‘THE MOST FORTUNATE MAN OF HIS DAY’
SIR RICHARD WALLACE: CONNOISSEUR, COLLECTOR & PHILANTHROPIST
‘THE MOST FORTUNATE MAN OF HIS DAY’
SIR RICHARD WALLACE: CONNOISSEUR, COLLECTOR & PHILANTHROPIST
Suzanne Higgott
foreword
Sir Richard Wallace (1818–1890), from whom the magnificent Wallace Collection in London takes its name, was a remarkable man, and his life story is an exceptional one. Born illegitimately in obscure circumstances in London and named Richard Jackson, he was brought up by Maria Fagnani, the estranged wife of the 3rd Marquess of Hertford, in Paris. There, from youth to middle age, he acted as art agent to the renowned Francophile connoisseur and collector Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, before inheriting great wealth and an outstanding art collection from Lord Hertford in 1870. Wallace gained great renown for his philanthropy in Paris in 1870–71, during the Prussian siege of the city that concluded the Franco-Prussian War with a humiliating French defeat, and the terrible civil strife of the Commune that followed soon afterwards. Rewarded by Queen Victoria for this with a baronetcy, Wallace spent much of the last two decades of his life in London as a highly esteemed art collector, connoisseur, landowner with estates in Ulster and Suffolk, MP, philanthropist, and much-valued member of many committees. He was passionate about the importance of education through art, both for public benefit in general and for the enrichment of design in the manufacturing industries. To this end he lent generously to exhibitions in England, Ireland and France, while in England and Ireland he also presented works of art and books about art to museums and galleries.
Wallace’s personal life and his legacy beg many intriguing questions: Who were his parents? Was he the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford? What was the reason for his changing his surname from Jackson to Wallace as a young man? Why did he and the mother of his son, later Lady Wallace, wait three decades to marry? Why did he become estranged from his only child? After his death, how did Lady Wallace, a French woman who spoke
Opposite: Sir Richard Wallace, Bart. Etching by Jules-Ferdinand Jacquemart after a drawing by Paul Baudry (1828–1886), for the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, January 1873. The low viewpoint and Wallace’s generously proportioned clothes contribute to the impression that he was an imposing man of substance.
For captions to the pictures on pp. 1, 2, 4 and the cover, see p. 430.
little English, remain involved with the world of art and charity in England, and why did she bequeath the Wallace Collection to the British nation?
Although there is so much to intrigue and fascinate in Sir Richard’s life story and much food for thought in the circumstances in which the Wallace Collection was bequeathed to the nation by his widow, it is only now, on the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth, that a book focusing in depth on his life and legacy is being published. The author, Suzanne Higgott, is a curator at the Wallace Collection, specializing in some of the Renaissance decorative arts acquired by Sir Richard as well as in the history of collecting, with particular reference to Wallace and the formation of his collection of Medieval and Renaissance works of art and arms and armour. This rich account of people and art in the setting of places and events contains considerable new information and an abundance of images, among them previously unpublished photographs from private collections. That this material could be drawn together and presented here so attractively, in celebration of the bicentenary of Sir Richard Wallace’s birth, is due to the great generosity of Marilyn and Lawrence Friedland, while a grant provided by the Wallace Collection Foundation supported the cost of research for the book. I would like to thank both parties for responding with such liberality and enthusiasm to the opportunity to bring this project to fruition. The book is arranged in eight chapters. Part One comprises Chapters I–IV, which provide a biographical survey of Richard Wallace’s origins, background and life. Part Two comprises Chapters V–VII, which explore Sir Richard’s life in relation to art after 1870 when he inherited the 4th Marquess of Hertford’s collection (with the exception of entailed Hertford family works of art): his expansion of the collection, his curating of it, and his involvement in making art more accessible to a wider public. Part Three comprises Chapter VIII, which focuses on the life and personality of Lady Wallace, her bequest of the Wallace Collection to the British nation, and its legacy.
It was through Sir Richard Wallace’s exceptional connoisseurship and philanthropy, together with Lady Wallace’s dedication to fulfilling his wishes, that the part of the peerless collection assembled by the first four marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace that was located on the ground and first floors of Hertford House at the time of Lady Wallace’s death in 1897 was given to the British nation. With its free entry, lively educational and events programme, temporary exhibitions, library, archive and online presence, the Wallace Collection continues to enshrine the values of education and enrichment through art that were central to Sir Richard Wallace’s vision.
Xavier Bray Director of the Wallace Collection
vii. taking art to the public
Sir Richard and Lady Wallace began to spend more time at Hertford House from the autumn of 1871. From the outset, Wallace demonstrated his philanthropic intentions towards his new homeland in ways that were both public-spirited and prominent. Consciously, these were acts of benign altruism, intended to enhance the public’s engagement with art both for pleasure and for education. At an unconscious level at least, they were probably intended to establish a status for Wallace in British society in spite of his illegitimacy, which was a serious social impediment. He was moving to a country where, in French eyes at least, status was primarily dependent on birth rather than merit. As had been observed in the Paris Guide only four years earlier, ‘Moreover, as far as society is concerned, the English find France freer, more liberal, more open than their own country. English society at home is run on ruler-straight lines; it operates a strict hierarchy in which the most foolish little lord takes precedence over the man of genius who lacks a title.’1 The speed with which Wallace carried out his first major benefaction after embarking on his move to England supports the argument that, consciously or not, he hoped to gain acceptance rapidly through his philanthropic activity.
Sir Richard’s connoisseurship and sensitivity were reflected in his first gift. On 25 October 1871 he wrote to Sir William Boxall, Director of the National Gallery, offering Gerard ter Borch’s early masterpiece, The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster (see p. 277).2
This small painting of great historical importance had been the highlight among the paintings at the Demidoff sale in 1868. On that occasion, Lord Hertford had secured it anonymously for the enormous price of 182,000 francs (approximately £7,280 at the time), the highest price known to have been paid for a single work of art by any of the Founders of the Wallace Collection, after Mannheim bid furiously on his behalf against Boxall, who had been extremely keen to acquire it for the nation. Boxall had been appalled by the high price paid for the painting, observing after the sale, ‘Of the great beauty and value of the picture there is no doubt. But never were
Previous pages: Detail of basin. Probably Portuguese; late 16th century, with later additions (see p. 293).
Opposite: Detail from Henry Jamyn Brooks (1839–1925), Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888 (see p. 295 and key on p. 419). The people in the centre foreground from left to right are Lord Wantage, Sir Richard Wallace, the Countess of Jersey, Sir Frederic Leighton and Lady Wantage. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Michel Angelo Pittatore (1825–1903), William Boxall, 1870, oil on canvas, 69.2 x 60 cm. An artist best know for portraiture, Boxall was appointed Director of the National Gallery after the death of Sir Charles Eastlake in 1865 and retired in 1874. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
such extravagant prices paid for pictures! I return with nothing but I have done everything to succeed except going mad enough to be sent to Bedlam.’3
There were several reasons why Boxall had hoped to buy the painting. It was much admired as a demonstration of ter Borch’s technical skills. It is also a contemporary depiction of an important event in the history of the Dutch Republic, the ratification of the treaty which in 1648 ended, in Holland’s favour, its eighty-year struggle with Spain, and the painting includes portraits of many identifiable participants. At a time when widening access to art was of increasing public concern, Boxall had also regretted his failure to acquire the picture at the Demidoff sale because ‘I could not imagine any work more likely to be attractive to all classes visiting the Gallery’.4 Wallace’s gift came in the wake of the National Gallery’s recent purchase of seventy-seven Dutch and Flemish pictures from the collection of the former Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, and it seems likely that it was inspired by that. Coming so soon afterwards and in such circumstances, Wallace’s gift would have attracted enhanced attention and appreciation.
