Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
typically sensuous portrayal of the author and society beauty, the Countess of
Blessington, which went down a storm at the Royal Academy in 1822. The decor of
the
Back State Room
is a riot of Rococo, and houses the cream of the house's gaudily
spectacular Sèvres porcelain. Centre stage is a period copy of Louis XV's desk, which
was the most expensive piece of eighteenth-century French furniture ever made. On
the other side of the adjacent Dining Room, in the
Billiard Room
, you'll find an
impressive display of outrageous, gilded oak and ebony Boulle marquetry furniture.
From the Dining Room, with its Canalettos, you can enter the covered courtyard,
home to
The Wallace Restaurant
, and head down the stairs to the temporary
exhibition galleries and the
Conservation Gallery
where folk of all ages can try on
some medieval armour.
Back on the ground floor, the
Sixteenth-Century Gallery
displays a wide variety
of works ranging from
pietre dure
, bronze and majolica to Limoges porcelain and
Venetian glass. In the
Smoking Room
, a small alcove at the far end survives to give
an idea of the effect of the original Minton-tiled decor Wallace chose for this room.
The next three rooms house the extensive
European
Armoury
bought
en bloc
by
Wallace around the time of the Franco-Prussian War. (It was in recognition of the
humanitarian assistance Wallace provided in Paris during that war that he received
his baronetcy.) A fourth room houses the
Oriental Armoury
, collected by the fourth
Marquess of Hertford, including a cabinet of Asante gold treasure, a sword belonging
to Tipu Sultan and one of the most important Sikh treasures in Britain, the sword of
Ranjit Singh (1780-1839).
4
First floor
The main staircase, with its incredible Parisian wrought-iron balustrade and its gilded,
fluted columns, is overlooked by
Boucher
is sumptuous mythological scenes. In the
gloriously camp
pink
Boudoir
, off the landing and conservatory, you'll find Reynolds'
doe-eyed moppets, while the adjacent passageway boasts an unbelievably rich display
of gold snuff boxes and miniatures. The
Study
features more Sèvres porcelain, Greuze's
soft-focus studies of kids and a lovely portrait by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, one of the
most successful portraitists of pre-Revolutionary France. Next door, in the sky-blue
Oval Drawing Room
, one of Fragonard's coquettes flaunts herself to a smitten beau in
The Swing
, alongside more Boucher nudes - the soft porn of the
ancien régime
. here's
plenty more Rococo froth in the other rooms on this floor, plus classic Grand Tour
vistas from Canaletto and Guardi in the
West Room
.
In addition to all this French finery a good collection of Dutch paintings hangs in the
East Galleries
, including de Hooch's
Women Peeling Apples
, oil sketches by Rubens and
landscapes by Ruisdael, Hobbema and Cuyp. On the opposite side of the house, the
West Galleries
feature works by the British landscape artist Richard Parkes Bonington
and Delacroix, his great friend and admirer.
Great Gallery
Finally, you reach the largest room in the house, the
Great Gallery
, specifically
built by Wallace to display his finest paintings, including works by Murillo and
Poussin, several vast Van Dyck portraits, Rubens'
Rainbow Landscape
and
Frans Hals
'
Laughing Cavalier
. Here, too, are
Perseus and Andromeda
, a late work by
Titian
,
and
Velázquez
's
Lady with a Fan
. At one end of the room are three portraits of the
actress Mary Robinson as Perdita: one by Romney, one by Reynolds and, best of
the lot,
Gainsborough
's deceptively innocent portrayal, in which she insouciantly
holds a miniature of her lover, the 19-year-old Prince of Wales (later George IV),
who is portrayed in a flattering full-length portrait by Lawrence. Look out, too, for
Rembrandt
's affectionate portrait of his teenage son, Titus, who helped administer
his father's estate after bankruptcy charges and pre-deceased his father at the age
of just 28.
