson, William Hodges and others – brought these Pacific encounters to life for the British public back home.

Professor Marie Conte-Helm is a long-established Arts Society Lecturer with a BA in History of Art and an MA in Asian Art and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation from 1999-2011 and has held senior academic posts at various UK universities. She has most recently served as Executive Director of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group, and as a member of the Board of Governors of the University for the Creative Arts. She is widely published and has lectured throughout the UK and abroad. She is also an experienced cruise speaker and a Resident Historian with Viking Ocean Cruises, lecturing on many aspects of Asian Art and East-West Encounters. She was awarded an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK-Japan educational and cultural relations and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by the Government of Japan in 2019.

Ever since the mysterious double panel painting known as the Wilton Diptych was acquired for the National Gallery in 1929, speculations regarding its origins have been rife, because although many discoveries have been made regarding its subject, we are still none the wiser regarding its origins. Who are the characters in this painting, what are they trying to tell us, what can this painting tell us about England or for that matter Europe at the turn of the 15th century, for what purpose was this enigmatic painting made, and why it has come to represent the quintessential example of a style of painting we have come to call International Gothic. Through the lens of the Wilton Diptych this lecture will look at Medieval England, patronage, saints and kingship, and also unearth the many hidden signs and symbols in this painting that have been slowly revealing themselves to us over the past 80 years or so with detailed close-up, looking at the physical material of the painting to bring to life not only the Wilton Diptych, but also the time in which it was made. 

Art historian, Leslie Primo is an author and broadcaster, graduating from Birkbeck, University College, London with an MA in Renaissance studies. He specialises in early Medieval Art and Architecture, Italian Renaissance art, German art in the age of Reformation, Medici and Patronage, and mythology in the work of Peter Paul Rubens.  Leslie lectured at the National Gallery, London for 18 years, and has appeared on the BBC, speaking in Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty, and on the Life of Michelangelo, and also presented Turner: Light and Landscape. He was a contributor to the Oxford Companion Guide to Black British History, an art history consultant for the Getty publication, Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art and was published by the Royal Academy Magazine for the Entangled Pasts exhibition, 2023-2024. Leslie’s book, ‘The Foreign Invention of British Art’ is published by Thames & Hudson in 2025.

Between 1870 and 1914 hundreds of American heiresses flooded the shores of continental Europe, trading fortunes for titles. They were known as The Dollar Princesses and included Consuelo Vanderbilt at Blenheim and Mary Curzon at Kedleston. These marriages - dubbed by some as gilded prostitution – were usually hard-headed matches plotted by the parents. They may have kept many a grand estate from collapsing but few provided lasting happiness when the fairy tale was exposed. This lecture examines the clothes, the portraits, the jewels and the literature of The Dollar Princesses.

Anne Sebba is a biographer, historian and award winning author of eleven books who lectures to a variety of audiences in the US and UK, including the English Speaking Union, Royal Overseas League, National Trust, British Library, Imperial War Museum and cruises. A former Reuters foreign correspondent, Anne is now a broadcaster who has presented documentaries for Radios 3 and 4 and regularly appears on television talking about her books, mostly biographies including Jennie Churchill, William Bankes, Laura Ashley and Wallis Simpson. The latter, published as That Woman, was an international bestseller followed in 2016 by a history of Paris between 1939-49 through women's eyes entitled Les Parisiennes, How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s, winner of the Franco British book prize for 2016.  In 2021 she published Ethel Rosenberg, A Cold War Tragedy, which is under option for a feature film. Her latest book is The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz : A story of Survival. 

Anne is a former chair of Britain's 10,000 strong Society of Authors, a Senior Research Fellow at The Institute of Historical Research and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL). In 2023 she was selected as a judge on the inaugural Women's Prize for non fiction.

Elizabeth I is one of our greatest monarchs. The cult of ‘Gloriana’ revered her as a virgin goddess, while her image increasingly relied on glittering jewels, gowns, and accessories. In this lecture we will view Elizabeth’s queenship through paintings by artists Nicholas Hilliard and Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.  Art was a powerful device for royal magnificence and propaganda and Elizabeth knew how to use it.  
By the time of her death, in 1603, few in England could remember a time when they were not Elizabethans and her long reign provided stability for the Arts to flourish.

Siobhan Clarke has worked for Historic Royal Palaces for 20 years delivering tours and lectures on Hampton Court, Kensington, the Tower of London and the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace. Her experience includes education sessions and tours for schools, universities, corporate and private clients.  She has lectured for the British Museum, National Trust, National Archives and the Smithsonian and featured on BBC Radio 'Woman's Hour' and Television's 'Secrets of Henry VIII's Palace'. 

Her published work includes: A Tudor Christmas, in collaboration with Alison Weir, (2018), The Tudors: The Crown, The Dynasty, The Golden Age with Linda Collins (2019), King and Collector: Henry VIII and the Art of Kingship (2021) and 'Gloriana: Elizabeth I and the Art of Queenship (2022).

This lecture traces the development of stained glass art from the 7th to 21st centuries.  The talk looks in particular at some of the 19th century designers, Clayton and Bell, Charles Kempe and John Piper and their latest successors.

