THE NATI ONA L G A LL ERY

BY J . E . CRAW FORD F LITCH “ The Na tiona l Ga lle ry ha s form ed the subj ect o f a book on ma occa si o s but ne v e r in ny n , hand ie r or m ore use fu l fo rm tha n his li le ol um e whi ch s hou ld t tt v , be of the grea te s t use and pl e a s ure to eve ryone int e reste d in a rt ’ a nd o na i n i u —Ma n ur t o s p ct res.

TH E L OUVRE . E R R BY E . ICHA DS The author w ri tes a very inte r es t ing a ccount of the Pa lace of the Louvre a guid e far e xce lling in interes t a nd l ite rary q ua lity e - Scots those o rdina rily on sa l . ma n. Other volumes a re i n pr epa ra ti o n.

LA MA R" UISE D E PO M PADO U R

Bo uc/zer T H E W A L L A C E

fl C O L L EC T IO N

FRANK RUTTER. BA . Curatar of the Lceds City Art Gulm AUTHOR Ol" A I NTER AND M N O F ET TERS P A L , WHIS TLER : A BIOGRAPHY AND AN ESTIMATE ' ‘ E I fl .

BOSTON S L N D MA L , MAY AR AND COMPANY P UBLIS HERS

T H E W A L L A C E C O L L E C T IO N

FRAN K UTTER B.A. R , Cura tor of the Leeds Ci ty Ar t Ga ller y AUTHOR OF “ RO ETTI : AI NTER AN MAN O ETTE R SS P D F L S , W HI STLE R : A BIOGRAPHY AND AN ESTIMATE

ETC.

BOSTON S MALL , MAYNARD AND COMPANY PUBL I SH ERS 0 PRX NT E D BY

T HE RIV E RS IDE PRESS L IM ITED

E DI N BURG H F OREW ORD

O r many books consulted in the preparation of this little guide, by far the most useful have been the official catalogues published by order of the Board

T W o of rustees . The allace Collecti n has been singu la rl o f i y fortunate in the matter its admin stration .

B Sir C P oth the first Keeper, laude hillips, and his D S c successor, Mr . . Mac oll, are gentlemen who enjoy a world - wide respect and esteem for their

on To scholarly writings art subjects . them , and to

H o n A Sir L the . Inspector of the rmouries, Guy aking , we o w e catalogues which are models of what such works should be . Thro ughout the following pages reference is made “ to the sixth edition ( 1 9 1 0) of the Catalogue of

Art Sir Furniture and Objects, for which Claude P i hillips was responsible, and to the th rteenth “ edition ( 1 9 1 3) of the Ca talogue of Pictures and

D n i has rawi gs, wh ch been substantially revised, with

d o f i o f the ad ition a quant ty valuable new matter, by 5 D S Ma c Co ll 1 1 2 i Mr . . . In the course of 9 a ser es of sixty letters from the fourth Lo rd Hertford to his

Mr M T agent, awson, was acquired by the rustees , 1 84 8 1 8 5 6 and these letters, ranging from to , have

Mr c enabled Mac oll to identify many purchases, to correct certain attributions and to trace the history o f very many of the paintings . In view o f new info rmation drawn from these and

on other sources, books this collection which have

o ut o f fo r already been published are rendered date,

so n they contain many errors, misstatements and wro g attributions that they can no longer be consulted

The with any confidence . present, therefore, seems to be an opportune moment for the issue of a hand

to o r book which , without pretending be exhaustive erudite, aims at presenting in a popular form the results of the most recent researches into the history o f some of the principal art treasures in the Wallace i Collect on . i In conclus on, the writer desires to acknowledge the very valuable assistance he has received from

A J S o f L Mr . . anders eeds in the chapters dealing

o with furniture and p rcelain . CO NTENTS

O I . INTR DUCTORY

T HE F M O O F T HE O II . OR ATI N C LLECTION

T HE H OF P III . ITALIAN SC OOLS AINTING

M - P o r Iv. THE ASTER AINTERS THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 4 5

