WALLACE COLLECTION

The 'Wallace Collection' is a museum in London. The museum encompasses a range of fine and decorative arts from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries with large holdings of French 18th century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.
Established in 1897 from the private collection of Sir Richard Wallace, his widow bequeathed the entire collection to the nation. The museum opened to the public in 1900 in Hertford House, Manchester Square, and remains there, housed in its entirety, to this day.

Contents

Collections

Departments

Pictures & Miniatures

Paintings, Drawing & Watercolours from the Wallace Collection

Ceramics

Furniture

Building

Gallery

References

External links

Collections

The museum's collection numbers nearly 5,500 objects and is best known for its quality and breadth of eighteenth-century French paintings, Sèvres porcelain and French furniture.
The Wallace Collection also displays many other treasures, such as two paintings by Titian, four Rembrandts, three Rubenses, four Van Dycks, twenty-two Canalettos, nineteen Bouchers, masterpieces by Hooch, nine Teniers, Frans Hals, nine Murillos, two Velázquezes and paintings by Domenichino, Cima, Daddi, Reni, Rosa, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Antoine Watteau, Nicholas Lancret, Jan Steen, Aelbert Cuyp and nine Guardis. The museum also holds a fine collection of princely arms and armour, featuring both European and Oriental objects, as well as displays of gold boxes, miniatures, sculpture and medieval and Renaissance works of art such as maiolica, glass, bronzes and Limoges enamels.
The works of art in the Collection comprise ^[1]:
:
★ Paintings,Watercolours and Drawings 775
:
★ Furniture 528
:
★ Ceramics 510
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★ European and Oriental Arms and Armour 2,370
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★ Sculpture 466
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★ Miniatures 334
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★ Medieval and Renaissance Works of Art 363
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★ Goldsmiths' Work 120

Departments

The Wallace Collection is split into six curatorial departments, Pictures & Miniatures, Ceramics, Arms & Armour, Objet d'Art, Furniture and Scultpure.

Pictures & Miniatures

The collection's old master paintings represent some of the finest works of art in the world, executed by most of the leading artists of their period. The displays of paintings span from the fourteenth to the mid-nineteenth century which, among museums in England, is surpassed only by those in the National Gallery.
The collection is particularly strong in Dutch and Flemish paintings of the seventeenth century and in eighteenth and nineteenth-century French paintings, though there are also outstanding works by English, Italian and Spanish artists. Strengths of the collection include examples by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Canaletto, Gainsborough, François Boucher, Fragonard, Murillo, Titian, Poussin and Velázquez.
The inventory of pictures, watercolours and drawings comprises all the major European schools.

Paintings, Drawing & Watercolours from the Wallace Collection

# British, German, Spanish & Italian #: 151 paintings, 60 drawings ★ # French Nineteenth Century #: 134 paintings, 57 watercolours¹ # French before 1815 #: 144 paintings, 8 drawings and watercolours² # Dutch #: 173 paintings, 2 drawings³ # Flemish #: 48 paintings ★ ³

: ★ The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures I :¹ The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures II :² The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures III :³ The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures IV : ★ ³ The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures IV

Ceramics

There are fine examples of porcelain by the greatest of makers, including Meissen and one of the worlds greatest collections of Sèvres.
The Wallace Collection contains one of the richest and most distinguished collections of eighteenth-century Sèvres porcelain in the world. It includes 137 vases, 80 tea wares, 67 useful wares, 3 biscuit figures and 130 plaques (mostly on furniture), and was acquired by the Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace between c. 1802 and c. 1875^[2].

Furniture

The Wallace Collection holds one of the most important collections of French furniture anywhere in the world.^[3] Totalling more than five hundred pieces, the collection consists largely of eighteenth-century French furniture but also includes some significant pieces of nineteenth-century French furniture, as well as interesting Italian furniture and a few English and German pieces. The collection ranges from cabinet furniture, much of which is veneered with brass and turtleshell marquetry (commonly known as 'Boulle' marquetry) or with wood marquetry, to seat furniture, clocks and barometers, gilt-bronze items including mounted porcelain and hardstones, mantelpieces, mirrors, boxes and pedestals. One highlight of the collection is the major collection of furniture attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), perhaps the best-known cabinet-maker ever to have lived.

Building

A few years ago the inner courtyard was given a glass roof and now contains a restaurant.
Admission is free.

Gallery

Image:IMG 2413.jpg| The Front State Room
Image:IMG 2415 - EDITED.jpg| Back State Room
Image:Hals obraz 1.jpg| FRANS HALS - The Laughing Cavalier
Image:Tizian 052.jpg| TITIAN - Perseus and Andromeda

References

1. http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0506/hc08/0832/0832.pdf
2. The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain - ISBN 0 900785 27 6
3. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 139, No. 1136 (Nov., 1997), pp. 792-794

External links

★ Wallace Collection official website

★ A Visitor's Experience: The Wallace Collection