Past Lectures & Courses

These are the lectures and courses I have given in the past. All my talks are now on YouTube and are listed on this site here in chronological order.

TALK 2024: Save the Children: Children in Art

Held at: The Holy Name Church, 42 Arbrook Lane, Esher, KT10 9EE
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Wednesday 13th March 2024
Time: 12:00-14:00
Fee:
Description: This talk is to raise money for ‘Save the Children’ and it covers the representation of children in art from the ancient Egyptians to the present day. It skips through the many roles imposed on children over the centuries, from Tudor and Stuart succession, to eighteenth-century destitution to the Victorian’s invention of the modern idea of childhood. Artists covered include Van Dyck, William Hogarth, Gustave Doré, John Millais, Mary Cassat, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Norman Rockwell, Grayson Perry and Martin Parr.

TALK 2024: Social Class in Victorian Painting

Held at: The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking, GU214AA
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Saturday 16th March 2024
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: £15 adults, £12 for members and students
Description: The nineteenth century was a time when there was a massive divide between the rich and the poor. It was a time of discontent with the Peterloo Massacre, the Swing Riots and Chartism leading to the closest we came to a nineteenth-century revolution. Laurence shows how artists dealt with these and a wide range of Victorian social changes—increasing industrialisation, the treatment of the poor, the role of women and on a more positive note summer holidays and the invention of childhood. The talk is illustrated by many of the leading Victorian artists such as John Everett Millais, William olman Hunt, George Frederic Watts and Gustav Doré.

TALK 2023: William Hogarth And The New Middling Sort

Held at: The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking, GU214AA
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Saturday 23rd March 2024
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: £15 adults, £12 for members and students
Description: Laurence covers the life and work of William Hogarth and uses three of his “modern moral subjects” to talk about life in eighteenth-century London. ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ shows how a naive country girl became a wealthy mistress and then quickly fell to the lowest ranks of society. ‘A Rake’s Progress’ takes us from an inheritance through a lavish lifestyle to downfall—prison and finally the ‘madhouse’. Hogarth’s most famous series ‘Marriage A-la-Mode’ illustrates the way an eighteenth-century arranged marriage leads to disaffection and death. All the series take common scenes of the day that would have been immediately recognised and Hogarth illustrates his moral lessons through careful selection and brilliant observation.

TALK 2023: Paul Cezanne

Held at: The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking, GU214AA
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Saturday 2nd September 2023
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: £15 adults, £12 for members and students
Description: Paul Cezanne laid the foundation for modern art and the artists who value his influence on their work reads like a role call of 20th century art. Both Matisse and Picasso said that Cézanne “is the father of us all”.

This talk with Laurence examines his life and work and how his art progressed from its conventional beginnings to capturing all the complexities that an eye observes by rejecting classic artistic elements such as pictorial arrangements, single view perspectives, and outlines that enclosed colour.

Cézanne once said, “With an apple I want to astonish Paris,” and he succeeded in shocking, amazing and delighting the world.

Full slide-by-slide, PDF notes on the talk are at Paul Cezanne Notes.

TALK 2023: Paul Gauguin

Held at: The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking, GU214AA
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Saturday 9th September 2023
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: £15 adults, £12 for members and students
Description: Paul Gauguin is a misunderstood artist who is often associated simply with his Tahitian figure. He was not recognised as a leading artist in his lifetime but thanks to his dealer he became recognised as an important artist shortly after his death and has remained a leading Post-Impressionist ever since.

The talk with Laurence examines his work and his motivations. He once said that he wanted to escape from “everything that is artificial and conventional” about European art and hoped to find an idyllic paradise in Tahiti but was sadly disappointed.

Full slide-by-slide, PDF notes on the talk are at Paul Gauguin Notes.

TALK 2023: The Pre-Raphaelite Sisters

Held at: The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking, GU214AA
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Saturday 18th March 2023
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: £15 adults, £12 for members and students
Description: Everyone has heard of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood but their wives, models, muses and even women artists who painted in a similar style are largely forgotten. This talk with Laurence brings their lives into the foreground from Effie Gray and Fanny Waugh to Lizzie Siddal and Evelyn de Morgan. We will hear about lovers, affairs, scandal and intrigue and the creation of some wonderful works of art.

Full slide-by-slide, PDF notes on the talk are at The Pre-Raphaelite Sisters.

TALK 2023: The British Realists (1920 and 30s)

Held at: The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking, GU214AA
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Saturday 25th March 2023
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: £15 adults, £12 for members and students
Description: The 1920 and 30s saw the emergence of abstract art but many artists such as Laura Knight, Gluck, Gerald Brockhurst and Meredith Frampton had no desire to go abstract. Following the horrors of World War One many artists rejected what they saw as the excesses of modern art in favour of the ordered pre-war world of traditional art. This European wide movement was known as the ‘Return to Order’. Laurence will discuss these artists used a photo-realistic technique which was particularly suited to portraiture but there was never a well-defined school and so they were largely ignored by critics and historians and have been forgotten until recently.

Full slide-by-slide, PDF notes on the talk are at British Realists 1920-30s.

COURSE 2022-23: A Stroke of Genius

Held at: Zoom, email me at art@shafe.uk and I will send you an access link
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe

Dates:

  • Part 1: Wednesday 28 September 2022 – 23 November 2022 (eight classes with a half-term break)
  • Part 2: Wednesday 4 January 2023 – 22 February 2023 (eight classes with a half-term break)
Time: 10:45-12:00
Fee: I ask you to donate £60 to the Save the Children charity
Description: The following links download a pdf file of the full notes for each talk. The videos of each talk are also available with past talks on my YouTube channel LaurenceShafe.

