The Wallace Collection

Lecturer: Stephen Duffy

The Wallace Collection – a National Museum containing an outstanding array of paintings,furniture,porcelain, arms and armour and other works of art. It was brought together by five generations of one family between 1780 and 1880. All the founders were remarkable – sometimes rather strange – men in their own right. The greatest collectors were the fourth Marquess of  Hertford and his illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace, who lived most of their lives in Paris. It is their French upbringing that largely explains their strong, but by no means overwhelming, French emphasis to much of the collection. This lecture tells the fascinating story of the Wallace Collection’s formation, and also presents many of its finest treasures.