Wallace must have been aware that Boxall had been the under bidder at the Demidoff sale. He was making the offer to the National Gallery, he explained to Boxall, ‘as I feel that this rare Work of Art cannot be better placed than among the valuable chefs d’œuvre of that noble Institution’.5 Wallace initially expressed his intention to Boxall in person, the latter remarking on the courtesy and kindness of his manner in doing so. Henry Ponsonby more vividly wrote that ‘Wallace sent for him . . . asked how he cd give a . . . picture. Boxall told him the mode. There is the picture sd Wallace pointing to the Congress of Munster & on which Boxall fell on his knees to Wallace.’ Boxall concurred with Wallace’s request to see the report he had submitted to the trustees after his defeat at the Demidoff sale, and Wallace promised to give Boxall information about the people depicted in the painting, testimony to Wallace’s great interest in historical figures.6 It seems, however, that after making this grand
gesture to establish his credentials as a philanthropic connoisseur immediately on his move to England, Wallace later came to feel that he had acted too hastily. The artist William Robert Symonds, to whom Wallace sat in 1885 (see p. 154), recalled that during their conversations Wallace expressed regret at having parted with the painting.7 For the National Gallery, the outcome regarding the ter Borch was happier than that regarding Rubens’s The Rainbow Landscape (overleaf). The gallery already owned its pendant, A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning, when The Rainbow Landscape
Gerard ter Borch (1617–1681), The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster, 1648, oil on copper, 45.4 x 58.5 cm. This exquisitely painted depiction of the council chamber of the Town Hall in Münster, Westphalia, when the long struggle with Spain ended in the Netherlands’ favour, is an early masterpiece by the artist. (National Gallery, London)
had come up for sale at Christie’s in 1856. Sir Charles Eastlake, then director, had been keen to acquire it but had been outbid by Lord Hertford. Although Wallace would have been aware of the situation, he clearly did not want to part with the Rubens.
loan exhibition at the bethnal green museum, 1872–5
At this time Wallace faced a major practical problem: lack of space in London to house the works of art in Paris that he wished to bring to England. By now he may have made the decision to extend Hertford House. The building work would exacerbate the problem temporarily by obliging him to relocate the works of art kept there. Towards the end of 1871 he planted the seeds of what would ultimately be a grand philanthropic enterprise: the loan of
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), The Rainbow Landscape, c 1636, oil on oak panel, 135.6 x 235 cm. (P63)
many works of art from his renowned collection as the opening exhibition at the Bethnal Green branch of the South Kensington Museum. His collection would be shown in a working-class area of London, where not only would the local population have free access to exceptional art treasures but the numerous local furnituremakers would benefit from close study of the outstanding design and workmanship on display.8
The idea of creating art galleries in underprivileged areas of London had been circulating in the government’s Department of Science and Art since the 1850s, following its creation in the wake of the success of the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in 1851. Henry Cole led the group of art administrators who took these ideas forward. When the South Kensington Museum opened in 1857 he became its first director. It was proposed that galleries in deprived areas would open in the evenings and on Sundays, so that working people who might not venture to the South Kensington Museum could visit them. The privately organized ‘Art Treasures Exhibition’ held at Manchester in 1857 was a ground-breaking precedent. Set close to working-class neighbourhoods, one of its major objectives was the education of workers and manufacturers, and thus the improvement of British design and craftsmanship. The exhibits, drawn exclusively from British collections, were intended to illustrate the entire canon of Western art. There was now a moral imperative for the privately owned art wealth of Britain to be made more widely available for public and ultimately national benefit.9
Initially Wallace did not conceive of an exhibition in Bethnal Green. He first proposed lending his collection to the South Kensington Museum, which depended quite heavily on loans from private collections to enrich its displays. He put the suggestion to Henry Cole in December 1871.10 By this time the temporary iron structure known colloquially as the Brompton Boilers, built in 1856–7 as the first home of the South Kensington Museum, had been dismantled and relocated to Bethnal Green, where it was encased in brick to serve as the first branch museum. The Animal Products and
Henry Cole (1808–1882). Photograph by Lock & Whitfield, 1877 or before. A champion of the enhancement of industrial design through art, Cole was an instigator of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Following its enormous success, in 1852 he became director of the newly formed Museum of Manufactures, which subsequently became the South Kensington Museum (since 1899 the Victoria and Albert Museum), continuing until his retirement in 1873. He was knighted in 1875. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Sir
J. W. Wild (1814–1892), design for the Bethnal Green Museum, encasing the ‘Brompton Boilers’ in brick (detail), c. 1865. Although funds were not available for some of the elements of this design, such as the clocktower, the principal elements are as built. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
Food collections from South Kensington were permanently moved there early in 1872, along with examples of ‘Economic Entomology’, to be part of an envisaged trade museum, long needed in London’s East End.11 By February 1872 Cole had in mind that the new museum might open with an exhibition of pictures from the collections of the Duke of Westminster and Lord Eldon, as well as, perhaps, Sir Richard Wallace.12
On 13 March Sir Richard wrote to South Kensington to say that he was aware that a museum was about to be established at Bethnal Green and that it would give him additional pleasure to see any or all of the objects in his collection exhibited ‘in that populous neighbourhood of working people which has hitherto not had the advantage of any National Museum’. Two days later Lord Ripon, Lord President of the Committee of Council on Education, wrote to thank him for his liberal offer, ‘and especially for your interest in the working classes of the east of London’.13 On 16 March it was still envisaged that an exhibition in the Fine Art Galleries at Bethnal Green would comprise loans from several lenders, including the
queen.14 However on 30 March Wallace proposed a change of plan: a single-lender exhibition comprising the 4th Marquess of Hertford’s pictures, furniture, bronzes and china from Paris. He explained to an old acquaintance from the Department of Science and Art, Philip Cunliffe-Owen, that a tribute of this sort was due to Lord Hertford, and that such an opportunity would never exist again, since once Wallace had placed the collection in his own new galleries he would wish to enjoy it himself. He explained that he particularly wanted Hertford’s collection to be shown as a whole. His only condition was that he, Wallace, would pay for all the moving expenses.15 Wallace’s proposal was received enthusiastically. It had been made within days of the commencement of the transportation of his works of art from Paris to London.16
On 19 April Cunliffe-Owen reported that Wallace was offering the contents of Hertford House as well as the works of art from Paris for exhibition at Bethnal Green for one year, and that he had acknowledged the permission he had received to use the museum’s vans and staff for transporting the works of art.17 By 9 May the pictures were being hung at Bethnal Green. Cole found them to be ‘very dirty’.18 In the end, there was a rush to get everything ready in time for the opening, which was brought forward: C. C. Black, commissioned to write the exhibition catalogue, had at speed to produce 1,479 brief entries for 678 paintings and watercolours, 248 pieces of Sèvres porcelain, 310 pieces of furniture and bronzes, 132 pieces of maiolica, and 111 miniatures,19 the latter delivered by Wallace himself on 11 June.20 The late arrival of the snuff boxes and jewellery meant that they could not be included in the first edition of the catalogue.21 A more detailed guided walk around the museum, focusing extensively on the ‘Hertford Collection of Art Objects’, was published later in 1872. Sanctioned by the Science and Art Department and also sold in the museum, it provided more analytical discussion of the objects and included illustrations of three pieces of Sèvres porcelain and a corner cupboard.22 In the introduction to Black’s catalogue the collection was described as having been formed
Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen (1828–1894). Photograph by Lock & Whitfield, 1880. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
The Prince of Wales opening the Bethnal-Green Museum. In this view of the ceremony on 24 June 1872 the trumpeters of the band of the Honourable Artillery Company are in the foreground; Wallace’s Italian state chairs (see p. 284) are on the dais at the back of the gallery
Opposite: Dish. Iznik, c 1560–70, faience, d. 47.4 cm. This magnificent Turkish dish, depicting a peacock among flowers and foliage on a glorious turquoise background, was among Wallace’s loans to the Bethnal Green Museum that were delivered there from Hertford House on 14 May 1872. (C199)
by Lord Hertford over a thirty-year period. This reflected Wallace’s desire for the exhibition to honour Hertford, even though he himself had recently acquired many of the works of art, such as an Iznik dish from the Nieuwerkerke collection (opposite).23 The exhibition opened to the public on 25 June, but works of art continued to arrive from Paris thereafter,24 and the scale of the enterprise was daunting.
