G F AND MARY WATTS
A WEEK IN ENGLAND EXPLORING THEIR LIFE, WORK AND FRIENDSHIPS
Saturday 12 - Saturday 19 September 2020
Arts & Crafts Tours Arts & Crafts Tours
G F and Mary Watts Introduction A Week in England Exploring Their This will be a very special private tour of Lives Works and Friendships England in the company of expert Elaine Hirschl Ellis who will offer wonderful insights into Arts & Crafts Tours is offering an extraordinary week of discovering the life, work and friendships of G F and Mary private collections, behind-the-scenes tours, hidden gems and private Watts. You will enjoy private visits to some of dinners for US Patrons of Watts Gallery Trust. You are invited to join the UK’s finest museums and private collections this tour to see major works of the great British artist George Frederic including Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village, Watts OM RA (1817-1904) and the designer Mary Watts (1849-1938). Eastnor Castle and the Palaces of Westminster. Image: Andy Newbold Photography Image: Andy Newbold
George Frederic Watts OM RA Arts & Crafts Tours
G F Watts was widely considered to be one of With over 25 years of experience, Arts & Crafts the world’s greatest artists. He was not only an Tours is known for small group tours utilizing outstanding painter, but also a talented sculptor their amazing network of contacts which and draughtsman, and trail-blazing muralist. Watts allow for special entrance to places generally became a cultural icon who championed a new unavailable to the public, all accompanied by role for art as a means of symbolically expressing expert guides. Accommodation is in 5* or 4* the progress of humanity, and as a tool to assist hotels and often private homes. Transportation in philanthropic projects. He contributed to the to and from the airport to your hotel is included. founding collection of Tate Britain and produced the The guides often join the group for lunch or famous Hall of Fame series of portraits now hanging dinner, and on this tour the group will also in the National Portrait Gallery. By 1884, when he benefit from the specialist knowledge of Watts was lauded as the first living artist to have a solo Gallery Trust’s board members and staff. exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Watts had achieved international fame.
Mary Watts
Painter, potter, designer, author, teacher and businesswoman, Mary Watts was a woman of inexhaustible creative energy. She founded and developed the Compton Potters’ Arts Guild, designed rugs and pots for Liberty, was a leading light in the Home Arts and Industries Association and made an invaluable contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement. She has been called an ‘unsung heroine of Art Nouveau’ and a pioneer of the Celtic Revival; her designs and decorations in Watts Chapel and Limnerslease, the home and studios of G F and Mary Watts, stand testimony to these titles.
Arts and Craft Tours Day 1 Day 3 Saturday 12 September Monday 14 September
Private transfer to Angel Posting House, Guildford Private visit to Vann and its Gertrude Jekyll five- acre gardens which featured in screen adaptations Visit to Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village: lunch hosted of Howards End and Goodbye, Christopher by Watts Gallery Trust’s Director, Alistair Burtenshaw Robin, hosted by owner, Dr Mary Caroe
Tour of Watts Gallery, Watts Chapel, Lutyens Lunch at The Dragon, Horsham Bridge and Limnerslease, the former home and studio of G F and Mary Watts with Dr Cicely Private tour of Buchan Hill by Sir Ernest Robinson, Brice Chief Curator, Watts Gallery Trust George, now Cottesmore School.
Afternoon tea Private transfer to Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire Dinner at Limnerslease, hosted by MaryAnne Stevens, an art historian and Private tour of Eastnor Castle and its curator with an international reputation, superlative paintings by G F Watts hosted by and Chair of Watts Gallery Trust owners, James and Lucy Hervey-Bathurst
Overnight: Angel Posting House, Guildford Overnight: Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire
Day 2 Day 4 Sunday 13 September Tuesday 15 September
Tour of Munstead Wood, former home and garden Visit to Malvern College, Worcestershire of Gertrude Jekyll, hosted by Lady Marjorie Clark to see the murals by G F Watts
Visit to Busbridge church and courtyard, designed Lunch and private visit to Downton, the home of by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Highlights include Sir Andrew and Lady Evie Duff-Gordon who will the chancel screen by Sir Edwin Lutyens, and talk about the five generations of their family who stained-glass window by Sir Edward Burne-Jones knew G F Watts, and a tour of their collection Private visit to Prior’s Field, designed by C F A Dinner near Madresfield, Worcestershire Voysey this local girls’ private school was founded by Julia Huxley, mother of Aldous Huxley Overnight: Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire Lunch at The March Hare, Guildford
Visit to Aldworth House, the home of G F Watts’s close friend, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (to be confirmed)
Dinner at Tudor manor house, Loseley Park.
