Our January 2025 programme is now live!
Cloisonné-enamel 'lion and foreigner' censers, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
Here Lot 24 in Chinese Art auction at Sotheby’s, New York (guide price $250,000-350,000), 18 September, 2024
This image from the catalogue at https://www.sothebys.com/en/docs/pdf/n11412-edit.pdf
As regular readers will know, we weren’t able to announce our first courses of the new calendar year at the start of autumn, as we have in previous years, but we hope that you’ll agree that it was with good reason.
The drum-rolling hound has been champing at the bit almost as much as we have, but he can finally do his thing, because yes, O Denizens…
I’m delighted to announce that our January 2025 programme is now available!
Without further ado, let’s dive straight into the courses which will make up the ‘spine’ of next term.
Various elements of our first ten-weeker have been requested over the years, but Robert wanted to wait until he was sure that he could give it the full Robertian treatment. Well I’m pleased to announce that you can now, should you wish, join us as we man the barricades!
Age of Revolution: 1789-1830
Next up… regardless of one’s personal faith or lack thereof, if Christianity is even potentially “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, that’s in no small part due to the subject of our second 10-week course.
We invite you to join us as we explore the history, over 2,000 years and counting (we know that many of you like a good long chronology!), of those who worked so hard to tell that Story, namely…
The Papacy
Next up, a 7-week extravaganza, which revels in the interweaving relationships between “polite society” and its poorer and/or sleazier contemporaries…
Princes, Pimps, and Pickpockets:
The Regency and its Scandalous Underworld
And so to our first Short and Sweets of 2025.
As many of you know, Robert has a particular penchant for the Impressionists, and since he first mentioned his determination to do a course on the unfairly-neglected women of the movement, some have had long-overdue moments in the sun in the world of exhibitions, but it’s now time for our take on them…
Morisot, Cassatt, and the female Impressionists
And for those of you who like your old stuff to be really old (you knew we wouldn’t forget you, right…?!)…
Cyrus the Great and the rise of Ancient Persia
Phew! We very much hope that you agree that this first tranche of our 2025 entertainments was worth the wait!
As is traditional, we’re not yet announcing courses which start after the half-term break. As a shameless teaser, though… remember the lovely Judith Hedley, with whom some of you very much enjoyed exploring Shakespeare’s Sonnets last spring? Well… we’ve been having some jolly interesting discussions with her…. Watch this space!
Additionally, we’re currently cooking up plans for something in Pickering, and shall be in touch again as soon as we know when and therefore what that will be.
Finally, you may at this point be wondering why I have chosen an obviously Chinese image with which to illustrate this post, when there is little obviously Chinese in our new courses. If so, well done, O Astute Denizen!
Well… you may have noticed, as I have, that there has been a spate of rather fine collections of Chinese art hitting the market.
Heck - you may even now be the proud new owner of these very fetching beasties!
But if not, never fear - if you’d like to revel in the delights of the art of China, we’ve got you covered! As it’s easy for a discrete 5-week course starting in the latter half of term to slip off the radar, we thought we should remind you of it just in case. Full details here, lest you should be interested.