At the Queen’s express desire, the Prince of Wales opened the exhibition formally on her behalf, accompanied by Princess Alexandra.25 The official opening took place with great pomp on 24 June 1872. The appearance of members of the royal family in the East End was extremely rare, and the occasion garnered much public
State chair. Venetian, c. 1825–50, gilt pinewood, upholstered with silk brocade velvet, 156.5 x 108 cm. From a set of eight carved in 18th-century style with reclining male infants on the arms and front legs formed as caryatids. Two were used by the Prince and Princess of Wales at the opening of the Bethnal Green Museum. (F500)
interest. Wallace was initially put out because he felt he was not correctly attired, but the occasion went well. (A hitch was narrowly avoided: Lord Ripon wrote to Cole on the morning of the opening concerning the impropriety of some of the pictures. Cole replied: ‘Sir R. Wallace readily consented to remove any pictures which we thought would offend English feelings. They were removed downstairs and will not be exhibited but sent away. I don’t think any pictures are exhibited which could be fairly objected to.’)26 The royal guests were seated on elaborately carved and gilded Venetian chairs from Wallace’s collection, then thought to be seventeenthcentury and from the Doge’s Palace. An inaugural ode praised both Wallace and the princess for their charity, proclaiming: ‘Sir Richard Wallace – it is he,/The champion of poor folk,/St. Martin-like he gives his alms,/And then divides his cloak.’ Wallace accompanied the royal guests on a tour of his collection, which occupied more than half of the museum.27 The paintings, arranged by national schools, together with the decorative arts objects, were displayed on the first floor, the watercolours on screens on the ground floor.28 The royal couple would undoubtedly have been struck by the exceptionally strong representation in a British exhibition of eighteenth-century French art and nineteenth-century French paintings. They would not however have seen Fragonard’s possibly objectionable Les hasards heureux de l’escarpolette (The Swing) (see p. 97), which, like his newly purchased Fragonard, A Boy as Pierrot (see p. 71), Wallace retained for his own enjoyment in his study at 105 Piccadilly. Cole noted in his diary for the day that the princess had said she was jealous of Wallace. Within days of the opening, the Graphic proclaimed on 29 June: ‘Sir Richard Wallace is the very type and model of what a rich man ought to be, and we hope some other of our millionaires will profit by his example.’
The number of objects fluctuated through the run of the exhibition, with Wallace recalling some and adding others, and temporarily lending fourteen paintings by Meissonier to the International Exhibition at the South Kensington Museum in 1873.29
By the time the eighth edition of Black’s Bethnal Green exhibition catalogue was published, in 1874, the total number of entries was 2,030, an increase of more than 550 since the first edition of June 1872. The final, ninth edition, published in 1875, comprised just under 2,040 entries.
To ensure that the Bethnal Green Museum was accessible to all, there were three free days each week, when it was open until 10.00 p.m. Cole’s diary entry for 25 June, recording the attendance on the first free day at the museum, testifies to the significance of this unprecedented exhibition in London’s East End: ‘More than 25,000 persons. dirty, & pleased & orderly’. 30 The social élite may have been able to arrange more exclusive visits.31 For most visitors, as well as for the press, which gave the exhibition extensive coverage, the
19 April 1873.
Art Connoisseurs at the East End. This ironically titled depiction of local visitors to the exhibition of Sir Richard Wallace’s art collection at the Bethnal Green Museum was published in the Graphic,
paintings were of overriding interest. The young Vincent van Gogh visited during his two-year stay in London and greatly admired Rousseau’s The Forest of Fontainebleau: Morning. 32
The Victorians believed in the importance of artists learning through copying masterpieces, and in the latter part of the century this resulted in close associations between museums and art schools. The Department of Science and Art controlled national art education, and the South Kensington Museum’s close connection with the Schools of Art had practical outcomes during the display of Wallace’s collection. Members of the public could apply to copy paintings, though they could not work on free admission days, or in oils. The copyists included the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll,
Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867), The Forest of Fontainebleau: Morning, 1849–51, oil on canvas, 97.5 x 134 cm. (P283)
a former student at the South Kensington School of Art, who commuted from Henley-on-Thames to make watercolour studies of six paintings.33 Wallace’s watercolours and decorative arts objects could not be copied without his written permission.34 The earliest photographs of furniture in Wallace’s collection were taken in 1874 for use in the Schools of Art.35
Sir Richard cared deeply about education through art and prized public libraries as the most immediate way of making books about art available to as wide a public as possible. On 16 June 1874 he wrote to the Duke of Richmond, Lord President of the Council, to request that the admission fees generated by the exhibition be used to create a library of art and educational books at Bethnal Green, which would be of further benefit to the skilled artisans and general public of east London. This had, in fact, been part of the original plan for the branch museum. The Treasury declined, leading the Committee of Council on Education to take the unusual step of resisting its decision, on the grounds that the public spirit shown by Wallace in making his loan was quite exceptional.36
There was uncertainty about the closing date of the exhibition, since it was dependent on the completion of Sir Richard’s building work at Hertford House. Finally on 2 April 1875 the Graphic announced that the removal of the pictures would begin the following week and would probably take two or three weeks. In the event, the last objects probably left the museum at the beginning of May.37 The total attendance figure during the run of the exhibition was almost 2,325,700.38 Soon after all the works of art had arrived at Hertford House Wallace wrote to Cunliffe-Owen to express his thanks and his delight with the care his collection had received.39
Towards the end of the exhibition the South Kensington Museum received a number of offers of loans to succeed it at Bethnal Green. The queen and Gladstone were among those whose offers were accepted.40 The queen and several peers had proposed loans for the original opening of the museum. Although such offers had been received before Wallace’s exhibition, it seems
Comport or sugar basin inscribed ‘Richard Wallace’. Henry Greener’s Wear Flint Glass Works, Sunderland, c. 1872, 9.5 x 17.4 cm.
This pressed glass commemorative celebrating Wallace’s philanthropy bears the design lozenge for 31 July 1869, but the glass must post-date the mark as Wallace was not known for his philanthropy until later.
likely that its success encouraged others to offer loans from their collections.
A pressed glass commemorative comport or sugar basin made in celebration of Wallace’s philanthropy by Greener of Sunderland may have been produced in honour of his loan to Bethnal Green, though as it is undated there is an element of doubt because it does not refer to his baronetcy and so may predate it. Whether made specifically in connection with the Bethnal Green exhibition or earlier, in recognition of his wider charitable endeavours, by its very nature the glass suited its purpose perfectly: an example of an attractive item made affordable by mass production, it was a fitting tribute to Wallace, whose philanthropy benefited many people.41
committees, exhibitions and camaraderie in london and beyond
Through his philanthropic endeavours, Wallace had established himself in the upper echelons of British society within a remarkably short space of time. His connoisseurship was also of intrinsic importance in fostering this new eminence. As he also had wealth, good nature and a determination to get things done he was obviously an ideal committee man. His involvement and opinion were much sought after. A few diverse examples illustrate this. By May 1872 he had been unanimously elected to the committee of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, a cosmopolitan social forum for collectors and others with an interest in art that occasionally drew on members’ collections for exhibitions.42 Shortly before the opening of the Bethnal Green exhibition Wallace was also elected a member of the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, of which he later became president.43 In 1873, when the category of Honorary Membership of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours was re-established after a brief run in the 1850s, Wallace was one of the five people to be made an honorary member that year.44 By the time the Bethnal Green exhibition closed in April 1875 he was vice-patron of the ‘Yorkshire Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures’, held in Leeds at the Colour Cloth Hall and adjacent temporary structures erected for the purpose.45 In August that year the artist Frederic Leighton invited him to join the committee of the British Academy in Rome.46
Sir Richard was a prolific lender to exhibitions, though nothing would compare with the scale of his magnificent loan to Bethnal Green. (For a full list of exhibitions to which Wallace is recorded as having lent, see pp. 383–4). The context for his loans generally fell within distinct parameters. The exhibitions to which he lent were almost exclusively in London, Paris, or in relation to his estates in Ireland and Suffolk, and they were often mounted to raise funds for charitable causes. His public gifts were also focused on institutions in London or given within the context of his estates. In lending
regularly Wallace may have been consciously emulating the queen and the Prince of Wales. Since the 1850s, with the growth of emphasis on public education, there had been a dramatic rise in the number of exhibitions held in Britain. Prince Albert had enthusiastically championed this cause, and the queen regularly headed the list of lenders. The Prince of Wales both attended and lent to exhibitions. Landseer’s The Arab Tent (see p. 190) illustrates this point: the prince bought the picture after seeing it at the Royal Academy in 1866, and then lent it in 1868, 1873, 1874 and 187847 before selling it to Wallace.
