Arrive at 10.30 (own transport)

The original date of 13 May sold

After a welcome coffee/tea, there will be a short illustrated introductory talk giving a background to the museum’s exhibitions and the connections with Agatha Christie. This will set the scene of Agatha Christie’s home in Wallingford at Winterbrook House, which is now a private residence, inaccessible to the public. The talk will include photographs taken there in 2021 when the house was on the market.

The museum exhibition At home with the ‘Queen of Crime’ features Agatha Christie’s life with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan in Winterbrook House from 1934 till her death in 1976. Many of her novels were written there. She shopped regularly in Wallingford but worshipped at her parish church in Cholsey, where she now lies buried with her husband in the churchyard. The exhibition takes you behind the scenes to her home life, featuring photographs of her at Winterbrook House and memories of local people who met her. You can read several personally handwritten letters which reveal her love of pantomimes and her gradual frustration as her health declined in her final years. Many stories have also been gathered from local people who knew ‘Mrs Mallowan’ – people who visited her, served her in shops, worked for her at Winterbrook House and even interviewed her.

In 2023 a bronze statue of Agatha Christie was unveiled just opposite the museum. Details of its creation are also given in the exhibition.

‘Agatha Christie’s Wallingford’

In this 50th anniversary year since Agatha Christie’s death, an additional exhibition focuses on the many events, developments and gradual changes in Wallingford in the 1950s, 60s and 1970s which Agatha would have witnessed. It was a time when she much enjoyed her self-proclaimed favourite role as ‘Mrs Mallowan, Housewife’, spending ever increasing time working alongside Max at Winterbrook House and using the facilities of town where they lived.

You can also challenge yourself to find images depicting 44 titles of her books, hidden in a brilliant piece of artwork from local artist Susan Ray!

Other Exhibitions

There are other exhibitions throughout the Museum, including major ones on Wallingford Castle, the Wallingford Workhouse, recent archaeology, pub history, and much more!

Your ticket will be valid for unlimited re-visits until we close for the winter on 28 November.

Own transport to Wallingford.

Arrive at 10.30 (own transport)

Cost: £10 to include coffee and biscuits

After a welcome coffee/tea, there will be a short illustrated introductory talk giving a background to the museum’s exhibitions and the connections with Agatha Christie. This will set the scene of Agatha Christie’s home in Wallingford at Winterbrook House, which is now a private residence, inaccessible to the public. The talk will include photographs taken there in 2021 when the house was on the market.

The museum exhibition At home with the ‘Queen of Crime’ features Agatha Christie’s life with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan in Winterbrook House from 1934 till her death in 1976. Many of her novels were written there. She shopped regularly in Wallingford but worshipped at her parish church in Cholsey, where she now lies buried with her husband in the churchyard. The exhibition takes you behind the scenes to her home life, featuring photographs of her at Winterbrook House and memories of local people who met her. You can read several personally handwritten letters which reveal her love of pantomimes and her gradual frustration as her health declined in her final years. Many stories have also been gathered from local people who knew ‘Mrs Mallowan’ – people who visited her, served her in shops, worked for her at Winterbrook House and even interviewed her.

In 2023 a bronze statue of Agatha Christie was unveiled just opposite the museum. Details of its creation are also given in the exhibition.

‘Agatha Christie’s Wallingford’

In this 50th anniversary year since Agatha Christie’s death, an additional exhibition focuses on the many events, developments and gradual changes in Wallingford in the 1950s, 60s and 1970s which Agatha would have witnessed. It was a time when she much enjoyed her self-proclaimed favourite role as ‘Mrs Mallowan, Housewife’, spending ever increasing time working alongside Max at Winterbrook House and using the facilities of town where they lived.

You can also challenge yourself to find images depicting 44 titles of her books, hidden in a brilliant piece of artwork from local artist Susan Ray!

Other Exhibitions

There are other exhibitions throughout the Museum, including major ones on Wallingford Castle, the Wallingford Workhouse, recent archaeology, pub history, and much more!

Your ticket will be valid for unlimited re-visits until we close for the winter on 28 November.

Own transport to Wallingford.

Buscot Park near Faringdon is the home of Lord Faringdon and the Henderson family.  In the 1940s it was effectively given to the National Trust which looks after the fabric of the building but,thanks to a leaseback to the family, it plays no part in the running of the house and gardens.  Both are delightful but the highlight of Buscot is the priceless collection of paintings covering everywall.

The house has the feel of a luxurious Art gallery and, as the upkeep is the responsibility of the family, the interior is constantly upgraded – no faded grandeur here. The paintings are stunning - a Rembrandt, Rubens , Gainsborough and many more.  A special delight was The Saloon with 4 huge Burne-Jones murals depicting the Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) with smaller murals added by the painter to make an unbroken narrative. The family continues to add to the collection with one bedroom devoted to contemporary paintings including a superb Graham Sutherland and a Sickert. The Glassware was stunning and a special treat was a huge modern glass and bronze sculpture “The Three Graces’ which had to be seen to be believed.

We had a wonderful guide in Dr Amy Lim who, as the curator of the collection, was able to give us some special insights into the history of each painting.

There was time to enjoy the stunning herbaceous borders which were at their peak and to see the terracotta warriors standing guard at the Walled Garden!  The Faux Fall commissioned by the current Lord Faringdon is extraordinary; it uses polished stainless-steel panels to create the optical illusion of a continuous, cascading waterfall.

As always, the visit was perfectly organised, even down to a dramatic thunderstorm raging outside while we were under cover eating our packed lunches!  A smashing day.

Islamic Study Session at the Ashmolean

After Islam had successfully completed aggressive conquests, it subsequently tended to allow life to continue very much in the manner it had always done.

In this way, ceramic crafts and trades were able to flourish both traditionally and by different cultural influences.

The Ashmolean’s Islamic curator illustrated this rich diversity by showing our group a selection of chosen ceramics in chronological order.

Late C12th to early C13th fritware, with painting in lustre over an opaque white glaze or with overglaze enamels, showed enthroned figures, probably made in Kashan, Iran. I think some of us, including myself, having absorbed the belief that Islam did not allow the representation of living entities, were surprised and delighted.

My favourite was a very pretty, C14th little fritware bowl, painted in blue, turquoise and black, with a hare in the centre. Today’s contemporary art scene illustrates hares in every mode. I have an original framed watercolour on my kitchen wall of a Jack and a Jill in a Cumbrian field setting. How interesting that man’s fascination with the mystical hare goes back so far in time. The variety of shape, colour and design was astonishing. A C17th bottle with a couple in landscape and a jar with horses and geometric and floral design, both fritware with underglazed painting in blue and black were made during the Safavid Period, (c. 1501–1736) which marked the establishment of Twelver Shi‘ism as Iran’s state religion and the consolidation of a unified Persian identity under a powerful centralized dynasty.

Seeing these beautiful ceramics in the Jameel Centre and being able to touch and hold them was a wonderful privilege, elevated by the extensive knowledge of the curator.

Dyrham Park near Bath was built by William Blathwayt in the 1690s to capitalise on his very successful career as a high-ranking and esteemed official in the government of William and Mary. The Tudor mansion inherited by his wife was demolished and Blathwayt, a man with taste as well as money, set about creating a new house and gardens which reflected many of the cultural enthusiasms of his royal patrons. These enthusiasms were predominantly Dutch and there is an outstanding collection of art and Delftware including the iconic blue and white tulip vases decorated at this time of year with the tulips for which they were intended. Blathwayt was also Auditor General for Virginia and American walnut and cedar woods are used in the construction of the staircases while his positions of responsibility in the West Indies show the influence of his association with the slave trade.

The property is approached from the top of a ridge overlooking the house and a winding walk with extensive views leads one down to the house itself which is satisfyingly symmetrical in shape. The really sensational aspect of a trip to Dyrham is to see the unparalleled display of hundreds of different varieties of tulips of every shape and colour and the visit had been planned to take full advantage of them. At the front of the house there is a small parterre elegantly planted with black and white tulips and from there one can walk down a few steps to the main formal gardens which are laid out in avenues planted out with a huge carefully designed array of tulips many of which were previously unknown to me and even the more knowledgeable gardeners amongst us.

But the piece de resistance is the wildflower orchard which is covered with an apparently random sewing of hundreds of different coloured tulips of multitudinous varieties. Swathes of colour in subtly different shades of pink, orange, red, black, striped and plain all dramatically set off by stunning patches of white create a wondrous sight. And to cap it all the weather was warm and sunny with a bit of a breeze. Dutch influences certainly but a truly remarkable and somehow very English garden.

What a fabulous day! Full coach arriving in time for coffee! (Thanks to Trish and Tom's perfect timing)

This historical landmark offers a fascinating and informative experience, with interactive exhibits, audio guides and knowledgeable volunteers. We were lucky to have a dry and sunny day also. 

I would recommend to anyone with an interest in WW2 to gain an understanding of the codebreakers and their influence on the outcome of WW2. Was rather exciting to stand in the same room where Alan Turing worked and see the Enigma and Bombe Machines used by the codebreakers. One definitely steps into a different era.

Also beautiful is the eclectic Victorian Mansion (where the war work began), combining Gothic, Tudor and Dutch Baroque styles with asymmetric facades, fronted by a lake and gardens.  Perfect for our 'arty" group!

TASA members certainly had a memorable day!

Tate Britain currently has two major exhibitions.  This ‘extra’ visit responding to requests is sold out but it is definitely worth putting your name on a waiting list by email to info@theartssocietyabingdon.org.uk or phone 01235-522886.

Lee Miller. Trailblazing, surrealist photographer and one of the C.20 most urgent artistic voices. The American was a remarkable artist whose life story had more than a few twists: from Vogue cover girl to Vogue photographer; from surrealists’ muse to pioneer of the movement; from commercial portraitist to war photographer. Determined to forge her own path, she later commented, “It was a matter of getting out on a damn limb and sawing it off behind you.” Guardian review: “a dazzling, daring career from war photographer to surrealist pioneer via Hitler’s bathtub”.   Cost: £43; Art Fund £35.

OR

Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals. Two of Britain’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. Born within a year of each other – Turner in 1775, Constable in 1776 – the art critics of the day compared their paintings to a clash of ‘fire and water’. The two painters vyed for success through very different but equally bold approaches and the scene was set for a heady rivalry within the competitive world of landscape art. Turner painted blazing sunsets and sublime scenes from his travels, while Constable often returned to depictions of a handful of beloved places, striving for freshness and authenticity in his portrayal of nature.   Cost: £46; Art Fund £37.

Depart Stratton Way 8.30 and Rye Farm car-park 8.35

Depart London 15.30

Young, engaging and enthusiastic, Billy Beswick, the Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean, introduced us to the concept of The Three Perfections: poetry, painting and calligraphy which taken together make up more than the sum of their parts. Pat Suet-Bik Hui, now 82, identified herself as a modern interpreter of this ancient Chinese tradition and produced most of the remarkable works displayed in this exhibition. Calligraphic brushstrokes are as integral to each work’s compositional balance as those used in painting. Likewise images conjured by a poem and those rendered in a painting combine to create effects neither can achieve alone. Hui sees herself as both an innovator and a standard bearer of tradition.

The colours Hui uses range from the subtle and delicate to the bold and vibrant. She does the painting, collaborating intimately with others who write the poems and do the calligraphy. A particular favourite of our mentor (and one I would love to have on my own wall) is in shades of brownish red and black. The calligrapher draws out the subtle vertical flows of ink in Hui’s horizontal brush strokes. The sense of movement this creates is enhanced by the inscribed poem which focuses on the passage of time and the speaker’s loss of youthful vigour (not, I hope, too directly aimed at these Arts Society visitors!).

The exhibition on the ground floor of the Ashmolean runs until the end of June 2026.  Not to be missed.

A FEW PLACES REMAIN AND DEFINITELY WORTH PUTTING YOURSELF ON A WAITING LIST FOR LAST MINUTE CNCELLATIONS

Cartier exhibition

‘Objects of exquisite beauty, pure and simple’ – 5-star review in The Times. A major exhibition featuring more than 350 objects, including precious jewels, historic gemstones, iconic watches and clocks, that chart the evolution of Cartier's legacy of art, design and craftmanship since the turn of the twentieth century.   We have secured 50 tickets for this landmark exhibition.

Marie Antoinette Style exhibition

Concurrent with Cartier the V&A has an exhibition Marie Antoinette Style which opens in September 2025. A complex fashion icon, Marie Antoinette’s timeless appeal is defined by her style, youth and notoriety. The exhibition explores the lasting influence of the most fashionable and ill-fated queen in history – with over 250 years of design, fashion, film and art. We have secured 24 tickets.

Cost: Cartier exhibition only £45; Cartier + Marie Antoinette £63.

If you are an Art Fund member Cartier only £35; Cartier + Marie Antoinette £45 but please tell us when you book that you are an AF member.

Depart Abingdon 8.30

Depart V&A 16.00

To book email info@theartssocietyabingdon.org.uk 

Day 1 – Abingdon to Halifax and Harrogate

We set off from Abingdon at 8.30am — exactly on time — for the 200-mile journey to Harrogate. The weather was wet and dull, and the scenery rather dull too as we travelled north. But the miles sped by quickly, aided by a comforting refreshment stop at a service station. Then as we entered Yorkshire the sun came out and soon we were driving into a handsome town ringed by wooded hills. We had arrived in Halifax!

Our visit was to the extraordinary Piece Hall —'piece' being a length of woollen cloth. This vast Georgian courtyard, bounded by 315 store/sales rooms on three levels, was built as a trading space for locally woven woollen fabric. The space needed to be secure so the exterior is fortress-like and windowless, but inside it feels more like an Italian piazza than a space in the North of England. Over time it has served as a trading hall, militia drill yard, horse market, fruit & veg market, etc. By the 1970s it had fallen into disrepair and faced demolition—until one heroic Halifax town councillor delivered an impassioned speech that saved it. Beautifully restored, it became the delightful place we visited.

Then on to Harrogate. The Crowne Plaza Hotel looked daunting at first, its lower floors encased in scaffolding. But we rose above that: the accommodation was comfortable, the beds huge, the food at least sustaining, and the pre-dinner conversations in the bar intriguing.

Day 2 – Tennants Auction House and Markenfield Hall

Our morning visit was to Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn. At first glance, an auction house might seem an odd destination for an Arts Society visit, but it proved fascinating. Tennants is the largest family-run auction house in the UK, handling everything from magnificent collections of silver and fine art (and occasionally whisky) to trays of bric-a-brac that any of us might have assembled. The parent company has always moved with the times: two or three generations ago a sale might have taken place in a farmyard in the rain. Today, thanks to the internet, the auctioneer can be at the centre of a global audience and bids come in from all over the world. Tennants’ excellent with everything they do extended to our lunch in their on-site restaurant.

Markenfield Hall was a complete contrast: a moated medieval manor house with a complicated history dating back as far as the Domesday Book. Still a private home, it’s a fascinating jumble of rooms of all sizes linked by a maze of corridors and staircases. Pictures and objects hang higgledy-piggledy on the walls, none more remarkable than a frame containing tiny fragments of bone from 365 different saints, one for each day of the year. We had incidentally been warmly welcomed to Markenfield with tea and cakes in front of a roaring log fire.

Day 3 – Harewood House and free time in Harrogate

Day 3 brought us to Harewood House (once pronounced Haahwood but now Hairwood it seems). A nice feature of this visit was that after a guided tour of the principal rooms we were free to retrace the route on our own and linger over whatever had caught our eye. Everything at Harewood is of the highest “wow” quality: ceilings by Robert Adam, furniture by Chippendale, family portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough, and landscapes by Capability Brown. The picture gallery contains works by Giovanni Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, and El Greco. The library equally has treasures, including a copy of the original 1568 edition of Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. As well as all this, contemporary art was displayed in every room and on the terrace outside stands a magnificent bronze statue of Orpheus by the German-born British artist Astrid Zydower. Rather than his usual attribute, a lyre, he carries a sleeping leopard across his shoulders and is as impressive from the front as from the rear.

In the afternoon we had free time to explore the delights of Harrogate itself: a Turkish Bath perhaps, or a visit to the Royal Pump Room Museum (a smelly experience), or shopping, or tea at the famous Betty’s café. A little further from the centre of the town was the Old Swan Hotel, where Agatha Christie took refuge for eleven days during her mysterious disappearance in 1926.

Day 4 – Saltaire and RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Saltaire is mind-blowing, a complete 19th-century industrial village created by Sir Titus Salt for his mill workers and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The immense mill has been reborn as a complex of galleries, shops, and places to eat. The star artist and presiding presence is the local Bradford boy David Hockney. His wonderful 'A Year in Normandy' images were everywhere.

After lunch we doubled back to the Royal Horticultural Society Harlow Carr garden on the edge of Harrogate. Originally a spa (where visitors once paid two shillings and sixpence to bathe in waters as pungent as those in the town), it later became the garden of the Northern Horticultural Society before joining the RHS. The autumn foliage colours were glorious, there was a shop full of green temptations, and (wonderful to discover) another branch of Betty’s.

Day 5 – The Hepworth Gallery Wakefield and so home to Abingdon 

Our homeward journey was broken with a stop at The Hepworth Wakefield. The gallery’s core collection celebrates Barbara Hepworth, who was born locally, and we also enjoyed exhibitions of ceramics by Elizabeth Fritsch and intriguing installations by Helen Chadwick — including a ten-foot-high vertical compost heap and a jacuzzi-sized tub of molten chocolate. One of us did enquire about getting in, but thought better of it on learning that the chocolate had been bubbling since May.

And so, on the final leg, we headed home. We arrived back in Abingdon safe and sound, perhaps a little tired but delighted by all we had seen. Andy, our driver, and the Weavaway VIP coach were a dream combination, and our WhatsApp facility was nifty for sharing tips on things not to be missed, last-minute announcements, and photographs — a few of these slightly 'confessional' perhaps, such as some of our group sitting contentedly around a towering three-tier cake stand in Betty’s Harrogate branch. Bravo!

And bravo North Yorkshire!

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Lizzy Rowe must be the best guide in Oxford. Superbly informative, clear voiced (heard by the whole group even when competing with drills and a lawnmower), odd details cleverly interspersing the main themes, she began by telling us of Wren’s early years in Oxford as ‘gentleman commoner’ at Wadham College. She pointed out stone carvings on the façade, including that of the college’s foundress who never visited the college, though she kept tight control of its statutes and finances right up to her death. Outstandingly precocious, Wren showed himself to be a true polymath with interests in philosophy and all the sciences - but not yet architecture.

We were then invited to peer through the wrought iron garden gates, opposite Wadham, of Trinity College. Across the vast lawn and to the right is another Wren building, though somewhat modified from Wren’s original proposals which included a mansard roof of the type much seen in France. Interestingly Wren only went abroad once, to Paris in 1665/66, fortuitously avoiding the plague and London’s Great Fire.

To the Sheldonian, Wren’s second building in Oxford. Promoted by Dean Fell of Christ Church who wanted a suitable building for the university’s formal ceremonies (to replace the rowdy, unseemly use of the University Church in the High Street), it was financed by Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury. He initially pledged £1,000 but eventually coughed up nearly £15,000 – that in a time when a craftsman’s wages were often no more than £4 a year. We spent some time looking at the south façade that faces the Divinity School, so often overlooked, with carvings, of course, representing the Archbishop but also amusingly of shields showing three ducks – in a row!

In Radcliffe Square (no Camera there in Wren’s time) we could see across into All Souls where above the library is a large sundial, attributed to Wren. He was elected a fellow in 1653 joining the academic elite of Oxford, though he eventually returned to occupy rooms at Wadham while he was the Professor of Astronomy from 1661.

Finally to Christ Church, viewing Tom Tower from across the road. Wren designed this square tower with an octagonal lantern and facetted ogee dome which was built in 1681/82, the gateway having remained roofless for 150 years. In its late gothic style it is unlike Wren’s other buildings and is an early precursor of the gothic revival that was to come a century later. He never supervised the building as such, leaving it to Christopher Kempster, the stonemason-architect of Abingdon’s County Hall. Lizzy Rowe ended our walk by reminding us of the wording on Sir Christopher Wren’s tomb in St Paul’s Cathedral: si monumentum requiris, circumspice (if you seek his monument, look around you). It might apply equally to Oxford.

Oxford has many ancient College buildings but on Tuesday 9 September a small group of us were privileged to have a tour of two of the oldest, All Souls and St Edmund Hall (always known as Teddy Hall). Our guide was the experienced Lizzy Rowe who took us across the road to see the front entrance of All Souls with statues on either side of Henry VI and Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, who were co-founders of the College in 1438.

As soon as we entered we were aware of the history and tranquility of the buildings. As we progressed from Quad to Quad Lizzy told us about the Fellows, all postgraduates of a high quality who had passed a very difficult exam to become a Fellow. Lizzy explained the use of the buildings and pointed out the sculpted heads round many of them, some depicting known people. The Chapel was very impressive as it was unusually large. The ante chapel with its original black hammerbeam roof so high up was decorated with gilded angels. But most impressive was the huge medieval stone reredos behind the altar.

We then proceeded a short distance and entered Teddy Hall. It takes its name from St. Edmund of Abingdon, former Archbishop of Canterbury. Medieval Halls pre-dated the university colleges and Teddy Hall was one of the oldest. It was officially endowed to College status in 1957. The front quad is very beautiful. The most interesting thing in the chapel is the east window which was reconstructed in 1865 with stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. The painting behind the altar is Supper at Emmaus, painted by Ceri Richards in 1957, which apparently caused quite a controversy. The Hall is unusual in having a small graveyard and now contains a bronze statue of St. Edmund. The statue holds a book to represent his identity as a man of learning and humility as he was a respected scholar and lecturer at Oxford University before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. The book symbolises his scholarly pursuits and the act of reading signifies his preference for learning over the trappings of his powerful office.

We all enjoyed this trip and most of us felt we would like to return for a further visit.

After months of searing sunshine followed by two weeks of intermittent rain, we had perfect benign sunny warm conditions for our afternoon visit to Thenford Gardens, at the country manor of Anne and Michael Heseltine, near Middleton Cheney, just east of Banbury. The journey started off on the right note as we boarded our Weavaway coach, pristine inside and out, with the usual very capable and friendly driver. Huge thanks are due to the committee for identifying and arranging this visit: the gardens are only open to the public on 19 days per year, and even then in the afternoons only, and for a strictly limited number of visitors. The atmosphere at the gardens felt quite special, quite unique. It is not at all commercialised, it has little signage, next to no lettering or notices apart from the very unobtrusive species labels on the very beautiful plants and trees, and facilities that are roomy yet have no hint of previous usage, a tearoom but no gift shop or guide books or the like. No guided tours, no “interpreters”, we were handed a very nicely-produced colour map of the gardens as we alighted from the coach. We had I think 59 participants, and, walking around, it somehow felt like our party made up a high proportion of the visitors that afternoon. We were the only coach party. Despite the extensive size of the gardens, the above really makes you feel you are visiting someone's private home.