P AN D 60 V . DUTCH GENRE AINTINGS LANDSCAPES

H - P F VI . EIG TEENTH CENTURY AINTING IN RANCE AND ENGLAND

MO R F H P VII . DE N RENC AINTINGS

B " AND P VIII . RON ES SCUL TURE

IX F C F . REN H URNITURE

X P . ORCELAIN

X I T H E MO . AR URY

INDEX

‘ L I ST O F I L L U STRAT I ONS

PL ATE

1 B P o F rontis iece . OUCHER . Madame de ompad ur p

T O F ACE PAGE

T . P A 3 2 2 . ITIAN erseus and ndromeda

3 . The 3 3 . GUARDI Rialto

4 . B The L 4 8 RU ENS . Rainbow andscape

Ro 4 5 . VAN D K P le YC . hilippe y 9

a L . HALS . aughing Cavalier

I} " L { . VELAS"UE . ady with a Fan }

’ M B A Son T 5 7 7 . RE RANDT . rtist s , itus

R A 6 4 8 B W . Bo . ROU E or sleep

T BOR L L 65 9 . ER CH . ady Reading a etter

1 0 DE O Bo 72 . HO GH . Interior with Woman and y

l l VAN DER . S S NO . 73 . NEER kating cene (

’

1 2 O . O Bri e n 8 0 . REYN LDS Nelly

H fie l 1 B . a v er d 8 1 3 . GAINS OROUGH Miss D a . . CLOUET Miniature of ame des Clous

6 B P A t . HOL EIN . Miniature of ortrait of r ist

1 5 R O D . L . F AG NAR ady Carving her Name 9 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE

1 6 . L To WATTEAU . ady at her ilet

1 L La B 7 . ANCRET . elle Grecque

1 8 DELACRO Ix o f D M . . Execution the oge arino

O R USSEAU . Glade in the Forest

O X B B o f L C YSEVO . ronze ust ouis XIV .

B o f M i HOUDON . Marble ust adame Victo re de France

W - l 3 5 riting table, sty e Régence . No . on Grand Staircase

Ca fii e ri . No 5 8 Commode by . , Gallery XVI .

S . . 1 2 Upright ecretaire No , Gallery XVIII .

B T i . 2 0 ureau o lette . No , Gallery XVIII .

B Rie se n e r . No . 66 . ureau by , Gallery XVI

Rie se ne r 1 8 Commode by . No . , Gallery

XVIII .

P B . 1 5 erfume urner No . , Gallery XIX .

Sev re s Po t P . 1 62 ourri Vase No . , Gallery

XVIII .

Se J . NO . 1 4 6 X II vres ardiniere , Gallery .

e 1 34 X II. S vres Inkstand . No . , Gallery

I o NO TE

. ROMAN numerals in brackets refer to the number o f A l a gallery . rabic numera s refer to the number of T 2 8 1 2 8 1 a work . hus (XV., ) denotes work No . in

Gallery XV. The terms right an d le ft used in describing

o f t pictures refer to the right and left the spec ator . Dates given in brackets after an artist ’ s name

o f refer respectively to the years his birth and death .

c = circa In this connection the letter (about) . L Except where otherwise stated , ord Hertford

o f Richard, fourth Marquess Hertford .

I I

THE WALLACE COLLECTION candlesticks, etc ., is represented here with a com ple te ne ss and brilliancy hardly to be found in any

i in or A . one museum , public or pr vate, Europe merica

The series of eighteenth - century snuff- boxes is unique ; the sculpture includes masterpieces by

Clo dion P , Coysevox , Falconet, Houdon and ilon , as well as precious small bronzes and medals of the r The i i earlier Renaissance and other pe iods . m n a tures show superb examples of the greatest and i s rarest masters, the European armoury unique of its kind in the United Kingdom, and among the L imoges and other enamels, the ivories and the ’ go ldsmith s work may be found the rarest examples i of the most exquis te craftsmanship . Yet with all this wealth and magnificence we never feel overwhelmed and lost a s we sometimes : L do In other museums at the ouvre, for example , o r in A b o the Victoria and l ert at South Kensingt n . The Wallace Collection is large enough and compre he nsiv e enough to be practically inexhaustible, but it is no t so large that it fills us with despair of ever being able to know it all . Hertford House never its its frightens the student ; it never loses charm , i power to soothe as well as nterest . Elsewhere we are often painfully made conscious that art galleries i as Sis ra nne are the pr sons of art, M . Robert de la e has candidly declared, but as we ascend the great 1 4 INTRODUCTORY staircase of Hertford House we recognise that we