Sir Richard made further loans to exhibitions held at the South Kensington Museum. The circumstances in which he lent twenty jewels and watches to the ‘Ancient and Modern Jewellery and Personal Ornaments’ exhibition in 1872–3 were unusual. When the comte de Nieuwerkerke had fled France for England in the autumn of 1870 he had brought some treasures from his collection with him, mostly jewels and watches, and he had deposited forty items at the South Kensington Museum in 1870–71, hoping to make a sale. Wallace’s en bloc purchase of Nieuwerkerke’s collection in August 1871 included these objects, but he did not collect them until moving into Hertford House in 1875. In the meantime, he lent twenty of them to the jewellery exhibition. The all-woman Committee of Management for the exhibition, with responsibility for obtaining the loans, included Princess Louise and the Duchess of Teck, both of whom later came to know Wallace personally (see pp. 132, 144, 191–3).48
The queen headed the list of lenders to the ‘Special Exhibition of Enamels on Metal’ held at South Kensington in 1874. Wallace’s twenty-two loans illustrated a range of enamelling techniques, from European en ronde bosse, translucent and painted enamels to Chinese cloisonné. He was among those lenders who agreed to their more remarkable enamels being photographed and the photographs coloured after the enamels for the benefit of the Art Collections of the Science and Art Department of the Council on Education.49
Pendant jewel. The Incredulity of St Thomas. Probably Paris or London, c. 1820–37, but possibly an earlier piece repaired and altered, gold, en ronde bosse enamelling, rubies, pearls, emeralds, sapphire, h. 7 cm. In late 16th-century style, this pendant depicting the apostle Thomas with the resurrected Christ was thought to be an original Renaissance jewel when Wallace lent it to the ‘Ancient and Modern Jewellery’ exhibition. (W332)
Opposite: Dish. The Triumph of Galatea. Attributed to Léonard Limosin (c. 1505–c. 1576/7) or Pierre Pénicaud (active c. 1550–75), Limoges, c. 1560, painted enamel on copper, 44.2 x 32.4 x 4.2 cm. Wallace lent this dish to the ‘Special Exhibition of Enamels on Metal’. It is beautifully painted in grisaille enamel, a monochrome palette ranging from black to toned grey and brilliant white. The central scene is after a print by Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael, c 1515–20, while the elongated figures and oval cartouches on the border are inspired by the Fontainebleau School of artists employed by François I in the 1540s and made popular through prints. (C587)
During the same year, six of Wallace’s recently purchased Asante gold artefacts, including the trophy head (p. 188), appeared alongside the queen’s in the South Kensington Museum’s display of gold and other objects from the Asante kingdom.50 Mounted on the crest of a wave of triumphant imperialism, it caught the imagination of the press and the public, who attended in large numbers. They must have been fascinated by this group of exotic objects, and perhaps a little intimidated by their awe-inspiring associations with such alien royalty and power. A few years later, Wallace lent seven pieces of Asante gold,51 together with other exotic and luxurious items – the sword then associated with Tipu Sultan (left), and a pair of candlesticks possibly from the looted Summer Palace in Beijing (OA1636 and OA1637) – to the ‘Ryde Art Treasures Exhibition’ on the Isle of Wight. This was held to raise much-needed funds for the Ryde School of Art, and the queen, whose favourite residence, Osborne House, was on the island, again headed the list of lenders. This, together with the fact that the well connected dealer Frederick Davis was by this time living in Ryde and on the committees both of the art school and of the exhibition, undoubtedly accounted for the exhibition attracting loans from major collectors, including Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild and Lord Tweedmouth. The exhibition proved so popular that its run was extended: planned to be from 22 December 1881 to 14 January 1882, after a brief closure it reopened from 21 January to 4 February 1882.
Although Wallace’s collection did not include many examples of Iberian metalwork, there were two spectacular pieces: a silver-gilt ewer and basin, made in the late sixteenth century, probably in Portugal, said to be for the Anadia family of Lisbon (see pp. 272–3 and opposite). These were among a group of objects lent by Wallace to the ‘Special Loan Exhibition of Spanish and Portuguese Ornamental Art’ at South Kensington in 1881. In his memoir Bric-à-Brac Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild expressed his disappointment that his cousin Lionel had passed over the opportunity to buy them, allowing Wallace to secure them along with some further pieces from the set
that were also lent to the exhibition.52 Blaise-Alexandre Desgoffe included the ewer and basin in the glittering cascade of silvergilt objects depicted on the left side of his painting of objets d’art at Hertford House in 1880 (see p. 265). Baron Ferdinand described them as having been a present from Pope Clement VII to ‘a Portuguese grandee’, so it is likely that Wallace also thought this to be the case, although the papal arms are a later addition. Their purchase is a further example of his interest in objects associated with famous historic figures. This is true of another of his loans to the 1881 exhibition, a Spanish late sixteenth-century commander’s baton described when bought by Wallace as ‘The Duke of Alva’s Baton’ (A989).53
No doubt it was as a result of Wallace’s warm collaborative relationship with Philip Cunliffe-Owen, forged primarily in the context of the Bethnal Green exhibition, and the impression he
Ewer and basin. Probably Portuguese; late 16th century, with later additions, silver-gilt; ewer h. 7.3 cm; basin d. 51.8 cm. The decoration of this majestic ewer and basin includes subjects and motifs drawn from Classical mythology and combines elaborate high relief repoussé work, chasing and engraving. The arms of Pius IV at the centre of the basin (see pp. 272–3) and on the ewer lid are later additions. (W82 and W53)
Opposite: Sword. The blade signed Assedallah of Isfahan, parts made in India and Iran, 18th century, l. 88.5 cm. The present marriage of hilt and blade almost certainly dates from the mid-19th century; the spurious inscription associating this weapon with Tipu Sultan (1753–1799), the ‘Tiger of Mysore’, was undoubtedly added at the same time. (OA1402)
Studio of Rembrandt (1606–1669), A Boy in Fanciful Costume, 1633, oil on oak panel, 21 x 17.7 cm. (P201)
had made on the Prince of Wales as a knowledgeable and patriotic connoisseur, that he was invited to serve as one of Her Majesty’s Commissioners and as a member of the Fine Arts Committee for the British Section at both the Vienna Universal Exhibition in 1873 and the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1878.54 In both Vienna and Paris the Prince of Wales was Chief Commissioner of the British Section. For Vienna, Wallace contributed almost £10,500 to the expenses of the British Section, and at both exhibitions he led by example in buying British products. At the instigation of the Prince of Wales, after the Paris exhibition he was created KCB, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.55
Aside from his loans to the South Kensington Museum, in London Wallace’s loans were restricted to paintings. He was a fairly regular lender to the Old Master exhibitions at the Royal Academy, lending on seven occasions between 1872, when he provided twelve paintings, and 1889, when he lent as many as thirty-five, including works attributed to Watteau, Lancret and Rembrandt. Although Wallace lent eleven of his twelve pictures then attributed to Rembrandt, he did not include A Boy in Fanciful Costume (left), which, like another painting of a boy in costume, Fragonard’s A Boy as Pierrot (see p. 71), he never lent to an exhibition, perhaps because he liked to have the two by him.56 The scale of Wallace’s Royal Academy loan in 1889 presumably left many gaps in the hang at Hertford House, but Wallace spent some time in Paris during the exhibition’s run from January to March.57
Sir Richard evidently enjoyed the camaraderie provided by the annual dinners at the Royal Academy, which he attended when he could.58 Henry Jamyn Brooks encapsulated Wallace’s standing within the British art establishment in 1889, the year before his death, in his painting Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888 (opposite). Sir Richard stands at the centre with Lord Wantage, a hero of the Crimean War, philanthropist, and younger brother of Sir Coutts Lindsay, founder of the Grosvenor Gallery. On the wall at the back are Wallace’s portraits of Marie
de Raet and her husband Philippe Le Roy by van Dyck (P94 and P79). Brooks later recalled of his visit to Hertford House to see the van Dyck portraits, ‘Well do I remember Sir Richard Wallace with his courtly address and charming French manners conducting me through the galleries.’59
The dynamic London art world of the 1870s was closely interconnected. The distinguished collector Robert Stayner Holford’s wife, Mary Anne, was the sister of Sir Coutts Lindsay, who had married into the Rothschild family. Wallace may already have known Lindsay in Paris in the 1850s, when the latter studied in Ary Scheffer’s studio. Early in 1877 Lindsay opened the Grosvenor Gallery in Bond Street, which quickly became the most fashionable private exhibition space in London, showcasing works from private collections and loans from artists themselves. Spacious and luxuriously furnished, it provided a comfortable setting in which its well-heeled clientele could enjoy exhibitions both of historic works and of the more avant-garde artists not generally represented at
Henry Jamyn Brooks (1839–1925), Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888, 1889, oil on canvas, 154.5 x 271.5 cm. In the centre foreground, Sir Richard Wallace, the Countess of Jersey, Sir Frederic Leighton (President of the Royal Academy) and Lady Wantage listen attentively to Lord Wantage, seen in profile (see detail on p. 274 and key to the painting on p. 419). Behind them, Lord Wantage’s Apotheosis of the Duke of Buckingham, by Rubens and Jordaens, is flanked by Wallace’s monumental portraits of Marie de Raet and her husband Philippe Le Roy by van Dyck. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
explanations: prefixes, dimensions and glossary
prefixes to inventory numbers for works of art in the wallace collection
A number with the prefix A, C, F, G, M, OA, P, S or W is a Wallace Collection inventory number. Each prefix denotes the type of work of art, as follows:
A European Arms and Armour
C Ceramics (includes glass and Limoges painted enamels)
F Furniture
G Gold Boxes
M Miniatures
OA Oriental Arms and Armour
P Paintings
S Sculpture
W Works of art (goldsmiths’ work and other decorative arts objects that have not been given a distinguishing prefix)
dimensions
Height is always given before width or length; ‘d’ = depth or diameter. For Wallace Collection pictures and miniatures, the dimensions given are usually image size, without frame.
