Programme Membership year 2023/24 The lecture programme is subject to change so keep checking back to the website for the latest information about lectures. The meetings start at 7.30pm. 27th March 2024 Helen Ritchie British Studio Pottery; a concise history An overview of the British Studio Pottery movement, exploring handmade pottery in Britain from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the present day, including the work of the Martin Brothers, Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Alison Britton and Grayson Perry. The Brothers: Walter F. Martin, Robert Wallace Martin and Edwin Martin. Photo Wikicommons, Public Domain 24th April 2024 Suzanne Perrin The Art of the Kimono; Japanese Signs, Symbols, and Stories The Kimono advertised your rank and status, wealth and taste, and complex symbols and stories abound in the lavish decoration of textiles and fabrics used for men’s and women’s clothing from 17th to 19th centuries Young lady in furisode 1920. Public domain 22nd May 2024 Gavin Plumley John Singer Sargent, The Private Radical Whether drawing duchesses or portraying princes, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was high society’s leading portraitist. Flaunting a consummate technique, his luxurious canvases mirrored his subjects’ wealth. Yet beneath the dazzling veneer of works such as Madame X, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw lurks a much rawer world by far. Sargent certainly scandalised Parisian society and the city’s Salon with his frank depictions of human sexuality, yet he was even more modern than they might have feared. This talk charts the artist’s life and his prolific output, showing that, like the era he came to represent, Sargent was always on the cusp of seismic change. Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) 1883–84 John Singer Sargent Metropolitan Museum of Art 26th June 2024 Tobias Capwell The Scoliotic King: Reconstructing the real King Richard III The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester raised an army of new and fascinating questions. The severe scoliosis exhibited by the skeleton revealed that the twisted physique of Shakespeare’s ‘Black Legend’ was based in fact. But how could a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have become a skilled practitioner of the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn armour and fought in three major battles? What would his armour have looked like? How might it have disguised the King’s condition, presenting him as a powerful warrior? In the case of a king whose royal legitimacy was questioned by many people, how were the visual trappings of knightly kingship used to solidify his claim? Here we encounter armour as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- a wielder of divine power on Earth. In 2015 Toby had the unusual honour of serving as one of the two fully armoured horsemen escorting the remains of King Richard III, from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral. Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. He is the author of numerous books on the subject of arms and armour, including Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011; Apollo Magazine Book of the Year 2012); The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520-1630, ex. cat. (2012); Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 (2015; Military History Monthly Illustrated Book of the Year 2017); and most recently Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust (2018). Toby also appears regularly on television, most recently on A Stitch in Time (2018; BBC4); as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III: The New Evidence (2014; C4), and as the writer and presenter of Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (2012; BBC4). Photo: Digital-Designs, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 There are no lectures in July or August 25th September 2024 The last lecture of the 2023/24 membership year Simon Seligman A 21st Century Renaissance: Chatsworth and the Devonshire Collection in the Modern Age Since the 1950s, Chatsworth and its collections have undergone a renaissance under the leadership of first  the 11th, and now the 12th, Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This lecture paints a portrait of Devonshire’s treasure house in the modern age, illustrating the extensive recent decorative and furnishing renovations in the house and the restoration of historic interiors, stone work and works of art.  The lecture also includes work by modern and contemporary artists in the collection at Chatsworth including Lucian Freud, Elisabeth Frink, David Hockney and David Nash, to Richard Long, Allen Jones, Michael Craig-Martin and Edmund de Waal. Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication A Sounding Line, Edmund de Waal, porcelain - Chapel Corridor, Chatsworth House - Derbyshire, England.
Web site and mobile phone pages designed, created and maintained by Janet Groome, Handshake Computer Training
The Arts Society Leicester
Programme      Membership year 2023/24                              The meetings start at 7.30pm.  27th March 2024      Helen Ritchie British Studio Pottery; a concise history   An overview of the British Studio Pottery movement, exploring handmade pottery in Britain from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the present day, including the work of the Martin Brothers, Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Alison Britton and Grayson Perry.    The Brothers: Walter F. Martin, Robert Wallace Martin and Edwin Martin.        Photo Wikicommons,  Public Domain    24th April 2024     Suzanne Perrin  The Art of the Kimono; Japanese Signs, Symbols, and Stories  The Kimono advertised your rank and status, wealth and taste, and complex symbols and stories abound in the lavish decoration of textiles and fabrics used for men’s and women’s clothing from 17th to 19th centuries  Young lady in furisode 1920. Public domain       22nd May 2024  Gavin Plumley  John Singer Sargent, The Private Radical  Whether drawing duchesses or portraying princes, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was high society’s leading portraitist. Flaunting a consummate technique, his luxurious canvases mirrored his subjects’ wealth.   Yet beneath the dazzling veneer of works such as Madame X, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw lurks a much rawer world by far. Sargent certainly scandalised Parisian society and the city’s Salon with his frank depictions of human sexuality, yet he was even more modern than they might have feared. This talk charts the artist’s life and his prolific output, showing that, like the era he came to represent, Sargent was always on the cusp of seismic change.  Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) 1883–84 John Singer Sargent. Metropolitan Museum of Art  	  26th June 2024 Tobias Capwell  The Scoliotic King: Reconstructing the real King Richard III  The discovery of the grave of King Richard III in Leicester raised an army of new and fascinating questions. The severe scoliosis exhibited by the skeleton revealed that the twisted physique of Shakespeare’s ‘Black Legend’ was based in fact.   But how could a diminutive person, suffering from a significant spinal condition, have become a skilled practitioner of the knightly fighting arts? How could he have worn armour and fought in three major battles? What would his armour have looked like? How might it have disguised the King’s condition, presenting him as a powerful warrior? In the case of a king whose royal legitimacy was questioned by many people, how were the visual trappings of knightly kingship used to solidify his claim?   Here we encounter armour as an expressive art-form, designed to radiate messages, justifications, proof of the wearer’s right to rule as a king- a wielder of divine power on Earth.  In 2015 Toby had the unusual honour of serving as one of the two fully armoured horsemen escorting the remains of King Richard III, from the battlefield at Bosworth to their final resting place in Leicester Cathedral.  Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London and an internationally-acknowledged authority on Medieval and Renaissance weapons. He is the author of numerous books on the subject of arms and armour, including Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011; Apollo Magazine Book of the Year 2012); The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520-1630, ex. cat. (2012); Armour of the English Knight 1400-1450 (2015; Military History Monthly Illustrated Book of the Year 2017); and most recently Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust (2018). Toby also appears regularly on television, most recently on A Stitch in Time (2018; BBC4); as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III: The New Evidence (2014; C4), and as the writer and presenter of Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (2012; BBC4).   Photo: Digital-Designs, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0   There are no lectures in July or August  25th September 2024    The last lecture of the 2023/24 membership year Simon Seligman A 21st Century Renaissance: Chatsworth and the Devonshire Collection in the Modern Age  Since the 1950s, Chatsworth and its collections have undergone a renaissance under the leadership of first  the 11th, and now the 12th, Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This lecture paints a portrait of Devonshire’s treasure house in the modern age, illustrating the extensive recent decorative and furnishing renovations in the house and the restoration of historic interiors, stone work and works of art.   The lecture also includes work by modern and contemporary artists in the collection at Chatsworth including Lucian Freud, Elisabeth Frink, David Hockney and David Nash, to Richard Long, Allen Jones, Michael Craig-Martin and Edmund de Waal.  Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication A Sounding Line, Edmund de Waal, porcelain - Chapel Corridor, Chatsworth House - Derbyshire, England.
Web site and mobile phone pages designed, created and maintained by Janet Groome, Handshake Computer Training