September to November

  1. Art at the Seaside
  2. The Thames in Art
  3. Angelica Kauffman – Leading European Artist
  4. Gwen John
  5. Augustus John
  6. Can You Spot a Fake (Parts 1 & 2)
  7. Vermeer’s Complete Works (Part 1)
  8. Vermeer’s Complete Works (Part 2)

January to March

  1. The World’s Most Expensive Paintings
  2. Charles Rennie Mackintosh
  3. Venice – City of Water
  4. Edward Hopper
  5. The 12 Greatest Art Forgers (Part 1)
  6. The 12 Greatest Art Forgers (Part 2)
  7. Mary Moser
  8. Leonardo da Vinci

 

Art History Talk: The Thames in Art

Held at: The Lightbox, Woking
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe

Dates:

Saturday 3rd September 2022
Time: 10:30-12.30
Fee: Register at The Lightbox
Description: The Thames has been the trading heart of London, a source of entertainment, the location for ice fairs, and the cause of the Great Stink. I will explore how, over many centuries, the Thames has been the inspiration for generations of artists.

Full slide-by-slide, PDF notes on the talk are at The Thames in Art

Art History Talk: Venice – City of Water

Held at: The Lightbox, Woking
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe

Dates:

Saturday 17th September 2022
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: Register at The Lightbox
Description: For centuries Venice was the richest and most powerful trading centre between Asia and Europe. Venice was built on water, made rich through the exploitation of water routes, and defended by being surrounded by water. Laurence explores how the beauty of “The Floating City” has inspired artists from the Renaissance to the present day.

Full slide-by-slide, PDF notes on the talk are at Venice – City of Water.

HINCHLEY WOOD AND THE DITTONS PROBUS

HOGARTH’S WORLD

Held at:Imber Court, Ember Lane, Molesey KT8 0BTLecturer:Dr. Laurence ShafeDate:Tuesday 17 May 2022Time:10:30 for 11:00-12:00 talkFee:see https://hwandtdprobus.wixsite.com/mysiteDescription:

The talk takes you back to early eighteenth-century London when Hogarth was one of the leading artists of the day. It was a time of rapid growth for London but there were many social problems.

Anyone could become destitute, there was little welfare, violence was widespread and there was no police force. London teetered on the brink of being ruled by the mob, a new word that was coined to describe the large groups of the poor that could attack and rob at will. Many of the poor barely survived and drowned their hunger pains in gin.

The middling sort, a small group, like Hogarth, went to coffee houses which were springing up everywhere, where they would read newspapers and gossip and they were appalled by what they saw around them. Hogarth’s “modern modern subjects”, his print series, sold to the middling sort and drew attention to the corruption of society.

Hogarth helped expose the corruption of the ruling classes and this led to the development of an early form of middle-class consciousness about what is right. The shift from keeping scandal shrouded in privacy to its exposure in the press led to many social reforms.

Hogarth’s World (PDF Notes)

THE LIGHTBOX, WOKING

Gwen John and Augustus John

Held at: The Lightbox, Woking
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Date: Saturday 19 March 2022
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: See https://www.thelightbox.org.uk/Event/art-history-talks-gwen-john-and-augustus-john
Description: The Johns had a free and informal childhood in South Wales. They both went to the Slade School of Art. Augustus was a star there; his painting technique was colourful and vibrant. On the other hand, Gwen’s was subtle and muted. He lived life to the full but later on suffered from the label of never quite fulfilling his early promise. Gwen on the other hand shunned public life but eventually came to be seen as the greater talent. Augustus has been seen as a flamboyant, bohemian character, with his many lovers and his numerous children, while Gwen was regarded as the complete opposite. This talk will discuss how this simple comparison does not stand scrutiny. She was a pioneer in so many ways, an independent and passionate woman who sought perfection in her art. Gwen died in 1939, Augustus in 1961.
Notes: Gwen John and Augustus John (PDF format, 1.5MB, 95 pages)

THE LIGHTBOX, WOKING

Margaret Macdonald and Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Held at: The Lightbox, Woking
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe

Dates:

  • Saturday 26 March 2022
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: See https://www.thelightbox.org.uk/Event/art-history-talks-margaret-macdonald-and-charles-rennie-mackintosh
Description: One of the most gifted and successful women artists in Scotland at the turn of the 19th century, her output was wide-ranging and included watercolors, graphics, metalwork, and textiles. Her greatest achievements were in gesso, a plaster-based medium that she used to make highly decorative panels. She married Charles in 1900 and he acknowledged her genius as an artist and pattern maker. This talk will focus on their contributions to Art Nouveau and the Viennese Secession.

ZOOM COURSE 2021-22: ART THROUGH THE AGES

Held on: Zoom
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe

Dates:

  • Part 1: Wednesday 22 September 2021 – 17 November 2021 (eight classes with a half-term break)
  • Part 2: Wednesday 5 January 2022 – 2 March 2022 (eight classes with a half-term break)
Time: 10:45-11:45 (I will open the Zoom session at 10:35)
Fee: Free
Description: The talks are loosely based on exhibitions held in London between 2019 and 2020. They  combine information about the artists and their works in the context of the social history of the period.

The links (in blue) are to the complete notes for the talks in PDF format.

SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER

  1. The Renaissance Nude
  2. Women Surrealists
  3. Hogarth’s World
  4. Abstract Art in Britain
  5. Art Meets Science
  6. The Pre-Raphaelite Sisters
  7. Russian Art 1890-1930
  8. Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art

JANUARY TO MARCH

  1. Gauguin: His Life and Work
  2. Beardsley Decadence & Death
  3. British Realists in the 1920s and 30s
  4. Pop Art: Andy Warhol and David Hockney
  5. George IV Art & Spectacle
  6. Laura Knight – The People’s Painter
  7. Turner’s Modern World.key
  8. The Dutch Golden Age

RECORDED TALKS














Save the Children

Hogarth’s World

Held on: Zoom
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Date: Tuesday  8 February 2022
Time: 11:00-12:00
Fee: £20
Description: The talk takes you back to early eighteenth-century London when Hogarth was one of the leading artists of the day. It was a time of rapid growth for London but there were many social problems.

Anyone could become destitute, there was little welfare, violence was widespread and there was no police force. London teetered on the brink of being ruled by the mob, a new word that was coined to describe the large groups of the poor that could attack and rob at will. Many of the poor barely survived and drowned their hunger pains in gin.

The middling sort, a small group, like Hogarth, went to coffee houses which were springing up everywhere, where they would read newspapers and gossip and they were appalled by what they saw around them. Hogarth’s “modern modern subjects”, his print series, sold to the middling sort and drew attention to the corruption of society.

Hogarth helped expose the corruption of the ruling classes and this led to the development of an early form of middle-class consciousness about what is right. The shift from keeping scandal shrouded in privacy to its exposure in the press led to many social reforms.

Hogarth’s World (PDF Notes)

The Lightbox, Woking

Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser— Founders of the Royal Academy

Held at: The Lightbox, Woking
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe

Dates:

  • Week 1: Saturday 4 December 2021
  • Week 2: Saturday 11 December 2021
Time: 10:30-12:30
Fee: See https://www.thelightbox.org.uk/art-history-masterclass-2021
Description: Angelica Kauffman won international acclaim as a painter, printmaker, and decorative artist.  She was a Founder Member of the Royal Academy and friend of some of the leading cultural figures of her age, whom she portrayed. Born in Switzerland she trained in Italy, learning from her father. This talk discuss her illustrious career after she came to London in 1766 and stayed for fifteen highly successful years.

Mary Moser was the daughter of George Moser, a Swiss goldsmith, and enameller, who settled in London in c1726. Like her father, she was a founder member of the Royal Academy joining with Angelica Kaufman. I will talk about her art and about how at only 24, she was then the youngest ever RA and in 1805 she was proposed as President. This shows her popularity, principally but not exclusively, for her flower paintings

Angelica Kaufmann (PDF Notes)

Mary Moser (PDF Notes)

Richmond Art Society: The Changing Status of the Artist in Tudor and Stuart England

20 April 2021

Save the Children Zoom Talk: Children in Victorian Art

21 January 2021

ZOOM COURSE 2020: A Stroll Round Tate Britain

Held on: Zoom (I will be recording my talk but this will not include any video or audio of participants)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates:
  • Part 1: Wednesday 23 September 2020 – 18 November 2020 (eight classes with a half-term break on 28 October 2020)
  • Part 2: Wednesday 6 January 2021 – 3 March 2021 (eight classes with a half-term break on 17 February 2021)
Time: 10:45-11:45 (I will start the Zoom session at 10:30 to allow for set up time and I will begin the talk sharp at 10:45)
Fee: Free
Description: The talks are a tour of Tate Britain from 1545 to the present day. The talks combine art appreciation and social history with information on the works, the styles and the lives of the artists. The art at Tate Britain is hung chronologically and most of the talks discuss the art as it is displayed, room-by-room.

The links below display a pdf version of the full notes of the original two-hour talks. Below them are the recordings of the one-hour Zoom talks which are stored on YouTube and can be played directly from here.

September to November

  1. A History of the Tate
  2. From Absolute Monarch to Civil War, 1540-1650
  3. From the Commonwealth to the Georgian Period, 1650-1730
  4. The Georgian Period, 1730-1780
  5. Revolutionary Times, 1780-1810
  6. Regency to Victorian, 1810-1840
  7. William Blake
  8. JMW Turner

January to March

  1. John Constable
  2. The PreRaphaelites, 1840-1860
  3. The Aesthetic Movement,1860-1890
  4. Late Victorians,1890-1900
  5. The Edwardians,1900-1910
  6. The Great War and After,1910-1930
  7. The Interwar Years,1930s
  8. World War II and After

ZOOM LECTURE 2020: The Power of Beauty in Restoration England

Held on: Zoom
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Thursday 12 November 2020
Time: 20:00-21:00 (I will start the Zoom session at 19:30 to allow for set up time and I will begin the talk sharp at 20:00)
Fee: Membership only
Description: It is 1660, the English Civil War is over and the experiment with the Commonwealth has left the country confused. When Charles II was invited back to England as King he brought new French styles and sexual conduct with him. In particular, he introduced the French idea of the publicly accepted mistress. Beautiful women who could attract the eye of the king could become his mistress and influence appointments at Court and political debate.

The new freedoms introduced by the Reformation Court spread through society. Women could act for the first time, write books and one was the first British scientist. However, it was a male dominated society and so these heroic women had to fight against established norms and laws. This talk examines the power and influence of one group of women and they way they were represented in art through an examination of the Windsor Beauties painted by Sir Peter Lely and now at Hampton Court Palace.

September 2020-21 Course Cancelled: Art History Through the Ages

This course has been cancelled because of COVID-19 restrictions and my plan is to start it it in September 2021.

