Visiting A Treasure House

We visited the Wallace Collection today, a museum of great art, furniture and armour collected by the 4th Marquess of Hertford and willed to the nation by his son. The entire collection is displayed in his London town home, a beautiful mansion, each wall of which is wallpapered in silk with floor to ceiling curtains in the range of 12 feet high. By chance, we happened upon the mansion as a concert on an antique harsichord was finishing up, giving us a rare opportunity to hear that instrument. We then wandered the galleries, continuing to find ourselves amazed as we came upon one well known piece of art after another. Our favorite story was of the purchase of Rubens paintings by the marquess. He bought them sight unseen because he thought he should. Then he put them in storage and never looked upon them. Other artists that impressed were Rembrandt, Hals, Titian, Van Dyke, Murillo and Champeigne. we all enjoyed looking at the large collection of bronzes and through them learning about the ten labours of Hercules. Olivia was particularly interested in landscapes, while Meredith made a game out of looking for Cupids and Psyches. In the house, we also stumbled upon the largest single collection of furniture owned by Marie Antoinette, which gave us an opportunity to discuss seriously with Olivia the moral dimensions of the excesses of the French Revolution versus the terrible suffering of the peasantry which led to it. She is pondering that still. We also saw the amazing collection of armour, and the girls got actually got to try some of it on (see photos above). Unfortunately, we had to leave as the museum closed, but for a small museum with free admission, it was well worth the trip.