Thenford “Gardens”, in the plural, is aptly named: the very extensive site consists of a number of different types of garden and woodland, with lakes and water features. The first vista, from the large grassy area in front of the house, looks very Capability Brown, looking down as it does on a large lake, ultimately curving away from left to right and away from the viewer like a sharp river turn. Here on the lawn we saw our first of the many sculptures that adorn the gardens. This a lovely shiny metallic representation of a pair of stylised elongated cormorants, shining in the afternoon sun.

As you walk down the long Lemmings Walk from the end of the house you again see water gardens in front of you, before passing through ornamental stone arches to the stunning and immaculate walled garden, which seemed to be everyone's chosen first port of call. There was a large, discreetly caged-in area housing a collection of parrots and parakeets, and, I imagine everybody's favourite, two or more parrots who were plumed like giant budgerigars, who became most talkative, presumably well-pleased to have a rare day where they had visitors to communicate with. The strange, round perspex-type “kiosks” at each corner of the compound housed the birds' nesting boxes, their shape contrasting with the geometric shapes of the surrounding flower-beds.

The rill was our next destination, climbing up the hill towards the Sculpture Garden and beyond, almost to the Trough Garden. I must say I had imagined an Eastern-style, flat, tile-surrounded rill. The rill here in fact descended the hill, each step being an oblong metal basin. I thought it more like a Devizes-type flight of mini canal-locks rather than the Alcazar. When we walked to the top, and on arrival seeing no water emanating from the rocks at the source, it of course dawned on us that there was no water flowing due to the drought, and that normally there would have been a sparkling tinkle from the falling waters. And indeed towards the end of our visit, walking down the beautiful lower glade to seek out the wonderfully-named Heselhenge, we became aware that certain parts of the gardens would have looked and sounded even better when populated with moving water. 

We were wonderfully impressed throughout the gardens by the beautifully-designed garden furniture, seats, gates and arches all in lovely condition, not least the ornamental pair of gates to the Trough Garden, Connie's favourite place for relaxation in the whole garden, surrounded by acers and plants in stone “troughs”.

I can't finish without mention of the Sculpture Garden, a series of topiaried “rooms” of varying size, featuring very interesting, mainly contemporary, but accessible, sculptures by British artists. But, apart from the wounded elephant sculpture and (I wonder how many people spotted) the stone goat feeding on the foliage, I am sure, as for everyone else, the most memorable piece was the massive sculpted Lenin's head, removed from a town square in Latvia at the fall of the Communist regime. We actually loved this as a piece of compulsive modern sculpture, it was hard to turn away from it, and equally fascinating to stick around as different people entered the area where it stands, we enjoyed listening to the various puzzlings and interpretations of the passers-by as they sought to explain to themselves (or not) Heseltine's interest in this artwork.

And although everyone must have mused throughout on how unlikely it was that we would actually see the owner during the visit, finally, in the very last moments of our visit, there he was, the man himself! The perfect finishing touch for our visit to the Heseltines' Garden.

Many thanks to all involved in the conception, planning and organisation of this visit, and for calm and unobtrusive management on the day.

This trip was a splendid opportunity to visit the gardens and the house. It’s relatively easy for a (car-owning) individual to see the much-praised gardens, less easy to see the house as tours have to be arranged. And the house was well worth visiting. We began with the house. Our party was split into two groups, each being led by a highly knowledgeable guide.

There have been three main phases in the history of the house. The original house was built in the Jacobean style in 1635 for Sir Robert Dormer. The house was then expanded under Sir Robert’s grandson, who commissioned the great William Kent; the third phase was Victorian renovation and expansion under the architect St Aubyn. The property and grounds remain in the ownership of the same family; this continuity, coupled with the habit of marrying wealthy heiresses (two in the case of Sir Robert’s son), explains the integrity of the estate, although some of the changes to the house in the Victorian era could be described as less than felicitous.

The Dormers were royalists and the house was completed just before civil war broke out. It was originally just one room in depth and the extant Jacobean doors have ‘keyholes’ in them through which unwelcome visitors could be shot. Sir Robert was nevertheless arrested and imprisoned by Cromwell.

The second phase began when General James Dormer (grandson of Sir Robert) inherited at age 58 (from an older brother). He brought in William Kent in 1738; Kent not only enhanced and developed the gardens, but remodelled and expanded the house, adding two wings with a drawing room and library as well as a stable block. The style has been described as free Gothic. Kent, who was the epitome of a polymath, also designed a lot of furniture and fittings, using certain motifs (including shells and Vitruvian scrolls) widely.

The general’s study, aka the green painted parlour, was a kitchen in 1635. It includes two false doors, to give the impression of more beyond, and a painted canvas ceiling that remarkably arrived on a cart. This room has some of the original octagonal windows; these were removed in Victorian times but retrieved.

The view from the dining room was shaped by Kent. One looks across the bowling green all the way to an ‘eyecatcher’ (a sham ruin) at the furthest point. Notable feature are stained glass and gothic latches, also to be found in the Victorian music room. This music room contains a large 17th century tapestry and a pianoforte that can still be played as well as Chippendale furniture. From the window one can discern a ha-ha and spot a gate for visitors.

A pavilion room was added by Kent. This was once a library but sadly the books were auctioned (at an event attended by Walpole) to make the room more suitable for receiving visitors. The pavilion features a vaulted plaster ceiling, suspended on chains, and the only portrait of General James. A delightful Victorian grotto, including a fernery, was built to join the two wings. 

The house has two original Jacobean staircases. At the base of one is the only original 1635 floor. It is not known what the Victorians did with the rest of the floor. Interesting items included an exercise horse (looking more like a seat and less like a horse) and a glass barometer that is filled with water and is not very accurate. Portraits include the doctor who had the unenviable task of informing Elizabeth I that she had smallpox and Alexander Pope, who was a great friend of the Dormers and loved Rousham.

Upstairs we saw the oak bedroom, which is the only room not touched by Kent and contains the original 1635 panelling. And a dressing table from the Great Exhibition.

The upstairs drawing room boasts a Joshua Reynolds painting; he was possibly experimenting with vegetable pigments at the time.

Monty Don has said “Kent is the great genius of eighteenth-century garden design and Rousham is his masterpiece, one of the greatest gardens in the world”. The gardens are currently tended by three fulltime and three parttime gardeners. A group member gave a guided tour of the gardens for those who were interested.

Sir Robert Dormer’s grandson, Colonel Robert Dormer-Cottrell, inherited in 1719 and employed Charles Bridgeman to lay out the gardens in the new and more naturalistic style that was becoming popular. When his younger brother, General James Dorner, inherited, William Kent was brought in to expand upon Bridgeman’s work. The gardens served as an inspiration for Capability Brown.

The gardens include a curve of the river Cherwell, and a 7-arched colonnade called Praeneste (modelled on the ruins at Palestrina in Italy) was built into a steep bank to overlook the river. But perhaps the first thing one spots on looking across the great lawn/bowling green is a sculpture: Scheemakers’s Lion Attacking a Horse.

Exploring the grounds, one discovers small rills leading to larger ponds and formal pools, (including a cold bath) with classical statuary of Roman gods and mythological creatures. A charming grotto with a small cascade bears the inscription: "In Front of this Stone lie the Remains of RINGWOOD an OTTER-HOUND of extraordinary Sagacity".

Closer to the house is the walled garden with borders and parterre (including beautiful foxgloves). There is a historic dovecote (still with doves) and a path leading to the parish church.

And finally, a choice! We could stay in the gardens at Rousham or go to Woodstock. More than one of us took the opportunity to look round the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. All in all, an excellent outing. And if you weren’t able to go, all is not lost! Rousham House and Gardens have appeared in some filmed productions: Dead of Winter (Lewis), The Pursuit of Love and Renegade Nell. 

‘Explore the opulence and glamour of the Edwardian Age.’ This is an enticement few could refuse. This highly enjoyable exhibition showcases the Edwardians through the lives and tastes of two of what it calls Britain’s most fashionable royal couples—King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and King George V and Queen Mary—from their family lives and personal collecting to their glittering social circles and spectacular royal events.

There is something sumptuous about the Edwardians—their well-upholstered reception rooms, their fabulous jewellery, their glittering costumes, their invincible solidity. The world—of which they owned a large part—must have seemed to Edward and Alexandra and George and Mary a huge emporium offering them all sorts of luxuries and delicacies. Everywhere they went, they were presented with gifts supposedly typical of the places they visited, which gives an odd sort of self-stereotyping character to many of the exotic objects on show here.

A special section covers the Royal Tour of 1901, when the future King George V and Queen Mary (the Duke and Duchess of York at the time) set sail on a voyage spanning the British Empire. It was the most extensive British royal tour ever undertaken. The royal couple travelled almost 50,000 miles over nine months, visiting Malta, Aden, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Singapore, Australia, Mauritius, Southern Africa, New Zealand and Canada. In other words, in a journey of 50,000 miles, they never once set foot outside British possessions. Everywhere they went, they were showered with gifts. Perhaps this is where the future Queen Mary developed a taste for acquisition.

On display there is a fascinating collection of material objects with an Edwardian story to tell. The dresses, with their swathes of material and their improbably wasp waists, the amazing jewellery, the silverware and chinaware and furniture, the bibelots and the paintings…. Where did they put it all? Among volumes presented to the royal personages were a collection of poems from Oscar Wilde (that must have been hurriedly consigned to the back of a cupboard after 1895), and a score of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, first performed in 1901. The new king liked the tune; he suggested that it would make a good song.

The most impressive items in the show are the huge public paintings populated by a large cast of prominent people, usually commemorating important occasions, from birthdays and anniversaries to diplomatic receptions, royal weddings, and garden parties at Buckingham Palace. In the earlier pictures, Queen Victoria is to be glimpsed, tiny but somehow still the focus of the composition, and of her enormous family. After her death, it is Edward VII who presides, a genial and reassuring figure on show at sporting occasions at Ascot and Cowes.

Much is made here of the Marlborough House Set, the crème de la crème of the late Victorian years, where Edward and Alexandra surrounded themselves with fashionable society figures, including actors, artists, musicians, politicians and influential bankers. In individual portraits, full-length to display the figure and dress and jewels to full advantage, Alexandra looks handsome but not entirely happy. She was an interesting and resourceful woman, to judge by her accomplished sketches and water-colours of her travels, and her adventures with an early camera, a No. 1 Kodak.

Edward himself (Tum Tum to his close friends) had a taste for fancy dress, despite having to spend almost his entire life on display in one uniform or other. Though a man who knew how to enjoy himself, he did not encourage liberties. Sir Luke Fildes’s portrait of the king in his pomp looks up at him from a position on the level of his shiny wellingtons. Louise, Duchess of Connaught, King Edward’s sister-in-law, returned John Singer Sargent’s gaze with a withering look. On the other hand, a 1920 sketch by Sargent of the young prince, the future Edward VIII, shows an already bewildered and sulky young man.

Were the Edwardians really like that? Of course we don’t know; but what remains in the memory is a sense of gorgeous theatricality, from the vulgar to the splendid. No wonder this is everybody’s favourite historical period. We can envy the Edwardians’ pleasures and vanities, their adventures and their invincible sense of themselves, with just a little sense of our own superiority, knowing—as they couldn’t—what was waiting for them in 1914.

Photo of Queen Alexandra courtesy of Patricia Wynne-Jones

Ashmolean Museum Print Room

To complement the February lecture on Sir Anthony Van Dyck we visited the Ashmolean's Print Room to view selected material relating to the artist.  The small size f our group enabled us to see these wonderful drawings and prints at close hand and we had a helpful guide in Lynne Ward.  Delicate portraits in pen and nk and others using chalks were unveiled for our inspection.  The Ashmolean also has on display 2 major paintings by Van Dyck which are displayed in the Baroque Gallery.  These are a Deposition of Christ, and a full length portrait of a woman, possibly Gertrudis Wiegers. It was a privilege to see them.

.From the coach we caught a glimpse of the towering limestone and marble structure shining in the bright spring sunshine sitting like a bright jewel set in the rush of day-to-day roads and traffic, and the crowds of houses, schools and offices.

It was just over 50 years ago when Idi Amin expelled thousands of Asians from their homeland, Uganda. Amongst the many who came to England were Hindu men and women who carried their few worldly possessions in their suitcases and who carried in their hearts and minds a profound religious tradition which they eventually presented to the world in the form of this magnificent Sri Swaminarajan Mandir, more easily known as the Neasden Temple.

“I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls…”. So went the gypsy girl’s dream in the 1843 opera, The Bohemian Girl. For a short while we dwelt in the most remarkable domed marble hall elaborately carved with geometric, floral and figurative carvings made only twenty or so years ago but in a tradition that stretches back thousands of years. We were in the inner sanctum of this remarkable mandir or temple. This is the heart of the temple built according to principles of sacred geometry (as were the Gothic cathedrals of Europe): the space that houses the murti, the sacred images of the many manifestations of God such as Shiva and his consort Parvati. 

The story of the inspiration, design and construction in only three years of the first traditional Hindu temple in Western Europe is a story that almost defies the imagination. The scale of the undertaking which involved thousands of tons of limestone and Carrara and Ambaji marble, hundreds of builders and craftsmen all over the world carving stone and wood which was then carefully assembled on site in London.

Entering through the Haveli, or cultural centre, one immediately senses one is coming into a sacred space. Shoes had to be taken off! The architecture with its massive display of intricately carved wood inspires the senses; the atmosphere of calm, peace and prayerful presence moves the soul. Our introduction by a thoughtful guide, in a hall decorated with scenes from the life of Sri Swaminarajan, the revered 18th century guru after which the mandir is named, and covered with an enormous carpet made in Ireland. The presentation included a video which told us of the inspiration, the history, the construction of the temple and visits by famous people. Our guide also took great care to explain to us the depths of the Hindu wisdom and tradition we were about to encounter. The vision and purpose of the temple can be summed up in the words of His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader who created this temple before he died in 2016, “In the joy of others lies our own joy”.

We were invited to take part in the daily murti puja’ the central religious ritual of the temple. As does Christianity Hinduism acknowledges only one supreme God and the ‘idols’ are seen to be ritually endowed with the presence of this God. The murti puja, which takes place in the marbled hall sanctum is the ritual of worship of these images of deities or rather of God seen to be present in the images. The daily puja is in the form of arthi, the waving of lighted candle tapers. Some of us sat on the floor in the traditional way while others stood and a few lucky ones had chairs. As tradition demanded, the men were apart from the women. The lights represent the divine light that dispels ignorance and the ritual was accompanied by Vedic chants accompanied by ritual clapping of the hands, which calls the devotee to be moved from the ‘unreal to the real’ from ‘darkness to light’. As I am a man I had a seat at the front and it was a beautiful experience to be there. Those of us standing at the sides or the back of the sanctum could not always see the priests conducting the ceremony.

The temple houses a permanent exhibition setting out the history of the Swaminarajan tradition which has built temples of this sort around the world and which provides social services, disaster relief, food for the hungry around the world on a very large scale. The exhibition also explores the ancient Vedic (Hindu) philosophy and spirituality and its contribution to the development of humanity over some three or four thousand years. It told us, for instance, that a 5th century Vedic text explained that the earth travels round the sun! The exhibition features quotations from philosophers of the West such as Mark Twain and Arnold Toynbee who wrote, “…at this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way”.

Philosophy and spirituality need to be nourished so we lunched in the Shayona restaurant across the road from the main complex. Traditional vegetarian Indian dishes, self -service in traditional thali plates which have little depressions for portions of rice, lentil dal, channa dal, curds, pickles, raita and the like. Lunch was a delightful time to eat good food and enjoy good company.

And so after lunch time to wander around, revisit the sanctum, the exhibition, the souvenir shop in the haveli, or to enjoy the warm sunshine lighting up the glittering domes with the flags on their poles fluttering in the breeze.

Photo courtesy of Adrian Rance-McGregor

The National Gallery 

A riveting rollercoaster ride from Arles to the stars (Guardian)

A five-star firecracker (The Times)

After a grimly grey spell of cold January weather, I remarked to a friend that I hoped that the visit to the exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers coming up soon in early January would at least provide some colour on a winter’s day. “Oh, it will” she replied.

This was to be my first visit to an exhibition with Abingdon Arts Society. I had joined hoping to continue to learn about art and artists after a long furlough when I had enjoyed art and exhibitions but life seemed to get in the way of thinking ahead to book for hugely popular exhibitions which were often sold out before I had registered that they were on.

The visit was wholly worthwhile. It was a great joy to be with others who shared a common interest and purpose in seeing this exhibition and sharing experiences of the day.

The exhibition, which has been well reviewed and written about from a rather more academic point of view than I can manage, was a treasure.

From the very first room where the portraits of the Poet (Eugène Boch) and the Lover (Paul-Eugène Milliet), the exhibition expanded on the time Van Gogh spent in Arles from February 1888 to May 1889 and at the hospital at St Remy-de-Provence from May 1889 to May 1890.

During this time Van Gogh developed the way he used colour and the exuberance of the painting seemed to promise of a new start for Van Gogh. I was enraptured by the energy of the drawings, the purposefulness of the brush strokes. The progression of the rooms and the grouping of the pictures took me into the world of Van Gogh at that time. It was a privilege to see so many of his paintings exhibited like this. It was the more moving to know how all this energy and exuberance would end.

One of my highlights was seeing the way Van Gogh painted autumn leaves and light in the sky whether stars, clouds, or the endless Provencal sky. It was moving to see the National Gallery’s Sunflowers exhibited with the Sunflowers from the Philadelphia Museum of Art hung in a triptych with La Berceuse (The Met) which, according to the guidebook, is what Van Gogh intended. The way the glaze on the jars was painted is magical and something that can never be seen in quite the same way in reproduction. The whole exhibition seemed to invite emotional connection with the artist in these last, often troubled, months of his life. And, of course, there was the colour; brightening a dreich day and available to bring to mind at a moment’s notice in the long wait for Spring.

Many thanks to all those who worked so hard to arrange this, and other, visits for members for being forward thinking and organising in advance and for the joy of being able to get to the gallery by a comfortable coach instead of the car-train-tube-bus which is my usual thing. And to the companion I met for the day for your generous and erudite comments on the exhibition which enhanced my enjoyment of the day.

This Christmas, inspired by the tale of the Sleeping Beauty, the Rothschilds’ Waddesdon Manor transformed into a magical wonderland. The Manor’s façade came to life with a spectacular new light display and the stunning landscape was lit with a kaleidoscope of colour, lights and music along a light trail through the grounds.

The Milton Keynes gallery's comprehensive exhibition of the work of Vanessa Bell shines a spotlight on a relatively neglected member of the infamous Bloomsbury group. Sister of Virginia Woolf, wife of Clive Bell, lover of Duncan Grant and Roger Fry, Vanessa found time to produce the more than 140 works shown here, ranging from paintings, drawings, textiles and furniture to one of my favourites, an advertising poster for Shell Oil's famous series.

The works are displayed chronologically, offering a revealing insight into Bell's development as a painter. Charming early portraits and still lives show the influence of Whistler and her teacher John Singer Sargent. The year 1911-12 seems to have been the wellspring of a period of huge versatility and variety in her work, from the creation of paper mosaics, through experiments (not always successful) with pointillisme, to much more abstract paintings where faces are left blank and figures are outlined in black with bright post- impressionist blocks of colour.

After moving away from pure abstraction (probably a wise move since the single example of her pure abstract painting did not inspire), the works of her middle period were considered by some of our party as rather muddy and gloomy. I enjoyed the evocative (and brighter) interiors, often framed by a window or a door looking to the outside, painted at Charleston or at her house in the south of France.

Bell co-founded, with Fry and Grant, the Omega Workshops where they challenged the barriers between fine and decorative art by designing furniture, textiles and ceramics. The exhibition’s final room displays an amazing array of painted furniture in light, clear colours, the Famous Women dinner service and several book cover designs. The difference between the sophisticated style of the (shocking for the time) portraits of male nudes and the simple exuberance of figures from classical myth painted on a pair of doors is astonishing.

This was a thoroughly absorbing exhibition. I am not sure whether Bell was a great painter but the eclectic range of her work, her versatility and her pioneering willingness to experiment is fascinating and well worth seeing. Next visit: Charleston?

I thought that I would be prepared for all that 78 Derngate had to offer following Anne Anderson’s lecture on Charles Rennie Macintosh in September but I was not! There was so much more to learn from our two guides who took us round with such enthusiasm. It was good that we were divided into two groups as it enabled us to see each room more easily.

It was incredible to think that Charles Rennie Macintosh never actually visited the house but communicated his designs to Mr W J Bassett-Lowke who had commissioned him to provide a house suitable for his new bride. But I think I speak for all of us when I say that we were impressed at the attention to detail and the continuity of design throughout this tiny house, principally in the light fittings, stencilling patterns which were replicated in the lights above the front door and in the stained-glass panels throughout the house.

There were some very modern concepts on display for a design from 1916, most notably the repositioning of the staircase to afford borrowed light from the back of the house through the stained-glass sections in the wall of the hallway. A black hallway, albeit with bright colours in the stencil decoration, must have been very unusual for the time and perhaps it is not surprising that Mrs Bassett-Lowke was less than enthusiastic. The black walls contrasted so markedly with the very white fireplace. Many of the appliances in the kitchen were cutting edge for the time and were clearly of great interest to Bassett-Lowke. Other modern concepts were the covered, enclosed balcony off the main bedroom and the open one off the guest bedroom above.

I was tickled about the idea that the black and white stripes on the ceiling and walls of the guest bedroom ensured that no guest would outstay his or her welcome. Personally, I loved it and the repetition of the design in the bedcover was a triumph.

We were all very glad to be revived in the excellent café after battling with all the stairs; the sandwiches were truly excellent!

Then on to the Shoe Museum where the scene was set by yet another enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide. It was interesting to learn of how many tanneries and factories there had been in Northampton at the height of its eminence in the shoe trade. The Museum boasts over 18,000 items in the collection and the Curator, Rebecca Shawcross, had assembled a really interesting sample of the collection for us to enjoy, some dating back to mediaeval times and bringing us up to the modern day. When we did get to the point of viewing the items on display, it was so amusing to hear people saying things such as, ‘Oh I used to have a pair like that, well, nearly like that!’