o o f B u are entering no prison but a H me ea ty . T so his stately homeliness, which is seductive a

feature of the Wallace Collection, is due in no small measure to the wisdom of the Board of T i rustees, who from the very first have made it the r business to see that the appearance of a private house should be preserved as far as possible in the arrangement of the various objects . Each gallery is not merely a reference library o f pictures and art T objects, but a handsome furnished apartment . hat

o ur is why we feel at ease in them , and when we arrange to meet our friends, say in Gallery XVI ., we are no t abashed but merely moved to receive them as if we were monarchs and they ambassadors . The variety of obj ects to be seen in every room effectually dissipates that feeling of weariness which is apt to be engendered by the inspection of e ndless f Th rows o f pictures or endless cases o porcelain . e beauty of any picture or art object is always e n hanced when it is shown amid suitable and con The o f genial surroundings . system exhibiting art treasures as an ensemble o f various objects similar only in period or nationality is undoubtedly an it ideal arrangement, and wherever has been adopted it has increased the interest of the objects assembled . IS THE WALLACE COLLECTION Another contributing factor to the peculiar charm of the Wallace Collection is the abundance therein

o The of small pictures and small art bjects . eye is rested and refreshed when it is turned from a large oil painting o r a massive piece of furniture to

o i the contemplati n of a m niature or a small bronze .

Further we are taught here, as we are taught B nowhere else in Great ritain, that in art what

n . matters is not quantity but quality. A d this is a lesso n which we Britons find it exceedingly hard to learn . Inability to grasp its truth has led to s o f the wa ting of many thousands pounds, both in L o n ondon and in the provinces, the acquisition for public and private galleries of what were thought to be important pictures by reason of their size . Now the dimensions of a painting have nothing

o f whatsoever to do with its importance . Many the most important pictures in the Wallace Collecti o n ’ f Clo ue t s Da me de are tiny in point o actual size . ’ ’ Cloux B Boar Aslee Fra ona rd s La d , rouwer s p , g y ’ Ca r vin her Na me Wa tte au s Ha rle uin a nd Columbine g , q and La dy a t her Toilet may be cited as a few examples . i Moreover, who has not revelled in the ser es of Di De s little gems in Gallery XV . by az, camp , P " And Couture , rudhon and other French painters i i who has failed to realise that all of these, nclud ng

1 6 INTRODUCTORY

M o f s in i eissonier, course, were at their be t the r smaller works " They may not have been great

o f masters, and their large paintings, some which be may seen in the same gallery, are frequently wearisome and ineffective ; but on a smaller scale they proved themselves to be truly great as Little o Masters, and we should be deeply thankful to th se who formed this collection that they more often bought the little pictures that are great the big pictures which are little . THE FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION

IN ou l se Sir Gallery XVI . y wi l e two portraits by

J F ra nces Se mour - Conwa Countess oshua Reynolds, y y, of Lincoln ( 33) and La dy Eliz a beth Seymour - Conway the fourth and fifth daughters respectively o f the first Marquess of Hertford . Finer and more impressive examples o f Reynolds may be found in these galleries, but these two paintings deserve our special notice because, so far as we know at present, they are the foundation - stones on which the Wallace

Collection has been built . They were not acquired The M with that object, however . first arquess had no idea o f founding an art collection ; all he wanted was portraits of his daughters by the foremost i i pa nter of the day, and he little knew that in g ving Sir Joshua the co mmissions he was taking the first step towards erectin g a mighty monument to the o f S fame the eymours . On the part played by this family in English T history it is unnecessary to dwell . hey rose to

