Last Update to this Site - June 2008 TALISMAN FINE ART & TALISMAN SYMBOLIST STUDIES is both ONLINE GALLERY & ART DEALERS and an ART HISTORY SOURCE, particularly for SYMBOLIST ART, ART NOUVEAU PICTURES and ART DECO PICTURES. We therefore specialise in works 1850 - 1940, and these are mainly on paper, with a special emphasis on the Symbolist Art Movement and Art Deco Imagery. Additionally we have a particular interest in PASTORAL & VISIONARY ART, and EROTIC FINE ART. For a COMPLETE ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ARTISTS IN ALL SECTIONS click here We also show the pictures of a select group of contemporary artists whose work resonates with these styles, such as ROSALIND BIEBER, SEAN JEFFERSON and the pastoral artist JANE WISNER. More of Jane Wisner's work can be seen under PASTORAL & VISIONARY ART. We also have a selection of highly enjoyable work work by the internationally celebrated symbolist and erotic artist TASADAQ SOHAIL. More work by Tasadaq Sohail can be seen in the contemporary section under OTHER ARTISTS. WE PROVIDE AS WELL, STUDY MORNINGS, DAYS, AND INDIVIDUAL LECTURES ABOUT ART HISTORY, ILLUSTRATED BY SLIDES. The individual lectures can range over various aspects of the history of art, but as TALISMAN SYMBOLIST STUDIES we specialise in art historical talks and study events that focus on the SYMBOLIST ART MOVEMENT of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. On the other side of this page you can view our current programme. You can also view EXTRACTS FROM LECTURES by clicking here: SELECTED LECTURE EXTRACTS We deal in pictures mainly from our website, but do from time to time stage exhibitions and show at art and antique fairs. Let us know if you wish to be on our mailing list, either for news of new work being shown or for lectures that we are organizing. Click here to contact us. Talisman Fine Art began ten years ago and is based in London and Cornwall. It derives its name from the symbolic associations to the word "Talisman", and also from a painting by the French artist Paul Sérusier. This was a tiny picture on a cigar box lid which he made under the tutelage of the great Symbolist Paul Gauguin, and which was felt by his colleagues to be such a ground breaking work that they called it "The Talisman". Please watch the website for all forthcoming events, or contact us if you would like them mailed to you, letting us know if you prefer post or e-mail. PLEASE KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR EVENTS WE NOW HAVE A NEW CENTRAL LONDON VENUE FOR THE LECTURES: The Lecture Theatre, Francis Holland School, Ivor Place, (on corner with Park Road), London NW1. Free Parking is available in adjacent streets all day Saturday. Nearest underground station is Baker Street, just a few minutes walk away. SATURDAY, 14th JUNE 2008 11am - 12.30pm 'EDWARD BURNE-JONES: STYLE, SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT' HILARY UNDERWOOD The artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833 - 1898) is the most complex and interesting of the 'second generation' Pre-Raphaelite artists. Like his mentor, Rossetti, he turned his back on Pre-Raphaelite realism. He used a visual language derived from past art, and subject matter from myth and legend, to explore the inner realms of idea and emotion. His art has three main stylistic phases. In the first half of the 1860s, he follows Rossetti's intrerest in sensual sixteenth century Venetian painting, with paintings like Sidonia Von Bork. Then, like many of his circle, he was affected by more classicising ideas, and in the 1870s created a graceful and decorative art linked to Florentine Quattrocento artists such as Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. Then he produced some of his most famous works such as the Beguiling of Merlin. At the end of his life in the 1890s his work develops a stiff, hierarchical, almost Byzantine quality, seen in such paintings as the Briar Rose Series. Are these visual changes superficial, perhaps reflecting changing tastes and fashions of the Victorian era? Or do they express deeper and more personal shifts in the artist's feelings and outlook and values? Or do they show a complicated relationship between the personal, the artistic and the cultural? This lecture explores Burne-Jones's Symbolist art and more generally, the relationship between creative production, the individual and society. Hilary Underwood teaches the History Art at the University of Surrey. She trained as a painter then studied art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is a former Assistant Curator at the Watts Gallery. She was co-curator with Professor Allen Staley of the exhibition "Painting tne Cosmos: Landscapes by G.F. Watts" at Nevill Keating Pictures, St. James's, London, and at the Watts Gallery, Compton, in 2006 THE LECTURE VENUE IS: THE LECTURE THEATRE, FRANCIS HOLLAND SCHOOL, Ivor Place, (on corner with Park Road), London NW1. Free parking is available in adjacent streets all day Saturdays. Nearest Underground station is Baker Street, just a few minutes walk away. Admission - £12 - must be booked in advance. (£9 for students). FOR ANY OTHER ENQUIRIES and FOR BOOKING go to our Contact Us page. SATURDAY, 13th SEPTEMBER 2008 ALAN TAYLOR (TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED) SATURDAY, 18th OCTOBER 2008 STEPHEN HAINE (TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED) SATURDAY, 15th NOVEMBER, Christmas Lecture 'IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONS', LINDSAY WELLS TO VIEW SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM PREVIOUS LECTURES CLICK HERE: SELECTED LECTURE EXTRACTS