This was a superb day out; two such contrasting venues in close proximity for us to savour. We truly had enjoyed two lollipops in one day, thank you so much for arranging it all for us!

As we all know, Italy is full of enchanting medieval towns and villages. Our tour took in no less than 5 (Parma, Castell Arquato, Bussetto, Mantova and Cremona). We had assumed, however, that our visits to these lovely places would take place in glorious sunshine and under clear blue skies. Given that the area had not had any rain for months and very low rainfall for years, our expectations were not unreasonable. However, days 2 and 3 produced torrential downpours and day 4 light showers. The sun did not come out until our final day. Nonetheless, we were not deterred. Donning raincoats and brandishing umbrellas we sallied forth each day to make the most of all that was on offer.

We marvelled at the fabulous painted and gilded interiors of cathedrals, baptistries and palaces. We visited two contrasting theatres – the gorgeous jewel-like 19th century Teatro Guiseppi Verdi in Busseto and the wooden theatre Farnese in Parma. The treasure-filled Parma National Gallery did not disappoint with a fabulous selection of paintings including an exquisite head of an angel by Leonardo da Vinci.

We also witnessed the art of making parmesan cheese at a local Parmigiano-Reggiano farm. The sight of huge wheels of cheese racked several metres high in a storeroom was extraordinary and the cheese tasting went down well.

On our final day, on the way back to the airport we stopped in Cremona. Perhaps because the sun was out and the ochre and terracotta colours of the medieval house just glowed, this was perhaps my favourite town. Cremona is famous for violin makers, the most famous of which is Stradivarius. We had the enormous privilege of visiting a workshop where the violin maker demonstrated the art of creating an instrument entirely by hand using the original Stradivarius template and the skills handed down over hundreds of years.

We had the benefit of the services of an excellent tour manager, Wendy, who sorted out any problems that arose and ensured that the whole trip went like clockwork. Our local Italian guides were extremely knowledgeable, particularly our first guide who was mad about Verdi and regaled us with his history and opera works on our tour of the theatre and museum in Busseto where he had lived.

Not surprisingly, the food was amazing with excellent restaurants just across the road from the hotel. On our final evening, we went to a restaurant where two local opera singers delighted us with a selection of arias to round off a fabulous trip.

Huge thanks to Tom and Trish who worked so closely with Success Tours to devise and implement such a lovely and varied programme of events.

Tate Britain

Through the Manton entrance into the marble halls and blessed air conditioning the cognoscenti of the Abingdon Arts Society took possession of the Singer Sargent Exhibition at the Tate Britain in London.

The exhibition presented a large selection of the affluent Edwardian middle classes of two continents and some of the original clothing. Interestingly, apart from the Duke of Marlborough and a couple of minor aristocrats he doesn’t seem to have had appeal for the Royals. Why not? He certainly gave his sitters posterity with the overriding appearance of charm, elegance and beauty.

Did he tweak the appearance of his clients? The exquisite portrait of Lady Sassoon greeting us at the entrance shows a figure less maturely statuesque than the original opera cape seen cased nearby would suggest.

Still the rich and famous would have been delighted by his talented representations – daring poses, exquisite elegance portrayed with delicate gauzy fabrics, velvets and silks with the sheen perfectly painted and realistic. Similarly his ability with black decoration on black fabrics and rendering of pleats and folds to ensure his place as a portrait artist to the society of a day and age soon to be shredded by the first world war. We loved it!

I am trying to conjure up enough effusive words to describe the wonderful other wordly Berkshire garden of Robert and Juliet Cox Nicol.

The couple spent forty years in France, before returning to this country in 2016, Juliet having worked as a garden designer from their residence near Paris. (One of her customers was Juliette Binoche, apparently). When they relocated, they brought 600 trees with them from France on three loader trucks, to achieve their vision of their future paradise garden.

How to describe the structural elegance of that garden? The couple has chosen to create a stunning outdoor space, using different trees, and shrubs noteworthy for their various forms, colour, bark and shape. The result is extraordinary.

They have said that they wanted a garden for winter as well as summer, and have achieved an almost architectural stage for their planting.

The main vista from the back of the house used to have herbaceous borders running down both sides, but these were ripped out in order to make two levels. (At this point, there was a sharp intake of breath from our members). 100 tons of topsoil was used, and Juliet has created an extraordinary tableau using yew cones, drums and cushions, with a backdrop of the most beautiful view beyond, over the Chiltern Hills.

Our tour took us through the various parts of the garden, each one opening into another, each with its own character, each as a lovely surprise. My favourite was the rill, running down from the house, with huge Versailles planters and Euonymus tree spires leading to two marble Goddesses. Elegance personified!

Then there was the section with the gigantic free standing Wysterias, then the beautiful sunken Japanese style water garden, the incredibly stylish free standing glass conservatory with curving glass roof , the orchard, the temple garden and Cornus trees everywhere. (I feel quite glad about my Cornus tree now. I used to wish I had bought a pink one, but now I'm reconciled. Maybe white does it after all!)  We came just at the right time to see them all in flower.

Having been dazzled by the wonderland that Robert and Juliet have created outside, we were then allowed to go into the house as an optional extra, and I'm so glad I did. It was ostensibly to see the 17th and 18th Century museum quality French ceramics, but Juliet had created the same architectural magnificence inside, and we were stunned by the quality of the antiques, from blue and white tile pictures on the hall walls, to the 17th Century Venetian chairs, and of course, a most magnificent palm tree in a Versailles planter to set them all off.

Having seen the interior, I completely understood the whole ethos of the entire estate. (Apparently, the house had had pokey little dark rooms, which they opened out into airy spaces of tranquility and harmony). It all fell into place. The outside set off the inside.

We were so impressed by it all, and admire the creative spirit of a couple with such artistic vision. Thank you Trish and Tom for discovering such a gem on our doorstep.

Japanese Woodblock Prints at the Ashmolean Museum

Following our April lecture given by Suzanne Perrin on Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period, it was entirely appropriate we should have a hands-on experience at the Ashmolean with 19 prints under the expert guidance of Dr Clare Pollard, the Museum’s Curator of Japanese Art. (Hands-on is not really the right word: these prints are too valuable to be touched by human hands.)

Hokusai (1769 – 1849) is best known for his iconic print ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’. The Ashmolean does not possess an original print of this, only a later copy, but it served well for Dr Pollard to point out features such as where to find the artist’s name, the date of the print and its approval by the censor – Japan was heavily regulated at the time such that officialdom banned anything that was off-message. We also learnt how to ‘read’ a print. ‘The Wave’ provides an excellent example of this: different interpretations emerging from the Japanese right-to-left reading to our western left-to-right.

While before him most print designers created images of beautiful women or kabuki actors, Hokusai set out to create his series ‘The Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji’, showing the sacred mountain from different viewpoints during different seasons and at different times of the day. As a designer of landscape prints, incorporating references to Chinese, Western and Japanese painting, Hokusai was a ground-breaking artist of the early 1800s. Once we were told the significance of the triangular shape (Fuji is almost perfectly triangular) we pored over prints detecting triangles and found so many – a template for a child’s jigsaw, perhaps.

Dr Pollard explained in some detail the print-making process (she had fruitwood blocks and the relatively crude tools used to produce such extraordinarily detailed, refined work) and she showed the development from black and white to coloured prints. The arrival
of new pigments, especially Prussian Blue, from the west was transformative. Asked whether the prints were expensive, she said that they cost not much more than a bowl of noodles, so were accessible to the artisan classes, if not the field workers. And were they hung on walls for display? Generally not, but kept in folios, only to be seen when brought out for admiration.
While Hokusai was the dominant name, Hiroshige (nearly 40 years his junior) featured too. His use of colour, his ability to create the impression of a morning mist on a woodblock and his conjuring of perspective without having a vanishing point were all remarkable.

Proximity to the Ashmolean has yielded many opportunities over the years to see at close hand small selected collections of items from their holdings.   This was surely one of the best and it felt like a rare privilege. In Clare Pollard, the Curator, we had a brilliant communicator – hugely knowledgeable, enthusiastic, funny, charming and very responsive to the many questions that were batted at her. Well over our allotted time it had to end which was perhaps just as well or we might still be there.

Holburne Museum, Bath

This Gwen John Exhibition contained around 50 of her works displayed in chronological order, which was a substantial number of all her works, a guide reported. Included were a few private commissions, some not known about and/or not previously exhibited. Over her 40-year career, spent in London but mostly in Paris, the exhibits demonstrated how she continually absorbed and developed new techniques, using a wide range of media, choosing an impressive array of subjects.

In Paris John earned her living by drawing portraits on paper and posing as a nude model for several artists, including Rodin. This enabled her to observe his styles and techniques, which influenced her style to become more fluent and economical. John had an intense relationship with Rodin for 10 years, writing to him twice or three times almost daily.

Earlier in her career John was thought to be disconnected from the world around her. Eccentric recluse: she showed in landmark exhibitions connected to some leading artists from around the world; a solitary life and religiously committed, she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1913, this action further helped to shape her art. Her paintings of nuns are considered by some to be her best works.

Of John’s nude self-portrait, 1909, it has been asked, why did John choose to portray herself nude. While others feel that what she has created is clever – through this layered self-portrait John doesn’t divorce, but rather embraces, her multiple identities as a model, creative muse, and artist.

Likewise, in Autoportrait à la Lettre, (Self Portrait with a letter), c.1907-9, John references her relationship with Rodin. While their partnership began with John acting as artistic muse for Rodin, he also influenced her work including this painting which she gave to him – after all, he was her muse too.

During the visit, John's depiction of bright sunlight in a couple of early style
'traditional ’ paintings was striking. Particularly as for much of her later
paintings which are muted colours, how she achieved shade with tonal shades
is so different and effective. This was a theme which runs through her work.

Some works are seen as a ‘momentary detail’ – but were created by sketches and notes and then finished in the studio.

One of the last exhibits was of John, by a friend, Ambrose McEvoy,1877 – 1927, using mostly tones of gold with complex brush strokes in oil’, which was splendid.

A common view of John is that she was a recluse, however this Exhibition showed how inappropriate this view is, as she had several friends, e.g., James McNeill Whistler, her tutor at The Slade, Camille Pissarro, and Rainer Marie Rilke, who were also influential.

Augustus John, her younger brother, and an artist predicted that in 50 years he would be known as the brother of Gwen John, rather than vice versa. The Exhibition showed this well.

The Museum has a small permanent collection, which at a quick look includes a Gainsborough and a Stubbs. A colourful and amazing collection of twisted 1.5 - 2-metre lengths of African fabrics were effectively displayed on the floor, around the edges of the room.

Also, there were two other current exhibitions. This is a very manageable and interesting galley to visit.

The afternoon was to explore the centre of Bath at your will, e.g., some chose museums, others simply a long leisurely lunch.

Hans Holbein the Younger was born in Augsburg in 1497 into a family of painters and moved to Basel with his brother in 1517 where he found work as a designer of wood and metal cuts, stained glass, book illustrations and murals. At this point he began to paint the occasional portrait and his breakthrough came when he was commissioned to paint the humanist scholar Erasmus who sent copies of his portrait to his scholarly friends around Europe bringing Holbein’s name to the attention of some influential patrons.

Erasmus recommended him to his friend Sir Thomas More and in 1526 Holbein moved to England where he quickly built a reputation. He secured the patronage of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell and by 1535, he was King's Painter to Henry VIII. His portraits of the royal family and nobles are a record of the court in the years when Henry was asserting his supremacy over the Church of England. Although Holbein produced many finished oil paintings of his subjects, the exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace comprises a stunning collection of portrait drawings made by the artist in preparation for the finished works – many of them done on the backs of playing cards. The delicacy with which the contours of the faces and their skin colour is depicted, often in pale chalks, is matched by the meticulous rendering of his sitters’ jewels, furs, hair texture and even their pets.

As King’s Painter Holbein understood the politics of propaganda and his massively dominating full-length portraits of Henry surely achieved their objective. But when he first arrived in England he produced a series of sketches of individual members of Sir Thomas More’s family which he then worked into a group family portrait which is unfortunately now lost. Holbein conveys his affection for these characters whilst bringing out some telling characteristics. More’s son sits absorbed in a book, one of the young women looks like a dreamer whilst another looks out challengingly at the painter. You feel that Holbein was amongst friends. In contrast Thomas Wyatt’s eyes slide watchfully to the side, as if checking the door, and Holbein’s preliminary sketch of Henry Guildford reveal how a very few delicate alterations enhance the authority of the sitter which must have been gratifying.

It’s thought that Henry VIII acquired these drawings after Holbein’s death in 1543 and it seems appropriate that they are still in the Royal Collection. A really wonderful exhibition.

The visit was self guided so impressions were born of wandering around without an itinerary.

First impressions are of the building’s immense size, of another dimension, but from the road you see it behind a cleared site and hoardings and to the left a lofty and long glassy ribbon building of flats by Norman Foster and a Frank Gehry block. More flats are promised (presumably all to fund the conversion of the power station) and the collection will dramatically impinge on the setting reducing it to a series of canyons. The setting is far better from the river, now a huge terrace and the Riverside Walk (where there were jetties).   

Looking at an old C20th site model one is struck by the introverted nature of the building. It was ringed by yards and railway tracks with major building openings for the coal and ash wagons. It seems a pity that the building does not now positively address the river terrace with some large glazed openings which would relieve the environment inside and out (after all the building has generally undergone wholesale alterations).

Instead the building indoors is mainly a series of inward looking malls of high end shops lining very wide and full height thoroughfares, the turbines halls (Westfield x2). The first hall, Battersea A, was completed in 1935 and features Art Deco glazed tiles and detailing, a glazed roof, and a full length and width elaborate crane gantry running on massive steel plate girders. Other relics include fragments of steel girders and posts, patches of old brickwork, and even part of a reinforced concrete staircase built into a wall. Battersea B opened in 1944 is much plainer and with simple finishes and no roof glazing making the turbines hall very introverted, and a little gloomy, such that its retained crane gantry seems a little out of place.

We took Lift 109 to the top of a chimney. It’s final stage is a glazed lift car filling much of the
chimney, there is no viewing platform (so the rain will pour down the chimney just as always).
Even on a grey day the views are extraordinary, including the power station below, now partly a roof garden overlooked by 2 storeys of very upmarket flats built on top of the original building.

By way of a contrast we then walked along the Riverside Walk to a very leafy Battersea Park, and a good lunch in Gordon Ramsay’s Street Pizza, which is built into a railway arch next to the power station.

All in all a very enriching day!

The Paul Getty library welcomed our group through its rarely opened doors to reveal a sumptuous collection of literary artefacts. These include medieval manuscripts, books from the Renaissance and Middle Ages, early printed books, hand coloured Victorian books as well as modern French designer bindings. The strength of the collection, as Librarian Robert Harding told us, lies in bookbinding and calligraphic art.

In front of the bays of the warm American oak bookshelves, in a specially maintained atmosphere where no dust gathers (!) were a treasury of books to feast our eyes. Among them a First Folio Shakespeare next to a first printing of Caxton's The Canterbury Tales. What startled me most was the mass of colour of the book covers and content. Ptoleomeus 'Comographica', Ulm 1482, printed on vellum, with 32 hand coloured woodcuts: the world as Romans knew it, was opened on the page showing the Middle East, with the sea sparkling blue with crushed lapis lazuli. Starkly in contrast was the adjacent plain chained book, its binding of pig or deer skin c. 1450 from Melk Abbey Austria, though the contents a noted work, a Bible commentary, 'Postilla' by Nicolas de Lyra.

We all enjoyed peering closely at the marginal notes [a pointing finger] hand drawn on the vellum of the book given to Catherine Parr by her husband King Henry VIII. These were recently discovered by a scholar and point to prayers on healing of the body and redemption from sin. Nearby a translation of the Psalms, 1st edn, owned by Anne Boleyn, 'Utopia' 1529-32.

There was much to absorb and intrigue us. A set of books about the Great Exhibition; Humprey Repton's Red Books; tiny late 18th century London almanacs still in their slip cases; the small pistol hidden in a 1627 Swiss Book of Hours (Soluere, 1627) a note recording its purchase on the Rialto Bridge Venice in 1810, probably when the pistol was hidden.

When Sir Paul Getty moved to Wormsley, he commissioned the building of the castellated Library, as an extension of the main house, and whilst we were able to take photos for personal use, do make time to look online at https://wormsley.com/venues/library/ or search for 'paul getty library wormsley' + images to see the building and gaze at some of these outstanding treasures.

The Welsh Marches form a rather imprecisely defined area. Are they in Wales? Or in those parts of England that are close to Wales? Or do they stride the border? Given the spectacular scenery we saw from the coach and the fascinating places we visited perhaps it does not matter too much.

Our Day 1 journey north was nicely broken by a visit to Hellens Manor, a Tudor/Jacobean house in Herefordshire. Hellens is a mesmerising hotchpotch of buildings, gardens, furniture, paintings, and artefacts all mixed up with the histories of various families and at least three ghosts. It is still a family home, there are no ropes or no-go areas in the rooms, and during the guided tour we were often invited to sit in comfortable armchairs or even at the dining table. Another delight was the off-the-cuff way in which paintings were pointed out: "There are a couple of van Dykes in this room and, oh, a Goya over there. And on the way out there’s a Holbein just next to the door." A showcase of family knick knacks contained a jumble of objects including a gold coronet, Anne Boleyn’s ivory comb, a diamond ring given to somebody by Charles I, and a bonnet badge belonging to Philip II of Spain. Hellens is a totally delightful place. Oh to be invited back to stay for the weekend! 

The visits on Day 2 were to Ludlow in the morning and Stokesay Castle in the afternoon. Ludlow is a small town with a population of only about 10,000 but at its centre stands St Laurence’s Church, so large that it is often called The Cathedral of the Marches. The main structures, including the 160 feet high tower, date from the 15th century and were financed by 'wool money'. Internally the glories of the church are its stained glass, its set of medieval misericords, and its organ. The misericords have a wide variety of subjects including a green man, a mermaid, a wrestling match, and so on. One of the most fascinating of all shows a dishonest ale-wife being carried off to hell by demons: the moral being never to give short measure when pouring drinks. The organ dates from 1764 and was being played to accompany our visit. Our volunteer guide said he'd requested that it be played quietly while he was talking. When the tour was over the the organist let rip!

Stokesay Castle is a diverse collection of buildings of various dates. The central hall, built in the 1290s, is huge and designed no doubt to demonstrate the owner’s fabulous wealth (wool money again) and taste. The windows of the hall are large and should the Welsh have come — a constant worry in these parts — the place would not have been easy to defend. It was only later that further, more fortified parts of the castle were built to provide protection for the owner and his vast amounts of cash. The most charming building at Stokesay is the 17th century gatehouse, its carved oak timbers infilled with golden yellow plaster.

The morning of Day 3 was spend in Shrewsbury. Those of us who had not been before were impressed by what a wonderful town it is. It is very hilly and packed with timber-framed buildings, medieval remnants, and a surprising number of parish churches! The blue-badge guide for our walking tour gave us a good grasp of the history and architecture of the town enlivened by a stream of fascinating anecdotes: an enormously enjoyable walk-about.

In the afternoon we travelled to Powis Castle. Half way there we realised that for the first time we were in Wales: all the road signs were suddenly bilingual and there were challenges of pronunciation such Cwpanau y gellir eu compostio yn unig, seen on a waste bin. The castle is a massive sandstone building that stands on the edge of an escarpment. The walls are in such good repair that it might be taken at first as a Victorian millionaire’s extravaganza but in fact it was built in the 13th century. When you get inside though it does indeed feel like an Edwardian country house packed with comfortable furniture and impressive paintings and ideal for weekend house parties. Alongside the castle, on huge terraces hewn from the rock, are the castle’s magnificent gardens. The huge banks of yew trees, trimmed into undulating curves, are particularly memorable.

In the course of the Day 4 journey back to Abingdon we stopped to visit the World Heritage site at Ironbridge. The bridge itself, which spans the River Severn, is well know as the first of its type to be constructed from cast iron. Nearby are a dozen or so museums. We visited three. First the Museum of Iron where we had a splendid guided tour and learned how early techniques for very small scale production of iron (known since Roman times) blossomed spectacularly in the early 18th century into the smelting industry that underpinned the industrial revolution. One intriguing exhibit was 'The Pot that changed the World' — a three legged cast-iron cooking pot of surprisingly elegant design made in 1714.

Then we travelled to the Coalport China Museum which is housed in the original Coalport factory building. After a demonstration of manufacturing techniques we were able to admire examples of the exquisite china that was produced and painted here for more than 130 years and exported to all corners of the World.

Then we moved to the Jackfield Tile Museum which presents the history of the British decorative tile industry between 1840 and 1960. Again it is housed in building that was originally the factory — where tiles had been made in every conceivable shape, size and colour. Tiles have also sometimes provided blank 'canvases' for artists: William Morris, William de Morgan, and Salvador Dali amongst them.

Later we had time to wander around the Blists Hill Victorian Town: a time warp of shops, pubs, cottages, artisan workshops and services (including an undertaker) all open and functioning with people in costume plying their various trades.

A nifty WhatsApp group was set up — and proved to be great fun! Some of us used it to exchange photographs during the course of the holiday and a few of us played the game of "If you could only take home ONE of the things you’ve seen, which would it be?" Most of the items chosen were nicely portable — a tiny painting by the Jacobean miniaturist Issac Oliver for instance or a William de Morgan tile with a peacock — but transporting Bernardo Bellotto’s seven feet wide painting of Verona back to Abingdon would have been a real challenge. Thank you to the organisers (and Lisa Starr of Success Tours) for arranging such a memorable tour, and to our driver Andy whose skill at manoeuvring the very large coach through very small gaps (sometimes backwards) was awesome.

The photograph is of Powis Castle seen from the lowest level of the gardens

Entering the Print Room at the Ashmolean seems like entering the holy of holies. The twelve of us were stripped of our possessions and invited to sit down facing three small easels on which a young man wearing white cotton gloves had placed precious Dürer woodcuts selected by our guide (who herself was not permitted to touch the exhibits) from the museum’s formidable collection. She gave historical background to each exhibit, highlighted aspects of each, and then invited the group to inspect the woodcuts at close range, with the aid of magnifying glasses.

