"With its selection of masterpieces of European arms and armour, this book provides both an overview of some of the treasures of the collection and a wonderful survey of European arms and armour. I hope it will whet the appetite of readers to want to move on to our new Complete Digital Catalogue of European Arms and Armour in the Wallace Collection, with its more than 7000 stunning photographs and full texts of all the previous catalogues."--"Director's foreword", p. 7.
* An insightful introduction to The Wallace Collection's abundant treasures and the fascinating history of its Founders, the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace* The seminal collection encompasses paintings by artists such as Titian, Rembrandt, Hals (The Laughing Cavalier) and Velázquez* Beautifully illustrated in full color throughoutThe Wallace Collection owns one of the finest collections of fine and decorative arts in the world. This splendid book provides a marvelous introduction to the museum's treasures and the fascinating history of its Founders, the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace. The Collection is best known for its paintings by artists such as Titian, Rembrandt, Hals (The Laughing Cavalier) and Velázquez and for its outstanding collection of eighteenth-century French paintings, porcelain, furniture and gold boxes, probably the best to be found anywhere outside of France. But visitors can also enjoy superb medieval and Renaissance objects, including Limoges enamels, maiolica, glass and bronzes, as well as the finest array of princely arms and armor in Britain, comprising both European and Oriental objects. With commentaries on more than 400 works of art, all of them beautifully illustrated, this book highlights every aspect of this great museum's extraordinary riches, providing both an excellent overview of the Collection and an enduring reference to many key themes in European art.
As the East India Company extended its sway across India in the late eighteenth century, many remarkable artworks were commissioned by Company officials from Indian painters who had previously worked for the Mughals. Published to coincide with the first UK exhibition of these masterworks at The Wallace Collection, this book celebrates the work of a series of extraordinary Indian artists, each with their own style and tastes and agency, all of whom worked for British patrons between the 1770s and the bloody end of the Mughal rule in 1857. Edited by writer and historian William Dalrymple, these hybrid paintings explore both the beauty of the Indian natural world and the social realities of the time in one hundred masterpieces, often of astonishing brilliance and originality. They shed light on a forgotten moment in Anglo-Indian history during which Indian artists responded to European influences while keeping intact their own artistic visions and styles. These artists represent the last phase of Indian artistic genius before the onset of the twin assaults - photography and the influence of western colonial art schools - ended an unbroken tradition of painting going back two thousand years. As these masterworks show, the greatest of these painters deserve to be remembered as among the most remarkable Indian artists of all time.
One of the most famous and influential artists of the eighteenth century, Jean-Antoine Watteau (c. 1684-1721) fundamentally changed the course of French painting. With masterpieces such as Les charmes de la vie, Lady at her Toilet and Les Champs lis es, the Wallace Collection preserves one of the three outstanding collections of his paintings worldwide (together with Paris and Berlin) but it has never before been the subject of a special exhibition or a separate study. Continuing the series of monographs highlighting important works by masters in the Wallace Collection, this book discusses in depth all eight paintings by Watteau in the Collection and two of his lesser-known works at the Soane Museum and in York. Each of the paintings, which together span his entire career and represent many aspects of his work, will form the starting point for a chapter of the book. Among the topics discussed will be: Watteau and Theater, Watteau and the Art Market, The Artist at Work, Watteau - the Academician, The Erotic and the Indecent in Watteau's Work, and Watteau in London.
The Wallace Collection is both a national museum and the finest private collection of art ever assembled by one family. It was bequeathed to the nation in 1897 by Lady Wallace, widow of Sir Richard Wallace, the illegitimate son of the fourth Marquess of
Finalist for the Baileys Women's Prize Annie McDee, thirty-one, lives in a shabby London flat, works as a chef, and is struggling to get by. Reeling from a sudden breakup, she’s taken on an unsuitable new lover and finds herself rummaging through a secondhand shop to buy him a birthday gift. A dusty, anonymous old painting catches her eye. After spending her meager savings on the artwork, Annie prepares an exquisite birthday dinner for two—only to be stood up. The painting becomes hers, and Annie begins to suspect that it may be more valuable than she’d thought. Soon she finds herself pursued by parties who would do anything to possess her picture: an exiled Russian oligarch, an avaricious sheikha, an unscrupulous art dealer. In her search for the painting’s identity, Annie will unwittingly discover some of the darkest secrets of European history—and the possibility of falling in love again.