glossary
basse taille The technique of applying translucent enamel over a metal ground engraved in low relief.
bonheur du jour A small writing table supporting an upper section closed by doors. burgonet An open-faced helmet, normally for battlefield use, having a closely-fitted skull, a peak or brim over the eyes and hinged cheek-pieces which strap together under the chin.
cloisonné The technique of filling a network of raised gold, silver or copper cells on a metal base with coloured enamels.
émail en résille sur verre The technique whereby indentations in a glass plaque are lined with thin gold foil and filled with enamel. en ronde bosse The technique of applying enamel to a three-dimensional metal form.
images of wallace collection works of art mentioned but not illustrated in the text
A21. Equestrian armour. The horse armour made in Landshut, possibly by Ulrich Rämbs, the rider’s armour South German, some parts made in Landshut, c. 1480, iron, low- and medium-carbon steels, leather, felt, canvas, wood and copper alloy
A30. Parts of a garniture for the field and possibly tournament. Kolman Helmschmid (1470–1532), etched by Daniel Hopfer
A1128. Flint-lock gun. Nicolas Noël Boutet (1761–1833), Versailles, c. 1800–9, steel, silver, gold, walnut, ebony, whale-bone and copper alloy, l. 137 cm
A22. Field armour. Germany, probably made in Nuremberg, c. 1500–1510, medium-carbon steel
A205. Visor. North Italy, probably made in Milan, c. 1525–50, medium-carbon steel
A1129. Flint-lock gun. Nicolas Noël Boutet (1761–1833), Versailles, 1805–9, twist steel, silver, gold, walnut, ebony, whalebone and copper alloy, l. 137 cm
A29. Equestrian armour of Otto Heinrich, Count Palatine of the Rhine (1502–1559). Hans Ringler, Nuremberg, c. 1532–6. Composite, with parts from at least two garnitures, and restored elements. Steels, possibly iron, velvet, gold, copper alloy and leather
A989. Commander’s baton. Spain, c. 1590, steel, silver and gold, 77.8 x 3.1 cm
(1470–1536), Augsburg, c 1527, steel, copper alloy, satin, leather and gold
C159. Dish. The family of Darius before Alexander the Great. Italy, later 19th century, tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica), d. 40 cm
C88. Bowl. Descent of Orpheus into Hades. Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo (c. 1486–c. 1542), Urbino; probably lustred in the workshop of G. Andreoli (1465–1553), Gubbio, 1532, tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica), d. 26.5 cm
C160. Bowl. Blindfolded Cupid, God of Love. Ginori Factory, Doccia, c. 1860, tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica), d. 23.8 cm
C161. Plate. ‘onesta Babassa’. Ginori Factory, Doccia, c. 1860, tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica), d. 23.8 cm
C246. One of a pair of vases with candleholders (with C247).Vase ‘à tête d’éléphant’. Manufacture de Sèvres, France, 1757, soft-paste porcelain, 37.6 x 27.6 cm (C246), 37.8 x 27.6 cm (C247)
C432–3. Covered bowl and plateau. Ecuelle ‘ronde tournée’ and plateau ‘ovale’. Manufacture de Sèvres, France, 1767, soft-paste porcelain, 12.6 x 19.9 cm
Beaker
C162. Bowl. Dawn. Italy, mid-19th century, tin-glazed earthenware
C256. Pot-pourri vase and cover. Vase ‘pot pourri à vaisseau’ or ‘pot pourri en navire’. Manufacture de Sèvres, France, c. 1761, soft-paste porcelain, 44.1 x 36.9 cm
C458–C465. Toilet service. Manufacture de Sèvres, France, 1763, soft-paste porcelain and gold mounts
Probably
C166. One of a pair of candlesticks (with C167). France, possibly by a follower of Bernard Palissy, late 16th century, or possibly by Georges Pull, 19th century, lead-glazed earthenware, 29.9 x 16.2 cm
C310. Vase and cover. Vase ‘à glands’. Manufacture de Sèvres, France, c. 1781, soft-paste porcelain, 43.2 x 24.3 cm
C562. Jug. Bohemia, Czech Republic, 1600, enamelled and gilded
(maiolica), d. 24.4 cm
glass, 14.7 x 9.4 cm
C589. Plaque. Marguerite de France as Minerva. Jean de Court (d. before 1583), Limoges, 1555, painted enamel on copper, 20.9 x 15.9 cm
C563.
(Humpen [Willkomm]).
Bohemia, Czech Republic; 1609, enamelled and gilded glass, h. 28.3 cm, d. 14.2 cm
F35. One of a pair of armchairs (with F36). Vitel, France, c. 1850–60, carved walnut, beech, modern green mohair velvet, green braid and fringe, 125 x 69.5 x 58 cm
F83. Chandelier. Jacques Caffieri (1678–1755), probably assisted by his son Philippe Caffieri (1714–1774), France, 1751, gilt bronze, 179 x 190 cm
F86. Chest of drawers. Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus (1682–1746), France, 1739, kingwood and satiné veneer, gilt bronze, with serpentine marble top, 88.8 x 195.5 x 80.6 cm
F103. One of a pair of ewers (with F104). Meissen Porcelain Factory, 1740–45 (porcelain), c 1745 (French gilt-bronze mounts), 81 x 48 cm
F42. Pedestal clock. Attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732), France, c. 1720–25, ebony veneer with Boulle marquetry, gilt bronze, 125 x 66 x 30.5 cm (clock), 165.5 x 70.2 x 33 cm (pedestal)
F84. Chandelier. Jacques Caffieri (1678–1755), probably assisted by his son Philippe Caffieri (1714–1774), France, c. 1751, gilt bronze, 145.5 x 142 cm
F59. Writing table. Attributed to Bernard van Risen Burgh I (1660–1738), France, c. 1715–20, ebony veneer with Boulle marquetry, gilt bronze, 78 x 181 x 92 cm
F85. Chest of drawers. Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus (1682–1746), France, 1735–40, kingwood veneer, gilt bronze, brèche d’Alep marble top, 93.3 x 179.3 x 81.5 cm
F102. Roll-top desk. Jean-Henri Riesener (1734–1806), France, c. 1770, marquetry of various woods, gilt bronze, 139 x 195.5 x 102.5 cm
F178. Filing
France, c.