The fine detail was amazing. In one, The Prodigal Son, the handling of the buildings, in particular the hatching on them, had prompted Vasari to consider it spectacular – and the pigs in the foreground were good too! In all, one drawing and eleven woodcuts were shown, including a Last Supper, St George, St Jerome in his study with a benign lion, Nemesis, Melancholia and, inevitably, the Rhinoceros which was used as the best representation of that animal by scientists for centuries after Dürer’s death in 1528.

Twelve of us, twelve exhibits: would we be offered one each to take away? Unfortunately not! 

Longford Castle near Salisbury

Private guided tour of House and Art Collection

I was attracted to this visit because I had never heard of Longford Castle near Salisbury, and was intrigued by the description of its art collection, formed by successive generations of the Pleydell-Bouverie family, owners of the castle since 1717, and created Earls of Radnor since 1765. William, first Earl of Radnor, married an heiress, Harriet Pleydell, and from that date the Pleydell-Bouverie family name was created. The family still live in the property, and it is rarely open to the public. The family origins date back to the mid sixteenth century, when Laurens Des Bouverie, a committed Huguenot, came to England from Flanders to escape persecution.

The approach to the Castle set the scene impressively. The original building is late sixteenth century, of an unusual triangular design with corner turrets. The first intriguing story we were told was that its completion was funded from valuables on board the wreck of a defeated Spanish Armada galleon, donated by Elizabeth I to one of her ladies in waiting who had married Sir Thomas Gorges, owner of the estate.

Ownership passed to Sir Edward Des Bouverie in 1717 when, according to another apocryphal story, he was riding past the castle, fell in love with it and immediately bought it with money he happened to be carrying in his saddlebags! There were later two significant periods of renovation; one planned in Georgian times at the end of the eighteenth century but with only minor elements carried out; a later more comprehensive Victorian restoration, which successfully blended with the Tudor style of the original castle.

We had already been provided with a fascinating backdrop before our tour of the house began; we were accompanied by extremely knowledgeable and personable guides throughout which added considerably to our enjoyment. It is impossible to do justice to the richness of the art collection. The main emphasis of the visit was on this, but every room also contained numerous artefacts, and a few that particularly caught my eye were – a complete early eighteenth century Chinese porcelain dinner service; Brussels tapestries based on David Teniers the Younger paintings; a cedarwood jewel box with intricate metalwork on its drawer fronts, said to have been a gift from Elizabeth I and with a couple of the velvet jewel pouches on display; a set of magnificent mid eighteenth century carved mahogany chairs with their original green velvet upholstery and lions feet; crystal glass finely engraved by Laurence Whistler (brother to Rex, and whose engraved crystal work is also on display in Salisbury cathedral); the list is endless, and so many pieces of fine period furniture collected by generations of the family displayed within every living space.

Much of the artwork reflects the history of the family, with each incumbent earl commissioning portraiture in particular of himself and his spouse/s to reflect his station in nobility. There is a fine portrait of the third Earl William by Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun dated 1799, and numerous by Gainsborough and Reynolds. The collection includes several by Anthony van Dyck, one of Henrietta, wife of Charles I - though it is reputed that the three full length portraits in the magnificent long Picture Gallery and painted in the 1630s were acquired in situ with the house. There is a full length portrait by Rubens of his son, and two small intimate portraits of an elderly couple painted on wood by Frans Hals (probably the ones I would chose to take home . . . ).

There are many examples of paintings from the Low Countries, including Avecamp, Gossaert, and Teniers; two magnificent Claude Lorrain landscapes at either end of the Picture Gallery; these are but a small taster of the cornucopia of art on display.

After over two hours of listening and absorbing the fascinating historical context of the contents of Longford Castle there was slight desperation for a caffeine fix and food to nourish the brain cells – so arrival in Salisbury itself precipitated a swift retreat to the Cathedral café, along with a significant number of AS Abingdon members. After feeling somewhat restored, the remaining hour was spent for me in a leisurely circuit of the cathedral – some comfort in its vast space and somewhat austere nature after the intellectual demands of the morning.

A thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying outing.

Two Jericho Churches: St Barnabas and St Paul

A walking tour with Lizzy Rowe

Tuesday 2 May 2023, 15.00 - approx 16.00

Cost: £10

The tour will start from the magnificent, Italianate church of St Barnabas’, situated in the heart of Jericho very close to the Oxford Canal and built as the result of a generous donation from Martha Combe and her husband Thomas, who was Superintendent of the nearby Oxford University Press. When OUP moved to the area in 1830, closely followed by Lucy’s Eagle Ironworks, the workers needed houses, pubs and places to worship. St Barnabas’ was the second church to be built and was partly a response to the popularity of the first one, St Paul’s. There are stories of people queuing around the bloock to listen to the rousing sermons preached at St Paul’s, which has now been reinvented as a cocktail bar named Freud. We will enter both churches to enjoy their ornate and colurful interiors (and, perhaps, their cocktails . . . ) and learn stories about Jericho’s industrial past and the characters involved, as well as having the opportunity to admire two of its most beautiful buildings.

Lizzy Rowe is an Oxford-based art historian who studied at the Courtauld Institute in London before working as a guidebook editor at English Heritage.

Meet at St Barnabas at 14.55

Booking in March and April

The five arrows depicted on the flag fluttering above Waddesdon Manor represent the five sons of Mayer Amschel, the founder of the Rothschild dynasty.  Our excellent guide was keen to emphasise that, although Waddesdon appears to be a most exuberant French chateau and rests firmly in the English countryside, its ethos is robustly European.  Although the five sons were dispersed to set up branches of the increasingly wealthy Rothschild family businesses in different European capitals, they remained strongly interconnected and their aim was to keep the family assets strictly within the family often by intermarriage between cousins.

Waddesdon has been the beneficiary of the strong tradition amongst several members of the extended European family for collecting works of art many of which have come to rest here.  But the manor and gardens at Waddesdon were the sole creation of Baron Ferdinand and much of the collection – carpets, paintings, silver, textiles, furniture, silver and jewellery – was acquired by him and what a wonderful treasure trove it is.

For this review it’s only possible to pick out a few very subjective highlights.

We were shown an extraordinary silver automaton in the shape of an elephant made by a French clockmaker in 1774.  It is shortly to go for restoration (the Rothschilds have a long-standing and continuous policy of refurbishment and restoration) and on its return will again be able to play four tunes, the trunk, tail and ears of the elephant will move, the flower petals will spin and the figures will move across the stages in the lower section.

One of Baron Ferdinand’s first important purchases at the age of 21 was a Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship which at that time in his career took him two years to pay off.  Later we saw a very extensive Sèvres dinner service and were told that every Rothschild household had at least one for entertaining – but Waddesdon has three.

There is a considerable collection of paintings from C.17 Dutch Old Masters but there are also works by Romney, Gainsborough, Reynolds and, my favourite, a small work by Antoine Watteau depicting characters from the Italian commedia dell’arte including Pierrot and Harlequin where the colours just shimmer off the canvas.

Ferdinand had a penchant for French baroque furniture and Waddesdon has nearly a dozen pieces originally made for Louis XVI by the royal cabinet-maker Jean-Henri Riesener and sold following the Revolution.  One of these is rather poignant, a small writing table made for Marie-Antoinette’s use at the Petit Trianon.  The trellis pattern of black ebony and white boxwood enclose waterlilies made of yellow-dyed sycamore.

Throughout there is an aura of extremely careful and respectful stewardship of the house and collection which reflects the personality of Miss Alice de Rothschild who inherited the property from her brother Ferdinand on his death.  She was herself an avid collector, a fanatical gardener and a stringent housekeeper who instigated ‘Miss Alice’s rules’ a system of housekeeping still adhered to today and responsible surely for the beautiful presentation of this exquisite place in 2023.

ASHMOLEAN AEGEAN GALLERIES VISIT 22 MARCH 2023 

This was a one-hour morning visit with an Ashmolean guide. Trish had arranged for two groups, one at 10.30 and one at 11.30 (I was in the first group). This turned out to be a wise arrangement as a number of the items shown to us in their glass display cabinets showed intricate workmanship on quite small items, eg pictures or designs on rings, seals, small votive figurines, athletics medals. The guide was careful to speak  from a carefully-chosen point at each exhibit, encouraging us to get in close to examine the detail of many of the items.  

One of the themes the guide wanted to bring to our attention was the large geographical area over which the Bronze Age Cretan/ Greek products were successfully marketed. The example shown to us was in fact in the gallery devoted to Ancient Egypt: an intact painted  pottery jar with (she explained to us, and we would see for ourselves minutes later) an unmistakeable Greek design (eg the chain of white painted dots). Moving on into the first gallery of ancient Greece objects, we were shown a variety of different items from very small to very large. I recall the warrior heads, heavily helmeted with close cheek-plates, but with such very human painted winsome eyes looking out at us, which could just as easily have been a modern product. At the other end of the scale was a large Classical stone carved pedimenta, presumably from atop the entrance to a large building, the human body, head and arms incorporating ingeniously a range of presumed standard weights and measures, so the entrance to an Ancient Greece Trading Standards building?  

Dominating this first gallery was a way-more-than-lifesize Zeus  in bronze, what must be a very heavy item indeed but balanced on only two small areas of his feet. The sculpture looked somehow very modern ( it was recovered from deep-sea where it had lain for thousands of years), displaying as it did much knowledge of the structure of the human body in its subtly rippling muscles as Zeus measured up to throw a thunderbolt. Rodin? 

In the second and final gallery the narrative switched more to archaeological matters, explaining how the many items in the Ashmolean's collection were discovered, with special reference to Arthur Evans, curator of the museum and his finds relating to Minoan culture at Knossos.  

Thanks to all involved in organising this tour for us. For anyone whose interest in the discovery of the Knossos palace was sparked  by the second gallery, the Ashmolean's current exhibition upstairs “Labyrinth” is well worth a visit. 

Oscar Nemon - Sculptor of Statesmen and Royalty

 An illustrated talk by Aurelia Young

 Wednesday 22 February 2023:  11.00 – 12.00

 Roysse Room in the Guildhall, Abingdon

 Matthew Parris wrote in The Times:

I attended a marvellous lecture by Aurelia Young on her late father, the sculptor Oscar Nemon, a genius who sculpted the crowned heads of Europe, Sigmund Freud and Winston Churchill. 

 In the summer of 2022 The Arts Society Abingdon organised several visits to the Oscar Nemon Archive at Pleasant Land on Boars Hill and were warmly received by Oscar’s daughter-in-law, Alice Nemon-Stuart.   This proved to be one of the most popular visits we’ve ever organised and you can see a review of it on our website, https://www.theartssocietyabingdon.org.uk/Visits/PreviousVisits.aspx

We are now delighted that Lady Aurelia Young, Oscar Nemon’s daughter, has agreed to come and give us her very personal perspective on her father’s life and work.

 In her illustrated talk Lady Young will tell how her teenage father left his home in Croatia and made his way across Europe to Oxford.   Nemon led a turbulent life as did so many Jews caught up in the terror of the mid Twentieth Century.  She will explain how he came to sculpt Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher and many other prominent people of the Twentieth Century.

Aurelia grew up running in and out of her father's studio on Boars Hill.  Most of her adult life has been spent in the world of politics; married to George Young who was a Member of Parliament for over forty years. 

Cost:  £10

Tickets available at the January and February lectures and by email to info@theartssocietyabingdon.org.uk

Cézanne at Tate Modern

For all Cézanne’s life, painting was hard. And most of his contemporaries also found his paintings hard. As a biographer wrote, “The errors were easy to spot; the effects were difficult to fathom.” Cézanne never sold a work outside his circle of friends until he was 35; he was 56 when he had his first one-man exhibition; and he had only one painting exhibited at the Salon in Paris, the showcase of French art, and that was sneaked in under another name. Yet the Impressioinists admired him: Pissarro owned 21 of his paintings, Monet 14 and Gauguin 6. Later painters were similarly beguiled. To Picasso, Cézanne was his “one and only master”. Public attitudes only began to change after his death in 1906. Now he is considered a dominant figure influencing 20th century art – and wandering through the beautifully curated and presented exhibition at Tate Modern it would be hard to refute that claim.

Unlike the Impressionists, Cézanne was not there to capture a fleeting moment, but rather the essential structure and nature of things. Predominantly he used a limited selection of core colours: greens, blues, yellows, ochres. A room of his still-lifes is full of paintings of apples, oranges, jugs, each set off by a piece of Indian blue patterned cloth, intricately folded. Another room has compositions of bathers – not painted from models but informed by his visiting museums, then distancing himself from any allegorical context or narrative. Visits to l’Estaque in the bay of Marseilles (including in the early 1870s to avoid conscription) provided him with land- and sea-scapes for so many of his paintings. But it was Mont St Victoire, just to the north of his home town of Aix-en-Provence, that was his favourite and most emblematic landscape subject (it appears in 80 of his paintings and watercolours).

Which from this array of masterpieces to steal and take home? For many it would be a still-life, or a rocky Mediterranean coastline, or a Mont St Victoire – or all three!

More details on Events page

Someone who can laugh at life and themselves while demonstrating expertise in their field is always a gift for an audience and that was the case when we benefitted from a floral demonstration by Gary of Fabulous Flowers. Tasked with the challenge of demonstrating seasonal arrangements inspired by artists, he delighted the audience with an eclectic mix, coupled with some information about how he encountered each artist and stories of his life and the work of Fabulous Flowers.

First up were three glazed bowl centrepieces, inspired by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room installation at Tate Modern a few years ago by. Anyone who visited the exhibition will remember the sense of marvel at the way the space inside each cube seemed to go on forever. Gary certainly captured something of the light-catching, reflective spaces.

Gary grew up in the Wychwood Forest and his next piece was inspired by that. It was the most naturalistic arrangement in the demonstration; an understated cluster of fir trees, with ivy, moss and the promise of fragrance from some white hyacinths. Quietly lovely. (More on the Wychwood Forest piece later).

Anyone who has been to Vienna and visited the Belvedere Palace will probably have gasped when they saw Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’. An enormous, shimmering dance of gold with pops of colour, it leaves a lasting impression. As it did on Gary. Starting with a florist’s bucket, Gary gradually transformed it before our eyes, with huge dried and lightly gilded hydrangea heads, long pussy willow stems, dried honesty, pink euphorbia (the pop of colour), gilded ruscus leaves and striking anthurium stems (those enormous-leaved tropical- looking stems, beloved of florists because of their drama and longevity). It was beautiful to look at, with a complexity, airy-ness and shimmering quality that paid homage to the Klimt work.

After that, we visited Dutch still life masters and pop art with the next two pieces. The parsnips, carrots, mini pumpkins and asparagus ferns chosen to adorn an enormous and dramatic table centrepiece were a reminder of what artists (and I include artists of floristry) can do with the mundane. Blue pampas grass, pussy willow, leuchodendrum and hydrangea were amongst the plant life that made an extravagant piece of floral pop art. Fantastic in its way, it was probably the arrangement that divided audience opinion - just as modern art does.

The final arrangement was spectacular and we all chuckled as Gary explained that it was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych known as ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. Who would have thought that such a strange (and to some eyes, frankly disturbing) artwork could inspire such a beautiful floral display as Gary created? Too many plants to name them all, some that played a prominent part were glorious amaryllis, lilies, leuchodendrum, orange euphorbia, protea, grasses and deep red Dutch roses (Naomi). What a breathtaking finale. When Gary finished, anyone who hadn’t managed to buy a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of the displays at the start of the afternoon, now scrambled to buy several, such was the allure of the arrangements. And I was amongst them. Contrary to any previous experience with raffle tickets, mine was the first pick. The thrill of it! I was so drawn to the Klimt. Sadly, we are currently living in what can only be called a building site, so the Klimt had to wait for another ticket holder and I took the Wychwood Forest display, which can sit outside as a Christmas welcome to ‘the site’ I hope Gary won’t mind that I garlanded it with a few gold cones.

Fabulous Flowers is aptly named and in Gary’s talk we had a sense of all the joy, fun and creativity that has made them what they are Just Fabulous.

Syon House & Gardens

Thursday 13 October 2022

Following a request from the organisers, the Met Office kindly cancelled the rain they had earlier forecast for the day of our visit, and after a cool misty start we were treated to a beautiful sunny day. A lovely scenic drive via Henley-on-Thames ended when we arrived at the venue, the Duke of Northumberland’s London home, at 11 am. Unfortunately the Duke was not available to receive us, and we were sadly also too late for coffee before the scheduled house tour at 11:30. I was in the first of two groups and we had a very knowledgeable guide who went into considerable detail about the makers, method of manufacture and provenance of almost every item in the early rooms, which were clearly designed for grand receptions rather than as rooms to be lived in. She peppered her talk with anecdotes – the one I recall concerned the then Duke who in 1773 tried to smuggle several huge mirrors from Italy without paying import duty. He hid them in the Venetian Ambassador’s diplomatic bag, but someone tipped off the authorities and they were discovered. The Duke had to pay a huge fine on top of the import duty, much to his annoyance. The later rooms were more intimate with furniture and portraits of royalty and the Duke’s family. However time was getting on and we had to ask the guide to speed up the tour so that we could have lunch before the garden tour (originally scheduled for 1:30 but in the event postponed to 2 pm.). This was a pity because the last gallery contained many interesting portraits from Tudor times, which we were unable to examine properly.

I myself skipped lunch in order to spend more time in the gardens, and was glad I did as we had to tell Simon, our garden guide, that we only had an hour, and so this also became rather rushed. We were shown the huge conservatory, in which I saw several plants called Angel’s Trumpets. They have large, pendulous orange tubular flowers, and the whole plant is extremely poisonous. We then walked down the length of the large lake via a wild flower meadow they were creating near Flora’s Column. The garden looked really beautiful with the trees displaying their autumn colours in the sunshine, especially those that were reflected in the lake. Simon lamented the fact that they did not have enough gardeners to do everything they would like to do and parts of the area, particularly around the far end of the lake, did indeed look in need of restoration to their former splendour.

The return departure time was brought forward from 3:30 to 3:15 pm., presumably because traffic delays were anticipated. In all it was a most enjoyable and informative day, if somewhat frenetic. My suggestion for a future visit to a venue such as this, with so much to see and do, would be to allow an extra 30-45 minutes in all to provide for a more relaxed experience.

Manchester – Cultural Powerhouse

4 – 8 September 2022

If Victorian Manchester was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, C.21 Manchester is the buzzing hub of a cultural and media reinvigoration.  Our visit there was so packed with new and varied experiences that this can only be a very subjective overview.

Day 1:  Renishaw Hall has been home to generations of the eccentric Sitwell family whose fortune was built on the proceeds of the iron and coal industries.  With gorgeous gardens it was the interior of the house that proved a hidden gem filled with important but also oddball objects and art collected by successive owners.  It has the distinctive flavour of a family home with flashes of humour – two Venetian warriors in fancy dress stand in the hall, one with a handbag slung over their shoulder and the other wearing spectacles left behind by a long-forgotten visitor.  But there are also Brussels tapestries, a family portrait painted by Singer Sargent and five huge canvasses by John Piper, a friend of Sir Osbert.

Day 2:  Dunham Massey provided an entertaining glimpse of a Victorian kitchen with dairymaid and butler at work.  The house is Georgian restored by its Edwardian owners and used as a field hospital during the 1914-18 War but for me the gardens were the best thing about this property with its well-kept grounds, small lake and extensive woodland walks.  A contrast in scale, our visit in the afternoon to Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell’s house back in the city gave us an insight into the lifestyle of a respectable middle-class Georgian family.  Mrs Gaskell was friend and biographer of Charlotte Bronte who was chronically shy.  When visitors were invited to meet the celebrity author she couldn’t be found and only after they had gone did she come out from behind the curtains where she had hidden herself to escape them.

Day 3:  A private boat trip on the canal dramatically revealed the regeneration of Salford Quays with its modern skyscrapers and converted warehouses, now home to Media City, and we had an excellent commentary.  From the water there is a good view of Libeskind’s stunning new building for the Imperial War Museum North, three broken shards reformed to represent conflict in air, on land and on the seas.  We saw the impressive cascade made from ceramic red poppies first seen at the Tower of London and the huge gallery dedicated to modern conflicts from the Great War to the present day.  The Lowry Centre put paid to the notion that he was only a painter of matchstick men with exquisitely delicate pencil and charcoal drawings and a very sophisticated use of paint which gave a new perspective on this troubled man.

Day 4:  Our Blue Badge guide took us first to the Whitworth Gallery another imaginative conversion of a Victorian building into a light and airy space displaying its outstanding collection of wallpapers and English watercolours.  John Ryland’s Library, now owned by the University, was like the Whitworth the result of a benefaction from a Victorian industrialist whose formidable Cuban widow conceived and pushed through the whole project in her own lifetime.  It has architectural links to the Natural History Museum in Oxford.   And then Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, which began acquiring books in 1655 and has continually added to its collections of fine early printed books ever since.  We had an excellent guide who explained the history of the group of historic buildings and brought alive this magical place.   For many of us this was a highlight of the whole visit.

Day 5:  Shugborough which we visited en route back to Abingdon is another property with beautiful grounds and we strolled around in beautifully warm sunshine.  The interior of the house reflects the lives of the Anson brothers (c.1720) Thomas who inherited and nurtured it and George who became a celebrated C.18 admiral.  But for many of us the most interesting aspect was the relatively small apartment occupied by Lord Patrick Lichfield, member of the aristocratic glitterati of the 1960s, and prolific society photographer whose work was displayed throughout his rooms.  Most poignantly there were many delightfully informal photographs of HM the Queen.  Shortly after arriving back in Abingdon we heard the sad news that she had died that afternoon at Balmoral.

The photograph is of Chetham's Library

Our visit to St Peter's College (its chapel and its important Duncan Grant art collection) was made especially delightful by the relatively new, charming and enthusiastic archivist and records manager, Dr Alison Ray.   Alison showed us round the college chapel (aka the Victorian rebuilding of the ancient church of St-Peter-le-Bailey) and told us about the remarkable Chavasse family, whose patriarch, Francis, found the college, and whose sons and daughers served on the front in the Great War.   We had time to look at their monuments and medals as well as at the striking modern stained glass by John Hayward and Ervin Bossanyi.  Next stop was a rare chance to get inside a college Senior Common Room.  The dining room is wall to wall Duncan Grants, which Alison presented to us after we had enjoyed some tea and biscuits.   A lovely tour and a nice chance to get into St Peter's, with it eclectic mix of architecture.   Many thanks to Alison and to Tricia for organising a very enjoyable visit!

