We organise a range of special events throughout the UK including behind-the-scenes tours, private views and lectures.
Regular events include afternoon talks at the Wallace Collection in London as well as Art Happens, which explores contemporary art and related themes. Art Fund members also receive discounted entry to art fairs and exhibitions across the country.
London Events
Visit: Banqueting House | |
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Monday 29 September Visit the Banqueting House, the only remaining part of Whitehall
Palace, for a private viewing and talk. Most famous as the site of Charles
I's execution in 1649, the building was designed in the Palladian style by
Inigo Jones, and spectacular allegorical paintings by Rubens adorn the
ceiling. The vaulted undercroft was used as a drinking den by James I and
his circle of close friends. Date: Monday 29 September,
2.30-4.30pm |
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Visit: Home House | |
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Sunday 5 October Enjoy a cream tea at Home House, London's most exclusive private
members' club. Built as a palace of entertainment for the Countess of Home
in 1776, it later became the residence of Samuel Courtauld and was home to
the Courtauld Institute of Art from 1932-1990. The interior features a
series of very grand Neoclassical reception rooms, starting with a
typically austere hall leading to the rose and gold imperial staircase,
which rises through the entire height of the house to a glass dome
revealing the sky. While exploring the sumptuous interiors, visitors will
discover how Home House was created by the combined talents of architects
James Wyatt and Robert Adam. Date: Sunday 5 October,
4.00-5.30pm |
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Visit: Coutts & Co. | |
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Monday 6 October A chance to visit the Head Office of this world-famous bank, and
discover its fascinating history. The early years of the bank are explored
with a reconstruction of the founder's goldsmith-banker shop; and on the
top floor of the building, an exhibition reveals the history of the Coutts
family and their role in the business. Visitors will also view the
collection of family portraits in the director's suite, and the boardroom
with its unique 18th-century Chinese wallpaper. Date: Monday 6 October,
6.00-8.00pm |
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View: Prudential Art Collection | |
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Wednesday 15 October Since its foundation in 1848, the Prudential Corporation has built up a
substantial and important collection of painting and sculpture by British
artists, or artists living and working in Britain. The viewing is
introduced by Jane Lawrence of Tempest Radford Limited, who curated the
current collection. Date: Wednesday 15 October,
6.00-8.00pm |
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View: Lucian Freud: Early Works 1939-54 at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert | |
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Tuesday 21 October This is a major loan exhibition of early works by Lucian Freud,
co-curated by the painter David Dawson (the artist's assistant and model
for the past 15 years) and Catherine Lampert, who selected the Freud
retrospective in Dublin in 2007 and who will give a short talk on the
show. Many of the paintings in this exhibition are from private or public
collections worldwide and have not been seen by the public before. The
earliest paintings, from 1939, were completed when the artist was only
16. Date: Tuesday 21 October,
6.30-8.00pm |
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Talk: Paris in 1900 | |
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Thursday 23 October Patrick Bale, Senior Lecturer at Christie's Education, presents a journey through time to Paris in 1900. With the aid of a wealth of imagery and historic recordings, this lecture explores the city's transition to a new century with a great World Exhibition- an international feast of the visual and the performing arts celebrating the triumph of Art Nouveau and the wonders of electricity. Amazing early recordings allow the audience to hear the voices of Sarah
Bernhardt in L'Aiglon; of Coquelin in Louise; and
Proust's lover Reynaldo Hahn in his own perfumed songs. Date: Thursday 23
October, 2.30-3.30pm |
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Talk: Vermeer and Delft | |
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Wednesday 29 October Jan Vermeer spent his entire life in the city of Delft, capturing the
spirit of its daily life in his paintings. He specialised in interior
domestic scenes, and his oeuvre presents a fascinating cross-section of
17th-century Dutch society. Other artists of the Dutch Golden Age, such as
Pieter de Hooch and Jan Steen, also spent time in Delft, and the
significant relationships that developed between their work and Vermeer's
is the theme of this lecture by Rebecca Lyons of Christie's
Education. Date: Wednesday
29 October, 2.30-3.30pm |
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View: Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian at the National Gallery | |
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Wednesday 5 November Curator Susan Foister gives an introductory talk at our private view of
this landmark exhibition featuring works by the great Renaissance masters
of Northern and Southern Europe, including Bellini, Botticelli, Van Eyck,
Holbein, Lotto, Pontormo, Raphael and Titian. Displaying over 70
paintings, sculptures, drawings and medals, this exhibition provides
insights into fundamental issues of likeness, memory and identity, while
revealing a remarkable community of princes, envoys, merchants, clergymen,
tradesmen and artists. Date: Wednesday 5 November,
9.00-10.00am |
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Talk: Berlin in the 1920's | |
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Wednesday 5 November Berlin in the 1920’s was a city on the edge of an abyss, and fertile ground for all kinds of political extremism. The raucous-voiced lesbian chanteuse Claire Waldoff boasted in song that every man you met could be a Nazi. The febrile and dangerous political situation provided a backdrop to a decade of dazzling innovation in all the arts- theatre, film, music, painting, architecture and design. From Christopher Isherwood and the young Francis Bacon, to Schoenberg and Kandinsky, talented people flocked to Berlin from all over Europe in order to sample its artistic- and sexual- freedom. Patrick Bade of Christie’s Education is the lecturer. Booking information: Please call 0870 050 3688 Date: Wednesday 5
November, 2.30-3.30pm |
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Visit: Harrow School and Photography Exhibition | |
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Saturday 8 November Harrow was founded in 1572 under a royal charter granted by Elizabeth I
to John Lyon, a local farmer. His new School House was completed in 1615,
and so began Harrow's gradual- if not uninterrupted- growth towards fame.