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site). Please note that the location may have to be changed. If it does I will find a new location as near as I can to The White House.
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates:
  • Part 1: Wednesday 23 September 2020 – 18 November 2020 (eight classes with a half-term break on 28 October 2020)
  • Part 2: Wednesday 6 January 2021 – 3 March 2021 (eight classes with a half-term break on 17 February 2021)
Time: 10:45-12:45 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: £60 for eight classes (paid by cheque at the first or second class).
Description: Sixteen talks on a varied mix of artists and themes. Most of the talks are based on exhibitions that were held or were planned to be held during 2019 and 2020. Note that I do not aim to give an overview of each exhibition but to give a talk inspired by the theme of the exhibition so my talk might be about the life of the artist or the art of the period. I also try to alternate ‘old’ and ‘modern’ art, that is art before and after about 1850.

The talks are designed to be both informative and entertaining and my style is to lecture rather than run a discussion groups, although questions are welcome. No prior knowledge of art history is required and the level is similar to a BBC art history documentary although I try to squeeze in more anecdotes and background facts and I am never afraid to provide dates and names. I define all the technical terms I use and try to include two or three new technical terms during each talk. Expect information rather than opinion and art history rather than art appreciation.

If you would like to attend please let me know in advance by emailing me on art@shafe.uk and I will reserve you a place. I email a more detailed course itinerary a month before the course starts to those who have attended the course in the past or who have expressed an interest.

Lecture Programme of Two Eight-week Terms

Before each talk starts I will update the following titles to links to PDF files containing all my slides and notes. I am also planning to record a video of the talks for those enable to attend my lecture. Over the past six years I have given over one hundred talks and all the notes for these talks are on the Past Lectures page.

  1. The Renaissance Nude
  2. Women Surrealists
  3. Hogarth: Place & Progress
  4. Abstract Art in Britain in the 1920s and 30s
  5. Art Meets Science
  6. The Pre-Raphaelite Sister
  7. Russian Art: 1917-1932
  8. Cabarets & Clubs in Modern Art
  1. Gauguin: His Life & Work
  2. Beardsley: Decadence & Desire
  3. British Realists: 1920 & 30s
  4. Pop Art: Warhol and Hockney
  5. George IV: Art & Spectacle
  6. Laura Knight
  7. Turner’s Modern World
  8. The Dutch Golden Age

 September 2019 Course: A Journey Through Art History

This starts on Wednesday, 25 September 2019 and it will be based on my personal view of recent exhibitions and four of my Tate Modern tours interspersed with subjects that have attracted my attention during the spring and summer of 2019. The exhibitions and topics covered are subject to change between now and September.

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates:
  • Part 1: Wednesday 25 September 2019 – 20 November 2019 (eight classes with a half-term break on 30 October 2019)
  • Part 2: Wednesday 15 January 2020 – 11 March 2020 (eight classes with a half-term break on 19 February 2020)
Time: 10:45-12:45 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: £60 for eight classes (paid by cheque at the first or second class). Note that I have reduced the price this year as I have reduced the number of talks each term from ten to eight as I found the course was taking to much time to prepare.
Description:a Sixteen talks on a varied mix of artists and themes. Eleven of the talks are based on exhibitions held during 2019 and four of the talks are based on the tours I give at Tate Modern. Note that I do not aim to give an overview of each exhibition but to give a talk inspired by the theme of the exhibition so my talk might be about the life of the artist or the art of the period. I also alternate ‘old’ and ‘modern’ art, that is art before and after about 1850.

The talks are designed to be both informative and entertaining and my style is to lecture rather than run a discussion groups, although questions are welcome. No prior knowledge of art history is required and the level is similar to a BBC art history documentary although I try to squeeze in more anecdotes and background facts and I am never afraid to provide dates and names. I define all the technical terms I use and try to include two or three new technical terms during each talk. Expect information rather than opinion and art history rather than art appreciation.

I like to limit the class size to about twenty people so let me know in advance by emailing me on art@shafe.uk and I will reserve you a place. I email a more detailed course itinerary a month before the course starts to those who have attended the course in the past or who have expressed an interest.

Lecture Programme of Two Eight-week Terms

The following links will display a PDF version of the talk containing all my slides and notes. I have also recorded a video of some of the talks for those enable to attend my lecture. There are over one hundred talks I have given in the past on the Past Lectures page and every talk includes a PDF file of the slides and notes.

  1. Hieronymous Bosch (PDF Notes)
  2. Edvard Munch (PDF Notes)
  3. Elizabethan Miniatures (PDF Notes)
  4. Tate Modern: Artist and Society (PDF Notes)
  5. Charles II: Art & Power (PDF Notes)
  6. Pierre Bonnard (PDF Notes)
  7. Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese (PDF Notes)
  8. Tate Modern: In the Studio (PDF Notes)
  9. The Genius of Art Forgery (PDF Notes)
  10. Velázquez & the Spanish Golden Age (PDF Notes)
  11. Sorolla – Spanish Master of Light (PDF Notes)
  12. Tate Modern: Materials and Objects (PDF Notes)
  13. Parisian Life During the Revolution (PDF Notes)
  14. Nineteenth-Century American Art (PDF Notes)
  15. Tate Modern: Media Networks (PDF Notes)
  16. Britain’s Love of Rembrandt (PDF Notes)

 September 2018 Course: Art History Revealed

This course does not start until September 2018 and it will be based on my personal view of recent exhibitions interspersed with subjects that have attracted my attention during the spring and summer of 2018. The exhibitions and topics covered are subject to change but not the dates.

