Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Wallace Collection

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (The Rainbow Landscape by Peter Paul Rubens)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (The Rainbow Landscape by Peter Paul Rubens)

    I hadn’t realised how many artworks that Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) had painted, which was over 1,400, so it’s no surprise how many museums and galleries he appears in. This painting dates to around 1636 and it’s of the land outside Rubens’s country house, Het Steen, near Antwerp. It was painted towards the end of his life and the gallery say, as I hardly knew this, that it was only during this period that he worked on landscapes.

    Fortunately, the Wallace Collection have uploaded a clear version of the painting, one that doesn’t have a bronze animal in front of it. This is one of a pair of paintings, with the other being in the National Gallery in London (although it’s noted as not being on display at the moment), painted for his own enjoyment and to hang on his own walls. It must be handy being one of the greatest artists of the century if you fancy decorating your front room, it gives you some options….

    Anyway, the gallery has placed on its web-site a handy video of how to understand this painting, which is useful as I usually miss everything of note. It’s painted on wooden panels, and it is noticeable on the right-hand side where the artwork may have been extended. It was purchased by Richard Seymour-Conway in 1856 and was given to the nation in 1897 by Lady Wallace.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School by Diego Velázquez)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School by Diego Velázquez)

    This painting in the Wallace Collection has its own Wikipedia page, albeit shared with another version of the artwork. It’s not known whether Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) painted this himself, or it was done by his studio. The gallery has traditionally gone for the latter, but Xavier Bray, who is the director of the collection, has featured in a video on their web-site saying that he thinks it might be the work of Velázquez himself. Apparently, the painting needs cleaning and it is that which the director thinks will show the quality of the artwork underneath. And, it would be nicer to have a painting by the artist himself and not just his studio (he didn’t add that, I did).

    The artwork was painted at the riding school in Madrid in 1636, featuring Prince Baltasar Carlos in control of his horse. It was deliberate, to show the young man and future King being able to manage horse-riding and seem competent. I liked that Bray mentioned he thinks there might be figures who have been removed on the right-hand side of the painting, with the artist doing this to direct the eye back to the Prince. There’s a plan for the painting to be X-Rayed and then they will have their answer.

    Unfortunately, this bright new hope for the Spanish Empire died at the age of 16 with smallpox, which was a problem as he was the only son of King Philip IV at the time. However, when Philip’s wife died, he remarried and at the age of 56 he had another son, King Charles II. Who became infamous for a whole host of reasons not entirely relevant here….

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Venice: the Bacino di San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore by Canaletto)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Venice: the Bacino di San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore by Canaletto)

    Canaletto, one of the few artists whose works are recognisable from the other side of a gallery, painted this artwork in either the late 1730s or the early 1740s. I hadn’t realised how many of his works that the Wallace Collection holds, one of the highest number in the world.

    The painting has an exquisite amount of detail, although the artist shuffled some things about to fit them in the artwork. Artistic licence and all that…. The paintings would have usually been purchased by those on a Grand Tour, a permanent reminder of the things that they had seen on their travels.

    The gallery notes (far better than I can), in its long description, that:

    “The figures in the foreground represent different levels of Venetian society; from the seated beggar on the left, the merchants in the centre, and the priest and lawyer engaged in conversation on the right. There is the customary assortment of sea vessels in the picture, including a burchiello, or passenger boat, being towed in the middle ground. This is a superb example of Canaletto’s attention to composition. The triangle of the foreground terrace – framed by the temporarily-docked burchiello with the detail of passengers embarking – is matched by the boat in the middle of the painting. Its two masts are in turn replicated in the vertical soar of the Campanile di San Marco and the dome of Santa Maria della Salute.”

    It’s not known when Francis Seymour-Conway, the 1st Marquess of Hertford, purchased this painting, but he had been on a Grand Tour to Italy in the late 1730s. It then remained in the family collections until the house and artworks were given to the public in the late nineteenth century.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals)

    This is perhaps the best-known artwork in the Wallace Collection, although I hadn’t even realised that it was there, so it was a pleasant surprise when I saw it. It was painted by Frans Hals (1582-1666) in 1624, although it’s not known who the figure in the artwork is. One thing that is known is that the sitter was aged 26 and we know this because Hals wrote it on the back of the painting, although perhaps he could have popped on the name of who he had painted as well.

