The Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine

Fine art

Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....

 and decorative art

Decorative art

The decorative arts is traditionally a term for the design and manufacture of functional objects. It includes interior design, but not usually architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the "fine arts", namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale...

s from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 and Old Master

Old Master

"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...

 paintings arranged into 25 galleries.

It was established in 1897 from the private collection mainly created by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford

Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford

Captain Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford KG was the son of Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford....

 (1800–1870), who left it and the house to his illegitimate son Sir Richard Wallace (1818–1890), whose widow bequeathed the entire collection to the nation. The museum opened to the public in 1900 in Hertford House, Manchester Square

Manchester Square

Manchester Square is an 18th century garden square in the Marylebone area in London, England, a short distance north of Oxford Street. It is one of the smaller but better preserved Georgian squares in central London...

, and remains there, housed in its entirety, to this day. A condition of the bequest was that no object ever leave the collection, even for loan exhibitions. Admission is free. It is a non-departmental public body

Non-departmental public body

In the United Kingdom, a non-departmental public body —often referred to as a quango—is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive to certain types of public bodies...

.

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

Manufacture nationale de Sèvres

The manufacture nationale de Sèvres is a Frit porcelain porcelain tendre factory at Sèvres, France. Formerly a royal, then an imperial factory, the facility is now run by the Ministry of Culture.-Brief history:...

 porcelain and French furniture.

The Wallace Collection also displays many other treasures, such as two paintings by Titian

Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...

, four Rembrandts, three Rubens

Rubens

Rubens is often used to refer to Peter Paul Rubens , the Flemish artist.Rubens may also refer to:- People :Family name* Paul Rubens Rubens is often used to refer to Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), the Flemish artist.Rubens may also refer to:- People :Family name* Paul Rubens (composer) Rubens is...

es, four Van Dycks, twenty-two Canaletto

Canaletto

Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...

s, nineteen Boucher

François Boucher

François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...

s, masterpieces by de Hooch

Pieter de Hooch

Pieter de Hooch was a genre painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a contemporary of Dutch Master Jan Vermeer, with whom his work shared themes and style.-Biography:...

, nine Teniers

David Teniers the Younger

David Teniers the Younger was a Flemish artist born in Antwerp, the son of David Teniers the Elder. His son David Teniers III and his grandson David Teniers IV were also painters...

, Frans Hals

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...

, nine Murillo

Bartolomé Estéban Murillo

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...

s, two Velázquez

Diego Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...

 and paintings by Domenichino

Domenico Zampieri

Domenico Zampieri was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School, or Carracci School, of painters.-Life:...

, Cima

Cima da Conegliano

Giovanni Battista Cima, also called Cima da Conegliano was an Italian Renaissance painter.-Biography:Giovanni Battista Cima was born at Conegliano, now part of the province of Treviso, in 1459 or 1460...

, Daddi

Bernardo Daddi

Bernardo Daddi was an early Italian renaissance painter and apprentice of Giotto. He was also influenced by the Sienese art of Lorenzetti....

, Reni

Guido Reni

Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...

, Rosa

Salvator Rosa

Salvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early life:...

, Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...

, Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...

, Antoine Watteau

Antoine Watteau

Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...

, Nicholas Lancret, Jan Steen

Jan Steen

Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century . Psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour are marks of his trade.-Life:...

, Aelbert Cuyp

Aelbert Cuyp

Aelbert Jacobsz Cuyp was one of the leading Dutch landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The most famous of a family of painters, the pupil of his father Jacob Gerritsz...

 and nine Guardis

Francesco Guardi

Francesco Lazzaro Guardi was a Venetian painter of veduta, a member of the Venetian School. He is considered to be among the last practitioners, along with his brothers, of the classic Venetian school of painting....

. The museum also holds a fine collection of arms and armour, featuring both European and Oriental objects, as well as displays of gold boxes, miniatures, sculpture and medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 and Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 works of art such as maiolica

Maiolica

Maiolica is Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance. It is decorated in bright colours on a white background, frequently depicting historical and legendary scenes.-Name:...

, glass, bronzes and Limoges enamels

Limoges porcelain

Limoges porcelain designates hard-paste porcelain produced by factories near the city of Limoges, France beginning in the late 18th century, but does not refer to a particular manufacturer.- History :...

.

