The Wallace Collection, housed in London’s Hertford House, is one of Britain’s preeminent cultural institutions and holds one of the most significant collections of fine and decorative art in the world. The museum offers more than 5,500 works of art, including an impressive collection of eighteenth-century French art, many important seventeenth and nineteenth-century paintings, medieval and Renaissance works of art and one of the finest collections of princely arms and armour in the United Kingdom. To get a closer look, check out this virtual tour of the Wallace Collection with access to art talks, gallery tours, curator interviews and more.
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Photo by C. McCain
About the Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection’s artwork was collected by the first four Marquesses of Hertford, as well as Sir Richard Wallace who was believed to have been the fourth Marquess’ illegitimate son. Sir Richard became the fourth Marquess’ secretary and agent and ultimately, inherited the house where the Wallace Collection resides today, as well as a truly remarkable art collection.
Bust of Sir Richard Wallace. Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Sir Richard Wallace died in 1890 and left everything to his wife, Julie Amelie Castelnau, otherwise known as Lady Wallace. Sir Richard had expressed the wish that his collection might become a museum after his death, but it was Lady Wallace who left almost all of the artwork to the nation as a museum when she died in 1897. Lady Wallace chose the name, The Wallace Collection, presumably as a fitting memorial to her late husband. The museum opened to the public in 1900. According to Lady Wallace’s will, no items are to be added to the collection or removed from it, so it has largely remained as Sir Richard left it.
The museum was closed and the artwork was evacuated during both world wars. In 1917, the air raids prompted the entire collection to be removed and stored at the Post Office tube at Paddington Station. On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the entire collection was evacuated, this time to centers outside London. In May 1940, Sir Winston Churchill famously said of the nation’s art treasures: “Hide them in caves and cellars, but not one picture shall leave this island.” Thankfully, there was only minimal damage to the building when a high explosive bomb detonated in the front lawn during the air raids of September 1940. The works of art returned from the countryside in 1945, and the collection re-opened to the public in July of that year.
Highlights from the Wallace Collection
From landscapes to portraits, the Wallace Collection offers many excellent European paintings, including old master paintings from Titian, Rubens, Fragonard, Gainsborough and Canaletto, among others. Highlights from the painting collection include The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, Titus, the Artist’s Son by Rembrandt and Lady with a Fan by Diego Velázquez. Many remarkable sculptures, ranging from c. 1200 to 1900, are also displayed throughout the museum. Highlights from the sculpture collection include eighteenth-century works by French artists, including Bertrand, Coysevox and Houdon, as well as works from the Renaissance by Italian artists, including Giambologna and Torrigiani.
Photo by C. McCain
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Frans Hals. The Laughing Cavalier. c. 1624. The Wallace Collection
In addition to paintings and sculptures, the museum has an outstanding collection of decorative arts. Many of the objects are from eighteenth-century France and the medieval and Renaissance periods. Each piece has a fascinating, and sometimes mysterious, story to tell, such as the chest-of-drawers delivered to Louis XV’s bedroom at Versailles and the Bell Shrine of St. Mura, which was said to have descended from heaven.
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Photo by C. McCain
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Photo by C. McCain
The museum also features princely arms and armour – many considered to be some of the finest works in the collection. Although some objects were meant for combat, many are beautiful examples of the armourer’s art and were made for rulers and nobles across the world, including Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor and Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Courtesy of the Wallace Collection
Virtual Tour of the Wallace Collection
From collection talks to musical performances, the Wallace Collection makes it easy for people to virtually experience the museum from the comfort of home. Through the museum’s website, online visitors can access free, family-friendly activities, high resolution images, tours, lectures, courses and more.
Check out the Wallace Collection’s blog featuring art and objects from throughout the museum, including paintings, furniture, ceramics, arms and armour. Articles explore the collection from a variety of perspectives with fun, interactive content. The blog also provides news and updates about the museum’s programs and events.
Don’t miss Meet the Expert, which features monthly, themed programs hosted by members of the museum’s curatorial department. Each month begins with a short, online Gallery Trail highlighting a handful of unmissable objects from the Wallace Collection. Works in Context is a longer article explaining the meaning of the featured objects within a larger social or historical context, and it sets the scene for Expert’s Choice, a short film that delves deeply into the story behind the art. The month-long program is then wrapped up with an online lecture available to the public for free on the third Thursday of each month.
Featured Online Programs at the Wallace Collection
–Inside the Museum: 45 Years in just 88 Minutes features a bespoke virtual tour of the Wallace Collection by David Edge, former Head of Conservation. The video includes unseen library and archive materials, as well as Edge’s favorite stories and anecdotes from working at the museum since 1975.
–Ada de Wit, Curator of Works of Art and Sculpture, looks at the concept of Kunstkammer (cabinet of curiosities) and how this Renaissance tradition of collecting exceptional treasures from around the world was interpreted in the late nineteenth century by collectors, such as Sir Richard Wallace. Learn more about Kunstkammer with a free, online lecture titled Collecting Treasures: Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden and the Wallace Collection.
–The Wallace Collection has one of the most important holdings of Riesener furniture in the world. Online resources provide details about the furniture at the Wallace Collection, revealing secrets about Riesener’s working methods, materials and techniques, as well as his life and his work for the royal French court.
–The Wallace Collection presents Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, guest curated by writer and historian William Dalrymple. Online visitors can explore, room-by-room, works by Indian master painters commissioned by East India Company officials in the late eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries.
The Wallace Collection
Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN
Website: https://www.wallacecollection.org/
Phone: +44 (0)207 563 9500
Email: [email protected]
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