The Wye Tour and its Artists – a major exhibition of over 70 watercolours on loan from UK and Welsh national collections, will be staged at Chepstow Museum from 1 May until 5 September 2010.
Guest curator, author Julian Mitchell has selected his ‘best and most interesting’ watercolours of the Lower Wye Valley to make up this new display. It features works by the masters of British watercolours, including Turner, Paul Sandby, Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker, Thomas Hearne, Edward Dayes, John & Cornelius Varley, Samuel Palmer, David Cox and Joshua Cristall.
Sites viewed and visited by the first tourists who came down the River Wye in canopied rowing boats from Ross-on-Wye to Chepstow on a two day trip in the late 18th and early 19th century are included. 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.
Anne Rainsbury, Curator, Chepstow Museum said:
“It’s very exciting to be bringing together these wonderful pictures, and bringing them back to the source of their inspiration. I hope that visitors will find it equally exciting to be able to enjoy looking at the paintings and then to see the sites and scenery for themselves.”
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 museums in Wales 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 national collections, giving the museum and its community access to the nation’s great treasures.
There will also be a programme of associated events and activities throughout the exhibition. Please contact the Museum for a programme (tel: 01291 625981 or e-mail: [email protected]).
Chepstow Museum is open from Monday to Saturday, 11am – 5pm, and on Sundays from 2 – 5pm. From July – September, opening times are extended – 10.30am – 5.30pm.
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.
Event programme in association with the exhibition
Saturday 15th May for Museums at Night
Exhibition open until 7pm, followed by 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 conc, The Drill Hall, Lower Church St, 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, Lecturer History of Art, University of Glasgow, and curator of ‘Paul Sandby Picturing Britain’ currently at the Royal Academy ; and Felicity Myrone, Curator of Topography, British Library. In association with The Art Fund, Gwent branch. £4, £3 conc The Drill Hall, Lower Church St
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 St,.
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 conc The Drill Hall, Lower Church Street
