Date: Thursday 11 June 2026, 8.00pm

Lecturer: Lydia Bauman

Gwen John’s work is both instantly recognisable and era-defining. She is known for the quiet strength of the solitary women in her portraits and the reflective stillness of her interiors. For decades she was overshadowed by her famous brother Augustus and often portrayed as a recluse, but nevertheless defied convention to forge her own existence. She trained at the Slade, then one of the few art schools to accept women on the same terms as men. She made her life and work within the heady art worlds of London and Paris amid a rich cultural circle that included James McNeill Whistler and her lover, Auguste Rodin. This is the story of a progressive trailblazer and a painter devoted to her craft at the forefront of early 20th century art.

Date: Thursday 9 July 2026, 8.00pm

Lecturer: Rupert Dickens

Van der Heyden’s reputation pales in comparison with Leonardo da Vinci, but his career at the height of the Dutch Golden Age was no less extraordinary.  He was a brilliant painter and draughtsman, producing wonderful views of Amsterdam and other cities. But he was also an inventor, entrepreneur, administrator and marketing genius. Among his innovations were a mechanical fire engine and street lighting.  We will take a close look at his career from his meticulous cityscapes through to the detailed drawings of his inventions and the surprising vanitas still-life paintings he produced at the end of his career.