Broadway Manor Cottages

As Britain prepares for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, on a Cotswold hill between Broadway and Chipping Campden, on Friday 29th May 2009, the oldest Olimpick Society in the world, Robert Dover’s Games Society held its own Games. 

In mounting their bid for the 2012 Olympics the British Olympic Association referred to Dover’s Games as “the first stirring of Britain’s Olympic beginnings” and in 2012 the Robert Dover’s Olimpick Games will celebrate their 400th anniversary.

Three hundred and ninety eight years ago, Robert Dover (1575 - 1641), revived the spirit of Ancient Greece on the hillside which has since been named after him.  Today the games are held annually at the end of May.  This year’s games which took place in glorious evening Cotswold sunshine included; a 5 mile run, junior race around the hill for under 15s, tug o’war, shuffle board race, gurning and the slightly crazy Shin-Kicking British Championships.

The 2009 Games were opened at 7.30pm by Father John Brennan (as Robert Dover) and Paul Dare (as Endymion Porter).  Hundreds of people gathered on the hill to enjoy the sunshine and be entertained by the competitors, especially those competing in the obstacle race to become Champion of the Hill, the Tug o’War and British Shin-Kicking Championship (an event where the competitors wear white coats and stuff straw down their trouser legs to protect their shins).

After the events, a huge bonfire was lit by the Scuttlebrook Queen followed by a fantastic firework display that lit up the sky. This was followed by a torchlit procession down the hill to Chipping Campden Square where ‘The Copycats’ played into the night.

Broadway, a picturesque village in The Cotswolds, is holding its first Arts Festival in June 2010.  The Festival is dedicated to John Singer Sargent RA and will celebrate one of his most famous (and finest) paintings: Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose  which was painted in a Broadway garden in the mid 1880s.  The Festival will run from Friday 11th June to Sunday 20th June 2010.

Sargent was born on 12th January 1856 in Florence, Italy.  His American parents, Dr Fitzwilliam Sargent and Mary Newbold Singer, had settled in Europe and the family travelled extensively throughout France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.  A well-educated man, Sargent developed an early interest in art attending arts schools in Italy and Germany before entering the studio of Carolus-Duran in Paris in 1874.  

Whilst in Paris, Sargent became well known for his portraits.  He first exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1877 where his portrait of Fanny Watts was displayed.  Sargent’s work continued to be exhibited at the Salon until 1884 when his portrait Madame X of Madame Gautreau (a French society beauty) caused a great scandal.  Shortly afterwards Sargent travelled to London where he met up with Henry James.  James became a great influence on Sargent encouraging him to stay in England and introducing him to Edwin Austin Abbey.  During the summer of 1885, at Pangbourne, whilst on a boat trip with Abbey, Sargent had an accident which led to him recuperating in the quiet village of Broadway in The Cotswolds.

Francis D Millet, a great friend of Abbey’s, had already made Broadway his home, renting Farnham House ovelooking the village green. Sargent joined Millet and Abbey, initally lodging at The Lygon Arms.  They were joined by Frederick Barnard and Alfred Parsons and are affectionately know as the ‘Broadway Colony’ of artists.  Shortly before Christmas 1885, a studio had been created at  Abbots Grange next door to Farnham House and the following year Millet and Abbey rented Russell House nearby.  It was at this time that Sargent painted Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, a fine painting in the Impressionist style of two little girls lighting Japanese lanterns in a garden with flowerbeds of lilies, carnations and roses and at twilight.  The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in March 1887 and it was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest Trustees for the Tate Gallery in London.

Sargent visited Monet (whom he had known since his days in Paris) in Giverney during the summer of 1887, returning to England to paint before travelling to America where he had exhibited since 1887.  Sargent was already a renowned painter in America and his first solo exhibition in Boston in early 1888 was a great success.  Sargent returned to England in May 1888 renting Calcot Mill in Oxfordshire before moving to Fladbury in Worcestershire not far from Broadway.  Sargent received several commissions from America and he continued to travel to Europe and around England.  In 1893 Sargent exhibited his portrait Lady Agnew of Lochnaw at the Royal Academy Exhibition to great acclaim and the following year he was elected to the Royal Academy.

During the 1890s Sargent was in great demand to paint portraits, however, from 1907 he concentrated on watercolours, spending many summers in Venice.  During his latter years Sargent painted a number of murals for the Boston Public Library (Triumph of Religion on display in the Sargent Hall) and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  Sargent also served briefly as an official war artist in 1918 spending three months on the western front. 

Sargent died in 1925 and is buried in Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey.