March 12th 2013

Manet at the Royal Academy

We have 40 tickets for the Royal Academy spring block-buster, a rare opportunity to see in one place so many Manet paintings, many in private collections and therefore never previously shown in public.

By translating portrait sitters into actors in his genre scenes, Manet guarantees the authenticity of the figures that populate his genre paintings and asserts a new, more potent relationship between Realism and Modernity. ‘Manet: Portraying Life’ will include over 50 paintings spanning the career of this archetypal modern artist together with a selection of pastels and contemporary photographs. It will bring together works from both public and private collections across Europe and Asia.

June 5th 2013

Stanley Spencer – Cookham and The Sandham Memorial Chapel.

Our lecture in May is by Valerie Woodgate, a survey of Spencer’s ‘Personal Heaven’. The visit is a chance to see the village where Spencer lived. We will spend time in the dedicated gallery in Cookham and have a guided tour of the village which inspired so many of his paintings.

The Sandham Memorial Chapel, just south of Newbury, is arguably the greatest memorial to the First World War in this country. The series of murals portray Spencer’s take on the Great War in which he served in the Medical Corps, and the East wall, geographically the West wall but ecclesiastically the East wall, is a Resurrection scene to compare with the finest of the Renaissance.

July 9th 2013

Burne Jones and Gordon Russell.

Cheltenham Ladies College is associated more with girls’ education than with 19th Century art but it has some wonderful Burne-Jones, his preparatory work for the series of St Frideswide’s stained glass windows. In addition there are some fine William Morris designs and lots of fascinating material in the archives. We will have a private guided tour.

Gordon Russell was a great designer of furniture in the first half of the 20th C. He is perhaps best known for the Coventry Cathedral chairs with which the rebuilt cathedral was furnished after the war. He was, with his workmen at their Broadway workshop/factory, a designer and producer of much furniture so typical of the interwar years. During the Second World War the factory became a source of the frames for fighter planes. We will have a guided tour of the museum which shows examples of all the work that went on there.

September 4th 2013

Hatfield House.

At the beginning of the year we have a talk by Gillian White on the Elizabethan Country House so it seems right to end the visiting season with a tour of perhaps the grandest of them all. Architecturally it carries evidence of its history dating back to the 15th C but it is perhaps most closely associated with Elizabeth, who spent many happy times there and received there from Lord Salisbury the news of her accession to the throne. The architectural and artistic treasures are outstanding.

January 24, 2012:

The Leonardo Exhibition at the National Gallery, London

This year’s blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery is “Leonardo da Vinci – Painter at the Court of Milan”. This is a unique opportunity, the chance of a lifetime, to see more than half of the master’s portraits under one roof. Bookings are now being taken. Contact David Shepherd at info@cotswolddfas.org.

April 24, 2012:

The Barber Institute and Winterbourne House, Birmingham

The Barber Institute holds the official art collection of Birmingham University, an intimate and eclectic collection of paintings in a purpose built gallery. The Institute also has a small concert hall and we have hopes of arranging for our visit a short piano recital from a student at the conservatoire. Winterbourne, a 1920s Arts and Crafts House, is just a five minute walk from the gallery. Originally the home of the Nettlefold family, of the GKN manufacturing conglomerate, it became the property of the university which used it for a while as a hall of residence for students. It has now been restored to its former Arts and Crafts glory and together with its delightful garden makes an oasis of peace in a major industrial city.

June 19, 2012:

Boughton House and the Mackintosh House, Northamptonshire

Boughton House, just north of Kettering, is one of the residences of the dukes of Buccleuch (the publicity calls it The Versailles of England, as it is a spectacular palace) and contains a wonderful range of paintings, furniture and objets d’art. In Northampton town is the only example in England of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a town house illustrating all the distinctive characteristics which made Mackintosh such a seminal designer and a major influence all over Europe. We will also make a brief stop at the Eleanor Cross in Geddington, one of the three remaining monuments of the nine built by Edward I in memory of his heroic wife Eleanor of Castile, to commemorate the stopping places of her funeral cortege as her body was carried from Nottinghamshire to London in 1290.

October 2nd, 2012:

Wren Churches in the City of London

Our speaker at the Society’s September meeting is Tony Tucker, on Christopher Wren and his churches. Tony will guide us on a walk to all the Wren churches in the City of London to enable us to see for ourselves examples of what he has described for us.

Monday 14th March 2011

Goldsmiths Hall, London

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Hanbury Hall,  Worcestershire  

Saturday, September 10th

visit to the Queen's Gallery and tour of the Olympic site

Tuesday 4th October 2011

The Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham