An introduction on how to match works of art with the perfect frame.
Venue: Paul Mitchell
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The Art Output of a Royal Limner

With the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, Nicholas Hilliard lost his most important patron. This change could have unsettled him, but her successor, king James VI of Scotland, renewed his position as ‘His Majesties lymner’; and Hilliard was the first artist in England to whom James gave a sitting. As a key figure in the transition from Elizabethan to Jacobean art, Hilliard was tasked with presenting images of royal stability during a transformative period in Britain's history. Portraits of James I, made in the early 17th century, reflect the merging of Tudor traditions with the new priorities of the Jacobean era, as miniatures remained central to the court as instruments of statecraft.

In this talk, Karen Hearn will look at one of the most important portrait miniatures on display during Classic Art London – a portrait by Nicholas Hilliard of King James I/VI, dated 1609 (possibly a gift of King James I and Queen Anne of Denmark to Robert Sidney (1563-1626), 1st Earl of Leicester.)

The talk will last for 20 minutes and will be followed by questions, a chance to handle the artwork and light refreshments.

Karen Hearn FSA was the Curator of 16th & 17th Century British Art at Tate Britain from 1992

to 2012, and is now an Honorary Professor at University College London. She writes, teaches,

and broadcasts on art made in Tudor and Stuart Britain.

For her first major Tate exhibition, Dynasties: Painting in Tudor & Jacobean England 1530–

1630, in 1995, she received a European Woman of Achievement Award. She subsequently

curated shows there on Marcus Gheeraerts II, Van Dyck, Rubens and, at the NPG, Cornelius

Johnson. Her book Portraying Pregnancy accompanied her 2020 exhibition of ‘pregnancy

portraits’ at The Foundling Museum in London.

She is a co-author of Art & Court of James VI & I, the book of the current exhibition (closes 14

September 2025) at The Portrait gallery in Edinburgh, and has written extensively on portrait

miniatures.

Venue: The Limner Company at Guy Peppiatt Fine Art

This talk has now reached full capacity, please email us to be put on the waiting list: curators@classicartlondon.uk

If you had to live with a single work of art in your collection forever, which would it be? If you could acquire a work of art at this moment, regardless of budget or availability, what would you choose? If you had a second chance to purchase a work of art, which was the one that got away?

Join Country Life contributor Patrick Monahan and a group of distinguised panelists to answer this and other pressing art collecting questions and to support the Society of Antiquaries of London’s appeal to secure 999 years at Burlington House!

Patrick Monahan, a native New Yorker who writes for Country Life and Vanity Fair, is consulted by collectors and museums on both sides of the Atlantic and who helped arrange the loan of Lord Leighton's 'Flaming June' from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico to the RA last year.

The panelists include Tom Edwards (Abbott & Holder), Will Elliott (Colnaghi Elliott) and Cheska Hill-Wood (David Messum Fine Art).

Media partner Country Life magazine is supporting this entertaining evening and proceeds from ticket sales for this talk go directly to the Society’s 'Buy a Square Foot of Burlington House’ appeal.

Patrick Monahan is a writer and art advisor with a special interest in Victorian art. He advises the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico, which holds the most important collection of Victorian paintings outside the UK, including Flaming June by Frederic, Lord Leighton. From 2022-24, he arranged the loan of Flaming June to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and to the Royal Academy of Arts, London. His written work appears in Country Life, Vanity Fair,Airmail, and in the exhibition catalogue Flaming June: the making of an icon (Leighton House, London, 2016). He is also a regular lecturer on British art and architecture at The Royal Oak Foundation, New York. Patrick lives and works in New York City, with frequent visits to London.

Will Elliott is an art dealer, specialising in paintings and works on paper from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. He established Elliott Fine Art in 2020 and Colnaghi Elliott Master Drawings - a partnership with Colnaghi - two years later.

Tom Edwards is owner and Managing Director of Abbott and Holder Ltd, Est.1936. He specialises is British works of art from the mid-Eighteenth to mid-Twentieth Centuries. He publishes a famous List introducing 100 new works to his stock each month, hosts regular exhibitions by individual artists and stands at The British Art Fair, the London Original Print Fair and Master Drawings New York. Tom is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars, a Trustee of the Fine Arts Provident Institution and a council member of the British Antiques Dealers Association.

Cheska Hill-Wood is Director at David Messum Fine Art in St James’s and specialises in British Impressionism. The gallery also represents several Artist Estates along with a small stable of contemporary artists. Before joining David, Cheska spent 13 years working for The Fine Art Society.