The works of art in the Collection comprise:

• Paintings,Watercolours and Drawings 775
• Furniture 528
• Ceramics 510
• European and Oriental Arms and Armour 2,370
• Sculpture 466
• Miniatures 334
• Medieval and Renaissance Works of Art 363
• Goldsmiths' Work 120

Departments

The Wallace Collection is split into six curatorial departments, Pictures and Miniatures, Ceramics and Glass, Sculpture and Works of Art, Arms and Armour, Sèvres porcelain and Gold Boxes and Furniture.

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 paintings include important works from all periods between the fourteenth to the mid-nineteenth century.

The collection is particularly strong in Dutch

Dutch Golden Age painting

Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history generally spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years War for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republic was the most prosperous nation in Europe, and led European trade,...

 and Flemish

Flemish painting

Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries. These painters were invited to work at foreign courts and had a Europe-wide influence...

 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

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings , of which only five...

, Murillo, Titian, Poussin

Poussin

Poussin refers to:*Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian mathematician*Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian geologist and mineralogist, father of Charles Jean*Nicolas Poussin , French painter...

 and Velázquez.

The inventory of pictures, watercolours and drawings comprises all the major European schools.

Paintings, drawing & watercolours from the Wallace Collection

1. British, German, Spanish & Italian

   151 paintings, 60 drawings

2. French Nineteenth Century

   134 paintings, 57 watercolours

3. French before 1815

   144 paintings, 8 drawings and watercolours

4. Dutch

   173 paintings, 2 drawings

5. Flemish

   48 paintings

Dutch School

• Borch, Gerard ter
  Gerard ter Borch
  Gerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....
  
   - 2 paintings;
• Cuyp, Aelbert
  Aelbert Cuyp
  Aelbert Jacobsz Cuyp was one of the leading Dutch landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The most famous of a family of painters, the pupil of his father Jacob Gerritsz...
  
   - 6 paintings;
• Dou, Gerrit - 1 painting;
• Hals, Frans
  Frans Hals
  Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Hobbema, Meyndert - 5 paintings;
• Hooch, Pieter de
  Pieter de Hooch
  Pieter de Hooch was a genre painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a contemporary of Dutch Master Jan Vermeer, with whom his work shared themes and style.-Biography:...
  
   - 2 paintings;
• Metsu, Gabriel
  Gabriel Metsu
  Gabriël Metsu was a Dutch painter of history paintings, genre works and portraits.- Life :Metsu was the son of the Flemish painter Jacques Metsu , who lived most of his days at Leiden, and Jacomijntje Garniers, his third wife, whom he married in 1625. Jacomijntje was the widow of a painter with...
  
   - 5 paintings;
• Ostade, Adriaen van
  Adriaen van Ostade
  Adriaen van Ostade was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works.-Life:...
  
   - 2 paintings;
• Rembrandt van Rijn - 6 paintings;
• Ruisdael, Jacob van
  Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruysdael
  Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was a Dutch landscape painter.-Life:A native of Haarlem, he appears to have studied under his father Isaak van Ruysdael, a landscape painter, though other authorities place him as the pupil of Berghem and of Allart van Everdingen...
  
   - 5 painting;
• Snyders, Frans - 1 painting;
• Steen, Jan
  Jan Steen
  Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century . Psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour are marks of his trade.-Life:...
  
   - 5 paintings;
• Velde, Adriaen van de - 2 paintings;
• Velde, Willem van de...the Younger
  Willem van de Velde the Younger
  Willem van de Velde the Younger was a Dutch marine painter.-Biography:Willem van de Velde was baptised on 18 December 1633 in Leiden, Holland, Dutch Republic....
  
   - 8 paintings;
• Weenix, Jan
  Jan Weenix
  Jan Weenix or Joannis Wenix was a Dutch painter. He was trained by his father, Jan Baptist Weenix, together with his cousin Melchior d'Hondecoeter. Like his father, he devoted himself to a variety of subjects, but his fame is chiefly due to his paintings of dead game and of hunting scenes...
  
   - 13 painting;
• Wouwerman, Philip
  Philip Wouwerman
  Philips Wouwerman was a Dutch painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes.-Life and Work:Philips Wouwerman was one of the most versatile and prolific artists of the Dutch Golden Age...
  
   - 6 paintings;

English School

• Gainsborough, Thomas
  Thomas Gainsborough
  Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
  
   - 2 paintings;
• Hoppner, John
  John Hoppner
  John Hoppner was an English portrait painter, .-Early life:Hoppner was born in Whitechapel, London, the son of German parents - his mother was one of the German attendants at the royal palace. King George's fatherly interest and patronage of the young boy gave rise to rumours, quite unfounded,...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Landseer, Sir Edwin
  Edwin Henry Landseer
  Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags...
  
