Art History Talk – John William Waterhouse, 'Beguiled by Women'

Date: Tuesday 12th November 2024

Timings: 2.00pm for the Lecture, followed by Tea & Cake in the Pavilion Gallery at 3pm (doors open from 1.30pm)

Venue: Penarth Pier Pavilion

Ticket/s: £15.50per person (+ booking fee) - Ticket price includes Tea & Cake

Join us in November to hear acclaimed art history lecturer, Stella Grace Lyons's fascinating talk on John William Waterhouse.

Waterhouse's paintings are almost all of women, many of whom are nude or scantily dressed. He was fascinated by the femme fatale, and often painted women luring men to their doom.

Influenced by both Victorian Classicism and the Pre-Raphaelites, Waterhouse's paintings still create scandal today.

His masterpiece, 'Hylas And the Nymphs' was removed from the Manchester Art Gallery in 2018 to 'prompt conversations about how we display and interpret artworks'.

Are some of his paintings pornographic? Do they really warrant the removal from the gallery wall? Or does their classical setting give them respectability?

This talk will look at Waterhouse's most celebrated works, including 'Hylas and the Nymphs' and 'The Lady of Shallot', and explores the paintings within the context of the time.

'Without sacrificing scholarship, Stella Grace Lyons has a most engaging way of hooking an audience into sharing her passionate interest in art history, drawing three dimensional human stories and experiences from the two-dimensional canvas'

- Maev Kennedy, Guardian Arts Correspondent

Following the talk, please stay for tea and cake, served in the Pavilion's beautiful Gallery.