1 8 FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION eminence when Jane Seymour married Henry VIII . and her eldest brother, Edward, was created Earl of ’ Hertford . On his nephew s accession to the throne w D S as Ed ard VI . , Hertford became uke of omerset L P L and ord rotector of England . ater he fell from power and was executed , as also was his brother T P son homas, who had married Catherine arr . His and grandson were claimants to the throne— as — descendants by marriage from Henry VIII . and though the family led a chequered existence through o f S t S the reigns the uarts, Edward eymour avenged family grievances when he headed the oppo sition against James II . and joined his fortunes to those of

William of Orange . In 1 75 0 the earldom of Hertford became extinct D S with the death of the seventh uke of omerset, but the title was revived in the person of Francis

S - his eymour Conway, who a year before death in 1 794 was created Earl o f Yarmouth and first ’ A o f Marquess of Hertford . llan Ramsay s portrait o George IV . may p ssibly have belonged to him , as ” well as the two Reynolds portraits already mentioned, but what is perhaps more interesting to note, in

View of subsequent events, is that the first Marquess

' A 1 63 1 65 was mbassador to France from 7 to 7 , and so inaugurated that conn ection with Paris which was

o his i c ntinued and developed by he rs . I9 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

To so n M his , the second arquess , can be definitely 1 8 1 0 traced the purchase, in , of two important — ’ pictures the world - famous Nelly O Brien ( 3 8) of — — i £64 1 . Reynolds wh ch he picked up for , s and ’ “ ” Romney s Perdita Robinson which cost him twenty guineas . Whether he purchased these for artistic or iconographical reasons can never be known L r now, but if this ord Hertfo d was not a great fo r collector, at least he paved the way collecting i Th by marrying two heiresses in success on . e Seymo urs had a knack of making profitable marriages —they had already absorbed the Conway title and estates—and the example of the second Marquess was followed by his only surviving child .

S - a Of this child , Francis Charles eymour Conw y, L i ord Yarmouth , and afterwards th rd Marquess of

K . C. Hertford, , it may be said that he had good — taste in art but in little else . He was born in ’ 1 his i o 777, mother be ng his father s sec nd wife and i i P The an int mate fr end of the rince Regent . latter fact procured him the position o f Vice i ’ Chamberla n in the Regent s Household , and throughout his life he had great influence with the

1 o Prince . In 79 8 he married a young lady wh se mother was the Marchesa Fa gnia ni but whose father The was never definitely identified . honour was m m en Of clai ed by two , both them enormously

2 0

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

’ s o f House, that Gainsborough portrait Mrs Robinson — — Perdita (4 2) was sent to the Earl o f Yarm o uth by o f P o n 1 3 A 1 8 1 8 order the rince Regent th pril . ’ Another gift from the same s o urce was H oppne r s

G eor e Prince Wa les g , of , which the Regent had purchased with others from the artist ’ s widow in

1 8 1 0. But what was probably the greatest masterpiece o f painting in this villa is no longer to be found W t n in the allace Collection . For u ately we need

The Vision o not bewail its absence, since the work , f St Helena o f , by Veronese, is now one the chief o f is glories the National Gallery . It curious,

o u t o f however, that it should have slipped the

o the o f collecti n . When contents this villa were

' ’ in 1 8 5 5 o son sold , after the wner s death, his , the

o o f f urth Marquess, bought in most the pictures, and a letter exists instructing an agent to bid for this “ picture but to give no t more than £40 or

to - This limitation reads strangely day, and had

- a - the sale taken place half century later, and the or S Veronese departed to Germany the United tates, we should mourn more deeply the unaccountable shortsightedness o f Lord Hertford in this particular instance .

