Arts & Artists

TENTATIVE ITINERARY	NIGHTSTOP
Day One
With the majority of flights arriving in the early morning it afford us an opportunity of using this first day to gently acclimatise and fittingly, to be introduced to one of the recognised founders of English art, William Hogarth. Our London accommodation is based just a paint flick away from Hogarth’s House museum and Lord Burlington’s Chiswick House. Depending upon how arrival’s feel we may also tale the opportunity of an afternoon visit to the little known Sir John Soane museum to view some Hogarth originals.	London
Day Two
Today, after a relaxed morning of general sightseeing, we concentrate on the Tate. We’ll start with Turner at the Tate, then spend the latter part of the day at the new and exciting Tate Modern.	London
Day Three
London has an abundance of galleries, both commercial and traditional. Today is a day of ‘organised independence’. We’ll be providing you with a brief on Sunday evening and you’ll then be able to decide which you visit depending upon your interest. To whet the appetite there’s The National Portrait Gallery, the Wallace Collection (Frans Halls ‘Laughing Cavalier’) , the redesigned Courtauld (Rubens, Monet, Toulouse-Lutrec, Moddigliani, Renoir, Sisley, Van Gough, Manet, Cezanne, Gaugin). Tonight we’ll have a typical ‘pub’ dinner but in pub that was once the home of the artist Turner.	London
Day Four
Our journey south from London takes us first to England’s oldest public gallery, the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Here we’ve works by Gainsborough and Reynolds in addition to some of the famous canvases of Rembrandt, Rubens and Poussin. Our next stop of the day is at Petworth House and gardens in Sussex for their splendid Turner collection. We then take the road to Kent and our nightstop for the following two nights.	Kent/East Sussex
Day Five
Winston Churchill’s water-colours may not rank with the best but they give us reason enough to visit the great man’s home at Chartwell. Later, we tour the magnificent Kent countryside and in the midst discover Charleston, the studio house of the Bloomsbury set. Here, Virginia Woolfe’s sister Vanessa Bell and her associates Roger Fry and Duncan Grant decorated every wall and piece of furniture in the entire farmhouse in their distinctive and striking style.	Kent/East Sussex
Day Six
We head north east, crossing the Thames to East Anglia and Suffolk. Two interesting artists provide our stops between the gentle countryside. Gainsborough’s House Museum in Sudbury, the nearby Cornward Wood, and the great equine artist, Sir Alfred Munnings art museum at Castle House, Dedham.	Suffolk
Day Seven
Suffolk, Constable Country, is the subject of today’s fine touring. The landscape of the Stour valley gave Constable the familiar scenes of The Haywain, The Cornfield and Flatford Mill. In addition we’ll be visiting unbelievably pretty, timeless villages, an Elizabethan Manor, and the archaeological treasure of the Sutton Hoo, Saxon burial site.	Suffolk
Day Eight
We’ll start our day with time in the university city of Cambridge and a tour of the collages. There’ll be some free-time here for independent sightseeing before we visit the nearby Anglesey Abbey. Then we cross the midlands and head northward to our nightstop in Derbyshire. En route we’ll be stopping at places of general interest such as perhaps Bosworth Field, site of the famed English battle where Richard III met his end.	Derby
Day Nine
Our route through the fabulous scenic Peak District, take us to two of England grandest treasure houses, the Duke of Devonshire’s Chatsworth House and Hardwick Hall. In the former all sorts of artistic treasures adorn the walls and grace the sumptuous rooms, while the latter has arguably one of the finest tapestry collections to be seen anywhere.	Cheshire
Day Ten
We enjoy a complete change of atmosphere today as we explore the North West cotton towns of R S Lowry (famed for his industrial paintings and unique figure work (often called 'matchstick people). Later we’ll visit the Manchester art gallery (Stubbs) and possibly, if the group wishes, Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery.	Cheshire
Day Eleven
South of Cheshire we’re in the Potteries. The most prevalent art form here is in the art of the potter and the delicate decoration that adorns fine porcelain. We’ll visit several the Wedgewood factory to see how that lovely blue and white pottery gets it's hand painted decoration	Stoke
Day Twelve
We continue south with two superb stops as the day's highlights. Firstly, Buscot Park, in Oxfordshire where this lovely house boasts a fine Gainsborough collection. Then to the sumptuous Waddeston Manor. This was built by the Rothschild family in the manner of a French Loire chateau and it houses beautiful 18^th century decorative art.	Hungerford
Day Thirteen
Stanley Spencer was one of our greatest painters of the last century and we'll visit his studio/gallery in the pretty Thameside village of Cookham. Later, we'll visit the impressive and evocative Sandham Memorial Chapel, the walls of which Spencer covered in murals depicting life in the trenches in World war One. This was his contribution to pacifism and it's extremely moving as well as great art. As with every other day on this tour, we'll be taking advantage of the opportunity enjoying scenic drives and we'll be stopping at other points of interest en route.	Hungerford
Day Fourteen
What finer way to complete our tour than with a visit to Windsor Castle where we'll see the Queen's own collection of great masters houses in the State Rooms.	London
Day Fifteen
Alas, it's time to ' clean our brushes'. Today is home-time and you'll be transferred to the airport. However, this will have been a memorable tour, and you'll no doubt be clutching postcards, posters and fine prints of your favourite artists and these will be providing a constant reminder over the years of your discovery of England's art and our artist's inspiration.