Masterpieces of Ashmolean Embroidery

Ashmolean Study Session

My mother taught me embroidery as a child and this went well beyond basic cross-stitch. However, I couldn’t imagine attempting anything like the 17th century pieces we saw at the Ashmolean. Most, whether on biblical or classical themes, included figures worked to give a three-dimensional effect, and sometimes using human hair or even peacock feathers. Minute pearls or Venetian glass beads might be added, all demanding precise stitching at a time when lighting was much poorer than today.

Some of the items we studied were the work of professional court embroiderers, no longer kept busy with ecclesiastical work in a post-Reformation period, but there was also a stunning embroidered casket from a Quaker school in Hackney, where girls as young as 10 or 12 would do the work as training to run a household and look after its linen.

This study session involved just eight of us, so it was a real pleasure to get up close to pieces and to be able to ask questions of an expert with such great enthusiasm for her subject.

Oscar Nemon Sculpture Museum and Wild Garden Visit

June 2022

As a sculpture and garden addict I thought this visit would be just up my street, and it was. Having said that, I must say that it was totally different from what I had expected. I imagined a garden full of sculptures to wander passively around, something like the Yorkshire Sculpture Park – how wrong I was! We were treated to a totally immersive, interactive, informative and (dare I say it) emotional visit the like of which I have rarely experienced.

Credit for the success of our time was entirely due to the efforts of Alice Nemon Stuart (and her dog) who gave us two talks.  She is the widow of Oscar Nemon’s son Falcon, and has taken it upon herself to create and maintain this museum more or less single-handedly. She couldn’t have been more welcoming or willing to share her knowledge, and I was in awe of the love and dedication with which she approached this project.

In the Archive Gallery Alice talked to us about Oscar Nemon’s life as a sculptor, as a Jewish refugee in England bringing up a family and as a man grieving for the loss of 22 family members during the holocaust. She also answered our questions about the Humanity sculpture which stands in a grass circle seen when you arrive and park. The other piece which is perhaps more well known is his sculpture of Churchill which stands in the Members Lobby of the House of Commons. There was more to look at and study than I could take in, but by the time we had finished I felt really knew both the man and his work.

In the Sculpture Studio we heard a recorded talk about Oscar’s method of working. He would engage his sitter in conversation to make sure he was relaxed and acting normally. Then he would make sketches, making sure the profile was perfectly accurate. He would also take a potato sized lump of clay on a stick and create an initial three-dimensional image. We were encouraged to handle an example, along with the tools he used. What a privilege to feel the surface he had moulded! Around us were examples of portrait heads all of which were at eye level, and all showing incredible vibrancy and character. This level of intimacy and detailed information, in a small studio with only half a dozen or so people and Oscar’s daughter- in-law, is what made the occasion into a truly moving and emotional time.

The museum is open to the public from 2 – 5.30 pm on the last Saturday of the month until November. See the website www.oscarnemon.org.uk for details and more information.

A Private Visit to Stratfield Saye home to the Dukes of Wellington

"Stratfield Saye is a low and not particularly large house but warm and comfortable with a good deal of room in it."  Queen Victoria's Journal 1845.

Many of us on board our Weaveaway coach on this fine sunny day, might have at some time driven past the Welllington Country Park in the Hampshire countryside, oblivious to the fact that nestled  within its boundaries lay  Stratfield Saye House, the elegant, but intimate home to the Dukes of Wellington since 1817.

The largely Jacobean house with Georgian  additions, dating  back to the early 17th century, was given by a grateful nation in 1817 to the victorious Arthur Welllesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who ended the Napoleonic  wars when the coalition he commanded defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The gratitude of the nation, and Queen Victoria, also included a grant of £600,000 with which the Duke originally planned to demolish  Stratfield Saye House and build in its place, Waterloo Palace,  to rival the grand  Blenheim Palace.  However, the plans being too expensive, (that grant of £600,000 is worth £53 million in today’s money) the Duke opted instead to renovate and upgrade the existing house. 

Our expert guides divided our numbers into manageable groups and while some toured the house or explored the gardens, others were able to explore the stables and barn, in which is housed the Wellington Exhibition covering the life and career of the 1st Duke.   The collection included weapons, drawings and maps used by the Duke of Wellington, but the centre piece is the imposing and magnificent carriage (car) used for his state funeral.  Made in 18 days (six foundries employed 100 men), the base of the carriage is cast from over 10 tons of bronze cannon captured at Waterloo. The tatters of the original banners made for the funeral procession remain attached to it still.  The resulting creation measuring 8m length 3m wide 5m high, required 12 horses to pull it, and its weight caused it to be stuck in The Mall during the funeral procession.         

The interior of Stratfield Saye House is compact but brimming with fascinating paintings, exquisite porcelain and fine china.  On the entrance hall floor is displayed a stunning Roman mosaic, lifted from the old Roman town of nearby Silchester, and brought to Stratford Saye by the 2nd Duke.   My favourite memory of the interior was The Gallery with walls covered mostly with prints of Shakespearean scenes, each print surrounded by gold beading, complemented by the gold leaf on the walls.

Of more mundane, but fascinating interest to our tour party were the water closets.  The first Duke installed these, along with central hot water heating and some double glazing, in many of the bedrooms, “beautifully veneered in a cupboard of each bedroom with every consideration given to light, ventilation and sound-proofing”.  In early 19th century, these en suites would have been considered luxuries. 

Lunch on the sunny terrace was followed by an exploration of the gardens in the short time permitting before we had to assemble for the trip home.    In the more formal garden  glorious rhododendrons were in full bloom and wandering into the wooded areas, the famous Wellingtonia trees, introduced into Britain the year  after the Duke’s death, came  into view.  The grave of Copenhagen, the horse which served the Duke so well at Waterloo, is poignantly placed under an impressive spreading tree.  A friendly gardener pointed out to us the slopes of the lawn where the cavalry scenes of ‘War Horse” were filmed.

Our excellent guides who  were both knowledgeable and enthusiastic, seamlessly blended historical fact with amusing anecdotes to create this wonderfully memorable visit.

Islamic Art - The Influences of Empire

Denise Derbyshire

Our expert guide didn't expect the group to remember all the numerous civilisations, dynasties and empires which she covered in swift succession. Nor do I imagine her despairing that we won't be able to describe all the different methods of ceramic production, techniques of decoration or required firing temperatures. What I think we all came away with was the graphic realisation that not just art history but history in general cannot be separated into neat little boxes of time lines. Cultural influences move backwards and forwards, cross continents and even bypass trade routes. Mighty rulers in the past changed faith if it suited them from an economic point of view. The experimentation, ingenuity and skill involved in ceramic production over the centuries is astonishing in its fluidity. 

And here's a surprising conclusion. After closely examining the pottery on display in the Islamic gallery, we all said that many examples could easily be mistaken for contemporary designs which we would be very happy to show off at home. Chance would be a fine thing! 

SUFFOLK'S ART, HOUSES & HISTORY

There was an air of barely concealed excitement in our resplendent Weavaway coach as it left Abingdon with 28 TASA members on board. After all, holidays and trips have been in short supply in the last 2 years and the thought of leaving Oxfordshire for Suffolk was enticing. Tom and Trish Ayling have led all our recent tours with great success, combining visits to well-known places of artistic and architectural interest with the less familar. This year’s tour was no exception.

En route for Bury St Edmunds, our base for the holiday, we stopped in “The Other Place” not to view the Backs but to visit the Cambridge Central Mosque. An award-winning new building, it has a stunning interior of wooden tree-like arches supporting the great roof, an Islamic echo of the fan vaulted King’s College Chapel. Here we had an excellent female Muslim guide who not only told us about the building and the significance of the Islamic motifs but also showed us the Paradise garden which is a community amenity for everyone irrespective of religious identity. This visit was a highlight of the tour for me.

In the afternoon we made our way, via Anglesea Abbey, to our accommodation in Bury, The Angel, first mentioned in local history as an hotel in 1452. Situated in the Market Place and facing St Edmundsbury Cathedral, it has hosted many important visitors including Charles Dickens when attending the Theatre Royal (of which we later had a very good guided tour). This April, TASA were The Angel’s newest most important visitors and we all enjoyed the comfort of the hotel and the excellent breakfasts and dinners.

In the following days we made visits to Ickworth, with its Italianate inspired house and gardens, to wool-rich Long Melford Church (described by Simon Jenkins as a treasure house of medieval art), then to Sutton Hoo with its strangely haunting Anglo-Saxon burial ground, and also to Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich.

Sad to leave Suffolk, we ended our tour with a visit to The Manor at Hemingford Grey near Cambridge. This was once home to Lucy Boston, a well known author of children’s books for which the house and garden are the setting in her Green Knowe stories. We were shown around by the author’s granddaughter. Little has changed and I felt as if I was stepping into one of the stories as I walked past the topiary chess pieces and into The Manor with its mysterious staircases and artefacts. This visit was another highlight of the tour for me.

And so home after a tour full of daytime variety and evenings filled with chat and laughter. Each of us will have special memories. Thank you everyone for being part of them.

Details of this virtual visit to be held on Zoom at 14.30 appear on the Lectures page of this website.  There is no charge to members for this visit.

The Arts Society Abingdon

Christmas Lunch and Talk

Wednesday 15 December 12.30 for 1.00 pm

Frilford Heath Golf Club

After lunch speaker: Philippa Devon

Theatrical wig designer/maker

Cost: £35

Booking essential by downloading the order form here  or by email to info@theartssocietyabingdon.org.uk 

Payment by BACS to TASA at HSBC: sort code 40-08-10; account number 41198807.  Please put Xmas in the reference box.

Compton Verney is one of my very favourite art galleries, elegantly housed in beautifully landscaped gardens. Just walking from the coach park, over the bridge, past sheep, safely grazing and up to the entrance is a thrill of anticipation.

I’ve always been impressed by the venue’s curating abilities and John Nash: The Landscape of Love and Solace didn’t disappoint. Often overshadowed by his brother, Paul, this exhibition clearly highlights John’s artistic achievements, stretching over seven decades and across a range of mediums. Like his brother, he was a Great War artist, producing the highly regarded ‘Over the Top’ but he was also a countryside lover and knowledgeable plantsman. ‘The Cornfield’ is one of his many beautifully observed rural scenes which give thanks to survival.

After a pleasant lunch it was time to appreciate the contrast of Grinling Gibbons: Centuries in the Making. The skill and talent of this ‘Michelangelo of Wood’ has not been overstated. I was awed by the precision of his exquisite carving, rendering it so very realistic. I almost expected a little squirrel to bound away from his perch at the apex of a certain exhibit. However, I was most impressed by Gibbons’ influence on contemporary artists and designers, particularly a work by Peter Thurling, ‘Trophy with Dead Bird-Albatros’ which was a visual comment on the folly of consumerism and excessive wealth. 

At the request of The Arts Society Abingdon

The Abbey Cinema Abingdon

screened the classic Ealing Comedy

Kind Hearts and Coronets

On 1st November, we moved into new territory by arranging an outing to the Abbey Cinema in Abingdon for a private viewing of Kind Hearts and Coronets, an Ealing comedy. We were delighted by the response, particularly in these days of covid where people are reluctant to attend public venues. The film, despite being over 70 years old, stood the test of time remarkably well. On a big screen it was possible to admire the sumptuous costumes, the outside locations and the sets. The cast were inimitable. Although Alec Guinness won plaudits for his performance of all eight members of the D’Ascoyne family and rightly so, most agreed that the outstanding performance was that of Denis Price as the arch villain and murderer. The script was witty and generated many laughs which shows that age does not dim great writing.

For the afternoon showing, we were joined by Benedict Morrison who had given a zoom lecture on Ealing Comedies earlier in the year. He was happy to agree to a Q&A session with Geraldine Hodson after the showing and was able to shed more light on the film and its production. He added enormously to the general entertainment.

The Abbey Cinema did us proud by providing a huge selection of cakes as well as tea and coffee. We are very grateful for their help in setting it all up and making it a very special occasion.

We plan to arrange another cinema outing later in 202

An Artist’s Open Garden & Studio

Going into Janet Boulton’s garden behind her house in Spring Road is like entering a different world.  Because you can’t see the boundary walls or fences, or the end of the garden, you don’t really get a sense of the width or length of the garden – just that your eye is drawn onwards and upwards as a curving path passes between box hedges and yew columns, and past the many art works.  Janet has created a number of pieces in the garden, mostly playing with words, letters, meaning and memories:  some moving, some surprising, and some playful.  As you walk through it, each section of the garden offers a different atmosphere. The overall impression is of peace, and many shades of green. Colour is used with great restraint, and effect.  Towards the end of the garden Janet’s studio takes up almost the entire width of the garden. The glass jars, familiar from Janet’s still life paintings, stand in rows on glass shelves, and there are glimpses of pictures in the making, from Janet’s current series, Eye Music.  If you take the narrow path past the studio there’s another surprise:  a peaceful parterre garden under mature trees.  Although Janet acknowledges a particular debt to Ian Hamilton Finlay and his garden Little Sparta for inspiration, I imagine that there is no other garden anything like the small, intensely pleasing garden that she has created behind a terraced Victorian house in Abingdon.

Billed as a tour designed to showcase the controversies, point out the unexpected and enjoy a range of comic, tragic and forbidding figures, Lizzy Rowe’s delightful walking tour of Oxford city centre met its brief handsomely.

Our first stop was Rhodes House, Oriel College. In a niche on the second storeystands the statue of Rhodes himself, impassive subject of the ‘Rhodes must fall’ debate looking as some have said like a bank manager, his importance emphasised by his position above the stone figures of George V and Edward VII who are flanked by two former Heads of College. The now notorious statue is well known but it was a surprise to be shown an imposing bronze plaque on the outside wall of 6 King Edward’s Street which commemorates the fact that Rhodes lodged at the address in 1881 during his time as a student at Oriel.

On Holywell Street at the Merton College gatehouse, our attention was drawn to the central Taynton stone panel above the entrance. (If you would like a close up, the Merton College website has a picture of it on the history of Merton page.) In the centre is a book with seven seals, representing the Book of Revelation, surrounded by a landscape of trees, animals, the figures of John the Baptist and a kneeling Walter de Merton. It is redolent with religious symbolism: the lion represents resurrection, the lamb sacrifice, a bird feeding her young is possibly a pelican (a common symbol of Christ’s sacrifice) and the magnificent horned unicorn the incarnation of Christ. Even the seven different species of trees are emblematic. At the base, a frieze of rabbits hopping in and out of their burrows adds a whimsical touch. The plaque is a true delight. Marvelling at the craftmanship and the time it must have taken to produce, we were amazed to discover that it had been completed in just seven weeks by stonemasons of Abingdon.

From the ‘Narnia’ doorway in St Mary’s passage to the seven-foot Antony Gormleyiron statue towering precariously on the roof above Blackwell’s Art and Poster shop,we were introduced to many treats during our hour’s walk. Merton College Chapel’s grotesques remodelled in 1950s by Percy Quick, two of whom have their hands above their heads in which they hold a second head, certainly lived up to their name. The decorative carved heads by Michael Groser on Exeter college in Turl Street, the first letters of which spell out the name of Marilyn Butler (first female head of a formerly all-male Oxford college) in a kind of stone acrostic, showed a tradition of wit also evident in the carving on Brasenose College of the unpopular foreman immortalised in stone as he answered the call of nature!

Lizzy Rowe was an excellent guide. Wearing her learning lightly and full of interesting facts and anecdotes, she brought carvings and statues, medieval and modern, to vibrant life. Never again shall I walk though Oxford with my gaze at street level. To paraphrase Isaiah 40:26, we should all ‘Lift up our eyes on high and see’.

The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter - an architectural walk led by Alastair Lack

Monday 14 June, 14.00 - 15.30

Cost: £8

The tours on 9 and 18 June are sold out.

The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter ( ROQ) in North Oxford is one of the most important sites of Oxford University.  It combines beautiful older buildings such as the 18th century Radcliffe Observatory, and at its edge the 19th century buildings of the Oxford University Press and St Paul's church (now Freud's Cafe).  In strong contrast, the ROQ is also the home of modern award winning buildings, such as The Blavatnik School of Government, The Mathematical Institute and close by, The Allen Graduate Centre of Keble College and the The Middle East Centre of St Antony's, designed by Zaha Hadid.

The walk will be led by Oxford tour guide Alastair Lack and will begin and end in the forecourt of the Radcliffe Humanities building, formerly the Radcliffe Infirmary.

To attend this virtual visit please email info@theartssocietyabingdon.org.uk for further details on how to pay.   On receipt of payment, a link will be sent to you on Monday 10 May.  We welcome non-members.

Keble College and The Light of the World

A 'Virtual Visit' on Zoom with Lizzy Rowe

Wednesday 12 May at 11.00

Please see Lectures page for further information. 

Study Session including guided gallery visit with Denise Darbyshire

Ashmolean Museum 

Thursday 12 March 2020 

The Mughals in India should be seen as one of three Muslim empires in the early modern period, following on chronologically from the Ottomans in the Near and Middle East and the Balkans, and the Safavids in Iran. The founder of the Mughal dynasty was Prince Babur who, having overthrown the previous rulers in Delhi, ruled in Hindustan as the Great Mogul from 1526 - 1530.  Humayan, Babur’s son, succeeded him, but was ousted by a rival for 12 years, until 1555. During this time the Mughal contact with Persian culture became stronger, as Humayan took refuge in Iran with the Shah. In particular this had a big impact on Mughal painting, as, on his return to India, Humayan was able to bring back with him some outstanding masters - this led on to one of the central themes of our workshop and talk: the passion of the Mughals in embracing the best of other cultures.

Under Humayan’s son, Akbar, to become Akbar the Great, the Mughal court painters created a specific style in which, along with Persian, Central Asian and Indian traditions, European painting played a role. Excellent examples of these influences were the first two works discussed: Amir Hamza defeats ‘Umar-I Ma’di Karab, commissioned by Akbar between 1562 and 1565, and, very much in the style of Duerer, Saint John the Evangelist, commissioned by Akbar’s successor, Jahangir, in 1600. Indeed the second of these two works, also shows the tolerant attitude taken towards other religions, in the first instance by Akbar himself. The Mughal empire was in a position to continue to flourish not only during Jahangir’s reign, but also under Akbar’s grandson, Shah Jahan. Openness also meant to trade, the importance of which was stressed towards the end of our visit.

The Mughal India gallery of the Ashmolean, which at first seemed on the small side, turned out to have many gems waiting, and one could do worse than focus on the final two works discussed: with its unusual black background, the Portrait of a lady from the 1620’s, but closer inspection revealed a painting of rare skill and delicacy; and last, but certainly not least, the outstandingly beautiful Mughal carpet, dating from the late 17th century, showing many of the influences mentioned above - and with colours looking as fresh as if it had been made yesterday. One thing immediately evident in the gallery was the huge range of art produced under the Mughals, another important theme raised in our time in the Ashmolean.

VISIONS OF BEAUTY: 

THE MUGHALS AND THEIR ART

Study Session including guided gallery visit with Denise Darbyshire

Ashmolean Museum

Tuesday 25 February 2020

11.20 – 13.00 or 13.50 – 15.30

We will look briefly at the splendid examples of paintings and objects in the Mughal Gallery and also visit the Jameel Centre in the Ashmolean for a close look at Mughal paintings.

 The context of the Mughals and their art in a historical perspective will be examined.  This is a cross-cultural feast which includes Iran and Europe and offers the opportunity to examine and discuss the techniques embraced and the heights achieved in paintings.  We conclude by looking at dialogues in art between the Mughals and Rajhasthani and Pahari works.

 Denise Darbyshire led our very successful Study Session on The Art of Islam earlier in the year.  

 Cost: £15

 No transport provided.  Meet in the entrance to the museum.

Sold Out

George IV: Art & Spectacle

The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace

Thursday 30 January 2020

2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the accession of King George IV.  The exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery showcases some of the magnificent works of art acquired by him.  His collecting included Dutch and Flemish paintings, Sèvres porcelain, French furniture, Chinoiserie, armoury and metalwork, with some key pieces splendidly displayed.  Despite his colourful life, a target of satire - examples of satirical prints on display - his artistic legacy is in no doubt, and can be further seen at Buckingham Place, Windsor Castle and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton.

Not allowed to travel abroad by his father, he used agents, one of whom was his French pastry chef François Benoit. One of his purchases was a mechanical cylinder bureau, c. 1785, attributed to David Roentgen. This had a reading slope and hidden drawers, innovations using springs and pulleys, and was one of George IV’s favourite pieces as it was kept next to his bedroom.

 The audio guide was an additional source of background to some key pieces, with a useful timeline, reminding us of events happening during his lifetime, 1762–1830.  George IV succeeded to the throne in 1820.

Carlton House in Pall Mall was presented to George on his coming of age in 1783.  He furnished his primary residence with elegance, examples of his furniture, sculptures, porcelain and paintings on show.  Entering this exhibition by the final room (a private tour making a bulge in the first room) was auspicious; the impact of the spectacle of artefacts and paintings against a backdrop of an emerald-green wall made them sparkle with anticipation; this was my favourite room.

Here was George’s most expensive painting, purchased in 1811 for 5000 guineas, Rembrandt’s Portrait of Jan Rijksen and his wife Griet Jans, ‘Shipbuilder and His Wife’ (1663).  My favourite piece was Rembrandt’s Agatha Bas, 1641, a portrait of an elegant lady, holding a fan flecked with silver which appears almost three-dimensional. Her left hand, though, has her thumb leaning on the edge of the canvas, a painted ebony frame, and emerges as if out of the frame. 

What a fascinating exhibition! It has left me with the desire to find out more.

Kew Gardens

Wednesday 25 September 2019

 A visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew conjures up an expectation that the 300 acres stretching down to the Thames with its collection of 14,000 trees will be something special, and so it proved to be.  Most of the trees had still held their leaves, but colours were starting to change to autumnal russets.  And those who inspected the labels were quickly aware that what seemed a quite familiar tree was so often an unusual variety of a common species – oak or ash, for example.  This while parakeets twittered in the branches above.

 But Kew is so much more than a huge plant collection – not only trees, of course, set out in glorious vistas, but herbaceous borders, alpine collections, vegetable and grass gardens, and so much more.  The buildings are exceptional.  The great pagoda, after some years of relative neglect, has been restored, with 80 dragons spread from the bottom to the top gleaming in the sunlight.  The two imposing glasshouses – the Palm House and the newly refurbished Temperate House, both veritable cathedrals – are triumphs of Victorian design and engineering.  Our expert architectural guides were able to tell us about the skills of Decimus Burton and Richard Turner, and how and why they used both wrought iron and cast iron, each with different properties, in the structures they were creating.