Tickets £25 including a drink.

Kindly sponsored by Hanikon - a new expression of rosé from Provence, crafted for those who appreciate quiet luxury and the art of living well. Born from sun-drenched vineyards and guided by a minimalist aesthetic, Hanikon blends traditional winemaking with modern elegance. Light, dry, and delicately floral, it is a wine designed for golden hours, intimate gatherings, and unforgettable moments. With its signature frosted bottle and yellow wax seal, Hanikon is more than a drink, it’s a mood, a memory, and a tribute to timeless refinement.
Venue: Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE

Tickets still available at the door.

An introduction on how to match works of art with the perfect frame.
Venue: Paul Mitchell gallery
Register 

A tour by the deputy archivist to see some of the hidden art at Fortnum & Mason, including works by Bouguereau, HM King Charles III, a 16th century tapestry, 18th century Chinese prints, Murial Pemberton, and Roger Bissiere. You will also see reproductions of Edward Bawden's original work in store, but also some of his original catalogues from the archive collection and the ones by Rex Whistler, which are usually hidden away.
Venue: Fortnum & Mason
This tour has now reached full capacity, please email us to be put on the waiting list: curators@classicartlondon.uk

In the anniversary year, this discussion will have some of the foremost Turner experts considering why this British artist hasn't lost any of his importance.

Moderated by The Burlington Magazine’s editor Christopher Baker, who looked after the National Gallery of Scotland’s Turner collection for many years, the panel of art historians includes Dr Jacqueline Riding, former curator of the Palace of Westminster and consultant on the film 'Mr Turner', Gillian Forrester, who was Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Yale Center for British Art, and Nicola Moorby, author of 'Turner and Constable' (2025). 

Christopher Baker is the Editor of The Burlington Magazine and an Hon. Professor at Edinburgh University. He served as a Director at the National Galleries of Scotland for ten years and has also worked at Christ Church, Oxford, and the National Gallery in London. His research has focused on 18th and 19th-century British and European art, works on paper and the history of collecting . He has curated numerous exhibitions across the U.K. and internationally.

Dr Jacqueline Riding, former curator at the Palace of Westminster and director of the Handel House Museum, is the literary editor at The Art Newspaper, the historical advisor on Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner (2014) and Peterloo (2018),and curator of the exhibitions Turner’s Nudes (2022, with Franny Moyle) and Hogarth’s Britons (2023). Her books include biographies of William Hogarth (Sunday Times Art Book of the Year 2021) and, forthcoming, Charlie Chaplin (Profile 2026), and Thomas Gainsborough/Joshua Reynolds (Yale 2027). She has been a trustee of Turner's House since 2018.

Gillian Forrester is an independent art historian, curator, and writer. She was formerly Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Yale Center for British Art andspecializes in British print culture in a transnational context. She has a particular interest in the prints of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, and curated exhibitions on Turner’s Liber Studiorum at the Nottingham University Art Gallery (1986) and Tate Britain (1996), for which she wrote the catalogue now regarded as the definitive text on the topic. Forrester is currently working on a major survey book on Turner’s prints. Her recent publications include an essay on Turner’s prints included in avolume on the artist edited by Ian Warrell (Yale Center for British Art, 2025), and an essay on the Liber Studiorum in Turner: In Light and Shade, edited by Imogen Holmes-Roe (The Whitworth, 2025). She is a Trustee of Turner’s House.

Nicola Moorby is Curator of British Art, 1790-1850 at Tate and guest curator of the exhibition, 'Turner's Kingdom: Beauty, Birds and Beasts' at Turner's House in Twickenham, April-October 2025. She is author of a new book, ‘Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape', published by Yale University Press
Venue: Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House
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This panel will discuss how art museums and institutions have coped with the challenges climate change presents in all its variations. How can we all work together to cope better with the effects of the changes?

 The expert panel includes representatives from the museums and institutions world,  leaders of new initiatives to help support institutions as well as experts in insurance, storage and transportation.

