Special Weekends October 2011 & November 2011

Transcription

1 Special Weekends

2 Special Weekends The Arts and the Irish County House: Ballyfin and Birr Castle October 2011 & November 2011 THE IRISH COUNTRY HOUSE is a complex total work of art, comprising architecture, landscape design, interiors and contents. In Autumn 2011, Ballyfin Demesne is organizing two weekends that present a unique opportunity for our guests to enjoy privileged access to great collections in two of the most significant country houses in Ireland. Including lectures by leading authorities, participants will stay at Ballyfin for two nights and learn about its history and its contents. On the Saturday guests will travel across the beautiful Slieve Bloom Mountains to Birr Castle.

3 Friday Arrive in time for afternoon tea followed by a guided tour of Ballyfin s wonderful demesne and gardens by Jim Reynolds with time to relax and settle in. Dinner in the State Dining Room. Saturday BIRR CASTLE has been ancestral home to the Parsons family since In addition to its famous gardening and scientific achievements, Birr Castle is home to great collections of the fine and decorative arts, from work by Ireland s earliest portrait painter, Garret Morphey, to a fourteenth-century Spanish processional icon. Having explored the castle and leant about its complicated architectural history, the group will study some of the treasures ranging from a pre-celtic gold torque to the remarkable manuscript Miscelanea Structura Cusiosa, a series of fantastical designs for fountains, grottoes and follies done by a cousin of the Parsons, Samuel Chearnley in the 1740s. At Birr Castle our hosts will be the Earl and Countess of Rosse. Lord Rosse will lead the discussions on his family collections and guests will enjoy a delicious lunch in the Castle s private Dining Room. Birr Castle

4 Sunday BALLYFIN was built in the 1820s for Sir Charles Coote to designs by Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison. It is acknowledged as one of the finest Regency mansions in Ireland and is famous for the profusion of its interior decoration. Among the principal highlight of its contents are the ancestral family portraits which have returned to the house after almost a century; fine neo-classical paintings by artists such as Robert Fagan, and Irish landscapes by artists including William Ashford and Thomas Roberts. Of course the creative spirit of Ireland continues to flourish, and Ballyfin also houses a fine collection of contemporary Irish painting by artists such as Louis le Brocquy, Michael Farrell, and William Crozier. At Ballyfin, the tour leader will be William Laffan the author of several books on Irish art. Leading architectural historian, and author of the standard work on Ballyfin, Kevin Mulligan will take the group on a tour of Ballyfin s exceptional architecture. Opposite: Robert Fagan Portrait of Lady Clifford with the Colosseum in the Background Thomas Roberts Mares and Foal in a Wooded Landscape Hughie O Donoghue b.1953 Bellacorick

5 Included: 2 nights accommodation with full breakfast Lunch and dinner with selected fine wines Tea and coffee breaks with homemade cakes and cookies Pre-dinner drinks with canapés Transfers to Birr Castle All lectures VAT & gratuity 975 per person sharing a deluxe double 1,200 single occupancy (limited number of rooms available) Room upgrade 150 per room per night State Room, 400 Suite Guests can choose to arrive on Friday afternoon and depart Sunday or arrive on Saturday morning. (departure for Birr 10.00)

6 The Team: WILLIAM LAFFAN is a curator and historian specialising in Irish art and has published extensively in the field. Recent books include The Cries of Dublin, Drawn from the Life by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (2003); Miscelanea Structura Curiosa by Samuel Chearnley (2005); Painting Ireland (2006); Thomas Roberts, Landscape and Patronage in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (with Brendan Rooney 2009); Ancestral Interiors, Photographs of the Irish County House by Patrick Prendergast (2010). He also writes frequently for periodicals such as Apollo. KEVIN V. MULLIGAN is an architectural historian and the author of The Buildings of Meath (2001). For Yale University Press he is currently preparing the fourth volume of the Buildings of Ireland series, covering South Ulster. An authority on the architecture of the Morrisons, for the last ten years he has been researching the history of Ballyfin and, having co-authored several articles on Dominick Madden (who commenced building work on the house for Sir Charles Coote), in early 2011 he published the acclaimed monograph Ballyfin, The Restoration of an Irish House and Demesne. JIM REYNOLDS is one of Ireland s leading garden designers. Having trained as an archaeologist, he has worked on gardens all over the country and his own creation at Butterstream, County Meath, is acknowledged as among the most remarkable newly created gardens in Ireland. He has overseen the restoration of Ballyfin from the very beginning of the project, and now serves as Managing Director of Ballyfin Demesne Ltd. Sir BRENDAN PARSONS, EARL of ROSSE was educated at Aiglon and Oxford and having worked for the United Nations from succeeded to the title as 7th Earl and 10th Baronet. At his ancestral home at Birr Castle he has developed Ireland s Historic Science Centre, overseen several important publications and developed the renowned gardens through frequent plant hunting expeditions across Asia. His wife, the COUNTESS of ROSSE, is an acclaimed artist and co-author of An Atlas of Birr.

7 Ballyfin Demesne, Ballyfin, County Laois, Ireland tel: +353 (0) fax: +353 (0)