   - 4 paintings;
• Lawrence, Thomas
  Thomas Lawrence (painter)
  Sir Thomas Lawrence RA FRS was a leading English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy.Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his...
  
   - 4 paintings;
• Reynolds, Joshua
  Joshua Reynolds
  Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
  
   - 12 paintings;
• J.M.W. Turner - 4 paintings;

Flemish School

• Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
  Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
  Marcus Gheeraerts was an artist of the Tudor court, described as "the most important artist of quality to work in England in large-scale between Eworth and Van Dyck" He was brought to England as a child by his father Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, also a painter...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Gossaert, Jan
  Jan Mabuse
  Jan Mabuse was the name adopted by the Flemish painter Jan Gossaert; or Jennyn van Hennegouwe , as he called himself when he matriculated in the guild of St Luke, at Antwerp, in 1503.-Biography:Little is known of his early life...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Memling, Hans
  Hans Memling
  Hans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Pieter Pourbus
  Pieter Pourbus
  Pieter Pourbus was a Dutch-born Flemish Renaissance painter.Pourbus was born in Gouda. He was known primarily for his religious and portrait painting and worked mainly in Bruges, where he had moved from Gouda by 1543. He died in Bruges...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Rubens, Peter Paul - 9 paintings;
• Teniers, David
  David Teniers the Younger
  David Teniers the Younger was a Flemish artist born in Antwerp, the son of David Teniers the Elder. His son David Teniers III and his grandson David Teniers IV were also painters...
  
   - 2 paintings;
• Van Dyck, Anthony
  Anthony van Dyck
  Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
  
   - 4 paintings ;

French School

• Boucher, François
  François Boucher
  François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
  
   - 20 paintings;
• Champaigne, Philippe de
  Philippe de Champaigne
  Philippe de Champaigne was a Flemish-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school.-Early life:Born in Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter Jacques Fouquières...
  
   - 4 paintings;
• Clouet, François
  François Clouet
  François Clouet , son of Jean Clouet, was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family.-Historical references:Clouet was born in Tours....
  
   - 2 paintings;
• Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille - 1 painting;
• Delacroix, Eugène
  Eugène Delacroix
  Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
  
   - 2 paintings;
• Delaroche, Hippolyte
  Hippolyte Delaroche
  Hippolyte Delaroche , commonly known as Paul Delaroche, was a French painter born in Paris. Delaroche was born into a wealthy family and was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, who then painted life-size histories and had many students.The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large Josabeth...
  
   - 12 paintings;
• Dughet, Gaspard
  Gaspard Dughet
  Gaspard Dughet , also known as Gaspard Poussin, was a French painter born in Rome.A pupil of Nicolas Poussin, Gaspard Dughet was the brother of Poussin's wife...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Fragonard, Jean-Honoré
  Jean-Honoré Fragonard
  Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings , of which only five...
  
   - 8 painting;
• Gellée, Claude
  Claude Lorrain
  Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French Claude Gellée, , dit le Lorrain) Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Géricault, Théodore
  Théodore Géricault
  Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a profoundly influential French artist, painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Greuze, Jean-Baptiste
  Jean-Baptiste Greuze
  Jean-Baptiste Greuze was a French painter.-Early life:He was born at Tournus, Saône-et-Loire. He is generally said to have formed his own talent; this is, however, true only in the most limited sense, for at an early age his inclinations, though thwarted by his father, were encouraged by a...
  
   - 19 paintings;
• Nattier, Jean-Marc
  Jean-Marc Nattier
  Jean-Marc Nattier , French painter, was born in Paris, the second son of Marc Nattier , a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois , a miniaturist...
  
   - 3 paintings;
• Poussin, Nicolas
  Nicolas Poussin
  Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Rousseau, Théodore
  Théodore Rousseau
  Pierre Étienne Théodore Rousseau , French painter of the Barbizon school, was born in Paris, of a bourgeois family.-Youth:At first he received a business training, but soon displayed aptitude for painting...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Troy, Jean-François de - 2 paintings;
• Vernet, Claude-Joseph - 2 paintings;
• Vernet, Horace
  Horace Vernet
  Émile Jean-Horace Vernet was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist Arab subjects.Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famous painter, who was himself a son of Claude Joseph Vernet. He was born in the Paris Louvre, while his parents were staying there during the French...
  
   - 24 paintings;
• Watteau, Jean-Antoine - 9 paintings;

Italian School

• Canaletto
  Canaletto
  Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...
  
