Wilton House, Wiltshire
Thursday 6 September 2018 9am - 7.30pm
Join the coach on Piccadilly outside the RA. Please note that the coach will leave promptly at 9am and return to London around 7.30pm, depending on traffic.
£110. Includes coach travel, coffee on arrival, lunch, a glass of wine and a cream tea.
Friends of the RA book first
Set in magnificent landscaped parkland, Wilton House has been the Earl of Pembroke’s ancestral home for over 450 years and contains one of the finest art collections in Europe.
We are delighted to offer Friends a private guided tour of Wilton House, which will focus on the outstanding art collection and take in many other treasures along the way. Rebuilt in the Palladian style in 1647 by Inigo Jones and John Webb, with further alterations made by James Wyatt in 1801, the chief architectural features are the 17th-century state apartments and the 19th-century cloisters, which house an impressive collection of Greek and Roman statuary.
The six rooms forming the state apartments contain magnificent furniture by Chippendale and William Kent, many portraits by Van Dyck and his studio including the huge "family piece" of the 4th Earl; fine paintings by Lely, Rembrandt, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Gerrit van Honhorst, and fine architectural chimneypieces inspired by the 1640 publications of French architect Jean Barbet.
The grounds offer a mix of small formal gardens, including a water garden and a rose garden, as well as herbaceous borders, a woodland walk and a wealth of architectural features including the Millennium Water Feature and the famous Palladian Bridge.
On arrival at Wilton House, we will have coffee and biscuits while listening to an introductory talk on the house and its collections by Head Guide, Carol Kitchen, who has been at Wilton for over 20 years. We then enjoy a buffet lunch before taking a private guided tour of the house, after which there will be time to wander in the gardens and enjoy a cream tea before our coach takes us back to London.
£110. Includes coach travel, coffee on arrival, lunch, a glass of wine and a cream tea.
Friends of the RA book first