Month: February 2023
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The Portraits of Rembrandt and Hals
This week’s talk by Jennifer on the Golden Age of Dutch Art concentrated on the works of Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Rembrandt is accredited with produce more than 300 paintings in his life time from 1606 to 1669, but more than 40 of them are self portraits. In addition there are many etchings and drawings,…
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Winter Pruning, Seeds and Weeds
Members of the Gardening Group met on 22 February 2024 for a monthly winter meeting. On the agenda was Winter Pruning techniques for Roses, Clematis, Dogwoods, Buddleia and Soft Fruit canes. There was a strange weed to be identified which was found to be more common than we realised in the group – in the…
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How to Give Money Away – Well
Our speaker at the Monthly Meeting in February was Stewart Goshawk, CEO of the Wembley National Stadium Trust. With a background in voluntary sector finance and sport, Stewart had a most interesting story to tell. In his career to date, he has given away some £400m, and what he has given has been given well,…
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Painting the Unruly House & Taverns
This week’s examination of the Golden Age of Dutch Art, with Jennifer, had us all intrigued as to what could be shown and what could not. Entitled “The Unruly House and the Tavern”, we saw the works of Jan Steen (1626-1679), concentrating on behaviour in homes, in taverns and the behaviour of doctors in 17th…
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The People in 17th Century Dutch Art
As with last week, this week’s examination of the Golden Age of Dutch Art, with Jennifer, had moved indoors to examine how the home, and the people in it are portrayed. But the emphasis this week was on the people – in particular the women, how they dressed (and why) and what happened in the…
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Our Visit to the Apothercaries’ Hall
On Tuesday 7 February 2023, we made a visit to the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries’ Hall in Black Friars Lane, in the City of London. The building we see today dates in part from the reconstruction following the Great Fire of London, but in earlier times was the location for the guest house of the…
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Homes in 17th Century Dutch Art
This week our examination of the Golden Age of Dutch Art moved indoors to examine how the home, and the people in it are portrayed. We saw the works of Johannes Vermeer, Nicolaes Maes, Pieter de Hooch and Caspar Netscher. With our guide Jennifer, however, these paintings of homes, and the people in the homes,…