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates:
  • Part 1: Wednesday 26 September 2018 – 5 December 2018 (10 classes with a half-term break the week of 22 October)
  • Part 2: Wednesday 9 January 2019 – 13 March 2019 (10 classes with no half-term break)
Time: 10:45-12:45 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: £70 for 10 classes (paid by cheque at the first or second class). Note that all fees, less the hall hire, are donated to charity
Description: Twenty talks on a varied mix of artists and themes. Sixteen of the talks are based on exhibitions held during 2018 as listed below. They are interspersed with some topics I found personally interesting during the year. Note that I do not aim to present the whole of each exhibition but give a personal view of the works shown.  For example, there are over 100 works displayed at the exhibition at the Royal Academy of ‘Charles I: King and Collector’. This is far too many to cover in my two-hour talk and so I select about 25 works that illustrate how Charles I’s love of collecting developed and how he acquired his most important works. This means I can spent several minutes talking about each picture in order to provide a better appreciation of the significance of the work in the context of the period and his life. Also, some of the exhibitions will start after I have prepared my talks and so those talks will be a personal view inspired by the title.

The talks are designed to be both informative and entertaining and my style is to lecture rather than set up discussion groups, although questions are welcome. No prior knowledge of art history is required and the level is similar to a BBC art history documentary although I squeeze in more anecdotes and background facts and I am never afraid to provide dates and names. Expect information rather than opinion and art history rather than art appreciation.

I like to limit the class size to about twenty people so let me know well in advance by emailing me on art@shafe.uk and I will reserve a place.

Lecture Programme of Two 10-week Terms

  1. Impressionism in London
  2. The Short Life of Amedeo Modigliani
  3. The Gothic Revival
  4. Charles I: King and Collector
  5. A Century of Painting Life
  6. The Art of Victorian Photography
  7. Picasso 1932
  8. Monet and Architecture
  9. The Invention of Antiquity
  10. Rodin and Ancient Greece
  11. Aftermath WWI Art
  12. The Summer Exhibition
  13. Mantegna and Bellini
  14. Burne-Jones
  15. Klimt and Schiele
  16. Lorenzo Lotto
  17. The Turner Prize
  18. Gainsborough Family Album
  19. Van Gogh and Britain
  20. Michelangelo and Leonardo

Exhibitions Covered

  • Impressionism in London, Tate Britain, 2 November 2017 – 7 May 2018
  • Modigliani, Tate Modern, 23 November 2017 – 2 April 2018
  • Charles I: King and Collector, Royal Academy, 27 January — 15 April 2018
  • All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a century of painting life, Tate Britain, 28 February – 27 August 2018
  • Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography, National Portrait Gallery, 1 March – 20 May 2018
  • Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy, Tate Modern, March 8 to September 9, 2018
  • Monet & Architecture, National Gallery, 9 April – 29 July 2018
  • Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece, British Museum, 26 April – 29 July 2018
  • Aftermath Art in the Wake of World War One, Tate Britain, 5 June – 16 September 2018
  • The Great Spectacle: 250 Years of the Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, 12 June 2018 – 19 August 2018
  • Mantegna and Bellini, National Gallery 1 October 2018 – 27 January 2019
  • Burne-Jones, Tate Britain, 24 October 2018 – 24 February 2019
  • Klimt/Schiele, Drawings from the Albertina Museum, Vienna, Royal Academy, 4 November 2018 – 3 February 2019
  • Lorenzo Lotto Portraits, 5 November 2018 – 10 February 2019
  • Gainsborough’s Family Album, National Portrait Gallery, 22 November 2018 – 3 February 2019
  • Vincent van Gogh and Britain, Tate Britain, March 2019.

Sunbury and Shepperton Art Association

July 2018 Lecture: The Art of Victorian Photography

Is photography art? We shall see how this question was answered when photography was first invented. Tickets can be purchased here www.ticketsource.co.uk

Held at: Riverside Arts Centre (Main Hall), 57-59 Thames St,
Sunbury-on-Thames TW16 5QF
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Date: Wednesday, 18th July 2018
Time: 20:00-21:45 (with a 20 min coffee break)
Price: £12.00 + £1 booking fee
Description: The invention and blossoming of photography coincided with the Victorian era and photography had an enormous influence on how Victorians saw the world. We will see how photography developed and how it raised issues concerning its role and purpose and questions about whether it was an art.

The photographic revolution put portrait painters out of business and created a new form of portraiture. Many photographers tried various methods and techniques to show it was an art in its own right. It changed the way we see the world and brought the inaccessible, exotic and erotic into the home. It enabled historic events, famous people and exotic places to be seen for the first time and the century ended with the first moving images which ushered in a whole new form of entertainment.

The talk is complementary to the exhibition ‘Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography’ at the National Portrait Gallery from 1 March to 20 May 2018.

Lecture Notes: The Art of Victorian Photography

 Course 2017: A Stroll Through Tate Britain

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Part 1: Wednesday 20 September 2017 – 29 November 2017
(10 classes with a half-term break the week of 25 October). Extended by a week to Wednesday 6 DecemberPart 2: 3 January 2018 – 7 March 2018
(10 classes with no half-term break)
Time: 10:45-12:45 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: £70 for 10 classes (paid by cheque at the first or second class). Note that all fees, less the hall hire, are donated to charity
Description: Twenty talks on the art at Tate Britain from 1545 to the present day. The talks combine art appreciation and social history with information on the works, the styles and the lives of the artists. The art at Tate Britain is hung chronologically and most of the talks discuss the art as it is displayed, room-by-room. The class will not be taken on a specific tour but Laurence Shafe is a Tate Guide and will inform the class when his guided tours take place.

