The Wallace Collection in London – An eye-opening visit to a quiet treasure

About The Wallace Collection

The widow of Sir Richard Wallace left his collection to the nation in 1897. Wallace was the probable illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford. The 4th Marquess, one of the great collectors of the 19th century, acquired most of the collection now housed in the museum at Hertford House, the Marquesses’ principal London residence.

Sir Richard spent most of his life in Paris. He lived first with his mother, whose maiden name he took, and later with his (perhaps)grandmother and benefactress the Dowager Marchioness of Hertford. She took him in when he was six years old. Though the 4th Marquess never acknowledged him as his son, Wallace worked for him as his personal secretary. When the 4th Marquess died without a legitimate heir, he left Wallace his art collection, properties in Paris, estates in England and Ireland and a considerable fortune. Hertford House in Manchester Square was his London base. Only the title went to a distant cousin.

Not like father like son

The 4th Marquess had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude (with apologies to The Eagles). In the Goncourt Journals, a collaborative diary of Parisian literary and artistic life and characters, the Goncourt brothers called the 4th Marquess “a complete, absolute, unashamed monster”, who apparently bragged that in his life he never helped anyone.

Wallace was not at all like him. In fact, he was so generous that he was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur and Queen Victoria made him a baronet for his services during the Siege of Paris. He established field hospitals for wounded French combatants and destitute Britons and contributed the modern equivalent of millions of pounds to help the besieged.

A move to Britain

After the formation of the Paris Commune (the violent aftermath of the siege) Wallace decided that to protect his collection, he had to leave. He spirited out his collection, thousands of items, bit-by-bit to England. Once in Britain, he divided his time between his estates and London.  In Ireland, he visited his estates in Lisburn, County Down, endowed a school, gave property for a park and was elected Conservative MP. In Suffolk, he even won a bronze medal for producing a prize-winning pig. He used the house in Manchester Square as his London base.

Wallace’s story –  how a boy of dubious parentage whose mother may or may not have been a descendent of Sir William Wallace (aka Braveheart) and whose father may have been an aristocrat, inherited a fabulous collection and a huge fortune is fascinating. It’s told in great detail in an address given for the 100th anniversary of Wallace High School in 1980 and published by the Lisburn Historical Society here.

The Wallace Collection in Manchester Square is in housed Hertford House, the former home of Sir Richard Wallace. The museum, as well as some of its special exhibitions, is free. Photo by Can Pac Swire, ccl

Exploring the Wallace Collection in London

The Wallace Collection is so big that, despite the late 19th-century expansion of Hertford House to hold it, not all of it can be displayed at the same time. That makes visiting often full of surprises, a changing spectacle. Added to that, special exhibitions are shown in a recently added lower ground floor space. Three factors make visits here so eye-opening:

• It’s possible to get very close to the works. Study the distinctive brushwork of a painting; find the pinhole mark in a 16th century Dutch painting to understand how the artist measured perspective; examine the embroidery on the vamp of a 15th century English gentlewoman’s shoe.
• The collection is carefully curated and displayed so that instead of simply admiring the “top of the pops” of European painting (and paintings like The Laughing Cavalier, The Swing, The Portrait of Rembrandt’s Son – all definitely top of the pops) or ogling the Sèvres, displays are arrange to expose you to a variety of things, some familiar and some delightful surprises.
• The excellent curation extends to interesting, readable descriptions and explanations that are offered on a free App available through Bloomberg Connects. They don’t interfere with the flow of the galleries but are easily available for anyone interested.

Ground floor galleries at the Wallace Collection in London

The ground floor galleries are a mix of 16th to 18th-century paintings, sculpture, Renaissance decorative objects, ceramics and furniture, arranged across several galleries and smaller rooms. Some of the galleries were closed on the day I visited so I never saw the armouries which are said to be fascinating.

The Back Stateroom is dedicated to early 18th-century work produced for King Louis XV and his mistress, Madame Pompadour. It holds some of the museum’s best examples of Rococo furniture, a fabulous collection of Sevres porcelain and royal and court portraits. Elsewhere on the ground floor, the collection becomes more eclectic.

Eye-opening displays

What I found eye-opening about these galleries is the way objects are grouped and shown. Small objects aren’t crowded together in an overwhelming glut of riches. Instead, vitrines are shallow or narrow enough to allow visitors to see them up-close, in great detail, a few at a time.

Craftsmanship display is from England, France, Italy, Germany and further afield. Iznik pottery from Turkey, a pair of early cloisonné enamelled incense burners from 18th century China, 16th century enamelled plaques from Limoges and, from Goa or Sri Lanka, an astonishing jewelled, rock crystal figure of Christ the Good Shepherd.

Dazzling oak and ebony furniture by André Charles Boulle is covered in rich marquetry of gilt brass and bronze, enamel, paint, steel, glass and turtle shell; rooms are full of Venetian glass, bronze and marble sculpture.

And the walls are adorned with the works of Joshua Reynolds, Antoine Watteau, Edwin Landseer, Thomas Lawrence, a wonderful picture of a young Queen Victoria by Thomas Sully.

You could easily spend an entire day just admiring the collections on the ground floor.

Highlights of the ground floor galleries.

Click on photos below to learn more and for sharper images