Moderated by James Ferrer, Head of Fine Art, Specie & Fine Art Practice at Lockton Companies LLP

James heads up the Art Insurance Practice at Lockton Companies LLP, the largest independent insurance brokerage in the World. With an extensive network of offices around the World, James and his team support the Lockton network and arrange insurance for collections from classic cars to wine and whisky in the USA, Europe and the Middle East.
James and his team also arrange insurance for art dealers, galleries, museums, private collectors, family offices and auction houses and support wholesale brokers needing access to Lloyd’s of London. His team advise on risk management strategies to maximise cover for the lowest premium, whilst reducing administrative costs.
James started his career at Sotheby’s, London where he worked on sales throughout the UK. He then moved to Chubb Insurance Company of Europe S.E. where he worked as an in-house surveyor of High Net Worth clients property and art collections, travelling throughout Europe providing advice on risk management strategies.
James holds a degree in History of Art and English Literature and a Masters of Sciences degree in Commercial Property, an RICS Diploma in Fine Art Valuation (General) and the Certificate of Insurance.

Simon Halliday, Head of Facilities Management, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Simon has worked for the University of Cambridge for 17 years, looking after and providing services to the occupants of a variety of significant historic buildings. For the last ten years he has been immersed in the world of collections, first at the University Library and latterly as Head of Facilities Management at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Collections communities, museums and galleries are both some of the most challenging environments in which to provide operational support, and management of risk, but they are also undoubtedly the most rewarding communities to serve. Increasingly his profession is being tested by the very real and immediate impacts of climate change, impacts which stress our historic buildings and threaten our collections in ways that our forebears could not have been expected to anticipate. Meeting this challenge head on is going to require radical innovation and a willingness to adjust our expectations.

Louise Cary, Partnerships Manager, Crozier
Louise Cary manages partnerships at Crozier, a global leader in fine art storage and logistics. In this role, she works closely with institutions including South London Gallery, Swiss Institute, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Parrish Art Museum, and Independent Curators International, developing initiatives around shared priorities such as sustainability, community engagement, and innovation.
Alongside her partnerships work, Louise coordinates Crozier’s Green Team, championing internal efforts to reduce environmental impact and drive sector-wide conversations around climate responsibility. She is passionate about the art world's ability to influence meaningful change on the most pressing environmental and social challenges of our time.
Before joining Crozier, Louise held roles at FuturePlanet, Kite Global Advisors, Sky, and Warner Music, gaining broad experience across communications, purpose strategy, and stakeholder engagement.

Annika Erikson, Founder & CEO of Articheck

Annika Erikson studied Paper Conservation at UAL, Renaissance Art History in Tuscany, and the Classics in Greece. After working in conservation and collection care at St Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Horticultural Society, and Tate, she founded Articheck in 2013 to create a digital standard for condition reports and streamline conservation workflows. A Fellow of the Linnaean Society, Annika is an active member of ICOM, CIDOC, ICON, and the Art Innovators Alliance. She lectures regularly at institutions including NYU, UCL, and Sotheby’s Institute.
Annika recently led Articheck’s participation in the Getting Climate Control Under Control programme, in collaboration with Ki Futures and the Danish Museums Association. The initiative supported ten museums in safely reducing their energy consumption by adjusting environmental controls—achieving significant savings in carbon, cash, and energy while using Articheck to monitor object stability in changing conditions.

Venue: SAL
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An overview of the different strategies that specific types of Latin American private museums use to operate. It will consider their ambivalent position as institutional validating entities and market forces simultaneously, and how they have transformed the perception of specialised and non-specialised audiences, moving collections from private to public walls.

The talk will be presented by Lassla Esquivel, a UK-based historian, researcher and curator specialising in contemporary art and the art market. Her expertise and research interests are currently focused on emerging art markets whilst investigating private museums' models and their role within the art market. In 2016, she founded Periferia Projects, a curatorial platform that links emerging markets in Latin America with the UK and Europe to promote collaborations between galleries, artists and institutions.

Organised in collaboration with The Society of the History of Collecting.
Venue: SAL
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Shared Ownership of art works is becoming more and more popular among museums and institutions. What problems does it present and what opportunities?

The panel members will include representatives from museums and institutions, but also the legal and insurance world.

Moderated by James Ferrer, Head of Fine Art, Specie & Fine Art Practice at Lockton Companies LLP

James heads up the Art Insurance Practice at Lockton Companies LLP, the largest independent insurance brokerage in the World. With an extensive network of offices around the World, James and his team support the Lockton network and arrange insurance for collections from classic cars to wine and whisky in the USA, Europe and the Middle East.
James and his team also arrange insurance for art dealers, galleries, museums, private collectors, family offices and auction houses and support wholesale brokers needing access to Lloyd’s of London. His team advise on risk management strategies to maximise cover for the lowest premium, whilst reducing administrative costs.
James started his career at Sotheby’s, London where he worked on sales throughout the UK. He then moved to Chubb Insurance Company of Europe S.E. where he worked as an in-house surveyor of High Net Worth clients property and art collections, travelling throughout Europe providing advice on risk management strategies.
James holds a degree in History of Art and English Literature and a Masters of Sciences degree in Commercial Property, an RICS Diploma in Fine Art Valuation (General) and the Certificate of Insurance.