 Kew has a palace.  It is not a grand stone building, but a more modest, almost domestic, 17th century brick house with Dutch gables.  It was easy to imagine why the Georgian royal families decamped to Kew, away from London and Windsor – a private and peaceful place (and with no jets overhead every 90 seconds heading for Heathrow).  As one of our party said, “I could live here!”

 Spread both inside the glasshouses and outside there was an exhibition, entitled ‘Reflections of nature’, of glass sculptures by the American artist Dale Chihuly.  Some small, some massive, they provoked mixed responses.  Perhaps the most striking was a glass globe made up of writhing, sinuous red, orange and yellow threads, set off by extensive plantings in the same colours, with the curvaceous Palm House as a backdrop.  

An Artist’s Garden

 Tuesday 10 September & Tuesday 17 September at 10.30 am

The distinguished painter, Janet Boulton, has agreed to open her garden in Spring Road, Abingdon, to very small groups of our members.

 The garden (4 1/2 x 30 1/2 m) behind a Victorian terrace house, narrow with steps.  Begun in 1980 it has been influenced by the gardens Janet Boulton has painted – Rosemary Verey’s Barnsley House, Villa la Pietra in Florence, Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Little Sparta in Scotland and more recently the Cow Mead Allotments in Oxford.   Predominantly green it contains numerous sculptures with inscriptions relating to art, garden history and the human spirit.  This garden is celebrated for its contribution to the art of small garden design and is the subject of a number of films and features in garden magazines.

For further information about Janet Boulton and her work please see www.janetboulton.co.uk

 £5 donation to Macmillan Nurses is requested.

Wells & Somerset holiday September 2019

 Gertrude Jekyll described Berkeley Castle which stands overlooking the Severn and the Welsh border: “Seen from the meadows it seems like some great fortress roughly hewn out of natural rock.  The giant walls and mighty buttresses look as if they had been carved by wind and weather out of some solid rock-mass, rather than wrought by human handwork.”   The walls have been compared to the colour of pot-pourri, dried rose petals mixed with the grey of lavender.  But this is not a comfortable domestic dwelling, it is challenging, old and unique and has been the home of descendants of the Berkeley family for over 800 years.

Forde Abbey, hidden deep in the Somerset countryside, which we visited the following day was also founded 800 years ago, this time by Cistercian monks. The present house, again still in private ownership, presents a very mellow aspect and reflects the moment when the Middle Ages were making the transition to Reformation and belated Renaissance.  The interior is interesting with a high-ceilinged Great Hall from which stairs lead up to a Grand Saloon with intricate plasterwork and wood panelling hung with Mortlake tapestries copied from the Raphael cartoons now in the V&A.  The 30 acres of gardens at Forde are gorgeous with a tumble of terraces, water gardens and flower borders and a distant view of very decorative deep red cattle.

For a complete change of scale we travelled from Forde to St Andrew’s Church in the hamlet of Mells close by Mells Manor owned by descendants of the Horner family since the Dissolution.  At the end of the C.19 the Horners were strongly associated with the Souls, an artistic grouping that included Burne-Jones, Lutyens, Eric Gill and Alfred Munnings.   The work of all these artists is contained in the church including an arresting and poignant equestrian statue which is a memorial to Edward Horner killed in France in 1917, a tapestry designed by Burne-Jones with needlework by Lady Frances Horner and a white plaster plaque of a beautifully elegant peacock also designed by Burne-Jones.  In the churchyard lie the graves of Siegfried Sassoon and Violet Bonham-Carter.  The churchwarden gave a very interesting account of how Mells had been used as a secret venue for talks in the period running up to the release of Mandela and the ending of apartheid in South Africa, talks so secret that even the watchful villagers had no idea they were happening.  Success Tours had arranged tea and cakes for us in the charming walled garden tearoom nearby where we were joined by two members of their team, Jo Blair and Tracey Howes.

The Swan Hotel in Wells where we stayed had a wonderful view across the Cathedral Green to the façade of Wells Cathedral, beautifully lit at night, where we had an excellent guided tour on the third day of our visit.  The ultra-modern looking ‘scissor arches’ in the nave were in fact a medieval solution to sinking tower foundations; the octagonal Chapter House reached by a flight of perilously well-worn stone steps also dates to the early 1300s while the Wells clock, installed in 1390, has one of the oldest medieval clock faces in the world and retains a bell-like chime and a tableau of jousting knights who revolve on the hour.  In the afternoon we visited the Bishop’s Place and its extensive gardens and in the evening most of us attended Choral Evensong which was also a pleasure.

Homeward bound we crossed the border into Wiltshire and stopped off at Bradford-on-Avon and Great Chalfield Manor, a tranquil medieval manor house cluster complete with moat, gatehouse, barn and church set in totally unspoiled countryside.  Restoration has uncovered a wall painting of Thomas Tropnell MP, clothier and lawyer, who built the house in 1470 on his profits from the wool trade.  A prosperous looking portly gentleman, he wears a beaver hat and a coat trimmed with ermine and carries a bulging money bag.   The manor fell into disrepair and was retrieved in the early C.20 by the owner Robert Fuller who commissioned Alfred Parsons to design the gardens which had similarly been neglected.  This he did in the Arts & Crafts style with topiary yew ‘houses’, terracing, a two-story stone summerhouse, ponds, trees and beautiful herbaceous flowerbeds.

Did anything go wrong on this holiday?  Well, the driver got lost a couple of times, on one occasion reversing skilfully but hazardously back up a very narrow steep country lane onto a busy main road while two of our valiant members held up the traffic – and the delightful Swan Hotel (eventually) ran out of gin . . . 

The Queen’s College Library, Oxford 

On 18 July, a group of some 30 AAS members had the rare opportunity of a private viewing of the renowned Queen’s College library in Oxford, led by the scholarly College Librarian, Amanda Saville, ably assisted by Dominic Hewett.  We were first asked how many of us knew which Queen the college’s name honoured.  Apart from one former member, the rest of us were left floundering.   (Queen Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III.) 

Although Queen’s is one of the earlier foundations in Oxford (1341), it presents a remarkably homogeneous neoclassical face to the world, with the bulk of the college dating from the mid to late 18th C.  The Upper Library (built between 1692-5) predates these neoclassical structures, however, and is a fine example of English baroque (with rococo elements juxtaposed in the ceiling plasterwork).  

It is amongst the last of the old “chained” libraries (traces can still be seen), and its harmonious design (once thought to have been by Wren, but now considered to be more likely the work of Dean Aldrich of Christ Church) aimed to ensure that a maximum of natural light reached the reading bays.  The library’s exposure to daylight sadly caused some of the library’s treasures, including two splendid early 18th C globes and a magnificent 1760s orrery (a mechanical model of our solar system), to fade badly over time.  

However, a recent restoration project saw the fitting of special UV blinds and custom-made cases to protect the precious contents and the painstaking repair of the fabric. During these works, the College found original fittings from the reading bays, and reinstated several.  The wrought iron spiral staircase once that led from the cloistered ground level to the upper library space was also located elsewhere in the college buildings, and we heard that consideration is being given to reinstating it.  

These open cloisters were subsequently enclosed and used to create a superb Lower Library space in the 1840s, when part of a huge donation of £30,000 from Mr Mason, an old member, was used for this purpose. The remainder of his bequest, which had to be spent within three years, and only on the library, was used to form a college collection which still counts as one of the most exceptional in the country. This is all the more remarkable because very little of the college’s original collection of mediaeval manuscripts and early printed works survives. 

A further extension, only completed in 2017, saw the library enlarged downwards and outwards, with striking views of the college buildings appearing through the oblique skylights. 

The purchases made from the Mason bequest include a large number of incunables (amongst which we saw a fine late 15th C Flemish Book of Hours); the only Gutenberg book in any Oxford college library; three books printed by Caxton; David Garrick’s own copy of the Shakespeare First Folio; a collection of mediaeval manuscripts specially bound for Henry VIII; Queen Elizabeth I’s sumptuous velvet bound copy of the Greek New Testament; a complete set of Piranesi’s illustrations of the classical world; Gould’s Birds of Europe; the only surviving copy of Coverdale’s Ghostly Psalms; and first editions of such major works as Newton’s Principia Mathematica.  

The College has continued to acquire rare and valuable pieces, such as the original manuscript of Thomas Hardy’s Winter Words, and a 15thC Boccaccio once owned by Pope Pius V and still in its original binding, which came as a gift from Jane Morris (née Burden), muse to the Pre-Raphaelites, and wife of William. She also donated three volumes from the Kelmscott press and other volumes from their library, all bearing the Kelmscott bookplate. 

We were privileged to see and peruse (under Dominic’s watchful eye) many of the aforementioned treasures, along with a superb Tudor (1579) Atlas of the Counties of England and Wales by Saxton. Members took great delight in viewing Berkshire, Oxfordshire and many of their “home” counties in spectacularly bright and beautiful original watercolour. 

Dior  and Quant Exhibitions

The Arts Society Abingdon fashionistas lucky enough to get one of 2019’s hottest double tickets in town were not disappointed at their recent visit to the V&A.

Both exhibitions were a feast for the eye and evoked many memories for, even if most of us were a bit too young to appreciate Christian Dior in all but name, many of us could recall Mary Quant.

The Christian Dior show was subtitled Designer of Dreams and indeed walking through it I  felt like Alice in a very special Wonderland gazing at fabulous creations of frocks (those were the days when a frock was a frock and not a dress), costumes (tailored two pieces) and ballgowns.   In 1947 when Christian Dior launched his “New Look” it was greeted with delight by a generation of women who had lived through the rigorous austerity of the Second World War.  There was a new emphasis on feminine shape, with a nipped in waist to give an elegant appearance.  Following Christian Dior’s death ten years later in 1957, the House of Dior was created together with the appointment of a Creative Director - of which there have been six to the present day.  The first of these was Yves St Laurent who then went on to found his own famous fashion house.  Another one, British John Galliano, was probably the most provocative Creative Designer but all have continued to celebrate their founder’s creations of sumptuous luxury with the use of beautiful fabrics and embellishments.  Not just synonymous with clothes, the name of Dior became a commercial success for associated luxury items such as accessories, perfume and make-up.  

If all this opulence was too much for even our wildest dreams, then a walk round the Mary Quant exhibition provided just the right antidote.  Here was a fashion style that many of us fondly remembered and wore.   If Dior had brought out the Cinderella in us, then Mary Quant told us we could go to the ball!  She started designing in the mid-1950s and her heyday was the 60s, the Swinging decade of the last century.  This was a time with which many of us could identify and the lively chatter from visitors was very much along the lines of “Do you remember … In fact your own correspondent treasures the memory of her Mary Quant Ginger Group dress with its swirly daisy pattern in shades of putty, ginger and prune – and, in the words of a hit song of the time, definitely felt groovy wearing it.

Like Dior, Mary Quant became a big commercial success but, unlike him, she reached out to a mass market of young women eager to embrace the freedom and look of a more permissive age.  She launched The Ginger Group line in 1963, the company branch of the business and as her “look” caught-on, other designers cashed in and the mini skirt, coloured tights and boots became almost the uniform of a generation.  Here was fashion that was affordable, fun and sexy.  Being “cool” and “kooky” were very desirable attributes.  In a decade Mary Quant took Chelsea to Cleethorpes and her designs changed for ever the way women dressed for work and pleasure.  

So, here at the V&A were two wonderful exhibitions not just showing the work of two legendary fashion designers but also illlustrating fragments of social history.  Dazzled by the display and fascinated by the accompanying archival film excerpts, I realised why all those years ago I had once been, in the words of The Kinks, A Dedicated Follower of Fashion.

Guided Tour of the South Asia Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum, 4 June 2019

 One of the legacies of the British Raj is that the V&A has the best collection of South Asian artefacts outside India - nearly 60,000 objects in all. A selection of these is on public display in Room 41 and during our visit V&A guide Anne Howarth picked out some highlights for us.

 Time and again the word exquisite came to mind, whether we were looking at a wine cup made of carved jade, a Mughal gold spoon set with rubies, emeralds and diamonds, a Bangladeshi quilt, a carved ivory, an enamelled box, or just a piece of tie-dyeing. Some items were elaborate: a glorious Jama (a robe worn by men at Indian courts) for instance, made of fine muslin and decorated with silver-gilt trimmings and pieces of iridescent emerald-green wing cases from Indian jewel beetles. And some very simple: a length of muslin so fine that it was called 'frozen air'.

 One of the continuing pleasures of a tour like this is that when any of us next goes to the V&A —and is initially daunted by how much there is to see — a quick visit to Room 41 will make you feel instantly at home.

Note: The South Asia section of the V&A’s website (www.vam.ac.uk/collections/south-asia) provides a neat way of revisiting what we saw. You can find there too a video showing how the mechanism inside Tippoo’s tiger produces the terrifying noise the unfortunate soldier would have made as he was mauled.

VISIT TO DRESDEN BY THE ARTS SOCIETY ABINGDON – MAY 2019

 Although we had only a few days in which to enjoy Dresden and its surroundings, it was amazing how much Tom and Trish, with the assistance of Heritage Travel, had managed to pack into so short a time. As a result, we all felt that we had enjoyed virtually all that Dresden had to offer. We were particularly lucky with our guide, Susanne Reichelt, who was not only charming and efficient but also a walking encyclopaedia and amazed us with her breadth of knowledge on all topics. Without a doubt she enhanced our visit by bringing the history, art and architecture of the city to life.

Day 1.

This was taken up with travel and we had arrived in heavy rain but our spirits were lifted by the excellent accommodation at the hotel and the lovely supper they had laid on for us.

Day 2.

The rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to peer through the clouds when we set off from our hotel for a walking tour of Dresden city centre. Our hotel was ideally situated on the bank of the river Elbe in gardens running down to a walkway to the river with a famous view of the Dresden skyline across the river as painted by the venetian painter Bernardo Belotti (nephew of Canaletto) in 1748. A short stroll over the Augustus bridge took us straight to the centre. As we all know, Dresden was destroyed in 1945 and we learnt that for many years much of the city centre stayed as a huge bomb site until, following reunification with Western Germany in 1989, decisions were made to rebuild and in particular to restore the Belotti view of Dresden as it was in 1748. During the communist era, some rebuilding had taken place of the Zwinger Palace and the Opera House. What we saw on our walk, therefore, were amazing reconstructions of some of the medieval centre but rebuilding continues in many areas. The symbol of the rebirth of Dresden is the Frauenkirche which was completely destroyed but, like a phoenix, has literally risen from the ashes and restored to its original design using as much of the old salvaged building materials as possible and following the original architect's magnificent design both inside and out. The building was completed only in 2005 but looks as if it has always been there. The gold cross on top of the dome was made by an English goldsmith whose father was one of the bomber crew and this with other donations from other countries, including Britain, has enabled the church to become an impressive manifestation of reconciliation. As our guide made clear, the re-building process has helped the people of Dresden to feel pride in their city and rightly so.

In the afternoon, after the first of many very good lunches in local restaurants, we visited the Historic Green Vaults in the Residenzschloss. This was a dazzling display of treasures from the late Renaissance and Rococo periods collected by a man whom we got to know rather well, Augustus the Strong, who was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland at that time. HIs collection would be the envy of many a Russian Oligarch. It included Meissen porcelain, fabulous jewellery and perhaps one of the greatest masterpieces on show, a miniaturised scene of the court of the Grand Mogul using gold and precious stones with extraordinary detail in each of the tiny figurines.

Having been dazzled by this display of bling, we proceeded to a wine tasting at the Wackerbarth Palace vineyard where our very droll local guide ensured that we had several tastings of excellent local wines which helped revive us all before returning to the hotel. The weather was sufficiently warm to enable most of us to eat outside at a local beer cellar and sample, amongst other things, dumplings and beer.

Day 3

We travelled the few miles to Meissen to visit the porcelain factory and musuem. We were able to watch the porcelain items being constructed on a foot operated potter’s wheel (no modern technology here!) and to observe the immense skill of the artisans in hand painting each and every item. The shop was a temptation for some of us. The centre of Meissen is like a picture postcard with every viewpoint a delight. We had an extremely good lunch at a café in one of the squares before climbing 77 stairs to the top of Burgberg where the medieval castle of Albrechstburg and Meissen Cathedral sit. The views from the top were breath taking. The castle had become something of a pastiche of a medieval palace as the German equivalent of the Victorians had painted most of the rooms in vivid colours which the local guide felt had ruined the interior but for us it felt reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites and so did not fill us with quite such dismay.

On the way back to hotel, we popped into the beautiful dairy shop of Pfunds Molkerie to marvel at the ornate interior and the hand painted tiles produced by Dresden’s famous Villeroy & Boch factory.

Four of us went to the ballet that evening in the superbly restored Semperoper Opera house and enjoyed a magical performance of Swan Lake. It was nice to see that the audience had dressed up for the occasion and in particular, little girls wearing lovely party dresses.

Day 4

In the morning we visited the Old Masters Gallery in the Zwinger Palace. A fantastic collection, including a number works by of Raphael, Rembrandt, Canaletto and Borlotti. Our guide, Susanne, gave us a particularly good account of the various works she had picked out for us to see and helped us understand the paintings. The highlight, however, was Vermeer’s painting of a girl reading a letter. An image famous all over the world. The painting was on public display but is in the process of being restored. This restoration will change the painting as we know it for ever. The background  wall facing the viewer has been plain and unadorned for centuries. The restoration has revealed that the wall was not in fact plain but Vermeer had included a painting of a Cupid on that wall which was subsequently painted over after his time. That painting is now in the process of being revealed and we could see it emerging from the background. A rather disconcerting experience to see, given how well we know and love the current version. It was art history taking place before our very eyes.

After another very good lunch at a local café, being serenaded by jazz musicians in the square as part of a jazz festival, we boarded our coach for a short ride to the gardens of Pillnitz Palace set on the banks of the river Elbe. The gardens are beautifully landscaped and include the largest camellia bush in the world (sadly it had just finished flowering so we did not see it in its full glory). The palace itself was exquisite, built in a chinoiserie style by Augustus the Strong in the seventeenth century.

The afternoon concluded with a boat trip along the river to Dresden so we could see the meadows on either side with locals cycling, walking and picnicking and culminating in a view of the famous Dresden skyline as we came in to shore. The boat rip was enhanced by coffee and cake and not just any old cake but Dresden’s speciality, eiershecke, a golden yellow cake with a sponge base, cream filling and an egg, butter and sugar topping.

Day 5

Sadly, this was our last day but our journey back to the airport was broken by a visit to Moritzburg Hunting Lodge set in a lake and with stunning interiors. As befits a hunting lodge, there were hundreds of stag heads on the walls displaying, oddly, huge deformed antlers which collectors at the time were particularly keen to own. The walls of the rooms are lined with superb leather wall coverings which in their day would have dazzled the visitor with bright reds, blues and golds. Some of the wallcoverings are being restored which gives a glimpse of what the overall effect would have been.

We then had a final splendid lunch at a little hotel in Lubbenau with a charming French owner who treated us like royalty. A lovely end to a superb trip. Save for the very first evening, the gods were kind to us and we had excellent sunny, dry weather which enabled us to see Dresden and its surroundings at their very best.

Chavenage   1010-2019

In the footsteps of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Normans we made our way by a modern, comfortable coach through roads and lanes edged by may on the hawthorn, English bluebells in the copses, hedgerows green and verdant, red campion emerging and cowslips giving their final display to Chavenage and the house martins newly settling into the great barn.

            Some 40 persons were ushered through an ancient 16th century mediaeval hall complete with portraits, panelling, burning logs in a vast fireplace and a shove-halfpenny table serving as a shop counter for guide books, homemade jam and frippery and thence through a 20th century arch and settled at tables in a large, airy room built on as a ballroom for the Edwardians.

            Good organisation began with coffee and the arrival of the first of the current family (and dog) to give what we expected would be a general introduction to the house. What followed was Caroline Lowesley-Williams giving us the best stand-up comedy act I’ve come across in many a year. Deprecating, gossipy, knowledgeable, newsmonger of past times and raconteur of wonderful anecdotes, she ranged widely across history, her family and the current useof the property by the media.We were agog for references to Aidan Turner and Poldark in which the house stars as Trenwith and passing mention of Dornan (of 50 Shades of Grey) and David Suchet as Poirot.

            Privately, as we toured the unheated public rooms we wondered if the great and good had huddled inside their coats as we did.

            The jewel of the house was a bedroom known as Cromwell’s Bedroom (giving a broad hint of the Stephens family adherence in the English civil war)  with Mortlake tapestries designed and woven to the specifications of the room in 1640 and still in situ around a curved oak bed.

            There was something for everyone, textiles for lovers of patchwork and fabric, an ancient blunderbuss for weaponry fiends, portraits and objet d’art for the art lovers and a hint of ghosts for the faint hearted.

            Lunch was served in the ballroom. Quality food, freshly made, beautifully presented and varied. Generous portions and coffee to finish. Now, sated and comfortable, full of chattiness we were again treated to 30 minutes of anecdotal reminiscences and whimsical narrative – oooh we loved it.

            A final tour of the excruciatingly cold chapel with the admonishing note on the door “To be kept shut to keep the heat in” (must have been body heat) was the conclusion of a really lovely day out.

            This estate in the hands of only two families is quirky, riveting and a wonderful insight into our amazing history.

Christ Church & Oxford University Real Tennis Club

A guided tour with Alastair Lack

Thursday 28 March 2019

If any connection needed to be found between the two disparate aspects of this Oxford visit it might have been that only 70 years in the 16th Century separated the foundation of Cardinal Wolsey’s college from the construction of the first Real Tennis court on a site off Merton Street.

 Christ Church is perhaps the grandest of the Oxford colleges, and its Great Hall has become the focus for visitors, young and old, from all over the world because of its Harry Potter associations.  Adorning the panelled walls of this vast space are a huge number of portraits of the great and good (and not so good) of earlier centuries, including a number of the 13 Prime Ministers who studied there.  And they are all men, apart from images of two queens, the two Elizabeths, and one recently appointed Fellow (anachronistically called, only at Christ Church, a Student – how very Oxford!).

 Our guide, Alastair Lack, then took us into the college chapel which doubles as the Cathedral for the dioceses of Oxford, Buckingham and Berkshire, focusing on the Victorian stained glass, with both early and late work of Burne-Jones.  The magnificent vaulted ceiling is the chief architectural gem of this building.  Stonework almost seems to drip from the roof.