F89. Chimneypiece. France, c. 1752, violet breccia marble, 126.6 x 174.7 x 31.5 cm
F169. One of a pair of candlesticks (with F168). France, c. 1820, gilt bronze, h. 28.6 cm
cabinet. René Dubois (1737–1798),
1765, green French lacquer, gilt bronze, 214.1 x 73.1 x 41 cm
a note on currency and prices
francs to pounds in the nineteenth century
There were about 25 francs to the pound throughout the century. A few examples illustrate this:
1853 In Article 8 of the Draught of a Company in Shares and en commandite, for the Furnishing the City of Boulogne with an Abundant Supply, in all Seasons, of Pure Spring Water for Alfred Kent’s La Prévoyante water works company, officially founded in 1853, it is stated that 250,000 francs is the equivalent of £10,000.
1868 At the Demidoff sale in Paris Lord Hertford bought Gerard ter Borch’s The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster for the enormous price of 182,000 francs, then the equivalent of about £7,280. For this at the time a skilled tradesman in England would have had to work 36,400 days – 100 years. The figure was roughly the equivalent of £455,793.52 in 2017.
1871 A handwritten ‘Postscript’ of 12 January 1871 to the annual report for 1870 of the British Charitable Fund in Paris says: ‘It is proper to state that Mr. Wallace has, dating from the first day of this month, intimated his intention of placing 10000 frs (£400) a month at the disposal of the Committee, so long as the Siege continues.’ (British Charitable Fund archive)
some sample wages in france
In 1844 the cost of hiring a servant in a hotel (valet-de-place) in Paris was 5 or 6 francs per day.
In 1860–65 a farm hand earned about 4 francs per day during the summer.
In 1890 a gentlemen’s shirt maker, a linen maid or a dressmaker earned about 2 francs per day.
some examples of prices, wages and income in england with their approximate equivalent values in 2017
Before decimalization in Great Britain and Ireland in 1971 the currency was pounds, shillings and pence. There were 12 pence (d) in a shilling (s) and 20 shillings in a pound (£).
Equivalents in 2017 are based on the National Archives Currency converter: 1270–2017.
In 1872–5 the price of admission to Sir Richard Wallace’s loan exhibition at Bethnal Green on Students’ Days – charging days – was 6d (about £1.57 in 2017). It provided admission for a week to the Bethnal Green Museum and also to the South Kensington Museum. The cost of the exhibition catalogue was 6d too.
c 1840–c 1870 A ten-year-old in Bethnal Green was paid 1s 6d (about £4.70 in 2017) for working six 12-hour days.
The annual wage of a manservant was £42 (varying from 1840 to 1870 between the equivalent of about £2,537.51 and £2,629.58 in 2017).
The Duke of Westminster’s annual income from his property in London was £115,000 in 1869, rising to more than £250,000 over the next thirty years (the approximate equivalent in 2017 of an increase from about £7,200,035 to over £19,543,050).
great britain and ireland
1811–1820
Regency of George III’s son, George, Prince of Wales, due to his father’s mental illness.
1815
18 June French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo brings the Napoleonic Wars to an end. However, in the aftermath of the victory the Conservative Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool, has to contend with civil unrest as a result of an economic recession and calls for parliamentary reform.
sir
1820
29 January Death of George III. The Prince Regent becomes George IV.
1818
26 July Richard Jackson (later called Richard Wallace) is born in London to Agnes Jackson. Of unknown paternity, he is later presumed to be the son of the eighteen-year-old Richard Seymour-Conway, later 4th Marquess of Hertford.
1819
15 March Julie Amélie Charlotte Castelnau (later Lady Wallace) is born in Paris to unmarried parents.
1815
18 June French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
22 June Second abdication of Emperor Napoleon I, who is sent into exile on St Helena.
8 July Louis XVIII, who had become king after Napoleon’s first abdication in April 1814, but had fled to Ghent on Napoleon’s return from exile on Elba, returns to Paris.
20 November Signing of the Treaty of Paris following the French defeat at Waterloo.
1818
November End of the allied military occupation of France under the command of the Duke of Wellington.
1822
17 June Death of Francis Ingram Seymour-Conway, 2nd Marquess of Hertford. His son Francis Charles becomes the 3rd Marquess of Hertford.
france
richard wallace
notes
abbreviations
AN Archives nationales, Paris
AP Archives de Paris
BL British Library, London
CRL Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham
ET Etude, in the MC
HHHC Hertford House Historic Collection. The Wallace Collection is a closed collection. However, ever since its foundation it has from time to time acquired works of art and other items relating to the history of the Collection and the lives of its founders, as well as to the works of art within the Collection. These items, acquired through gifts, bequests and occasional purchases, now form the Hertford House Historic Collection.
HHVB Hertford House Visitors’ Book in the Wallace Collection Archives (see WCA)
HWF Hertford Wallace Family archive in the Wallace Collection Archives (see WCA)
MC Minutier central des notaires de Paris, in the AN
NAL National Art Library, London
NG National Gallery, London
NGA National Gallery Archive, London
NPG National Portrait Gallery, London
RA Royal Archives
SHNB Société Humaine et des Naufrages, Boulogne-sur-Mer
V&A Victoria and Albert Museum, London
WCA Wallace Collection Archives. The archives hold records relating to the Founders of the Collection (the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace) and the history of the museum from its foundation in 1897. The Wallace Collection also collects archives that relate to those areas in which it has exceptional specialist strengths – French eighteenth-century art, princely arms and armour, and the history of collecting.
WCPL Wallace Collection Picture Library. This encompasses photographic records of the works of art in the Wallace Collection, material in the Hertford House Historic Collection and the Wallace Collection Archives, and supplementary material relating to the Wallace Collection and the lives of its Founders.
WCRO Warwickshire County Record Office, Warwick
1 Unwilling to deposit it on entry, he was unable to visit the collection (Pall Mall Gazette, 25 June 1900, p. 7; London Daily News, Tuesday 26 June 1900, p. 7).
2 Lady Wallace’s bequest comprised the works of art on the ground and first floors of Hertford House, excluding personal and ‘ordinary modern’ items, and thus did not include works of art elsewhere in the house, in the Wallace properties in Paris, or at Castle House in Lisburn. For further information see Chapter VI, pp. 262–3, Chapter VIII, p. 338, and p. 415, n. 48.
3 Wallace’s highly selective approach to adding to established areas of the collection that he had inherited is intimated by Ferdinand de Rothschild’s observation in Bric-à-Brac (see Chapter III, n. 12) that ‘He resisted every temptation to add to the pictures and eighteenth century furniture and porcelain he had inherited, being unable, as he often told me, to improve on their quality’ (Hall 2007, p. 74).
4 Among them the artist W. R. Symonds, who painted Wallace’s portrait in 1885 (letter from Symonds to Philip Hendy of 28 April 1927, Wallace Coll. file for P578), and Sir Edward Blount (Blount 1902, p. 269). Yriarte 1903, p. 413: ‘Like almost all the English, he had a deep pity for animals; if he heard his dog Snip[e] panting at night on his carpet at the height of July, when he was forced to stay in London, he would get up in the darkness and go down to walk him in Green Park, in the cool night.’
5 Examples are his gifts to Frédéric Spitzer (Chapter V, n. 20); a white marble sculpture, La Source, given to the comte d’Armaillé (private communication); his presentation of the 3rd Marquess of Hertford’s insignia of the Order of the Garter to Disraeli (Mallett 1979, p. 169 and WCA, AR2/23W); furnishings for the Hôtel de Salm in Paris, seat of the Légion d’Honneur (Joëlle Barreau, Anne de Chefdebien, Jacques Foucart and Jean-Pierre Samoyault, L’Hôtel de Salm: palais de la Légion d’ Honneur, Paris 2009, pp. 268–73, 282); and clocks given to George Thompson and James Wilson, town clerks of the Lisburn Town Commissioners (I am grateful to Brian Mackey for this information). In response to learning from Edward Blount, some time after the 4th Marquess of Hertford’s death, that he had promised certain legacies, ‘Sir Richard asked me for particulars of those promises and for the names of the persons to whom they had been made. I told him of two, one of 60,000l On receiving this information Wallace immediately wrote cheques for the amounts I told him had been promised’ (Blount 1902, pp. 268–9).