  , (Giovanni Antonio Canal) - 19 paintings;
• Cima, da Conegliano - 2 paintings;
• Crivelli, Carlo
  Carlo Crivelli
  Carlo Crivelli was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione and Mantegna...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Guardi, Francesco
  Francesco Guardi
  Francesco Lazzaro Guardi was a Venetian painter of veduta, a member of the Venetian School. He is considered to be among the last practitioners, along with his brothers, of the classic Venetian school of painting....
  
   - 9 paintings;
• Rosa, Salvator
  Salvator Rosa
  Salvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early life:...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Sarto, Andrea del
  Andrea del Sarto
  Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. Though highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori , his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci,...
  
   - 1 painting;
• Titian
  Titian
  Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...
  
  , (Tiziano Vecelli) - 1 painting;
• (Domenichino)
  Domenico Zampieri
  Domenico Zampieri was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School, or Carracci School, of painters.-Life:...
  
   - 1 painting;

Spanish School

• Murillo, Bartolomé-Esteban
  Bartolomé Estéban Murillo
  Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...
  
   - 8 paintings;
• Velázquez, Diego
  Diego Velázquez
  Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
  
   - 2 paintings;

Ceramics

There are fine examples of porcelain by the greatest of makers, including Meissen

Meissen

Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...

 and one of the world's greatest collections of Sèvres

Sèvres

Sèvres is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.The town is known for its porcelain manufacture, the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, making the famous Sèvres porcelain, as well as being the location of the International Bureau of Weights...

.

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.

Furniture

The Wallace Collection holds one of the most important collections of French furniture anywhere in the world. 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

Wood veneer

In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 mm , that are typically glued onto core panels to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture. They are also used in marquetry...

 with brass and turtleshell marquetry

Marquetry

Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to freestanding pictorial panels...

 (commonly known as "Boulle"

André Charles Boulle

André-Charles Boulle was the French cabinetmaker who is generally considered to be the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, even "the most remarkable of all French cabinetmakers." His fame in marquetry led to his name being given to the fashion he perfected of inlaying brass and...

 marquetry) or with wood marquetry, to seat furniture, clocks and barometers, gilt-bronze

Ormolu

Ormolu is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-karat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze. The mercury is driven off in a kiln...

 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

André Charles Boulle

André-Charles Boulle was the French cabinetmaker who is generally considered to be the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, even "the most remarkable of all French cabinetmakers." His fame in marquetry led to his name being given to the fashion he perfected of inlaying brass and...

 (1642–1732), perhaps the best-known cabinet-maker ever to have lived.

Joseph Baumhauer

Joseph Baumhauer

Joseph Baumhauer was a prominent Parisian ébéniste, one of several of German extraction. Having worked for some years as a journeyman for the German-born ébéniste François Reizell, he was appointed ébéniste privilegié du Roi in 1767, enabling him to skirt certain requirements of the Paris guild...

 - 1 item;

• Bas d'armoire, c. 1765-1770;

André-Charles Boulle

André Charles Boulle

André-Charles Boulle was the French cabinetmaker who is generally considered to be the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, even "the most remarkable of all French cabinetmakers." His fame in marquetry led to his name being given to the fashion he perfected of inlaying brass and...

 - 22 items;

• Armoire, c. 1695;
• Armoire, c. 1700;
• Armoire, c. 1700;
• Armoire, c. 1715;
• Bureau plat, c. 1700-10;
• Cabinet avec son pied, c. 1667;
• Cartonnier et pendule, c.1715;
• Commode, c. 1710;
• Paire de grande table, c. 1705;
• Mantle clock, c. 1715;
• Mantle clock, c. 1726;
• Médaillier, c. 1710-20;
• Miroir de toilette, c. 1713, (delivered to the Duchesse de Berry);
• Paire de coffre de toilette, c. 1700;
• Paire de torchéres, c. 1700-10;
• Pendule et gaine, c. 1712-20;
• Pendule et gaine, c. 1720-25;
• Table à mettre dans un trumeau, c. 1705;

Martin Carlin

Martin Carlin

Martin Carlin was a Parisian ébéniste, born at Freiburg, who was received master at Paris in 1766.Carlin worked at first in the shop of Jean-François Oeben, whose sister he married. He set up independently in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, an unfashionable quarter of Paris, where few of his wealthy...

 - 4 items;

• Paire de Encoignures, c. 1772;
• Secrétaire à abattant, c. 1775;
• Table en secrétaire, c. 1783;

Adrien Delorme

Adrien Delorme

Adrien Faizelot-Delorme was a well-known cabinetmaker working in Paris, the most prominent in a family of ébénistes...