 Real Tennis is certainly a niche game.  The majority of courts are in England, but there are a few in the USA and Australia, and a couple survive from the 200 or so that there were in France.  At the ‘Merton’ club we were shown how the balls are made (they make all that they use) with layers of binding and stitching over a highly compressed cork centre.  And then to a demonstration game on a court that could only have been designed by a deranged man with a severe headache.  If the language is extensive and arcane, for example ‘Hazard the Door Gallery’, ‘Tambour’ and ‘Dedans’, the scoring is impenetrable.  It’s certainly no game for the faint-hearted, and our professionals had soon worked up a sweat.  We loved it!    

Russia: Royalty & the Romanovs

The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace

 Tuesday 5 February 2019

It was very interesting to see the large family tree, showing the relationship between the English, Danish, German and Russian cousins, sons and daughters.   It would have been a great help if we could have had a small copy to carry around the exhibition, which we could have referred to as there was so much to remember.  I especially liked the individual portraits of the Tsars and the notes about the English artists who had painted a number of them and in some cases lived in Russia for a time.

The information about the Crimean War (concurrent exhibition Roger Fenton's Photographs of the Crimea) and the first photographs showing battlefields and the hard lives of the ordinary soldiers were of special interest.   Included were photos of the journalist William Howard Russell, who made a name for himself for sending his accounts of the fighting by post to his paper The Times.  It was these vivid articles that caught the interest of Florence Nightingale who, disturbed by the lack of medical care and supplies, became involved herself.

If there was one criticism, it would be that I felt more information was needed about the last members of the Romanov Dynasty and their violent end in the revolution.   And it would have been interesting to know something about the extended Russian royals who had survived.

The Art of Islam

Talk and guided gallery visit

Ashmolean Museum

Wednesday 23 January 2019: 10.30 – 12.00

This was a memorable visit, taking in so many aspects and examples of Islamic Art over the ages. The Ashmolean has a wonderful range of objects produced in the Islamic Middle East. 

We were conducted round the galleries by Denise Darbyshire who explained that objects could be classified under three headings - Calligraphy (the art of beautiful writing - in this case Arabic), Figures (which contrary to a general belief can be of humans as well as of animals or plants), and the Arabesque (geometrical floral or vegetal designs which attempted to express the perfect nature of Allah). These can all be created on something with a specifically religious purpose such as the decorations and objects in a Mosque, or they can be part of everyday life, such as crockery, or lamps, tiles, pictures or books. There was a strong influence on Middle-Eastern art from China, India and the Nomadic groups led by Genghiz Khan and Tamurlane. The influence of Persia/Iran was very strong.

 We were shown many examples, both in the public galleries, and as a special treat, a small collection from the Store. My favourites were:

A marvellous lamp (14th Century) probably from Egypt, covered with very intricate calligraphy, in glass and enamelled decoration.

A pair of doors (13th Century) in carved ivory and ebony, including crosses which suggests a possible Christian origin.

A star-shaped tile with two figures drinking (13th century, from Iran and with some poetry celebrating love and drinking of wine).

A magnificent 17th century painting from North India, depicting a dervish departing from the gate of a town. An extraordinary example of the delicacy and beauty of miniature painting in India at the time.

 We shall certainly go back and look with fresh eyes at the Islamic and Middle and Far Eastern galleries. Many thanks are due to Denise Darbyshire.

Visit to the BMW factory

 I was one of those lucky enough to visit the BMW factory recently and it was absolutely fascinating.  1000 cars a day roll off the production line, each one pre-ordered and each one with specific requirements, be it the number of doors, sun roof, left or right hand drive plus choice of 29 colours.

 I visited the factory many years ago when it was Rover and most of the work was done was by hand.   Now it is all done by robots and watching them work was like watching synchronized dancing.   The robots move so gently picking up their specific piece of equipment, slowly arching and then coming down and placing it in the right position.  Watching a chassis come down vertically from the floor above, picked up and then flipped over onto its back ready to receive the next bit of the car body was magic.

 I was very impressed with the whole organization – the supply chain knows two weeks in advance as to what is required – 75% coming from abroad. Two trains each night leave the factory for Didcot and onward delivery.   The rest leave by road.  And the factory was so clean – not a piece of litter anywhere.   Although there was a bit of noise I would say the place was quiet and you could hold a conversation very easily.

 It was a most interesting and enjoyable tour.

Sculpture in the Vineyard, Thursday 13th September:

An exhibition of contemporary sculpture in a local vineyard, with the opportunity for wine-tasting, sounded like a real treat. What an amazing experience it turned out to be. Over 250 sculptures, by 54 different sculptors, were arranged along the paths between the vines, in open meadows and in the winery itself. Our group was greeted by the sculptor Dawn Benson, who explained the 2013 and 2015 exhibitions were the brainchild of her late partner, sculptor Lendon Scantlebury. After his death in 2017, she decided to continue his work, curating and encouraging new talent. This year’s exhibition is the most ambitious yet. Dawn guided us around the vineyard to look at some of the most interesting scuptures and it was immediately apparent how very diverse the pieces were, in materials, in style - and in price!

My own favourite was the stunning Silver Cloud by Anne Gingell, a huge abstract in stainless steel which glinted in the sunshine as one walked around it viewing its changing shapes. There were so many which appealed to my love of abstraction, including many of the sculptures made by the Shona people from Zimbabwe who carve entirely by hand from their native Serpentine stone. I returned a couple of days later for a better look!

For those who prefer figurative sculpture, an amazing array of talent was present. I admired Judy Cowper’s beautiful bronze resin girls, Lindsay Waring’s Red Kite in Flight, made of chicken wire, and Simon Hempsell’s steel Deer Family. A magnificent selection of animals and plants, in a wide variety of materials, were on display, set in their natural environment. If you fancied an owl sculpture, you would be spoiled for choice! The proceeds from the exhibition are supporting two charities: Wildlife Oxfordshire and The Heartstone Fund.

Those of us who had signed up for the Wine Tasting and Tour were then enlightened by the Vineyard owner, Sian Liwicki, as to the pros and cons of the European and the American vine cultivation, both of which we saw on our tour. The harvest has already started, a few weeks earlier than normal due to the favourable ripening this summer. It was interesting to hear how and why the various grape varieties grown here are, apart from the Bacchus, blended in different ways to produce the five other wines. We finished with a very enjoyable tasting session, and many of us made some purchases!

This was the first vineyard in Oxfordshire, now celebrating forty years of production. The original owners chose the location carefully, for its sheltered aspect and the deep sandy soil which retains the sun’s heat.

Thank you to the Society Committee for arranging such a superb visit!

Tate Modern

 Picasso 1932 - Love, Fame, Tragedy

Tuesday 28 August

 Picasso said that “the work that one does is a way of keeping a diary”.  By the amount of work that he produced in 1932, his diary was extremely busy in that year!  It has been on show at Tate Modern and TASA was privileged to have a visit there on 28 August.

During that frenetic year, drawings, paintings and sculptures poured forth from his restless creativity as he was continually working on new ideas.  This creative flow was more than in part inspired by his secret liaison with Marie-Therese Walter, his much younger lover.  Still married to Olga Khokhlova, a Russian ballerina, Picasso strove to balance the two relationships but increasingly Marie-Therese became his chief muse.

It was fascinating to see the progression of Picasso’s style in the mid-period of his very long and productive life (he died at the age of 93 in 1973) and to have the opportunity to see the incredible output of one year’s work in the life of this renowned artist.

We had a great day at the Tate!

An Artist’s Garden

Going into Janet Boulton’s garden behind her house in Spring Road is like entering a different world.  Because you can’t see the boundary walls or fences, or the end of the garden, you don’t really get a sense of the width or length of the garden – just that your eye is drawn onwards and upwards as a curving path passes between box hedges and yew columns, and past the many art works.  Janet has created a number of pieces in the garden, mostly playing with words, letters, meaning and memories:  some moving, some surprising, and some playful.  As you walk through it, each section of the garden offers a different atmosphere. The overall impression is of peace, and many shades of green. Colour is used with great restraint, and effect.  Towards the end of the garden Janet’s studio takes up almost the entire width of the garden. The glass jars, familiar from Janet’s still life paintings, stand in rows on glass shelves, and there are glimpses of pictures in the making, from Janet’s current series, Eye Music.  If you take the narrow path past the studio there’s another surprise:  a peaceful parterre garden under mature trees.  Although Janet acknowledges a particular debt to Ian Hamilton Finlay and his garden Little Sparta for inspiration, I imagine that there is no other garden anything like the small, intensely pleasing garden that she has created behind a terraced Victorian house in Abingdon.

Bombay Sapphire Gin Distillery and the Hospital of St Cross in Winchester

Morning visit to Bombay Sapphire and afternoon visit to the Hospital of St Cross

Tuesday 26 June 2018

A visit featuring both gin cocktails, and home-made cakes

 The excellent Arts Society lecture on Thomas Heatherwick awoke my interest in the Bombay Sapphire distillery. One of the designs featured was his strikingly curvaceous design for the glasshouses at the distillery. 

As I am very keen on gin as well as modern architecture, I was delighted to hear that a visit to the distillery was planned. It was even better than I expected. The site is lovely, on the River Test in rural Hampshire. The distillery opened there in 2014, using existing 300-year-old mill buildings (where the paper used for bank notes in the days of the Empire used to be made).  Thomas Heatherwick converted the entire site with great vision, sympathetically enhancing the old buildings.  Our guide was keen to emphasise that concern for the environment and recycling are at the heart of the site’s operations. 

 Examples of all the botanicals used in Bombay Sapphire are grown inside the steamy glasshouses.  I was delighted to learn that that gin is so good for you: most of these plants have been used medicinally for centuries.

 There was a very well-displayed and educational timeline of the history of Bombay Sapphire. The brand was created in 1959 out of a desire to create a quintessentially English gin embodying 1920s elegance.  Between the two World Wars and after the Second World War London was a whirl of social activity fuelled by a craze for cocktails, many based on gin (think Negronis, Gin Slings, or Dry Martinis).  Bombay and the days of the British Raj provided the name for the new gin, with Queen Victoria, the epitome of Englishness, providing the brand’s icon – she appears on the bottle labels to this day. The entire output of Bombay Sapphire is produced on this site: incredibly, last year 30 million bottles of gin were made, with the large majority being exported.

 In the distilling room we learnt how gin is made, including their special method of passing the alcohol vapour through the botanicals (rather than steeping them in alcohol), which are layered and blended according to a secret recipe. The atmosphere in the distilling room is so inflammable that we had to turn off our electronic devices. Luckily there were no smokers in our group. Then we were let loose in a room where we could smell various botanicals and mark a card with our favourites. We proceeded to the bar where a delicious free cocktail was made up according to our preferences. 
The afternoon visit was to the Hospital of St Cross and Almshouses of Noble Poverty. We were shown round by one of the residents (Brothers), dressed in a substantial black cloak on a sunny afternoon with temperatures of around 28 degrees C.  He explained how the (extremely fortunate, and all male) inmates are selected, and gave insights into their way of life.  The impressive chapel dates from Norman times, and our guide proved to be an expansive source of information on its many interesting features.  It was a pleasure to wander round the shady garden too, and the visit was topped off with tea and home-made cakes in the café.

Ode to Trish and Tom!!

2018 Trip to North Northumberland

Thank you fearless leaders

For such a lovely trip!

It really was informative

There wasn’t any slip!!

We’ve seen castles, we’ve seen gardens

We’ve been taught a lot in both!

If I had to choose a favourite

I really would be loath!!

Our first stop was in Richmond

There - a gem from bygone age!

The lovely Georgian theatre

We strutted on the stage!!

We sniffed the tallow candles

We sat amongst the stalls

We marvelled at the scenery

And the decorative walls!!

I loved the Holy Island

Paxton House took breath away!

And when we got to Waterford

What a treat to end the day!!

Cragside was very special

It had a Canadian feel!

Alnwick couldn’t match it

It just hadn’t that appeal!!

Now Chillingham - what can I say

An amazing trove of treasure

It really took my breath away

And gave us so much pleasure!!

I bought a little hat there

And so did several others

A memento of our time there

In the wind it gives some cover!!!

Then on the road to Bamburgh ...

Did I say road - read lane!!

Or track - through gates - we all breathed in...

Relief when out again!!!

Past wind farms - sheep farms - moors the lot!!

Arriving at right place!

So let us toast our hero and his name was Trev not Grace!!

Bamburgh was our next stop!

A tale of daring do!

The ‘Darling’ of the area and what is more

It’s true!!

A brisk walk along the dunes and beach

Made it a perfect day

The castle as a back drop

Superb in every way!!

Hardwick Hall our last stop!

A whistle tour no less

Of tapestries and portraits

And the history of Bess!!

A remarkable, strong woman

Who founded a dynasty

Through Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth

An amazing legacy!!

Our fantastic trip now ended

And I think we all agree

Thanks to our fearless leaders

For their hard work on this spree!!!

Pauline Kirby. June 2018

Oxford Union and Exeter College

A guided tour with Alastair Lack

Friday 20 April 2018: 2 pm – 4 pm

Cost: £12

Meet at the entrance to the Oxford Union, St Michael Street, Oxford

Alastair Lack will be our guide to the Oxford Union, a hidden gem in the centre of the city.   We shall visit the present-day Debating Chamber and the Library, the original Debating Hall, its gallery decorated with colourfully exuberant panels of murals by the undergraduate Pre-Raphaelites.  William Morris wrote later: “As for my own, I confess I should feel more comfortable if it had disappeared from the wall, as I am conscious of its being extremely ludicrous in many ways . . . Mr Burne-Jones’ is a beautiful piece of work, and admirably suits its space . . . but it would surely be a pity to destroy some of the pictures, which are really remarkable, and at the worst can do no harm there.”

In Exeter College, Burne-Jones and Morris’ own college, we shall see their famous tapestry ‘Adoration of the Magi’ and, weather permitting, visit the private Fellows’ garden with its unique elevated view over the Radcliffe Camera and surrounding buildings in Radcliffe Square.

Tickets on sale February & March meetings.

Compton Verney, Warwicks

 Ravilious & Co.

English Artist Designers 1922 – 1942

Wednesday 28 March 2018

  The exhibition was far bigger and wide-ranging than I had anticipated.  Brilliantly curated and fully demonstrating the position of Ravilious in relation to his contemporaries not least the far more gifted artists Paul and John Nash, of which there were rarely seen drawings and watercolours. Also, although Enid Marx has her own place in the permanent collection at Compton Verney, seeing more examples of her fine block printing and innovative design in context made me understand why her reputation remains as substantial as it is today.

 I was keen to explore the house and grounds at Compton Verney never having visited either the Adam Room or the Chapel – both of which gave a strong impression of the kind of life that the original owners experienced. Both places were painted in the same ‘off-white’ – an overall contemporary treatment which included ceilings and furniture – giving a very subtle and fascinating effect. How was this decision arrived at I wonder?

Pembroke College JCR Art Gallery

Wednesday 28 February 2018

Our group was taken through the impressive new college buildings which also now include the College JCR Art Gallery.  The simplicity of the display space and its lighting showed the paintings to extremely good effect.

We were given an excellent introduction to the exhibition as well as to the aims of the college art gallery by the enthusiastic young Curator, Clara Rose Chivers.  The intention of the exhibition was to reconsider the works of the much loved British artist through college art collections which included works from Pembroke, Nuffield and New College, Oxford and New Hall, Cambridge.

The exhibition showed pictures by Mary Fedden alongside those of her husband, Julian Trevelyan and also other contemporary artists who influenced her.  One was struck by the simplicity of her drawing and the boldness of colour, shown so well particularly in two small paintings – “Woman on Beach” and “Man in blue jacket & Woman in red dress”.  The works on show were created between the 1950s and 1990s and highlighted the gradual transformation of her technique over time. 

Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace

 Charles II: Art and Power

 Thursday 25 January 2018

The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, after the years of austerity under Cromwell’s Commonwealth, was like a switch from black-and-white to colour.   Charles II presided over a cultural resurgence in England, and its variety and abundance are displayed in this enjoyable exhibition, which ranges from sumptuous court portraiture and regalia, to scientific books, architectural plans, and curious details like the “touch-pieces” or tokens issued to sufferers from the King’s Evil (scrofula) who came to court hoping to be cured by the magic touch of the monarch.

In his years of exile at the court of Louis XIV, Charles had learned a thing or two about the political power of display, and this exhibition shows, besides its aesthetic triumphs, an impressive public-relations campaign that put the king and his court at the centre of the national life.  Courtiers, mistresses, and the occasional servant are portrayed here, usually against a background of conspicuous luxury.  After the Puritan aberration, these images proclaim, Britain is once again rich and relaxed, stable and comfortable.

Chronologically, two images bookend the show.  The first is a melancholy portrait by Edward Bower showing an ageing Charles I, bewildered but dignified, during the trial that would see him sentenced to death in 1649. The second is rather different.  Charles II is portrayed, a year before his own death in 1685, in a rescued fragment of fresco by Antonio Verrio from the ceiling of St George’s Hall at Windsor.  Heavy-lidded but still faintly amused, and resting on a rainbow, the old reprobate looks down from his sumptuous vantage on a mission shrewdly accomplished.

This was a very enjoyable visit, greatly enhanced by our guide Alastair Lack’s depth of knowledge and skill in providing an entertaining and interesting commentary.

 We learned a lot about the life and times of the young Pre Raphaelites in the 1850’s and particularly William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who each painted one of the 10 murals, and Morris also the ceiling, in the Union Library as well as later together designing the tapestry ‘Adoration of the Magi’ in Exeter College Chapel.

 In the Oxford Union’s Library we looked closely at these colourful murals of scenes from Arthurian legends, then passed on to the current debating chamber to hear fascinating accounts of its history, modus operandi and students for some of whom participation in debates had served as ‘ a rehearsal for Westminster’.

 At Exeter College the neo-Gothic chapel and its tapestry ‘Adoration of the Magi’ were spectacular  and the unexpected view from the elevated part of the fellows’ garden over the Radcliffe Camera and surrounding buildings in Radcliffe Square provided a terrific finale.    

 It was fun to be brought back to the 21st century intermittently by the student’s gentle tapping of their laptops in the Union library as we passed, and a film crew working on an instalment of ‘Endeavour’ in Exeter College hall!

The September sun shone for us on the group of buildings at the heart of the Lamport estate – the Hall, the Church and the elegant Georgian Rectory.   The Grade I Italianate mansion has been home to the Isham family for over 400 years and is now owned by a family trust.  The Ishams weren’t aristocratic, they didn’t produce prominent statesmen, but quietly lived the lives of well-to-do English squires, building and restoring their property and, above all, endlessly collecting.  They were also hoarders of paperwork so there are extensive records of bills, receipts, letters and latterly photographs.

 Lamport feels like a house anyone could live in comfortably today with its light airy rooms giving out on to a wonderful English garden.  There is a gorgeous full length portrait of Lady Susanna Isham, wife of the 7th baronet, Sir Justinian (confusingly there are lots of Sir Justinians in the family tree), painted by Richard Brompton who was quickly snapped up by Catherine the Great to be her court painter.   Other portraits include Lady Milicent in a delicious Virginia Woolf-like pink gardening hat and another of an exceptionally plain Isham lady whose children, far from sending the picture back to the artist to tell him to make their mother prettier, were delighted and pronounced it an excellent likeness.  The central hall has fine oak panelling and an elegant staircase whilst every room contains books, porcelain, textiles, pictures and furniture obsessively collected by succeeding generations of the family.

 The extensive gardens have mature trees, raised walkways, a stone cockfighting pit and a large walled kitchen garden.   When the Ishams fell on hard times in the early C.20, the walled garden fell into ruin but has been imaginatively replanted with swathes of an enormous variety of perennials of differing heights, colours and textures - best seen from the air we were told.

 Finally the grotto.  The tenth baronet, a spiritualist and eccentric, was obsessed by German garden gnomes and built a large rockery, planted with miniature plants and trees, to provide a home for his huge collection whom he believed had human properties.   He instructed his three daughters on his death in 1903 to shoot the all the gnomes with a rifle which they did – only one survived.

 Charm is rather difficult to define – but Lamport Hall has it in spades!   

We were very lucky to have fine weather for our visit to the Serpentine Gallery and Kensington Palace, as quite a lot of walking was involved!

The first bit of the walk was past the Albert Memorial, which gleamed magnificently in the bright sunshine, to see Grayson Perry's exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries. We had been warned that as it is quite small we might have to wait to get in, but we were very fortunate to find it almost empty.

I think most, if not all of us, found it a wonderful experience on so many levels, in that it was entertaining, thought-provoking , informative, instructive and for me at least, emotional in some instances.

We saw far more than I had expected to see of his famous pots, tapestries and drawings, but also there were roadside shrines, a bicycle, a motor bike, sculptures and a lot of his sketch books.

It had become much more crowded by the time we were leaving. Some of us ate lunch at Francis Kere's Pavilion, while others walked across the park in the hot midday sun to eat in the shade outside the Palace restaurant.

We were delighted to find that there were was an exhibition about three pioneering Hanoverian princesses as well as Lady Diana's dresses. These ladies were the grandmother, mother and wife of King George 111, who all left an important legacy to their adopted country.

The frocks were calling us! I thought that it was a small, but excellent exhibition, with the garments in large glass cases which one could walk round, so that the backs as well as the fronts were visible. The garments were arranged in historic groups, made by different designers, showing the care taken to choose clothes appropriate to their purpose, and accompanied by photographs of their being worn.

Although at first sight there seems to be no relationship at all between Perry and the Princess, their social awareness and concern for society links them together.

We had a lovely day, and I would like to thank Trish and Tom for organising it.

Wellby Collection of Renaissance Silver Gilt and new light sculpture for the gallery

Ashmolean Museum

Monday 15 May 2017: 14.00 – 15.00

  Eleven fortunate ADFAS members had the opportunity to visit the Ashmolean when it is normally closed to the public to be guided by the curator of the Wellby Collection and also to meet the artist who has created a light sculpture that hangs by the entrance to the collection.