  1. A History of the Tate
  2. From Absolute Monarch to Civil War, 1540-1650
  3. From the Commonwealth to the Georgian Period, 1650-1730
  4. The Georgian Period, 1730-1780
  5. Revolutionary Times, 1780-1810
  6. Regency to Victorian, 1810-1840
  7. William Blake
  8. JMW Turner
  9. John Constable
  10. The PreRaphaelites, 1840-1860
  11. The Aesthetic Movement,1860-1890
  12. Late Victorians,1890-1900
  13. The Edwardians,1900-1910
  14. The Great War and After,1910-1930
  15. The Interwar Years,1930s
  16. World War II and After
  17. Pop Art and Beyond 1960-80
  18. Postmodern Art, 1980-2000
  19. The Turner Prize
  20. Summary

Lecture: The Power of Beauty in Restoration England

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Date: Wednesday 20 September 2017
Time: 14:30-16:30 (with a 20 minute break for tea/coffee)
Charity This talk is being held in aid of Sean’s House Hospice Support, which supports families of babies with life-limiting illness. It costs £12 to include refreshments and tickets can be obtained from:

Christine Crispin 020 3719 5201 or christine.crispin@phonecoop.coop.

Description: It is 1660, the English Civil War is over and the experiment with the Commonwealth has left the country confused. When Charles II was invited back to England as King he brought new French styles and sexual conduct with him. In particular, he introduced the French idea of the publically accepted mistress. Beautiful women who could attract the eye of the king could become his mistress and influence appointments at Court and political debate.

The new freedoms introduced by the Reformation Court spread through society. Women could act for the first time, write books and one was the first British scientist. However, it was a male dominated society and so these heroic women had to fight against established norms and laws. This talk examines the power and influence of one group of women and they way they were represented in art.  .

Lecture Notes: The Power of Beauty in Restoration England

 Course: New Ways of Seeing—Modern British Art

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Part 1: Wednesday 21 September 2016 – 30 November 2016
(10 classes with a half-term break the week of 24 October)Part 2: 4 January 2017 – 8 March 2017
(10 classes with no half-term break)
Time: 10:45-12:45 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: £70 for 10 classes (paid by cheque at the first or second class)
Description: The course is an introduction to modern art and to British art from 1900 to the present day. The complete course is 20 two-hour talks split into two terms each of ten talks. No previous knowledge of art history is required.

The talks will put British art in the context of international developments and the talks will alternate between artists and themes. Artists covered in detail will include Stanley Spencer, Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Grayson Perry, and the themes include Vorticism and abstraction, Surrealism, the World War artists, British sculpture, British figurative art, Pop art, the Young British Artists, Conceptual art, the Turner Prize, video and performance art, and Post-modernism. It is a full agenda but one that is packed with art works and anecdotes that show how artists had fun but were often engaged in serious social commentary.

The course starts by “climbing the mountain” of modern art using some of the most difficult works of art of the twentieth century. Each work raises fundamental questions about art and society and this creates a context for appreciating the work. Having climbed the mountain the rest of the course will explore the various vistas laid out before us.

  1. New Ways of Seeing
  2. Impressionism Post-Impressionism and Fauvism
  3. Cubism Abstraction and the British Avant Garde
  4. Vorticism and World War I Art
  5. Return to Order Stanley Spencer
  6. Dada Surrealism and Expressionism
  7. British Sculpture
  8. World War 2 Art
  9. British Figurative Art
  10. Summary 1900-1950
  11. British Art since 1950 Introduction
  12. Pop Art
  13. British Figurative Art since 1950
  14. David Hockney
  15. Feminist Art
  16. Conceptual Art & Minimalism
  17. Young British Artists
  18. Video and Performance Art
  19. Outsider Art & Grayson Perry
  20. Summary of Art since 1900

Lecture: The Power of Beauty in Restoration England

Held at: St. Lawrence School, Church Rd, Molesey, East Molesey KT8 9DR
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Wednesday, 1st February 2017
Time: 20:00-21:30 (following the AGM)
Description: It is 1660, the English Civil War is over and the experiment with the Commonwealth has left the country confused. When Charles II was invited back to England as King he brought new French styles and sexual conduct with him. In particular, he introduced the French idea of the publically accepted mistress. Beautiful women who could attract the eye of the king could become his mistress and influence appointments at Court and political debate.

The new freedoms introduced by the Reformation Court spread through society. Women could act for the first time, write books and one was the first British scientist. However, it was a male dominated society and so these heroic women had to fight against established norms and laws. This talk examines the power and influence of one group of women and they way they were represented in art.  .

Lecture Notes: The Power of Beauty in Restoration England

Course: The Politics of Early 19th Century Landscape

Held at: Camellia Room at Bourne Hall, Spring Street, Ewell, Surrey KT17 1UF
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Thursday 3 November
Time: 10:00-13:00 (with a 20 min coffee break)
Fee: £18 (enrol online at WEA)
Description: This short course covers the history and politics of rural unrest in early nineteenth century England and its impact on landscape art.

Late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century landscape painting including the work of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. The history and politics of the rural unrest of the period including the enclosure acts and the Swing Riots. The changing role of the countryside as reflected in art. Social realism in art and English landscape painting.

Course Notes: The Politics of Early 19th Century Landscape

Lecture: Turner and Turnips: The Politics of Early 19th Century Landscape

Held at: Sunbury & Shepperton Arts Association
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Thursday 21 July 2016
Time: 20:00-21:45 (with a 20 min coffee break)
Description: The talk explores the interaction between some of the major landscape artists of the nineteenth century, such as John Constable and J. M. W. Turner, and the political and social exploitation of the countryside.

