The Wye Tour And Its Artists April 30, 2010

A major exhibition of over 70 watercolours on loan from the national collections in London as well as Wales, and from museums around the UK is being staged at Chepstow, the endpoint of the Wye Tour - Britain’s first ‘package tour’. Guest curator Julian Mitchell* has selected his ‘best and most interesting’ watercolours of the Lower Wye Valley. Here are the sites viewed and visited by the first tourists who came down the river in canopied rowing boats from Ross-on-Wye to Chepstow on a two day trip in the late 18th and early 19th century. They followed in the wake of the Rev William Gilpin whose book popularised the tour and the quest for ‘picturesque’ scenery - landscapes that could make, or be compared to, paintings. Many amateurs as well as professional artists came to capture the scenes. This exhibition features works by the masters from that great age of British watercolours, including Turner, Paul Sandby, Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker, Thomas Hearne, Edward Dayes, John & Cornelius Varley, Samuel Palmer, David Cox, Joshua Cristall…