Chepstow Museum - Current Exhibition
Exhibition Gallery
THE WYE TOUR AND ITS ARTISTS
Works by the greatest artists from the great age of British Watercolours
Guest curator, author Julian Mitchell
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CHEPSTOW MUSEUM
Gwy House, Bridge Street, Chepstow, Monmouthshire
MAY 1ST – SEPTEMBER 5TH 2010
Open: Mon-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm, July – Sept open 10.30am, close 5.30pm
Tel: 01291 625981, e-mail: chepstowmuseum@monmouthshire.gov.uk
A major exhibition of over 70 watercolours on loan from the national collections in London as well as Wales, and from museums around the UK is being staged at Chepstow, the endpoint of the Wye Tour - Britain’s first ‘package tour’. Guest curator Julian Mitchell* has selected his ‘best and most interesting’ watercolours of the Lower Wye Valley. Here are the sites viewed and visited by the first tourists who came down the river in canopied rowing boats from Ross-on-Wye to Chepstow on a two day trip in the late 18th and early 19th century. They followed in the wake of the Rev William Gilpin whose book popularised the tour and the quest for ‘picturesque’ scenery - landscapes that could make, or be compared to, paintings. Many amateurs as well as professional artists came to capture the scenes. This exhibition features works by the masters from that great age of British watercolours, including Turner, Paul Sandby, Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker, Thomas Hearne, Edward Dayes, John & Cornelius Varley, Samuel Palmer, David Cox, Joshua Cristall…
John White Abbott, part of Chepstow Castle, 1797 © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London
This exhibition has been made possible through a grant from the Cyfoeth Cymru Gyfan – Sharing Treasures scheme which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and administered by CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales. The scheme enables local Welsh museums to build partnerships with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and with their expertise, advice and support to upgrade facilities so that the museum can borrow and display objects from the British national collections, giving the museum and its community access to the nation’s great treasures.
John Martin, The Wye Valley, View from Wyndcliffe looking towards Chepstow 1844,
© The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester
There will also be a programme of associated events and activities throughout the exhibition, please contact the Museum for a programme. (See below for list of events)
*Julian Mitchell - best known as playwright and screenplay writer – Another Country, Wilde, Inspector Morse etc, but also historian who lives in Monmouthshire and whose passion for the works of art that the area has inspired has led to twenty five years of study and scholarship
Paul Sandby, Chepstow Castle
c 1775 © V & A Images/Victoria
and Albert Museum, London
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT THE WYE TOUR
The Wye Tour owes its origins to the Rev John Egerton, vicar of Ross on Wye in the 1740s who entertained his friends by taking them down the river in a pleasure boat. The idea caught on, and by the 1770s the commercial version was becoming established as a two-day trip from Ross to Monmouth on the first, Monmouth to Chepstow on the second. At a cost of one and a half guineas for each day this was not a cheap outing. The boats had a protective awning from the sun or rain, and a table at which the occupants could sketch or write poetry or prose, as the scenery inspired them, and indeed as it became expected for them to do. An itinerary became established to take in the important sites and viewpoints, with stopping places for picnics which were provided as part of the package. This stretch of the Wye had everything to inspire the romantic traveller, the scenery in all its variety, infernal industry, the ruins of Tintern Abbey, castles on cliff tops and the wonders of the Piercefield walks.
The early ‘tourists’ had no guidebook to tell them where to look. From the 1770s there were published accounts of some of the high spots. The artist Paul Sandby had been down the Wye and his aquatints of Welsh views did much to persuade people to see the scenes for themselves. But in 1783 the book that was to become the essential companion for all those who ventured down the Wye, was finally published – the Rev William Gilpin’s ‘Observations on the River Wye, and several parts of South Wales etc Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty: Made in the Summer of the Year 1770’. Gilpin laid down rules for assessing the picturesque quality of the views encountered on the trip down the river, and while his extreme ideas were exposed to ridicule by some, the search for the picturesque scene became an obsession for the growing number of people who followed faithfully in his footsteps.
The Wye Valley became a mecca for artists and writers as well as the amateur and the increasing popularity of the medium of watercolour, and technical improvements in its portability, produced some wonderful works which have a place in the National collections.
WYE TOUR AND ITS ARTISTS - EVENTS PROGRAMME:
Saturday 15th May for Museums at Night
Exhibition open until 7pm, followed by a screening of ‘All the Waters of Wye’, a four-part HTV documentary in which Julian Mitchell, who will introduce it, recreates the Wye Tour in a modern rowing boat.
7.30pm – 10pm £3, £2 concession The Drill Hall, Lower Church Street, Chepstow
Saturday 22 May 2-5pm, Paul Sandby: Picturing Wales
An exploration of the work of ‘the father of English watercolour’ who brought Welsh scenery to a wide public, chaired by Professor Luke Herrmann. With Dr John Bonehill, curator of ‘Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain’ at the Royal Academy ; and Felicity Myrone, Curator of Topography, British Library. In association with The Art Fund, Gwent branch. £4, £3 concession The Drill Hall, Lower Church Street
Wednesday 9 June 7.30pm, The Wye Tour and its Artists
Julian Mitchell talks about the exhibition, the book and the Wye Tour. Followed by book signing. £2 admission (taken off the purchase price of a book), The Drill Hall, Lower Church Street
Saturday 26 June 10am-4pm Wye Tour Dayschool
Discover more with a programme of notable speakers introduced by Julian Mitchell, including Malcolm Andrews, author of The Search for the Picturesque, Professor John Goodridge on poet Robert Bloomfield, Professor Robin Jarvis on Wordsworth & The Wye, and David Whitehead on James Wathen, the Hereford artist and tour guide. £7 full, £2.50 concession (supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, part of the Overlooking the Wye Scheme), The Drill Hall, Lower Church Street.
Saturday 24 July, 2-5pm Turner in Wales & on the Wye.
with Andrew Wilton formerly Keeper of the British Collection, Tate Gallery now Visiting Research Fellow, and David Brown, Curator 18th & 19th Century British Art, Tate Britain, chaired by Professor Luke Herrmann, all authors of numerous books on JMW Turner and British Art. In association with The Art Fund, Gwent branch £4, £3 concession The Drill Hall, Lower Church Street
Chepstow Museum tel: 01291 625981 or e-mail: chepstowmuseum@monmouthshire.gov.uk
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Please indicate the number of full price or concessionary price tickets you would like for each event:
Saturday 15th May, 7.30pm All the waters of Wye
…..Number tickets @ £3 full price =….. ……Number @£2 concession rate = …..
Saturday 22 May 2-5pm, Paul Sandby: Picturing Wales
…..Number tickets @ £4 full price =….. ……Number @£3 concession rate = …..
Wednesday 9 June 7.30pm, The Wye Tour and its Artists
…..Number of tickets @ £2 (which can be taken off the purchase price of a book) =……
Saturday 26 June 10am-4pm Wye Tour Dayschool
…..Number tickets @ £7 full price =….. ……Number @£2.50 concession rate = …..
Saturday 24 July, 2-5pm Turner in Wales & on the Wye
…..Number tickets @ £4 full price =….. ……Number @£3 concession rate = …..
Total amount: ……….
Please make cheques payable to Monmouthshire County Council, and send with SAE to:
Chepstow Museum, Bridge Street, Chepstow, Monmouthshire NP16 5EZ
Chepstow Museum
The elegant late 18th Century town house, at the bottom of the town, opposite the Castle car park is home to the award winning Chepstow Museum.
The house itself has an interesting history involving some prominent people in Chepstow's past. Built in 1796 by Warren Jane the Younger, an Apothecary, Gwy House as it is known continued to be linked to the medical profession. Owned for many years in the 19th century by a respected local surgeon it became a Red Cross Hospital for soldiers in the First World War and until recently was the Chepstow & District Hospital. A display in the museum vividly illustrates the changing uses of the building over the years.
The museum's exhibits reflect the development of Chepstow, once an important port and bustling market town. The displays show the growth and decline of the port with its valuable wine and timber trades. Shipbuilding and salmon fishing and many other aspects of Chepstow's working life are shown in imaginative settings which recapture an essence of the original scenes. Pleasures and pastimes are recalled in original photographs, programmes and posters.
The growth of the town from Roman times to the present century is depicted in a series of paintings by Linda Waters forming a centerpiece of a gallery which looks at what makes a town tick: how its services have developed; its communication systems; and, the vital importance of its bridges.
The museum also holds a fine collection of 18th and 19th century prints and drawings illustrates the appeal of Chepstow and the Wye Valley.
Today's visitor will find his appreciation of the town, its castle and other interesting buildings enriched by an understanding of its history. For younger visitors, there are free quizzes, trails and an activity station with things to make and puzzles and mystery bags to add to their enjoyment, plus events and activities in school holidays.
There is always something new to see at the museum with regularly changing exhibitions including subjects of local and regional interest, as well as demonstrations, lectures and workshops. The museum is a resource of local information for people researching family history, local history and more general social history topics, students working on theses and school children working on projects.
Admission is FREE and the Museum is open daily although times vary according to the season. Contact Chepstow Museum, Bridge Street Chepstow on 01291 625981.