Turner and Turnips

Course: 300 Years of British Art: from Holbein to Hogarth, Part 1

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Wednesday 23 September – 2 December 2015
(10 classes with a half-term break)
Time: 10:45-12:15 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: £70 for 10 classes (pay by cheque on 23 September)
Description: The first ten weeks covers the art and architecture of the Tudor and Stuart periods, the English Renaissance, Inigo Jones, Rubens and Van Dyck and the Commonwealth Sale.

  1. Introduction: 1500-1660
  2. How Art Helped Establish the Tudor Dynasty
  3. The Hidden History of Hampton Court
  4. Hans Holbein at the Court of Henry VIII
  5. The Wholesale Destruction of English Art
  6. Images of Elizabeth I: Fashion or Propaganda?
  7. The Secrets of Tudor Art
  8. Van Dyck and the Early Stuart Painters
  9. Inigo Jones
  10. How the Royal Collection was Mis-sold

 Course: 300 Years of British Art: from Holbein to Hogarth, Part 2

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN
(free parking, café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Wednesday 6 January – 9 March 2016
(10 classes with no half-term break)
Time: 10:45-12:15 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: £70 for 10 classes (pay by cheque on 6 January)
Description: The second ten weeks covers Restoration art, such as the ‘Windsor Beauties’ and the Georgian period including Hogarth and Gainsborough.

11 Introduction 1660-1800
12 The Windsor and Hampton Court Beauties
13 Wren and the English Baroque
14 Hogarth His Life and Society
15 Gainsborough and his Rivals
16 The Royal Academy
17 Zoffany and the Conversation Piece
18 The Romantic Age of English Painting
19 The Art of the Industrial Revolution
20 Summary 1500-1800

WEA Course: A Fresh Look at Nineteenth-Century Art, Part 1

Held at: St. Andrew’s URC, Walton-on-Thames
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Thursday 24 September – 3 December 2015
(10 classes with a half-term break)
Time: 10:00-12:0 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: Contact the WEA to register
Description: The course gives an overview of nineteenth-century art and shows how it has been misunderstood. I explain the ways in which British art was innovative and how portrait and landscape art developed, the influence of the Royal Academy and how new scientific discoveries changed the way we see the world. The emphasis was on the major art controversies and on showing how the art reflected the political and social issues of the period.

  1. Introduction
  2. Academic Painting
  3. Portrait Painting
  4. Landscape Reimagined Part 1
  5. Landscape Reimagined Part 2
  6. Social Realism and Victorian Morality
  7. Photography and Art
  8. Women in Art – Part 1
  9. Women in Art – Part 2
  10. Summary

WEA Course: A Fresh Look at Nineteenth-Century Art, Part 2

Held at: St. Andrew’s URC, Walton-on-Thames
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Thursday 14 January – 24 March 2016
(10 classes with a half-term break)
Time: 10:00-12:0 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Fee: Contact the WEA to register
Description: The second part of the course covers the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and English Impressionism from the point of view of Victorian society and the multiple conflicting influences on the artist.
11 Introduction
12 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – Early Days
13 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – Later
14 Aesthetic Movement to Degeneration Part 1
15 Aesthetic Movement to Degeneration Part 2
16 The Arts & Crafts Movement
17 The Arts & Crafts Movement – William Morris
18 English Impressionism etc
19 Newlyn, Glasgow, Camden Town
20 Summary of course

Lecture: Social Realism in Victorian Painting

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 12 February 2016
Time: 10:00-12:00 (with a 15 min break)
Fee: £12 (contact 0300 200 1044 to book this lecture)
Description: The Victorians were starkly divided between two nations, the rich and the poor. The rich invented charity as a way of dealing with the existence of the poor. In 1846 Richard Redgrave painted The Sempstress highlighting one aspect of the problem of the poor and starting a new genre of painting—social realism. This lecture discusses the social issues and the development of social realism over the Victorian period.

Social Realism in Victorian Painting

Lecture: The Power of Beauty in Restoration England

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 4 March 2016
Time: 10:00-12:00 (with a 15 min break)
Fee: £12 (contact 0300 200 1044 to book this lecture)
Description: The Windsor and Hampton Court beauties are a group of society paintings of the influential women of the Restoration period. The Windsor beauties were painted by Sir Peter Lely and the Hampton Court beauties are the next generation captured by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The lecture takes us into the intriguing and sometimes shocking lives of these powerful women.

The Power of Beauty in Restoration England

Lecture: The Art of Victorian Photography

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 18 March
Time: 10:00-12:00 (with a 15 min break)
Fee: £12 (contact 0300 200 1044 to book this lecture)
Description: The invention and blossoming of photography coincides with the Victorian era and photography had an enormous influence on how Victorians saw the world. We will see how photography raised issues concerning the role and purpose of painting and how it was embroiled in debates about whether it was an art; artists used photography, photographers emulated paintings, photography put portrait painters out of business and many more people could afford images of exotic people and locations.

The Art of Victorian Photography

WEA Lecture: The Politics of Nineteenth-Century Landscape

Held at: United Reformed Church Centre, Guildford
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 25 September 2015
Time: 10:00-13:00 (with a 30 min coffee break)
Fee: Contact the WEA to register
Description: The talk explores the interaction between some of the major landscape artists of the nineteenth century, such as John Constable and J. M. W. Turner, and the political and social exploitation of the countryside.