 The Ashmolean received, on the death in 2012 of Michael Wellby, his priceless (well, £20 million) collection of treasures – mainly silver and silver-gilt objects – and created a room to display them, designed as a homage to the Kunstkammer (Art chamber) so famous in Dresden.  And what an amazing collection this is.  Everyone will have had a favourite from these 15th – 18th century objects collected from all over Europe: perhaps the lapis lazuli ewer carved in Italy, then embellished in Prague with gold; or a silver miniature marriage casket from Friesland; or any of the mounted nautilus shells.  Curator Matthew Winterbottom’s enthusiasm for the collection was infectious.

 The artist who designed and made the light sculpture was on hand to explain how she created her very individual works of art.  We refrained from breaking her last German clear-glass bottle into the small shards to which she attaches nickel wire to make her completed designs, but we had hands-on experience of the raw materials and of new works that she is in the process of making.  At first it seemed that the two aspects of this visit had no threads joining them, but they became apparent through the interplay of ideas between our two specialists – and, through discussion in the group, even new connections emerged.

Well primed by a very interesting and beautifully illustrated talk on Paul Nash’s life and work beforehand, a group of 16 members set off on a walk over Wittenham Clumps.   Our guide was photographer Chris Baines whose knowledge and passion for Nash’s work was infectious.   He explained the significance of the Clumps to Nash who spent late summer holidays as a young man at his uncle’s house in nearby Brightwell and often painted on the wooded hills nearby. 

 Nash felt that the Clumps had an almost mystical aura and Chris explained the origins of the two rounded hills, Round Hill and Castle Hill, the latter an Iron Age fort with ditching still to be seen near its top.  The iconic groves of beech trees, first planted in the 1740s, give the Clumps an extraordinary significance in the flat landscape of South Oxfordshire which surrounds them.  

 Towards the end of his life Nash returned to paint the Clumps again and again in different seasons and different lights, now often from the vantage point of a friend’s house on Boars Hill ten miles away from which he studied the formations through field glasses.   This was a most enjoyable expedition as Chris helped us to see the Clumps through Nash’s eyes and which beautifully complemented our visit in January to the Nash exhibition at Tate Britain.

ADFAS in NAPLES – A NEAPOLITAN NOTELET

On 26 April a group of seventeen ADFAS members and friends, including three from Oxford DFAS, set out from Gatwick for a five day visit to the City of Naples and Ischia. Heritage Travel, in conjunction with our Visits Organisers, Tom and Trish Ayling, provided an excellent and varied programme of visits in and around the city and our lively guide, Fiorella, a Neapolitan native, looked after us superbly, providing us with a wealth of insight and information.

The Bay of Naples was a stunning backdrop not only to our comfortable hotel, but for our forays to the major city museums and important sites of artistic and historical interest and we even went underground to view recent archaeological excavations. Beyond the city, we ventured to Herculaneum and on another day cruised across the Bay to the attractive island of Ischia. Here, we were given a private tour of the beautiful gardens of La Mortella, once home of the composer Sir William Walton and his wife. For many of us, this was a highlight of the whole tour.

With such action packed days, a little Italian style restoration (of a non artistic nature) was required. Naples is the home of the pizza and our group decided that “when in Naples” was the perfect excuse, if one were needed, for further research into its culinary history. Samplings of gelati were also conducted on a regular basis. Nor was the local vino neglected and pre-dinner prosecco tastings at the bar round the corner (quickly renamed as Tom and David’s) were very well supported.

All in all it was a super trip and memories will linger, not only on all the special places we visited, but of great fun in convivial company. We even survived the frenetic Neapolitan traffic with its macho drivers and lived to tell the tale! So, not only a big thank-you to Tom and Trish for their choice of a wonderful destination but an even bigger thank-you for looking after us so very well - and bringing us safely back!

Surprising Nudes

Juliet Hestlewood based her lecture on the current exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, titled

"Degas to Picasso". This follows the development of Modernism in France, so the lecturer had chosen to follow the changing Nude studies from the statue of the Venus de Milo up to the mid twentieth century.

We had an hour packed with information supported by the relevant slides. There was a lot to take in but at no point did her audience cough, fidget or shuffle. Her expressive and vivid language with a smattering of amusing personal comments along the way, and pointing out details so easily missed, kept our rapt attention. 

I certainly intend not to miss any lecture given by her in the future!

Following Alastair Lack’s excellent lecture after our Christmas lunch, a number of us joined him in Oxford on 20 February for a guided walk around some Oxford landmarks featured in the Morse TV series and books. We began outside St John’s College, where Morse studied classics or “Greats”, but left after a broken love affair to join the police. 

Alastair then drew our attention to The Randolph Hotel, featured in the episodes “The Wolvercote Tongue” and “The Remorseful Day”. The head porter at The Randolph has been known to ring Colin Dexter, the creator of Morse, and tell him that fans staying there had offered to buy him a drink – an offer Dexter never refused! 

Thence to the Sheldonian, scene of a dramatic but botched assassination attempt during an honorary degree procession in the episode “Twilight of the Gods”. We finished in the front quad of Wadham College. With its beautiful stone and Tower of the Four Orders, it was often a film location for Morse and Lewis.  

Along the walk, we passed some of Morse’s favourite watering holes, such as The Eagle & Child, where Morse would have a liquid lunch of real ale and Lewis his orange juice – the latter, of course, having to buy the round! 

The Paul Nash Exhibition at Tate Britain was both fascinating and informative showing the remarkable range and diversity of his work and how it changed over his lifetime.  It revealed that he was also a poet and a mystic, not only an artist.

His early works included landscapes and beautiful, detailed pen and ink and water colour paintings of trees, especially near his home in Buckinghamshire and at Wittenham Clumps, that had an almost magical quality.  The first painting from the front in the First World War was remarkably positive and he wrote about signs of spring breaking through. The war had a great effect on him and later, as an official War Artist, his work became much bleaker and more powerful showing for example the dead tree stumps in a scarred landscape after Passchendaele. 

His work from between the wars was shown alongside that of contemporaries who influenced him, and were in turn influenced by him.  His work became more abstract, with a particular interest in "found objects", and he played a leading role in the Surrealist movement in Britain.  Even in this period many abstract paintings were set in recognisable landscapes and his interest in trees persisted in works such as “Fallen Trees” and “Wood on the Downs”.

During the Second World War he was again an official War Artist although not at the front. One painting that stood out was of the graveyard of German planes at the Cowley dump, lit by a watery moon. Entitled “Totes Meer”, this once more showed the destructiveness of war.  Near the end of his life he returned to painting Wittenham Clumps, the place that had meant so much to him when young.  The distant views from a friend’s garden on Boar's Hill, painted in different lights and seasons, were evocative and moving.

This was altogether an enjoyable and worthwhile visit that we will remember.

ADFAS Christmas Lunch and Talk 

The Cosener’s House, Abbey Close,

Abingdon OX14 3JD

Wednesday 14 December 2016 

From 12.30: lunch at 13.00 

After lunch speaker

Alastair Lack on

The Oxford of Inspector Morse

Cost: £30

Fully Booked

V&A Visit

Thursday 10 November 2016

The Europe 1600-1815 Galleries 

To be given a tour of these newly renovated galleries by so engaging, knowledgeable and fluent a guide as Anne Haworth was a treat indeed.  Over 1,100 objects from the Museum’s unrivalled collections of 17th- and 18th-century European art and design are displayed in a suite of seven galleries.  Three major stories unfold: how Europeans systematically explored, exploited, and collected resources from Africa, Asia and the Americas for their art and design; how France took over from Italy as leader of fashion and art in the second half of the 17th-century;  and how new patterns of living evolved, many resembling those we know today, with global powers and markets emerging and modern notions of private life and comfort being formed.

So many of the exhibits are stunning, and beautifully displayed, that it is invidious to pick out highlights – but here are three nonetheless.

·      A 15-foot painting, painted in 1616 and crammed with detail, entitled ‘The Triumph of Archduchess Isabella in the Brussels Ommegang’ shows this parade that in its scale makes London’s Lord Mayor’s Show look like no more than a village event.  You could look at this great display for hours, noticing a wagon containing a caged parrot being taught to speak, and a boy, almost hidden in the throng, being cudgeled in the face while he is being pick-pocketed from behind.

·      A chunky Mexican basin made in the late 17th century showing how Asian and European   elements  have been combined:  blue on white showing its Chinese influence, with designs taken from India, and including the Habsburg’s double-headed eagle.

·      A Nautilus shell from about 1630, delicately carved and polished and then engraved – an extraordinarily beautiful object.

Undressed

From Queen Victoria’s mother’s split crotch bloomers through some fantastic corsets, one of which gave a 45 cm waist, to a knitted bra, this was an exhibition to make you glad to live in the 21st century. Having said that some of the modern underwear (Kim Kardashian’s butt lifter (for want of a better name)) was also to be admired for its engineering! It was not only women’s underwear on display, there were also men’s corsets, as the regency dandies  mimicked the ladies in the amount of whalebone used. This exhibition was well worth the visit.

You say you want a Revolution – Records and Rebels 1966 – 1970

On entering the exhibition area, there was an immediate assault on your eyes and ears with the sounds and sights of the late 60s. Headphones played iconic music from the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and the Beatles and you found yourself surrounded by artefacts of the era such as vinyl LP record covers, costumes worn on cover of Sergeant Peppers Album, posters and a display of the early computers including a replica of the first computer mouse which looked more like a large wooden brick. It was total immersion in the era and for those who can recall it, brought back vivid memories.

The exhibition did not shy away from the darker side of the period ; from the assassination of Kennedy and the ongoing Vietnam war ,which led to student revolts and shootings on student campuses , to the revolts against USSR in Europe and continuing racial segregaton in USA.

However, the abiding memory of the exhibition is the video footage of Jimi Hendrix playing his inimitable version of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock. It brought back the heady atmosphere of flower power and the belief that the young could change the world.

Opus Anglicanum: masterpieces of English medieval embroidery

This beautifully mounted exhibition of ecclesiastical embroideries, made in London between 1200 and 1500 AD, was a rare delight.   Copes, chasubles, mitres, orphreys and even slippers had been commissioned from all over Europe, one from as far afield as Iceland, and another for Steeple Aston church in Oxfordshire.   Gold and silver threads were couched on to linen, silk or velvet, and then elaborately embroidered with biblical scenes and traditional decorative motifs – with shimmering and in some cases almost 3-dimensional effect.   One had to speculate how many people worked on each piece, how long  each had taken to complete and what harm such fine work may have done to the embroiderers’ eyesight some 700 years ago.

Also on show was the beautiful Abingdon Missal, made for Abbot William Ashenden in 1461, it was on loan from the Bodleian Library.

Picture frames at the Ashmolean – a guided tour

If you get bored with looking at paintings, examine the frames!

By the end of our guided tour looking at a selection of frames in the Ashmolean I was a convert to this area of study. 

We were treated to a brief guide to the history of picture framing, together with some questions arising - for instance - Is the frame designed for the painting displayed? How and by whom is it made?  What is its function, and does it succeed?

 My two favourites were – 

Grinling Gibbons frame for the portrait of none other than Elias Ashmole, for its sheer beauty and craftsmanship. What a statement of confidence and affluence !

And the outrageously large frame for a small (21x32 cm) landscape by Eugene Boudin, virtually doubling its size. It was made so that this gem of a painting might hold its own on the crowded wall of a Paris Salon. Hey guys, come and look at me! 

If you are curious about picture frames and missed the ADFAS events, the Ashmolean has published an excellent little guide using examples from the museum, ''Frames and Framing'' by Timothy Newbury.  

A visit to the Bodleian Library

The reverence showed by our excellent guide towards this ancient library seemed entirely appropriate.  What was initially more surprising was the huge respect she made sure we showed to the readers we encountered on staircases and in corridors as we pressed ourselves against walls to let them pass and spoke in whispers in order not to disturb them.   This was the reverence owed to a great historical institution originally built to house the magnificent library of Duke Humfrey (1391-1447) built over the Divinity School.  This most beautiful room with its dark oak reading stalls and shelf upon shelf of enormous leather covered tomes (chained to deter thieves) makes a stunning impression. 

A contrast in architectural style, the domed Baroque rotunda of the Radcliffe Camera built in 1748 until recently housed the University’s library of scientific books.  Then down beneath ground level we clambered to the astonishing space which seems to stretch (though perhaps only in my imagination)  to infinity which houses the library’s copyright editions – the Bodleian is entitled to receive a copy of every book published in Britain, an arrangement negotiated originally in the C.17 with the Stationers Company by Sir Thomas Bodley himself.  On we went in this subterranean landscape to the Gladstone Link, alas now severed, which enabled truckloads of books to be pushed on rails by small boys from one part of the library to another.

We ended our visit in Convocation House which was used as a meeting chamber for the House of Commons during the English Civil War.   Now in the C21 it is frequently used as a film set as are other parts of the Bodleian.  How astonished Duke Humfrey and Sir Thomas Bodley would have been! 

Storms, War and Shipwrecks: Treasures from the Sicilian Seas

A talk by Dr Paul Roberts, Keeper of Antiquities and NADFAS lecturer. Thursday 14 July 2016: 11.00-12.00

Ashmolean Lecture Theatre

For 2500 years, Sicily was the place where great ancient civilizations met and fought (Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Normans). This major exhibition at the Ashmolean displays objects rescued from the bottom of the sea – from chance finds to excavated shipwrecks.

Cost: £5         (Booking at May & June meetings)

Booking form can be found HERE

Members may then make their own arrangements for entry into the exhibition.

Local visit for which no transport is provided

Madresfield Court, 29 June 2016

A visit to Madresfield Court in Worcestershire was the highlight of the ADFAS visit on 29 June. Madresfield, which sits in the lee of the Malvern Hills, is an extraordinary and delightful house, quite unlike any other English stately home. The Lygon family have lived here continuously for more than nine hundred years and during that time the house has never been bought or sold. Over the centuries many additions have been made to the building but all of these had to be accommodated within the confines of a dauntingly wide moat. Thus Madresfield has grown ‘inward’ on itself so that an originally roomy courtyard has all but disappeared and the additions are crammed snugly together. Each room in Madresfield is completely different to the one before: a Tudor long gallery suddenly gives way to a stunningly beautiful Arts & Crafts chapel, and a modest French-influenced Saloon to a vast ‘staircase hall’ three storeys high and lit by enormous glass ceiling domes. Altogether there are one hundred and thirty-six rooms. We did not see them all!

The Lygons have been ardent collectors ever since part of the immense fortune amassed by William Jennens ‘the richest commoner in England’ was inherited by the Lygon family in the eighteenth century. (Soon after this the then head of the family William Lygon was ennobled as the first Earl Beauchamp – ‘money’ was said to have helped with this process.)  So the rooms of Madresfield are filled with pictures, portraits, and magnificent furniture; collections of porcelain, silver, and ivory; rare documents, manuscripts, and printed books – together with some ‘novelty’ items such as a bullet taken from the neck of the fourth Earl when he was injured in the Peninsular war.

In the 1930s Evelyn Waugh was a welcome visitor to the house – though he ‘used to come for the weekend and stay for three months’ according to our guide. He wrote his book Black Mischief at a desk in the Nursery, the desk positioned so that the view from the window was uninteresting and unlikely to disturb his concentration. The most celebrated connection though is with Brideshead Revisited. Waugh’s imaginary house (especially the chapel) was partly modelled on Madresfield and most of his main characters are based on members of the Lygon family. This house (rather than Castle Howard of the 1980s television adaptation) is therefore ‘the real Brideshead’.

The visit to Madresfield was in the afternoon. Before lunch we had visited the Beauchamp Community, a range of almshouses plus a spacious chapel all built by the fervently Anglo-Catholic sixth Earl Beauchamp. We were shown round by the Archivist Colin Brownlee who has done much to rescue the fabric of the chapel from insensitive redecoration and to re-establish the intricate rites of high Anglo-Catholic worship. A hard-working and devoted man he was nevertheless happy to share some amusing details – for instance, which of the chapel’s thuribles could be relied upon to burn incense fastest and so produce the biggest clouds of sweet-smelling smoke.

 RCY 6 July 2016

Ashmolean Lecture Theatre 

Wednesday 25 May 2016, 10.45 – 12.45

Dinah Reynolds is well known to many of us as a popular NADFAS lecturer and her association with the Ashmolean’s Department of Ceramics and knowledge of its collection spans forty years.

The hard white translucent ware, known in Europe as porcelain, has been made in China since about the seventh century, but not until the early eighteenth century in Europe. We will discuss and handle some of the different types of porcelain, e.g. hard paste and soft paste, which have been made in China, Japan, Germany, France and England, thus being able to feel as well as see the differences.

Her talk, illustrated by ceramics on view in the Ashmolean, will be followed by an opportunity to handle items from the reserve collection and also include a tour to the appropriate galleries.

This is the first of our ‘local’ visits for which no transport is provided.

A talk on Spencer and view the current exhibition 'Stanley Spencer and the Natural World'. Visit the John Lewis Archive for a talk by their archivist on their unique holdings of the textile archive of Stead McAlpin followed by access to the viewing gallery containing over 4000 in both paper and fabric format.

Exhibition at the RA - From Monet to Matisse

Tracing the emergence of the modern garden in its many forms and glories through a period of great social change and innovation in the arts as some of the most important Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Avant-Garde artists of the early twentieth century explore this theme.

Monet, arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, once said he owed his painting “to flowers”. But Monet was not alone in his fascination with the horticultural world and this exhibition includes masterpieces by Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, Manet, Sargent, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Matisse, Klimt and Klee.

Highlights include a remarkable selection of works by Monet, including the monumental Agapanthus Triptych, reunited specifically for the exhibition, Renoir’s Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil and Kandinsky’s Murnau The Garden II.

See the garden in art with fresh eyes.

Join Adfas friends for a pre-Christmas lunch at the 4 Pillars Hotel, Abingdon with The Organ Grinder Entertains - a musical talk by John Hunt. Tickets will go on sale in September. Early purchase is advised as places will be limited.

A follow-up to the lecture 'Fire and Restoration at Windsor Castle'; 

Windsor Castle: A Prince, a Duke and an Emperor Tour

Tuesday 13 October 2015

This special group tour, which compliments the current Waterloo at Windsor: 1815-2015 exhibition, includes coffee on arrival, an introductory talk on the exhibition and a self-guided tour of the State Rooms, including St George’s Hall and the Grand Reception Room which were painstakingly restored following the 1992 fire - the subject of our July lecture by Oliver Everett, Librarian, Royal Library Windsor 1985-2002.

Please bear in mind that you will be dropped off a short walk away from the Castle and, once there, it is a short uphill walk to the Winchester Tower where we begin our tour.

This visit is now fully booked. Members can stull, if they wish, join a waiting list in case anyone drops out..

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is recognised as a show unlike any other.

It is the world’s oldest open-submission exhibition and for 247 years has offered a snapshot of contemporary art, indeed its earliest exhibitors included the likes of Reynolds, Constable and Turner.

The RA website tells us:

This year, the exhibition is co-ordinated by Michael Craig-Martin RA – a leading artist of his generation and the teacher who nurtured the talents of Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. His distinctive creative vision promises room after room bursting with variety, colour and remarkable new work by leading and emerging artists – all handpicked from over 12,000 entries.

With everything from painting, printmaking and sculpture through to installation, photography and film, this is a show unlike any other. We hope you’ll join us for a vibrant summer of colour.

Tickets are now on sale. Included in the price is the return coach journey to the RA and a timed (12noon) entry ticket to the exhibition. Friends of the Royal Academy are very welcome to buy Coach Only tickets.

The trip includes an untimed ticket to the 'Cascades' flower festival in the Cathedral (organised by the local DFAS group). There is also time to explore this most interesting city.

£612.50 for five nights bed and breakfast, three dinners and the services of a Riviera tour manager. Booking Form will be found in 'About Us'/'Documents'

Return standard class reserved seat on Eurostar from London St Pancras Five night’s bed and breakfast at excellent quality three-star hotels, plus three dinners Visit the most beautiful valley in France Visit impressionist artist, Claude Monet’s home and garden Explore the finest of France’s stunning châteaux; Chinon, Chenonceau, Villandry and Fontainebleau Visit to Chartres and its stunning gothic cathedral displaying Europe’s finest stained glass Visit medieval Tours, royal Amboise and Leonardo da Vinci’s house

Escorted by an experienced tour manager

Price Includes The price of this holiday is per person, based on two people sharing a twin room. Single rooms are subject to availability at a supplement of £149 per person. The holiday includes return standard class on Eurostar  all coach transfers and transport, five nights bed and breakfast at hotels as mentioned, three dinners and the services of a Riviera tour manager.

NOT INCLUDED: Cost of travel to and from St. Pancras by coach. There will be two pick up points in Abingdon and one in Wallingford.

The exhibition focuses on the core period of the Viking Age from the late 8th century to the early 11th century. The extraordinary Viking expansion from the Scandinavian homelands during this era created a cultural network with contacts from the Caspian Sea to the North Atlantic, and from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean. It was the maritime character of Viking society and their extraordinary shipbuilding skills that were key to their achievements. At the centre of the exhibition will be the surviving timbers of a 37m long Viking warship, the longest ever found and never seen before in the UK. Due to its scale and fragility it would not have been possible to display this ship at the British Museum without the new facilities of the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery. The ship, known as Roskilde 6, was excavated from the banks of Roskilde fjord in Denmark. Weapons and looted treasures demonstrate the central role of warfare to the identity of the Vikings. Recently excavated skeletons from a mass grave of executed Vikings near Weymouth will provide a close-up encounter with ‘real’ Vikings and illustrate what happened when things went wrong for Viking warriors on British soil. The Vale of York Hoard, consisting of 617 coins, 6 arm rings and a quantity of bullion and hack-silver, will be shown in its entirety for the first time since it was discovered by metal detectorists near Harrogate in 2007. Coins and silver from places as far removed as Ireland and Uzbekistan reveal the true extent of the Viking global network. The silver cup in which the Vale of York Hoard was buried predates the burial by a century and was probably made for use in a Frankish church.

Tickets on sale from March 2014

Tickets on sale from November 2013

Tickets on sale from September 2013

Tickets on sale from June 2013

Thirty-six members made the trip to Burghley. After coffee and an introductory talk we were free to explore the many rooms of this grand house built by William Cecil, Lord High Treasur-er to Queen Eliza-beth I and trans-formed in the seven-teenth and eight-eenth centuries by two great collecting earls; John the 5th Earl followed in the eighteenth century by Brownlow the 9th Earl. After lunch in the Or-angery restaurant, the more energetic members were able to ex-plore the gardens and beautiful walks around the parkland which was laid out by Capability Brown. Barry Stayte, Visits Coordinator

Tickets on sale from January 2013

Tickets on sale from September 2012