Overnight: Angel Posting House, Guildford
Arts and Craft Tours Day 5 Day 7 Wednesday 16 September Friday 18 September
Private transfer to Montague on the With Professor Hilary Grainger explore work by Sir Ernest Gardens, Bloomsbury, London George in London. There will be visits to the oldest conservatoire in the UK the Royal Academy of Music;
Southwark Bridge; 60-61 Piccadilly, formerly the Albermarle Visit to Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, Hotel; and 46 Wigmore Street in the City of Westminster. the family home of Lord Faringdon and its paintings by G F Watts Visit to Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum. The latter was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and is Lunch at Buscot Old Parsonage the final resting place of Sir Ernest George, Walter Crane, Dame Millicent Fawcett and Bram Stoker. Visit to St Mary the Virgin, Buscot Visit to Collingham Gardens designed by Harold Peto, and see the terraces, designed by Sir Ernest Visit to Kensington Gardens to see G F Watts’s George and Harold Peto that border the gardens. iconic bronze sculpture, Physical Energy The day concludes with a visit to Sir W S Gilbert’s House Private dinner at Lord Byron’s former in Kensington designed by Sir Ernest George, and now an residence, Byron Chambers at Albany hosted architectural firm. Their Managing Director has invited the by Damon de Laszlo DL and The Hon Mrs group for dinner in the quite marvellous dining room. Sandra de Laszlo, with talks by John Singer Overnight: Montague on the Gardens Sargent’s great nephew Richard Ormond CBE and Sandra de Laszlo, the Director of the Philip de László Catalogue Raisonné Day 8 Saturday 19 September Overnight: Montague on the Gardens, Bloomsbury Visit to Postman’s Park to see G F Watts’ Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice
Day 6 Visit to St Paul’s to see the spandrels of the Thursday 17 September cathedral’s dome which represent the four evangelists and were designed by G F Watts Visit to Tate Britain, home to G F Visit to the Palace of Westminster to view G F Watts’s Watts’s iconic painting, Hope huge oil painting of Alfred Inciting the Saxons to Prevent the Landing of the Danes and powerful fresco Lunch at the Rex Whistler of The Red Cross Knight Overcoming the Dragon Restaurant at Tate Britain Lunch Visit to Lincoln’s Inn to see Justice, A Hemicycle of Lawgivers a fresco by Private tour of Leighton House, the former home of Lord Frederic Leighton, the celebrated artist and intellectual G F Watts in the Great Hall inspired companion of G F Watts, led by Senior Curator, Daniel by Raphael’s The School of Athens Robbins followed by a walking tour of Holland Park
Dinner Visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum, the world’s leading museum of art and design, boasting an impressive Overnight: Montague on the and extensive nineteenth century collection Gardens, Bloomsbury Farewell dinner at the Art Workers’ Guild, with Richard Ormond CBE, Peter Trippi and Sandy Nairne CBE Image: Andy Newbold Photography Image: Andy Newbold
Arts and Craft Tours Price and Inclusion
Price: $10,250 per person Single room supplement: $1,200 per person Deposit £1,500 per person
Price includes:
• $500 membership of Watts Gallery Trust’s US Patrons Scheme; this payment is not tax-deductible. • Hotels as indicated in the itinerary based on double occupancy. A limited number of single rooms is available at an additional supplement • Breakfast, lunch and dinner each day • Transfer to hotel upon arrival, and on final day from hotel to airport • Luxury coach transportation throughout • Admission to all homes, museums (when part of the tour), and exhibitions • A full program of lectures with distinguished scholars, receptions, private viewings and tours • The handling of two average size suitcases per person • The services of a full-time tour leader
Price excludes:
• Airfare • Incidental expenses such as wine and liquor, laundry, telephone calls, telexes, fax communications • A la carte orders or items not on any set menus • Other items not specifically mentioned as included
How to book
Please complete the registration form, and return with deposit of $1,500 per person to:
Arts & Crafts Tours 110 Riverside Drive, Suite 15-E New York, New York 10024 www.artsandcraftstours.com 212 362 0761