JAMES WYATT: CHARLATAN OR GENIUS? :: ARTS SOCIETY KENNET & SWINDON

THE ARTS SOCIETY KENNET AND SWINDON

FEBRUARY MEETING:

JAMES WYATT: CHARLATAN OR GENIUS?

Talk by CHRISTOPHER ROGERS

At the Ellendune Centre, Wroughton on Monday, 12 February 2018

Coffee served from 10am – all welcome

James Wyatt succeeded Robert Adam as the most celebrated neo-classical architect of the late eighteenth century.

He was a prolific architect working in both the classical and flamboyant gothic style.

Wyatt was appointed Surveyor General of the Office of Works in 1796

in which post he worked for King George III  at Windsor and Kew.  

However, he is also associated with controversial restoration work at three English cathedrals, most notably Salisbury.

His nemesis was Fonthill Abbey, near Tisbury, the most extravagant and ambitious house he ever built

– the tower collapsed in 1825. 

This lecture looks at the rise and fall of this prolific architect.  

Was he a genius, or with this wisdom of hindsight, was he a charlatan?

The jury is still out!
CHRISTOPHER ROGERS is the past chairman of Kennet DFAS and remains an active member of this society.  

He read Geography at Oxford  and came to Wiltshire in 1974 to teach  at Marlborough College.

After many years at Marlborough he went on to Downe House School near Newbury.  

He gave weekly courses at the Marlborough College Summer School from its inception until 2016.

He has lectured for NADFAS for many years, as well as U3A and the National Trust.