To old return to his father, the Marquess , as

o o D I shall style him hencef rward , he b ught utch

2 2 FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION paintings for himself as well as for the Prince To W o Regent. him the allace C llection owes, River Scene with among other things, the splendid View D ordrecht 1 3 8 Cu s of ( ) and two other yp , ’

Ja n S Villa e Alchemist . A teen s g (XIII , driaen ’

O sta de s Interior with Peasa nts . Van (XIV , ’ W t Isa ck O sta de s in er Scene . 3 van (XVI , 7 ) and ’ W m a nn s a m S o uw e r C p cene (XIV. all of which m o f are ad irable examples their respective authors . Tw o other notable purchases by the old Marquess ’ were Van Dyck s Portra it of the Artist a s the Shep herd ’ Pa ris (XVI 35 ) and Titian s P erseus a nd Andromeda ” (XVI ., discovered skied in a bathroom at Sir Hertford House by the late Keeper, Claude P 1 00 one o f hillips, in 9 , and now recognised as the f chief treasures o the collection . The third Marquess got together the nucleus o f w as a great art collection , but he first and

o o f f remost a man the world . He had been in P o f arliament, a captive Napoleon at Verdun for ’ three years after the Emperor s breach o f the Treaty A i Fox o n of miens, a plen potentiary for his release, 1 8 2 and in 7, as Envoy Extraordinary, he had headed T A a Garter Mission to the sar of Russia . t his 1 8 42 t tw o death, in , he was supposed to be wor h millions sterling . son i i His eldest and he r, R chard Seymour 2 3 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

B 2 2u d Conway, Viscount eauchamp, born February

1 8 00 . t , was first and foremost a collector Mili ary ,

o — p litical and diplomatic life each he tried , and each

A o b e found distasteful . fter holding a commissi n 2 2md D 1 8 1 w as in the ragoons, in 7 he attached to the British Embassy in Paris ; two years later to P he was elected arliament , from which he retired 1 8 2 6 in in . He had another try at diplomacy a s Constantinople, but soon as he came into the 1 8 4 2 P title, in , he established himself in aris and o f devoted himself to the collection art objects . 2 ru e La ffitte From his flat at No . , where he led i a quiet and ret red life, he directed operations which filled with art treasures the houses in Berkeley Square and Manchester Square—which — he owned but rarely visited as well as his o w n apartment and the Pavilion of Ba gatelle in the

Bois de Boulogne . In many respects the fo urth Marquess was the The old very reverse o f the third . Marquess loved display and ostentation ; the new Lord Hertford l hated a crowd . He seldom entered a sa eroom , and conducted his bidding through agents . Happily

L S . w as his ondon agent, M . Mawson, a remarkable if a man , g ted prob bly with a far finer taste than

L . ord Hertford himself In fact, there is no doubt that it is to Mr Mawson that the Wallace Collection 2 4 FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION

w o n owes many of its finest pictures . He the

of o o confidence his patr n , who had the go d sense to be guided by the advice o f this expert even when o w n it ran contrary to his inclinations . It was ’ thro ugh Mr Ma w so n s good offices that fine examples

‘ o f Re m b ra ndt of of the early Italians, , Rubens and o f Velasq uez were added to the collection . Some o f L o saw these ord Hertf rd never , and he grace fully acknowledges what is due to his agent in “ o f a letter which speaks our Collection, which owes a great deal o f its Splendour to the interest ” ou y have always taken in it. “ L I only like pleasing pictures, ord Hertford i s a nd na vely confe sed, it is to his credit that he found so much that was pleasing among the works of the great French artists o f the eighteenth century and o f his own time . His greatest discovery was Bo n b e no ni gton, by whom secured less than thirty six pictures and drawings . I like this master very no t much , though he is much admired in our country, he writes . He bought nine pictures by W atteau , and nine by Guardi, and here again he o f showed a fine taste ahead of that his day. But his judgment was not always impeccable . It is diffic ult to understand how it was that the man “ who apparently appreciated quality in pain t so keenly as to buy twenty - eight works by Deca mps 2 5 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

could have so strong an admiration for Horace

- o f Vernet as to acquire twenty nine his works .