Notes: The Politics of Early 19thC Landscape

Lecture: Secret and Puzzling Tudor Art

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 6 November 2015
Time: 10:00-12:00 (with a 15 min break)
Fee: £12 (contact 0300 200 1044 to book this lecture)
Description: The Tudors loved verbal and visual puzzles often created as yet another way of praising the monarch. The lecture will show you how to decode some puzzling paintings and other images by examining their social and historical background. We will see, for example, why Elizabethan I was described as Astraea, the legendary virgin goddess of the Golden Age which was the first of Greece’s five ages of man.

Notes: Secret and Puzzling Tudor Art

Lecture: Cromwell’s Extraordinary Art Sale

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 4 December 2015
Time: 10:00-12:00 (with a 15 min break)
Fee: £12 (contact 0300 200 1044 to book this lecture)
Description: Of all the English monarchs Charles I was the greatest art collector and during his reign he amassed one of the largest art collections in Europe. Following his public execution the new Puritan Commonwealth Parliament decided to sell all the royal possessions. What followed was a tale of mismanagement, corruption and farce. The lecture will describe why tradesmen were paid in Titians and van Dycks and how some shrewd individuals made a fortune as many famous paintings were distributed across the courts of Europe.

Notes: Cromwell’s Extraordinary Art Sale or How the Royal Collection was Mis-sold

Lecture: Inigo Jones – Man, Masques and Mansions

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Monday 29 June 2015
Time: 19:00-21:00 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Description: Inigo Jones was a powerhouse of innovation in the Jacobean court of the early seventeenth century. He was a man of many talents and was the first significant British architect of the early modern period as well as being responsible for staging over 500 performances, many with Ben Jonson. He laid out Covent Garden and designed the Banqueting House in Whitehall yet he is little known today. The lecture talks about the man and his personal relationships and describes how he brought the masque to life as an early form of theatre. He was familiar with Italy and Italian architecture and when he became Surveyor-General of the King’s Works he was able to apply classical and Renaissance ideas to the design of many key buildings in London.
Notes:  Inigo Jones

Lecture: Images of Elizabeth I – Fashion or Propaganda?

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 1 May 2015
Time: 10:00-12:00 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Description: When we see paintings and engravings of Elizabeth I we tend to accept the flat style as indicative of a medieval approach. Yet the Tudor court was alive with modern ideas from across Europe and her father, Henry VIII, had employed Hans Holbein who produced some of the greatest and most life-like portraits every painted. This suggests that Elizabeth and her advisers were controlling her image, but to what end? The lecture examines a number of Elizabeth’s portraits and suggests possible interpretations based on their style and the symbols used. The conclusion is that the paintings of Elizabeth were different from those of other monarchs across Europe because they were part of a carefully managed plan to construct an image of Elizabeth that reconciled her power and position with her gender.
Notes: Images of Elizabeth I: Fashion or Propaganda?

LECTURE: HOW TO READ PAINTINGS – CONTEXT, SYMBOLS AND FORM

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Friday 27 February 2015
Time: 10:00-12:00 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Description: There are many ways to look at and analyse a work of art and these often become confused. One critic might discuss the works formal properties, such as its forms and colour while another examines it from a feminist standpoint. This talk provides a simple guide through these approaches and it enables any painting to be looked at in a new light. The tripartite approach of context, symbolism and form is used to bring order to the chaos and numerous works of art through the ages are used to illustrate how this approach works in practice. This approach is used to examine the symbolism of Renaissance paintings, the use of colour in French Impressionist paintings and the feminist interpretation of art.
Notes: Reading Paintings

LECTURE: VICTORIAN ART AND DARWINIAN BEAUTY

Held at: Esher Green Adult Learning Centre, KT10 8AA, opposite Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Monday 2 February 2015
Time: 19:00-21:00 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Description: Charles Darwin devoted two-thirds of his influential book The Descent of Man to an explanation of how beautiful characteristics, such as the peacock’s tail, evolved. This scientific explanation of beauty was published in 1871 at the same time as the ‘art for art’s sake’ movement proposed beauty as the sole purpose of art. The Aesthetic Movement embodied these ideas and by examining the work of various fine and decorative artists such as James McNeill Whistler, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris we can see how blue and white china and peacock feathers became the fashion in every trendsetting drawing room. The story of how science and art intermingled around the notion of beauty involves many surprising incidents and anecdotes that bring this dynamic Victorian period to life.
Notes: Victorian Art and Darwinian Beauty

COURSE: VICTORIAN ART AND SOCIETY

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN (free parking and café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Wednesday 7 January 2015-11 March 2015
Time: 10:45-12:15 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Description: The course covers the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and English Impressionism from the point of view of Victorian society and the multiple, conflicting influences on the artist.
Notes:

COURSE: NINETEENTH-CENTURY ART AND SOCIETY

Held at: The White House, 45 The Avenue, Hampton TW12 3RN (free parking and café on site)
Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Shafe
Dates: Wednesday 24 September– 3 December2014
Time: 10:45-12:15 (with a 15 min coffee break)
Description: The course gives an overview of nineteenth-century art and shows how it has been misunderstood. I explain the ways in which British art was innovative and how portrait and landscape art developed, the influence of the Royal Academy and how new scientific discoveries changed the way we see the world. The emphasis was on the major art controversies and on showing how the art reflected the political and social issues of the period.
Notes:

One thought on “Past Lectures & Courses

  1. Are there any plans, during the duration of the Royal Academy Exhibition, to repeat the lecture on Cromwell’s Art Sale or releated topic concering King Charles I’s collection? Your class notes have a wealth of information noit contained in the RA catalogue, though there are several books published of course.

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