6 As described by the duc d’Aumale after visiting Wallace at Hertford House on 26 June 1884 (‘Agenda du duc d’Aumale en 1884’, Musée Condé, Chantilly, Archives, 4 PA 23; I am grateful to Nicole Garnier for this reference). Ferdinand de Rothschild wrote of his visits to Hertford House that Wallace ‘never tired of
showing me over his collection, doing the honours of it in a most delightful manner.’ (Hall 2007, p. 74)
7 SHNB archive, 1853/A 004 and 1853/AO11; Henry Cole’s diary entry for 24 June 1872 (NAL, Henry Cole diaries/ MSL/1934/4149); the comte d’Armaillé, letters of 16 and 21 Nov. 1879 (I am grateful for access to the comte d’Armaillé’s letters home from Sudbourne Hall in a private collection, Paris); Hall 2007, p. 74; letter from Col. Claremont to ‘My dear Seymour’ (probably Sir George Francis Seymour), 31 July 1869 (WCRO, CR114A/535/7, pt 1 of 2). For Wallace’s dispute with Meissonier, see Chapter V, pp. 194–6.
8 He appears to have attempted suicide in the 1850s. Writing about this period, when Wallace was acting as Hertford’s agent and private secretary and also forming his own first collection, ‘Touchatout’ (Léon Charles Bienvenu) observed in Le Trombinoscope, July 1875, ‘Once his gallery was nearly complete, Mr. Richard Wallace fell into a state of deep ennui. Surrounded by all these marvels that he had accumulated with such effort, he felt sad, discouraged, overcome with depression. – one fine morning, like any good Englishman who has been spent five weeks cast into gloom, he resolved to commit suicide.’ After a failed attempt, ‘the collector came to his senses and the depression vanished.’ Falk 1937, p. 279, citing D. S. MacColl’s review of Falk 1937 in the Manchester Guardian, 23 Feb. 1937, describes Wallace threatening to shoot himself when he was unable to meet a gambling debt and Apollonie Sabatier selling valuables to bail him out. For the possible effect of the death of his son, Mallett 1979, p. 175.
9 Obituary in La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 2 Aug. 1890, p. 215.
10 Falk 1937, p. 323, quoting T. P. O’Connor in the Illustrated London News, 20 Sept. 1873.
11 For duty and hard work, Wallace’s address to the children at the National School in Orford on 12 June 1875: Ipswich Journal, 15 June 1875, p. 3. For his support of the temperance movement: Pall Mall Gazette, 16 Sept. 1880, p. 4; and for his donation of the site for the Temperance Institute building in Lisburn in 1890: J. F. Burns, ‘The Life and Work of Sir Richard Wallace Bart. MP’, Lisburn Historical Society, vol. 3, pt. 2, Dec. 1980, p. 21.
12 In France, Wallace funded the restoration of Christ Church, Neuilly-sur-Seine (which was then Anglican) in 1872, after it was damaged during the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune (D’Hier à demain: Centenaire du Temple Protestant de Neuilly-sur-Seine, Vanves 1967, pp. 6, 7). He paid for the building of St George’s, the Anglican church in Paris, in the 1880s (see pp. 329, 381,p. 412, Chapter VII, n.57). In Britain, together with the 5th Marquess of Hertford, he provided the land for a church at Luddington, Warwickshire (document signed by the 5th Marquess on 30 Dec. 1870, WCRO, CR114A/148A);
The index does not cover the frontmatter or endmatter, with the exception of the names of artists and makers on pp. 349–65, and the notes, which are indexed selectively, where they contain information not in the main text.
Entries in italic refer to illustrations and their captions (which may be on an adjacent page).
Abercorn, James Hamilton, 1st Duke of 144, 300
Abercorn, Louisa Hamilton, Duchess of 301
Ackerman, Rufolf (artist) 208
Adam, Victor (painter) 37
Agnew family 217
Aix-les-Bains 144, 330
Albert, Prince Consort 60f., 61, 77, 242, 291
Albertini, Édouard (painter) 87
Alexander II, Tsar 61
Alexandra, Princess 282
Alfred, Prince, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 132, 134
Algardi, Alessandro (sculptor) front cover, 159, 244, 347, 364
Alibert, Frédéric (art dealer) 90
Allègre, Jean-Marie (art collector) 68f.
Alophe, Marie-Alexandre (photographer) 110
Ambler, Thomas Benjamin (surveyor) 141, 142, 146, 207
Ambulance du feu marquis d’Hertford 111
Amiens, Treaty of (1802) 22
Ancient Order of Foresters, Orford 152
Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett (doctor) 217
André, Édouard (banker) 217, 308, 344
André-Maurois, Simone (writer) 326
Andrea del Sarto (painter) 26
Andreoli, Giorgio 349, 430
Angeli, Heinrich von (painter) 134
Antrim 20, 23, 122, 131, 138–44, 139
Antrim Assizes, case at (1871) 27f., 33, 38, 122
Arbell, Lucy (stage name of Georgette Wallace) 398 n. 33
Armaillé, comte Louis-Albert-Marie de La Forest d’ 146ff., 167, 168, 309, 387 nn. 5 & 7
arms and armour, ‘Oriental’ 25–7, 55, 65, 79, 96, 98, 99, 106, 115, 230, 231, 262
arms and armour, European 132, 132, 133, 159ff, 162, 165, 169f., 171, 173, 212, 213, 240, 241, 268
Artiste, L’ 88
Artois, comte d’ see Charles X
Asante gold artefacts 188, 189, 292, 355
Athens, Erechtheion 126
Augusta, Empress of Germany 216
Aumale, Henri d’Orléans, duc d’ 270f., 329, 343, 387 n. 6
Azeglio, Marquis D’ (collector) 411 n. 42
Baden Baden 144
Baer, Antoine (art dealer) 88, 91
Bagatelle, Bois de Boulogne 24, 24, 59, 93, 114, 130, 131, 309, 312, 321, 322, 338; purchase of 38; interiors photographed 91, 93; ailing Lord Hertford lives at 92, 93, 99, 105f.; dies at 107; inventory of contents 107; RW restores and refurnishes 262f.; RW dies at 155
Ball, Dr John Thomas, QC MP 122
balloon, ‘La Richard-Wallace’ 111, 112
Banks, William Stott (collector) 402 n. 38
Barbezat foundry, Val d’Osne 127
Bardini, Stefano (dealer) 217
Barnes, Frederick (architect) 308, 399 n. 55
Barrington, George Barrington, 7th Viscount 150
Bassano, Alexander (photographer) 191
Bastianini, Giovanni (faker) 200, 363
Baudelaire, Charles (poet) 88
Baudry, Paul (painter) 6, 270f., 271
Baullard (dealer) 91
Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of 23, 136, 138, 203, 364, 387 n. 5, 402 n. 42, 412 n. 55
Beatrice, Princess 132
Beaucousin, Edmond (collector) 95
Beaumont, Édouard de 164, 169f, 401 n. 17
Beaupré, Joseph 405 n. 12
Beckett, F. A. 391 n. 53, 396 n. 70
Beijing 176, 177 ; Imperial Summer Palace 98f., 292, 365
Bélanger, François-Joseph (architect) 24
Belfast 122f., 300, 303, 329
Belt, Richard Claude (sculptor) 186, 364
Benassit, Louis-Émile (painter) 91
Bencini, Antonio (painter) 362
Berain, Jean (designer) 107, 198, 199
Bertin, Georges 404 n. 69
Best, Hotelin et Cie (publishers) 90
Beurdeley family of art dealers 56, 57f., 58
Beurdeley, Emmanuel Alfred 57, 217
Beurdeley, Jean 56
Beurdeley, Louis Auguste Alfred 56, 57f., 68, 84, 168
Bianco, Simone (sculptor) 363
Bickley family 388 n. 25
Bickley, Elizabeth Agnes Wallace 32
Bingham, Robert Jefferson (photographer) 406 n. 23
Black, C. C. 281, 408 nn. 11 & 14, 410 n. 17
Blaize, Candide (painter) 28, 29
Blanc, Charles (art historian) 67, 72
Blanc, Numa (photographer) 58, 91
Blaquiere, Sir John de, 4th Baron de Blaquiere 412 n. 80
Blarenberghe, Louis-Nicolas van (miniaturist) 25, 176
Blaris parish, county Antrim 397 n. 2
Blount, Sir Edward (banker) 58, 79, 91, 108, 387 n. 4, 396 n. 73
Bode, Wilhelm von (art historian) 219
Boehm, Joseph Edgar (sculptor) 186, 189
Bohemian glass 156–7, 350, 391 n. 54
Boilly, Louis-Léopold (painter) 263, 335
Bois de Boulogne, Paris 24, 93, 99, 324
Bolingbroke, Henry St John 1st Viscount 80
Bonaparte, Princess Mathilde 66, 402 n. 40
Bonheur, Rosa (painter) 79, 250, 250, 307, 314
Bonington, Richard Parkes (painter) 26, 43–5, 44, 54, 65, 106, 228, 232, 264, 358, 362, 393 n. 12, 409 n. 17
Bordeaux 111f.
