Lectures Membership year 2022 All society lectures start at 11.00am at the Victoria Hall and we hope to be able to continue to offer them live and via Zoom at the same time. Do not go to the Museum 21 July 2022 at the Victoria Hall and on Zoom Karin Fernald Fanny Burney - Her Family and Friends from Diaries and Letters, Paintings and Portraits of the Day 1752-1840 Diarist, novelist, playwright, lady-in- waiting to King George lll and Queen Charlotte, Fanny Burney, best known today for her diaries, was Jane Austen’s favourite novelist. Full of shrewd and illuminating comment, and of hilarious reported conversations, the diaries offer an entertaining and highly personal view of London life. Her first novel Evelina made its young authoress the toast of London, leading to her employment at the court of King George lll as an unwilling and somewhat inefficient lady-in-waiting. Later she married an émigré from revolutionary France, and lived with him happily in Surrey and then, more perilously, in Napoleon’s France. Her account of Brussels during the Battle of Waterloo was drawn upon by Thackeray for Vanity Fair. With paintings, portraits and caricatures by artists of the day, including Hogarth, Gainsborough, Zoffany, Reynolds and cousin Edward Burney. Click here for further information on Fanny Burney 25 August 2022 - will be held at Greetham Valley Golf Club. James Bolton After Miss Jekyll: English Gardens of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Followed by the summer lunch The long shadow of the Arts and Crafts Movement has hung over English gardening for most of the twentieth century. The dominance of Miss Jekyll and the enduring popularity of gardens at Hidcote and Sissinghurst have proved to be an enduring legacy. There were always subversive undercurrents of alternative styles and influences which, as the new century gets into its stride, have gained a greater importance and momentum. Post-Modernism, rich in symbolism, has, in gardens like Portrack, Little Sparta and Througham Court, explored the worlds of literature and science; while plants, for centuries an abiding passion of English gardeners, have continued to cast their spells, with newly-discovered plants enriching gardens across the country. The New Perennial movement, originating in Europe, has allied itself to our increasing desire to go organic and the interest in woodland and wild- flower meadows to produce a freer, gentler style of painting, spearheaded by Tom Stuart-Smith, perhaps more in tune with the Twenty-First Century. Click here to see Tom Stuart-Smith’s gardens on his web site. 22 September 2022 at the Victoria Hall and on Zoom Andrew Prince Royal Jewels and the American Heiress: Antique Treasures for the New World In this talk Andrew shows that following the turbulent political times between 1870 and 1929, which culminated in the final collapse of the Russian and European Monarchies, countless astonishing art and jewel collections were dispersed, looted or sold. Fortunately, this coincided with the growing wealth and power of America and its industrial millionaires, who were intent on creating sumptuous palaces of their own and filling them with the greatest paintings and furniture, together with weighing down their wives and daughters with the finest of recently purchased royal jewels. In this talk, Andrew explains how these fabulously wealthy heiresses then married into the British aristocracy, bringing many of these treasures with them. He shows with the decline of aristocratic power and the British Empire, how these legendary jewels have again been parted with and can now to be seen by everyone, in the world's great museums. 27 October 2022 Clyde Binfield Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1933) Preceded by the AGM Joaquin Sorolla has always been known in Spain and the Museo Sorolla which is in his home and studio in a select part of Madrid, is a delight. His sitters included a Spanish King, an American President, and Louis Comfort Tiffany; and he knew Sargent – who urged him to settle in London (if only….). My Wife and Daughters in the Garden 1910 Source Wikimedia Commons New Membership year. 24 November 2022 Rosamund Bartlett Grandfather Frost and the Old New Year: Russian Christmas Where better to spend Yuletide than in snowy Russia? Imagine yourself wrapped in furs, speeding along in a troika, bells ringing, as you come home from church after celebrating the end of the 40 day Christmas fast. This lecture explores the traditional religious and folk customs associated with Christmas in Russia before the Revolution, the secular celebrations introduced to Russia by Peter the Great, the drastic changes introduced in Soviet times by Stalin, and what Christmas means to Russians today.