 - 2 items;

• Paire de bibliothèque basse

Étienne Doirat - 1 item;

• Commode, c. 1720;

Étienne Levasseur - 5 items;

• Grande Bibliothèque, c. 1775;
• Paire de bibliothèque basse, c. 1775
• Paire de meubles à hauteur de'appui, c. 1775

Alexandre-Jean Oppenord - 3 items;

• Bureau plat, 1710;
• Commode, c. 1695;
• Écritoire, c. 1710;

Jean Henri Riesener

Jean Henri Riesener

Jean-Henri Riesener was the French royal ébéniste, working in Paris, whose work exemplified the early neoclassical Louis XVI style"....

 - 10 items;

• Commode, delivered to Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intérieur de la reine at Versailles, c. 1780;
• Commode, delivered to Marie-Antoinette for Chateau de Marly, c. 1782;
• Encoignure, delivered to Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intérieur at Versailles, c. 1783;
• Secrétaire à abattant, delivered to Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intérieur at Versailles, c. 1783;
• Secrétaire à abattant, delivered to Marie-Antoinette's Petit Triannon at Versailles, c. 1783;
• Secrétaire à abattant, delivered to Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intérieur at Versailles, c. 1780;
• Bureau à cylindre, delivered to the comte d'Orsay for the Hôtel d'Orsay, c. 1774;
• Bureau à cylindre, c. 1785;
• Secrétaire à abattant, c. 1780-4;
• Table de toilette, c. 1780-4;

Bernard I Van Risen Burgh - 1 item;

• Bureau plat, c. 1719

Nicolas Sageot - 1 item;

• Commode, c.1700;

Adam Weisweiler

Adam Weisweiler

Adam Weisweiler was a pre-eminent French master cabinetmaker in the Louis XVI period, working in Paris.Weisweiler is said to have been born at Neuwied-am-Rhein and to have received his early training in David Roentgen's workshop. He was in Paris before1777, when he married Barbe Conte, and was...

 - 4 items;

• Paire de meubles à hauteur de'appui, c. 1780
• Paire de meubles à hauteur de'appui, c. 1785-90

Building

A few years ago, the inner courtyard was given a glass roof and now contains a high quality restaurant - "Bagatelle".

Transport connections

Service	Station/Stop	Lines/Routes served	Distance from Wallace Collection
London Buses	Wigmore Street / Orchard St	13 London Buses route 13 London Buses route 13 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. The service is currently contracted to London Sovereign.-History:... , 139 London Buses route 139 London Buses route 139 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Metroline for London Buses.-History:...	250m
London Underground	Bond Street Bond Street tube station Bond Street tube station is a London Underground station on Oxford Street, near the junction with New Bond Street. Note that the street-level entrances are approximately 200 metres west of New Bond Street itself...		450m

Gallery

File:François Boucher 017.jpg|François Boucher

François Boucher

François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...

, Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...

 (1759)
File:Anthonis van Dyck 051.jpg|Anthony van Dyck

Anthony van Dyck

Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...

, Paris (c.

Circa

Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...

 1628)
File:Fragonard, The Swing.jpg|Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings , of which only five...

, The Swing

The Swing (painting)

The Swing , also known as The Happy Accidents of the Swing , is an 18th century oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. It is considered as one of the masterpieces of the rococo era.-The painting:...

 (1767)
Image:Hals obraz 1.jpg|Frans Hals

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...

, The Laughing Cavalier (1624)
File:The dance to the music of time c. 1640.jpg|Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...

, A Dance to the Music of Time

A Dance to the Music of Time (painting)

A Dance to the Music of Time is a painting by Nicolas Poussin. It was produced between 1634 and 1636 as a commission for Giulio Rospigliosi , who probably dictated its detailed iconography. It is best known for giving its name to the novel cycle of the same name...

 (c.1634-1636)
Image:Tizian 052.jpg| Titian

Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...

, Perseus and Andromeda (c. 1554-1556)
File:Jean-Antoine_Watteau,_The_Halt_during_the_Chase_(c._1718–1720).jpg|Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Halt during the Chase (c. 1718-1720)
File:Adriaen Brouwer - A Boor Asleep.jpg|Adriaen Brouwer

Adriaen Brouwer

Adriaen Brouwer was a Flemish genre painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century.-Biography:...

, Sleeping peasant

External links

• Official website of the Wallace Collection, includes search facility
• The official print sales website of the Wallace Collection containing the entire paintings collection
• A Visitor's Experience: The Wallace Collection