This visit features the Exhibition of Harrovian Photographers:
Innovation through the Generations. The curator, photographer Rupert
Sagar-Musgrove, introduces the show of work, which features images by such
luminaries as William Henry Fox Talbot, Cecil Beaton and Lord Lichfield.
Afternoon tea is followed by a guided tour of the school. Date: Saturday 8 November,
2.30-5.00pm |
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Talk: Prague During the Reign of 'Monarcha Mundi' Charles IV of Luxembourg | |
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Thursday 13 November This lecture, by Professor Paul Crossley of the Courtauld Institute,
looks at the medieval heyday of Prague during the reign of the Bohemian
King and German Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg. When he arrived in the
city from Paris in 1333, he found it a place of desolation. By the time of
his death in 1378, he and his architects and cultural advisors had
transformed it into Gold Prague- a city half Eastern (Slav) and half
Western. Booking information: Please call 0870 050 3688 Date: Thursday
13 November, 2.30-3.30pm |
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Talk: St Petersburg and the Walpole Collection | |
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Thursday 20 November The acquisition in 1779 of Sir Robert Walpole's collection of European
paintings by Catherine the Great of Russia has been described as one of
the greatest events in the life of the Hermitage State Museum. Walpole's
remarkable collection, rated in Britain as second only to that of the
king, included works by Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyck as well as Poussin,
Lorrain and Murillo; it could conceivably have formed the basis for the
National Gallery in England. Booking information: Please call 0870 050 3688 Date: Thursday 20
November, 2.30-3.30pm |
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View: Christmas Illustrator Show at Chris Beetles Gallery | |
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Thursday 20 November Enjoy the annual exhibition of British illustrators from 1800 to the
present day, including cartoons and illustrations by artists such as Mabel
Lucie Attwell, Quentin Blake, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham and William
Heath Robinson. Date: Thursday 20 November,
6.30-8.00pm |
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View: Giles at the Cartoon Museum | |
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Tuesday 25 November Popular with the public and admired by his peers, Carl Giles was one of
the leading British cartoonists of the 20th century. This exhibition
includes rare wartime drawings and letters that reveal the man as well as
the cartoonist. Anita O'Brien, co-curator, introduces the
exhibition. Date: Tuesday 25 November,
6.30-8.00pm |
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Talk: Goya and Madrid | |
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Thursday 27 November Artists of the past gravitated towards capital cities or major ecclesiastical centres in search of a variety of commissions. Emeritas Professor Nigel Glendinning, Queen Mary, University of London, focuses on Goya, who undertook major contracts for work in five Spanish cities and one in France: Cádiz, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Zaragoza and Bordeaux. Concentrating on Goya’s time in Madrid, Professor Glendinning shows how the Spanish capital and the country around it facilitated and stimulated Goya’s development as an artist, as he worked for different regimes, in diverse historical circumstances, for court and other patrons, and for himself. Booking information: Please call 0870 050 3688 Date: Thursday 27
November, 2.30-3.30pm |
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Visit: Dennis Severs' House | |
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Tuesday 2 December A visit to this 18th-century house in Spitalfields is an unforgettable
sensory experience, particularly at this time of year when the house is
decorated for the festice season. Each room is a time capsule where
history has been suspended and the atmosphere of the past is recreated
with colours, textures, sounds and smells. A unique wander through the
ages, from 1724 to 1914. Date: Tuesday 2 December, 5.45, 6.30 and
7.00pm |
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Study Visit: National Gallery | |
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Thursday 4 December To complement her talk on 20 November, Linda Bolton leads a group visit to the National Gallery, where she focuses on the Gallery's formation and early years. Linda discusses paintings in the Angerstein Collection, acquired by the British government in 1824 from Russian-born merchant John Julius Angerstein, which lay the foundations of what is now one of the most important galleries in the world. Booking information: Please call 0870 050 3688 Date: Thursday 4
December, 2.30-3.30pm |
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Talk: David and Florence in the 15th-Century | |
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Thursday 11 December Michelangelo’s David stands out as one of the world’s greatest sculptures, not only because of its unrivalled technique and outstanding beauty, but also because it is part of a sculptural tradition which maps the history of Renaissance Florence. In this talk, actor, museums lecturer and television presenter Richard Stemp explores the cultural context of the work alongside sculptures by Donatello and Verrocchio, and reveals how the iconic power of these works was manipulated by the Republic of Florence and by the Medici, the city’s ruling family during the 15th century Booking information: Please call 0870 050 3688 Date: Thursday 11 December 2008,
2.30-3.30pm |
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View: Francis Bacon at Tate Britain | |
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Friday 12 December Francis Bacon (1909-92) is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest
painters of the 20th century, and this major exhibition celebrates his
work and anticipates his centenary in 2009. It is his first UK
retrospective since 1985 and offers a re-assessment of his work in the
light of research undertaken since the artist's death. With over 70
paintings, this unmissable exhibition brings together important works from
each period of Bacon's long and distinguished career. Date: Friday 12 December,
9.00-10.00am |
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