Sites of Inspiration: Tintern Abbey & Llanthony Priory

SITES OF INSPIRATION: TINTERN ABBEY & LLANTHONY PRIORY Two exhibitions at Chepstow Museum & Abergavenny Museum respectively, NOW until September 28 2014 Chepstow Museum, Gwy House, Bridge Street, Chepstow, Monmouthshire NP16 5EZ tel 01291 625981 Open: Mon-Sat inc Bank Hols 10.30-5.30, Sun 2-5.30 Abergavenny Museum, Castle Street, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire NP7 5EE tel: 01873 854282 Open: Mon-Sat 11-1, 2-5, Sun 2-5 Free admission From sacred sites, to romantic ruins and impressive monuments Tintern Abbey and Llanthony Priory have inspired generations to create works of art and literature that in turn have inspired the world. The art of Turner and his contemporaries, the poetry of Wordsworth, have brought fame and fascination and drawn people to be moved by these remarkable ruins set against wooded hills and dramatic scenery, and inspired them to write, draw, paint and compose. For the next few months until September 28, there is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the world renowned artworks that these sites have inspired, at the two nearby museums of Chepstow and Abergavenny. These two Monmouthshire museums have worked to gather together the best and most interesting art from the National collections in London as well as Wales, and from major museums throughout the UK to create exhibitions devoted to Llanthony Priory at Abergavenny Museum and Tintern Abbey at Chepstow Museum. Both exhibitions feature works by JMW Turner, with watercolours of Tintern Abbey coming from the Ashmolean, V&A, British Museum and Tate, and bringing pencil drawings and sketches alongside finished pieces of both sites in both shows. There are famous artists’ names to conjure with from the 18th through to the 20th centuries including Thomas Gainsborough, John Sell Cotman, Edward Dayes, Thomas Girtin, Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker, Samuel Palmer and John Piper, Eric Ravilious and David Jones and many of the other masters of the art of British landscape. The exhibitions capture the growth and flowering of Britain’s golden age of watercolour and also show some of the processes in the artists’ works. The earliest views on show were made by the Buck brothers in the 1730s for their engraved views of Castles & Abbeys that brought images of these sites to a wider public, when interest was growing in Britain’s antiquities rather than the classical remains of Italy. Meanwhile the locals used them not just for stone for their houses, but as playgrounds, for quoits and fives! By the mid 18th century Tintern was attracting enough interest for its owner, the Duke of Beaufort, to tidy it up and fit doors that were kept locked, the key entrusted to the local landlord as custodian. The moment when the west door was opened on to the magnificent interior was greeted with gasps of admiration, and some of the artists have captured that awesome view and its dramatic impression on them. Tintern became a tourist site, and as its popularity grew first with visitors from the spas at Bristol & Bath taking boats up river from Chepstow, and later with Wye tourists following in William Gilpin’s wake on the two day trip from Ross, Tintern Abbey was acknowledged as the highlight of the Valley. Like visitors today to exotic far flung places, they were confronted by beggars who made their homes in the ruins offering to act as guides, sometimes fascinating and sometimes appalling the visitors and disturbing their contemplative mood. They complained too about the hovels and cottages that spoiled the view of the Abbey, of the too tidy mown grass floor, and about each other – too many tourists! When Wordsworth composed one of his most famous poems during his walking tour of the Wye in 1798 with sister Dorothy the title ‘Lines above Tintern Abbey…’ would have already resonated with his readers. Original correspondence between William Wordsworth and his wife Mary about their experiences of Tintern and the Wye Valley and his own recollections of how he came to write the poem will also feature in the Chepstow exhibition. Llanthony Priory set in the silent vale of Ewyas amongst the rugged backdrop of the Black Mountains was more remote but not off the ‘tourist track’ or the artists’ itinerary. It necessitated travel by the awful roads that were little more than ditches but the wild and mountainous setting added other attractions. There was no vigilant owner here to stop the disintegration of the ruin - which artists and writers recorded in word and image. A new flowering of artistic interest in Llanthony in the 20th century was sparked by the community that Eric Gill and his fellow artists established at Capel y ffin, and adds a very different and striking contemporary dimension to the works featured at Abergavenny Museum. The exhibitions also show art and artefacts that were created for the sites when they were working monasteries. The Augustinian priory at Llanthony reveals some beautiful fragments of painted glass, whereas the Cistercians at Tintern decried such decoration, but had numerous designs on the tiled floors. For the monks too, back in the early 12th century, seeking locations for their monasteries in remote and isolated valleys, where they might ‘find much more in the woods than in books’ these places were themselves Sites of Inspiration… The exhibition and its associated events and activities with young people and communities in Tintern and Llanthony have been funded by the Sharing Treasures grant scheme from Welsh Government through CyMAL – Museums Archives & Libraries and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Throughout the exhibitions there will be a wide ranging series of talks and workshops at Chepstow and Abergavenny museums, Llanthony priory and Tintern Abbey. The programme, devised in collaboration with communities from the surrounding areas, will explore many facets of the art and archaeology on display, from tile making and glass painting to art history, poetry, painting and photography. For more information on the events taking place see www.monmouthshire.gov.uk/things-to-do and Follow us on Twitter @chepstowmuseum @abermuseum .

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