A - o ne G re uz e s gain, though he bought twenty , four P La ncre ts Fra ona rds teen aters, eleven , and eight g ,

he missed Chardin altogether, and thereby his

collection was the poorer. And he also bought eleven pictures and drawings by Bellange and — ten by Roq ue plan and thereby it was none the i r cher. ’ We get a clue to Lo rd H e rtford s private tastes in his thirteen Murillos, his sixteen Meissoniers, D his twelve elaroches . It was a cultivated, scholarly no t taste , but a brilliant, unerring judgment . Of this he was himself probably well aware, and since it was his desire to make his collection r e pre se nta tive and n ot limit it to what he liked person ally, he allowed his agents a large discretion , and this they used greatly to his advantage . Among these agents the principal tw o were W S . L Ri . M Mawson, in ondon, and chard allace , i P who l ved with him in aris . Who was Sir Ri chard Wallace " He was born

L o n 2 6th J 1 8 1 8 his in ondon the of uly , but who Tw o parents were nobody knows . theories are

him . A current about ccording to the first, which is most widespread in vulgar opinion , he was a natural son o f the fourth Marq uess by some young

2 6 FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION

i o f woman in the serv ce the household . It should be noted that the difference in age between the fo urth Lord Hertford and Richard Wallace was only o f eighteen years, but this, course, is not an insuper able objection to the theory . Another theo ry is that he was an illegitimate so n o f o f née the last Marchioness Hertford , Maria

Fa nia ni . T o g his theory is far m re plausible . Maria, M archioness of Hertford, seems to have taken after She her mother . was supposed to have had three : o n e children by her husband daughter, who died h i n nine months after her marriage to a M . de C e v g é : and two sons Richard, the fourth Marquess, and S w ho 1 805 Lord Henry eymour, was born in and 1 8 5 died in 9 . Common rumour, however; said the seco nd son was no Seymour but in truth the son f M L ’ o Count Casimir de ontrond . ord Henry s chief claim to fame was as founder o f the French Jo ckey

Club, and it may be questioned whether the uncertainty of his parentage makes that o f Sir S Richard Wallace any the more certain . till, in o f favour the second theory as against the first, i W or t must be noted that Richard allace, Richard

o f Jackson as he was first called , was a protégé the Marchioness Maria before he became the protégé Sir W A of Lord Hertford . alter rmstrong accepts the second theory in his article for the Dictiona ry 2 7 THE WALLACE COLLECTION o Na tiona l Bio ra h o f f g p y, and the two it is cer a inl t y the more credible . “ M Ri a a s onsieur ch rd, he was called , lived in Paris among the artists and writers o f the Second

o Empire and made an art collecti n of his own, which o ut 1 8 he weeded to a great extent by a sale in 5 7 .

A 1 8 0 i - P i In the ugust of 7 , dur ng the Franco russ an

L . i war, ord Hertford died He had never marr ed , and while the title and entailed estates passed to a u t cousin, his art collection, with all his nen ailed W property, was bequeathed to Richard allace . Throughout the siege Monsieur Richard remained P i b e cor s fo unde d in ar s ; organised three ambulance p , and endowed the British hospital to which he gave L the name of his benefactor, ord Hertford, and subscribed £4000 towa rds a fund for the relief of i vict ms of the bombardment . He is said to have spent in charities during the siege of

P i i - o ar s , and he also gave a hundred dr nking f untains f C to the city, but a ter the ommune he probably thought it advisable to transfer the greater part of L his collection to ondon, and soon made preparations

so for doing. In February 1 87 1 he married Mademoiselle Julie A melie Charlotte Castelnau, daughter of a French ffi had e o cer, by whom he one son, who died b fore i his father . On Chr stmas Eve of the same year he

2 8

THE WALLACE COLLECTION W Th allace . e rich collection of European arms and i armour was entirely his creat on . He also acquired o f i a great number the Rena ssance bronzes, jewellery, ’ goldsmith s work and other art objects of this and i later per ods . i With regard to pa ntings, his most notable ’

Co ro t s Ma cbeth a nd the Witches . additions were (XV , ’ Rousseau s Glade in the Forest of Fonta ineblea u

. 2 8 3 (XV , ) and probably the three little gems by Di 266 2 68 az (XV ., , , as well as the majority of the early Italian, Flemish and French works in ’ 1 11 Be cca fum i s Judith with Gallery . Of these last, ’ the H ea d of Hoq er nes ( 5 25 ) and Vincenzo Poppa s Bo R a in y e d g ( 5 3 8) are of special importance . Another important painting once in his collection ’ T Pea ce o Munster was erborch s f , which he presented

