Art Pursuits Study Day

HIGHNAM COURT
West Sussex

Friday, 25 July 2008

COUNTRY HOUSE SEMINAR

Highnam Court, a Grade 1 listed building, is still very much a family home and not normally open to the public. The house was built in the last years of the Commonwealth, but the most splendid interiors date from the mid-eighteenth century. Our study day will include a tour, by a member of the family, of the state rooms of this handsome house. In 1837 the Highnam estate was bought by the artist and collector Thomas Gambier-Parry, who laid out magnificent gardens including a splendid example of a rock garden by James Pulham. The gardens have recently been beautifully restored and extended.

Our day will also include a tour of the superb church commissioned by Thomas Gambier-Parry for his tenants. It was designed by Henry Woodyer and decorated throughout by Gambier-Parry himself in a fresco technique of his own invention. John Betjeman described it as 'the most complete Victorian church in this country'. Other authors have called it 'the fulfilment of the Pugin ideal' and 'the most important Anglican example of painted internal polychromy'. Our tour of this gem of Victorian High Church architecture will be taken by Thomas Gambier-Parry's great-grandson, Tom Fenton, who has a unique perspective on this 'family heirloom'. .

The maximum number of participants for this event is 50

You can download a Study Days booking form and booking conditions here, using Acrobat Reader. Or ring or write for further details.
Tel and fax 01280 820307 info@artpursuits.com