Dr Lucy Peltz is Joint Head of Curatorial and Senior Curator of 18th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, where she took up post in 2001. She has curated a number of major loan exhibitions including Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance (2009-10), Gainsborough’s Family Album (2018-19) and Love Stories: Art, Passion and Tragedy (2020-23). She has acquired over 30 works for the Gallery’s collection, many including major fundraising projects and several being joint-acquisitions. These included Portrait of Mai (c.1774-5) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which was acquired as an export stop for £50m in partnership with the J. Paul Getty Museum, LA.

Clarissa Levi, Art & Heritage Counsel, Wedlake Bell

Clarissa joined Wedlake Bell's award-winning Art & Luxury team in 2025.  Clarissa has a wealth of experience in the commercial art market and the heritage industry, including estate planning with art and heritage objects, advising on UK tax incentives for heritage property, and assisting clients with questions arising from the ownership, acquisition and disposal of art, and the UK’s export controls for cultural objects.  Clarissa is a writer, lecturer, and broadcaster.

Venue: SAL
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Ben Elwes Fine Art is to host a concert for string quartet as part of the gallery’s exhibition Re-Imagining Cubism. Four young, London-based musicians will play Dvorak and Stravinsky. The composition by the latter, the iconoclastic Three Pieces for String Quartet, composed between 1914 and 1918 will provide the perfect soundtrack to the works on show.

The evening will also feature a discussion about the relationship between art and music delivered by Grant Lewis, Curator of Italian and French Prints and Drawings at the British Museum.

Re-Imagining Cubism at Ben Elwes Fine Art brings global perspectives on Cubism to the UK for the first time. It introduces the art world to Swedish Cubo-Futurist Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (1884-1965), otherwise known as GAN, whose powerful work is virtually unknown outside his home country.

Drinks reception to follow. £15 per person.
Venue: Ben Elwes Fine Art
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Dr Helena Cuss and Dr Elizabeth Pergam will be discussing refugee art dealers in 20th Century London.

The Nazification of much of Europe from 1933-1945 prompted the flight of many art dealers who had supported the artistic avant-garde in their native countries. Britain and the USA became the main host countries, creating overlapping networks of émigré art dealers with pre-existing ties, whether of business, friendship, family or experience of a common trauma that spanned Continental Europe, Britain and North America. Of the fifty art dealers who moved to Britain, approximately half were involved in modern and contemporary art, considerably bolstering London’s hitherto limited opportunities for living artists. This conversation will introduce the colourful and diverse characters who animated the city’s modern art world from the 1930s onwards, as well as reflecting on the new commercial strategies and artistic interests with which they helped to transform London – dubbed a ‘cosmopolis’ in a 1964 exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery – into a global art capital.

Helena Cuss is an independent art historian, curator and research consultant. She recently completed her PhD at Kingston University on the role of refugee art dealers in the internationalisation of the twentieth-century London art market, and in 2024 curated the exhibition Cosmopolis: The Impact of Refugee Art Dealers in London at Ben Uri Gallery. Prior to this, she was Assistant Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, where she contributed to exhibitions including David Hockney: Drawing from Life, Gainsborough’s Family Album, Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, Love Stories: Art, Passion & Tragedy, Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits and curated the display Everyday Icons: Collecting Popular Portraits.

Elizabeth A. Pergam is Co-Chair of the Society for the History of Collecting. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of collecting, the market, and the transatlantic art trade.

Image credit: Charles and Kay Gimpel, 1950s. Courtesy of Gimpel Fils Archive.

Organised in collaboration with The Society of the History of Collecting.
Venue: Colnaghi
This talk has now reached full capacity, please email us to be put on the waiting list: curators@classicartlondon.uk

A highlights tour around galleries selling art from ‘the long 18th century’, 1714 to 1837.
Venues: Various galleries

This tour has now reached full capacity, please email us to be put on the waiting list: curators@classicartlondon.uk

A highlights tour around galleries selling British art from the 17th to 20th Century in St. James's followed by brunch.
Venues: Various galleries
Register (Curators only)

An introduction on how to match works of art with the perfect frame.
Venue: Paul Mitchell gallery
This talk has now reached full capacity, please email us to be put on the waiting list: curators@classicartlondon.uk

Late night opening at Emanuel von Baeyer Gallery, 18 Cecil Court for The Burlington Magazine July issue launch.