Borstorffer, Hieronymus (gun-maker) 172
Bosse (dealer) 25
Both de Tauzia, vicomte Pierre-Paul Léonce (collector) 167f., 400-1 nn. 12 & 13
Bouchardon, Edmé (sculptor) 263
Boucher, François (painter) 25, 45, 65, 100, 224, 224, 253, 256, 257, 259, 263, 312, 335, 359, 360, 394 n. 46, 406 n. 23
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (painter) 62
Boulle, André-Charles (furniture maker) 22, 102, 223, 244, 245, 252, 253, 260, 260, 351, 353
Boulogne-sur-Mer 33f., 38, 50–60, 51, 73
Boutet, Nicolas Noël (gun-maker) 349
Bouzemont (lawyer) 396 n. 70
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle 59, 343
Bowes, John and Josephine (collectors) 59, 342–4
Boxall, William, Director of the National Gallery 275f., 276
Brame, Hector (art dealer) 91
Bréart, Louise Suzanne known as Madame Oger 23, 38, 93, 93, 99, 104, 105
Brémont, Armand de 401 n. 16
British Academy in Rome 289
British Association, Belfast 398 n. 41
British Charitable Fund, Paris 109f., 110, 127, 335
Broglie, Pauline de 399 n. 62
Brooks, Henry Jamyn (painter) 274, 294f., 295, 419
Brunsdon, Isabella 32
Buckhurst, Sir Thomas Sackville, Lord 171
Buckingham, Duke of, collection 268
Buckner, Richard (painter) 251, 251
Bürkel, Ludwig von 406 n. 24
Burlington Fine Arts Club 289 Butt, Isaac, QC 28, 122
Buttery, Horace (picture restorer) 215, 403 n. 52, 407 n. 30
Cadogan, Frederick 397 n. 5, 416 n. 49
Caffieri, Jacques (sculptor) 159, 181, 220, 223, 351
Cagliostro, Giuseppe Balsamo, conte di 94, 315f., 316
Cahen, Simon (art dealer) 90
Camargo, Marie Anne de Cupis de 183, 239, 359
Camondo, Isaac de 317; Museum Nissim de Camondo 344
Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as (painter) 20, 119, 246f., 246, 308, 360
Canham, Rev. H. 305
Cantacuzène, comtesse Marie 164
Capron, Claude L. 398 n. 37
Capron, Frederick (solicitor) 32, 36, 107f., 139, 338, 389 n. 47, 391 n. 34
Caresme, Jacques-Philippe (painter) 70
Carjat, Étienne (photographer) 23, 84, 91, 91, 327
Carnegie family 216
Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste (sculptor) 62
Carrand, Louis (dealer) 170
Castellani, Alessandro (jeweller) 217
Castelnau, Georges Henry Edmond
see Wallace, Edmond Richard
Castelnau, Julie Amélie Charlotte
see Wallace, Lady
Cazin, François-Joseph 403 n. 53
Cazin, Jean-Charles (painter) 403 n. 53
Cercle des Chemins de Fer 58
Cernuschi, Henri (collector) 217
Champaigne, Philippe de (painter) 45, 45, 239, 357
Champfleury, pen-name of Jules François Felix Fleury-Husson 95
Chantilly, château de 270f., 343
Charles IX, King of France 240, 364
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy 183, 270
Charles V, Emperor 43
Charles X, King of France, formerly comte d’Artois 24, 36
Charlier, Jacques (miniaturist) 257, 259
Châtelet, Emilie, marquise de 174
Chermside, Sir Robert 34, 303, 391 n. 50
Chéret, Jules (poster artist) 311
Chevigné, Frances, Marquise de 337
Chicago, Art Institute of 216
Chillesford 148
Chinese art 98f., 115, 224, 248, 291, 312, 328 355, 365; tian-tsui 176, 177
Christie’s, London 201, 214, 215, 278, 302, 339
Christoforo da Preda (illuminator) 168
Claremont, Colonel Edward Stopford 79, 91, 102, 387 n. 7, 388 n. 14, 391 n. 32, 394 n. 45, 395, 397 n. 3
Claremont, Harry 413 n. 2
Clésinger, Auguste (sculptor) 88
Clodion, Claude Michel known as (sculptor) 65, 312
Cluny, Musée de, Paris 44, 67, 343
Cobbett, William 343
Cole, Sir Henry 181, 279f., 279, 284f., 330, 339, 401 n. 25
Commune, Paris 39, 112f., 123, 130
Compiègne 50, 62, 131
Connaught and Strathearn, Arthur Duke of 397 n. 24
Constantinople 23
Cooke, F. W. (painter) 412 n. 58
Copeland and Sons, W. T. 199
Coques, Gonzales (painter) 250, 356
Cormack, Dr John Rose 110, 127
Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille (painter) 307
Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany 44, 174f.
Cosson, Charles Alexander, baron de 401 n. 21
Courrier artistique 88
Court, Jean de (enameller) 350
Couture, Thomas (painter) 72, 73, 197 Coysevox, Antoine (sculptor) 240, 263, 364
Crimean War 60f.
Crivelli, Carlo (painter) 361
Cunliffe-Owen, Sir Francis Philip 281, 281, 287, 293, 309, 400 n. 7, 403 n. 58, 405 n. 12, 408 n. 16, 409 n. 17, 411 n. 54
Cuthbert, Frederick John 104
Cuthbert, Seymourina Suzanne see Poirson
Cuyck, Jean-Baptiste van 84
Cuyck, Jules van (dealer) 84, 393 n. 18
Cuyp, Aelbert (painter) 252, 356
Czartoryski collection, Kraków 343
Dabadie, A (composer) 330
Danti, Vincenzo (sculptor) 78
Davillier, Baron Jean-Charles (collector) 343, 401 n. 16, 411 n. 42
Davis, Charles (art dealer) 168, 202, 217
Davis, Frederick (art dealer) 100, 102, 105, 168, 173f., 181, 189f., 203, 217, 292
Debay, Jean (sculptor) 332, 332
Debruge-Duménil, Louis Fidel (collector) 67, 79
Decaen, Alfred-Charles-Ferdinand (painter) 56, 116-7, 146f., 148, 149, 193, 217, 307, 338
Decamps, Alexandre-Gabriel (painter) 26, 54, 55, 65, 70, 72, 232
Degas, Edgar (painter) 91
Delacroix, Eugène (painter) 36, 85, 86, 87, 357
Delaroche, Paul (painter) 46, 65, 72, 196, 232, 234, 268, 357, 358
Delessert, Benjamin 49
Delierre, Auguste (painter) 311, 403 n. 52
Demidoff, Count Anatole Nikolaevich, Prince of San Donato (collector) 49, 105–7, 106, 107, 275, 407 n. 29
Desenfans, Margaret 344
Desgoffe, Alexandre-Blaise (painter) 46, 200, 204–5, 264–71, 265, 266, 270, 293
Desportes, Alexandre-François (painter) 145, 145, 361
Diaz de la Peña, Narcisse Virgilio (painter) 72, 307, 357
Dietrich, Christian Wilhelm Ernst (painter) 45, 357
Disderi (photographer) 60
Disney, Edgar 56f., 148, 149, 200
Disney, John (collector) 56
Donatello (sculptor) 363
Doré, Gustave (printmaker) 55, 96
Double, Léopold (collector) 310
Doyle, Henry 217, 302
Dreschler, Carl (cabinetmaker) 353
Drouot, Hôtel, Paris auction house 26, 46, 64, 78–80, 90, 91, 95f., 96
Du Sommerard, Alexandre (collector) 44, 67, 343
Dublin 123, 143, 300; National Gallery of Ireland 183, 301–3
Dubois, René (cabinetmaker) 254, 351, 352
Ducerceau, Jacques Androuet I (engraver) 175
Dudley, William Ward, 1st Earl of 20, 214