    And, copyright of the Wallace Collection, is this much better image.

    It’s known that the painting was sold in The Hague in 1770, although unclear where it was before that, later being purchased by Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier in 1822. It then came into the collections of Richard Seymour-Conway, who outbid Baron James de Rothschild at an auction in 1865. It was probably best he did win this battle, where the painting went for over six times its estimate, as he allowed it to go on display at Bethnal Green Museum between 1872 and 1875. It was there that it was talked about because of the enigmatic smile, although it’s more the moustache creating this jovial impression. The painting was then returned after its period on public display and came into the collections of Richard Wallace, from where it was donated to the nation.

    It wasn’t until 1888 that the reference ‘Laughing Cavalier’ was made to the artwork, although this is now what it is commonly referred to. All of this burst of activity in the nineteenth century also saw the reputation of Hals improve, as he had fallen a little into obscurity in the decades after his death.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Arabs Travelling in the Desert by Horace Vernet)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Arabs Travelling in the Desert by Horace Vernet)

    There are some rather lovely colours in this artwork, painted by Horace Vernet (1789-1863) in 1843 and exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1844. I like thinking that this was displayed in Paris with thousands of people looking at it, crammed as the walls were at this arts festival.

    The gallery’s version (copyright of the Wallace Collection) is much better. The painting was acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway (1800-1870) after it went on display in Paris, later being given to the nation by Lady Wallace in 1897. Vernet had the interesting claim to fame that he was born in the Louvre, where his parents were staying during the French Revolution. And he can also claim to be the first person to take photos of the island of Malta when he visited there in 1840, although, unfortunately, these appear to have been lost.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Beni Suef on the Nile by Prosper Marilhat)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Beni Suef on the Nile by Prosper Marilhat)

    This artwork is by Prosper Marilhat (that’s a wonderful first name incidentally) who lived between 1811 and 1847, painting this in the late 1830s following a visit to Egypt. The gallery doesn’t know when it was acquired, but perhaps the saddest part of this story is that the artist went insane and died in a lunatic asylum in Paris aged only 36.

    The gallery has kindly placed much better copies of the images on their web-site (copyright Wallace Collection) and they’ve done wonders here to bring out the colours on the artwork. Beni Suef is located around 70 miles south of Cairo, a city once made wealthy through its manufacture of linen. But, back to the artwork, it is one of those evocative paintings of a time gone by…..

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection

    This is my first visit to the Wallace Collection in London, a free museum that’s a short walk away from Bond Street underground station. The collection was donated to the nation in 1897 and there are strong holdings of porcelain, armour and French art.

    The booking process was all very easy and there was a friendly staff member at the entrance to the museum who was welcoming visitors and showing them where to go. This is a challenging location to open to the public at the moment as it’s a former residential property (albeit a grand one) which wasn’t really designed for this purpose. However, they’ve created a one-way system and limited numbers in each room, making it a fairly easy collection to navigate. There were plenty of staff members on the route and they seemed helpful and engaged.

    There were numerous highlights, and I’ll write separately about some of these, but I was pleased to discover that the Laughing Cavalier is on display. Not that I’ve given much thought to where this artwork was actually located, I hadn’t expected it to be here. It’s not a huge collection compared to the national museums, but I was there for around an hour which seemed to be roughly how long people were generally staying for.

    The museum is very well-reviewed with only a handful of negative comments and those are mostly related to the on-site cafe. One of the most ridiculous from last year is from someone with a large backpack who complained that they were asked to place it in a cloakroom, not an unreasonable request. They have closed the cloakroom at the moment, but visitors can carry reasonably sized bags around with them.

    And the most ridiculous review of the lot:

    “We went to the wallace collection and were roped into a tour. This consisted of an over enthusiastic older lady telling us about the paintings in depth and the story behind them.”

    Hardly bad is it?

    Anyway, all very lovely, especially as there’s no admission charge.