Venue: Emanuel von Baeyer Gallery, 18 Cecil Court
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Late night opening for the exhibition, Country Lanes & The Plain: Eric Brown’s Landscapes of Interwar Salisbury.

Little is known about the artist Eric Brown (1894-1955), but he depicted the Wiltshire countryside in a way that is emblematic of changing British society between the wars. His continual depiction of scenes of Salisbury is a testament to his adoration for his local area.

Venue: Darnley Fine Art, 8 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4HE

An introduction on how to match works of art with the perfect frame.
Venue: Paul Mitchell gallery
This talk has now reached full capacity, please email us to be put on the waiting list: curators@classicartlondon.uk

"The Madonna and Child with St. Mary Magdalen", whose execution can be dated to between 1555 and 1560, is being brought to light after being hidden from public view in various private collections for more than two centuries. The picture is remarkable for its sophisticated composition and emotional depth, both typical features of Titian’s mature work. The superb quality of the brushwork and the excellent condition of the painted surface give this picture the edge over other versions of the same subject hanging in some of the world’s leading museums, such as the Hermitage, the Gallerie degli Uffizi and the Museo di Capodimonte. The work was acquired by the Sebright family in the 18th century from an unnamed Milanese Palazzo and remained in their collection at Beechwood Park until 1937, when the house and contents were sold by Christie’s. After that it briefly resurfaced in 1947 when it was shipped to Rome to be relined and was shortly thereafter sent to a private collection in New York.

Fascinating details relating to Titian’s studio practices were revealed when the painting was X-rayed in 2024; this showed a window on the left that was later covered, demonstrating how Titian modified and changed the composition as the work progressed. Moreover, the Child originally had a sunburst halo, no coral necklace, his right hand was turned upward, and the Virgin’s mantle covered her knee.

The most striking reworking, however, is in the figure of the Magdalen which initially, was painted by Titian as a male figure, complete with beard, offering something to the Child (although it is unclear what). According to Prof. Dal Pozzolo, a plausible explanation could be that the picture may have been conceived, and largely painted, for someone who died before it was completed, or who may never have collected it from the artist. At that point, it remained in his studio until he decided, a few years later, to turn the figure into St. Mary Magdalen, delegating the change to an assistant, whom we can almost certainly identify as Girolamo Dente, a painter who had been his most trusted collaborator for many years.

Join us for a discussion with Peter Humfrey, Emeritus Professor at the School of Art History, University of St Andrews, where he taught until his retirement in 2012. He is the author of several books on different aspects of the art of Renaissance Venice, including Cima da Conegliano (1982), The Altarpiece in Renaissance Venice (1993), Painting in Renaissance Venice (1995), and is the co-author of monographs on Giovanni Bellini (2019) and Bonifacio de’ Pitati (2023). He has also co-written the catalogues of a number of international loan exhibitions in Britain, Italy and the United States, including most recently Vittore Carpaccio(Washington and Venice, 2022-23). 

Limited space, so please register early.

This talk has now reached capacity- please email curators@classicartlondon.uk to be put on the waiting list.

An allegorical painting by Albert Ernest Harnisch (1843 Philadelphia – 1918 Rome) dating from the late 1870s, which was most likely in preparation for a series of frescoes intended to decorate the apartment of the American writer Anne Hampton Brewster (1819-1892) in Rome.

Venue: Emanuel von Baeyer Gallery, 18 Cecil Court
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An introduction on how to match works of art with the perfect frame.
Venue: Paul Mitchell gallery
This talk has now reached capacity- please see other available dates below.

A tour around the exhibition which showcases “the forgotten century” as Charles describes it.  A highlight will be Venice: The Volta di Canal at Night with the Festivities in Honour of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, 7th October, 1838 by Carlo Grubacs (1802-1870). This torch lit view on the Grand Canal depicts the ceremonial barge carrying Ferdinand Emperor of Austria to a ball at Palazzo Foscari, following his coronation as King of Lombardy and Venice in Milan. The painting has a spectacular provenance from the Corsini Family in Florence for whom it was presumably painted.

Curators only tour.
Venue: Charles Beddington Ltd

This tour has now reached full capacity, please email us to be put on the waiting list: curators@classicartlondon.uk