The monastery at Jarrow, where Bede was a monk, had stained glass – the earliest known in Britain. Tracing the development of the art from the 7th to the 21st centuries, this lecture offers an introduction to the techniques of making stained glass and goes on to look at styles and subjects. Technical improvements, like the introduction of yellow stain and of flashed glass, led to new ways of designing windows in the Middle Ages, but also, by the 17th century, when enamel colours could be painted on clear glass like a canvas, to the decline of true stained glass. After earlier attempts at a revival in the 18th century, notably by William Peckitt of York, the 19th century saw a real renewal of the art, and the talk looks at some of the main manufacturers and designers of glass in that era, including Clayton and Bell, Charles Eamer Kempe and Morris & Co. In the 20th century artists like Douglas Strachan, Harry Clarke, Evie Hone and John Piper produced high-quality, imaginative stained glass. This talk looks at their work and that of some of their latest successors. 

David Winpenny studied English at Birmingham University and taught for several years before joining the Countryside Commission as Co-ordinator of its National Parks Campaign. He worked for the Central Office of Information in Leeds before setting up own public relations company.  He is the author of Up to a Point - in search of pyramids in Britain and Ireland and has written and contributed to several books for the AA. David has written for BBC Countryfile Magazine and English Heritage magazine.  He is co-chairman of Ripon Civic Society and lectures on architectural and related subjects on cruise ships and on dry land.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is arguably the most important Indian artistic figure of the modern era. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, claimed that he had two gurus: Gandhi and Tagore. A renowned poet, novelist, composer and painter, Tagore is also the only person in history to have written the national anthems for three countries (India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh). He became a global sensation when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, the first non-European to do so. This lecture provides an introduction to Tagore’s remarkable life and work, including his novels, poetry, songs and paintings. It also explores the role Tagore’s art played in the story of India’s fight for independence.

John Stevens gained his PhD in History from UCL, before going on to teach British Imperial History, Indian History and Bengali Language at SOAS. His biography of the Indian guru Keshab Chandra Sen - Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet - was published in 2018. He is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh and has lectured at numerous Indian universities. He also works as a consultant on Indian affairs and teaches the Bengali language to private students. He has appeared many times in the Indian media, and was a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore. 

In this lively introduction to the tapestry – which tells us so much more than just the story of the Battle of Hastings – Rupert Willoughby unravels some of its mysteries, places it in the context of its age and firmly establishes it as a landmark in the history of Western art. Commissioned by the Bishop of Bayeux who fought at Hastings, executed by skilled English craftsmen, the Bayeux Tapestry is the last survivor of a vanished art form. With its lively illustrations of languid, party-loving, moustachioed Englishmen, of the cavalcades of noble huntsmen and of the snorting Norman cavalry poised to charge into battle, the Tapestry is the next best thing to a moving picture from the time. 

Rupert Willoughby is an historian and classicist, a poet, a father and a committed outdoor swimmer with a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering the layers of the past. A graduate in History from the University of London (where he immersed himself in the Byzantine), he is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village, and the whimsical, yet scholarly Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. Rupert also contributes regular obituaries to The Daily Telegraph. Accredited by The Arts Society since 2011, he is an experienced lecturer, who is known for his light, humorous touch, his love of narrative and his vivid evocations of the past. Rupert’s forefathers were Vikings and his foremothers were Tatars.

Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923) believed painters could never reproduce sunlight as it really is, that he could only “approach the truth of it”.  He managed to capture, like no other, the light of the Mediterranean beaches he loved, as well as the energy of Spanish life.  He painted what he saw, quickly, to capture that precise moment.  In this lecture we will look at Sorolla’s life and art, from early education to success; having been almost forgotten to be rediscovered in the last few years.

Arantxa Sardina is a volunteer guide at Tate, leading tours of the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. She holds an MA in Art History, with a dissertation on Joaquín Sorolla, the Spanish master of Mediterranean light and friend of John Singer Sargent.

Passionate about uncovering the stories behind artworks, Arantxa shares her knowledge in a warm, engaging way while always learning from others. Beyond the gallery, she is an enthusiastic amateur musician and a lover of opera and ballet.

She is also an Ambassador for Amantani (amantani.org.uk), supporting education and equality for rural Peruvians - donating a percentage of her lecture fees to their mission.

and Annual General Meeting

(Please be seated by 10.30am for the start of the AGM - tea and coffee will be available from 9.45 to take account of the earlier start time.)

The Medici were in many ways an unattractive family. Ruthless in pursuit of profit for their Florentine bank, which had branches in every city of the known world, they were greedy for success, merciless to those who opposed their ambition and vicious in their own internal squabbles. And yet without them we would not have Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, the Fra Angelico frescoes in San Marco, Donatello’s “David” or the majestic Michelangelo sculptures in the Medici chapel. The Platonic Academy would not have been founded and the doors for the Baptistry would never have been cast. This lecture looks into the turbulent history of this extraordinary family: the triumphs and tragedies, the intrigues and plots; the assassination attempts, the years of exile and their perpetual desire to glorify the family name in works of art, which was to result in some of the greatest achievements of the Italian Renaissance.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College Cambridge and has been a lecturer on paintings since 1980. In that time he has given over 8000 lectures to universities, colleges and art societies. He was the director of  The New Academy of Art Studies for three years and is presently a regular lecturer at The Study Center, Christie's course 'The History of Art Studies' and other London courses. Among his more improbable venues for lectures are the bar on the QE2, MI5 headquarters, the Captain's Room at Lloyds, and an aircraft hanger in a German NATO base. Overseas he has lectured in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, and has taken numerous tours around Europe. He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on Whistler and the exhibition video on William Morris. Three one-man exhibitions of his paintings have been held in England and Switzerland. He has published five novels, which have been translated into 8 foreign languages, and his book on Monet, River of Light, has sold 30,000 copies in England, America and France.