4 October: Simon Seligman “Chatsworth: a 21st Century Renaissance”

Chatsworth has undergone a renaissance under the leadership of first, the 11th, and now the 12th, Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This lecture paints a portrait of the Devonshire’s treasure house in the modern age, illustrating the extensive decorative and furnishing renovations and the restoration of historic interiors and works of art. The lecture also includes work by modern artists in the collection at Chatsworth including Lucian Freud, Elisabeth Frink, David Hockney and others.

Simon Seligman

“I fell in love with a photograph of Chatsworth when I was 12 and visited for the first time as a teenager.  I then worked there for 19 years, from 1991 to 2010, starting with a summer job car parking and lavatory cleaning, and ending up as their first Head of Communications. My first bosses were the 11th Duke of Devonshire, Andrew and his wife Deborah (famous in her own right as ‘Debo’, the youngest of the six Mitford sisters), and then their son Stoker, the current Duke and his wife Amanda, and in that time I became immersed in the place; the house itself, its collections, landscape and history.  I hope to pass on my life-long passion for this beautiful place.”