N o f . to the ational Gallery, which he was a trustee Though he made Hertford House his English

his o home, and arranged art c llection there after its B 1 8 5 Sir removal from ethnal Green Museum in 7 , Richard Wallace spent the last four years of his life in P 2 oth J 1 8 0 aris ; and when he died there, on uly 9 , some people feared that he might leave his great T collection to the French nation . here is no evidence, however, that he had any such intention . The whole o f his collection he left unconditionally L W ’ l 6th to ady allace, and after this lady s death , on 30 FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION

1 8 i l February 97, it became known that by a w l dated 2 3rd May 1 894 the wido w o f Sir Richard Wallace had made the magnificent bequest of these

o art treasures to the British nati n . The generosity of this action is the greater when we remember that Lady Wall a ce was of French nationality and would have been quite justified in not leaving the collection to France . It is perhaps too much to say that the course of action she took wa s to a great extent inspired by the disinterested J counsel of her chief confidential adviser, Mr ohn S ’ Murray cott, who had been her husband s secretary and intimate friend and was the residuary legatee of L W ’ ady allace s estate . Shortly before his last illness Lord Hertford had been attended by an English doctor practising in

B Dr S so n oulogne, a cott , whose attracted the notice Sir T son J of Richard Wallace . his , ohn Murray S w as cott, afterwards engaged by Richard Wallace as his secretary, and aided the latter in his charitable, artistic and other undertakings . His qualities , abilities and kindly disposition gained him the

ff Sir L w ho a ection of both Richard and ady Wallace, in time came to lo bk upon him more as an ado pted son f o f than as an o ficial the household . Had he been of an intriguing nature he might have been the owner of Hertford House and its contents, and 31 THE WALLACE COLLECTION his public - spirited action in persuading Lady Wallace to make her great beque st was acknow ledged when fo r his services to the nation John

S K . C. B Murray cott was created baronet and . and appointed a trustee o f the National Gallery as well a s of the Wallace Collection . Lady Wallace stipulated in her will that Mr Murray Sco tt should be one o f the tru stees o f the she collection, and also made two other conditions 1 T for . hat the Government the time being should agree to give a site in the central part of L ondon, and build thereon a special museum to contain it, and that the collection should always be

o o f kept together unmixed with other bjects art, ” and be styled The Wallace Collection.

2 T to . hat the Louis Quatorze balustrade the Great Staircase at Hertford House sh o uld be used 1 in the new museum . The i d first condition gave r se to some iscussion, and the Treasury in May 1 8 97 appointed a com m itte e to consider how the collection might best be

The La housed . Marquess of nsdowne was the

m o f i chair an th s committee, and the other members

1 This fo rge d iro n a nd gilt bro nz e ba l ustra de w a s fo rm e rly a t ue Na o a e Pa s but wa s e m o e the the Biblio theq ti n l in ri , r v d in ’ The e a ce L s ou ou the tim e o f N a pol eo n I I I . int rl d thr gh t d e sign indica te th a t it was m a de o rigin a lly fo r Lo uis X IV . 32 PE RSE L‘ S A N D AND RO M EDA

Ti tia n

FORMATION OF THE COLLECTION were Lord Redesdale (now Chairman of the Board o f T Sir Sir Arm rustees), William Harcourt, Walter Sir Mr A i strong, Francis Mowatt, lfred de Rothsch ld ,

Sir . J . P A T E oynter and Mr lfred Waterhouse . his

o f Sir . J . P committee, with the exception E oynter, unanimously recommended that the collection should remain at Hertford House, the apartments being

Sir . J . P suitably altered for the purpose . E oynter favoured the housing of the collection in a new n The buildi g near the National Gallery . purchase and adaptation of Hertford H o use did not strictly comply with the terms of the bequest, but the law officers of the Crown held that the Government so o S might be j ustified in d ing if Mr Murray cott, the only person who could claim under the will, would bind himself and his heirs to treat this action ’ as a satisfactory fulfilment o f Lady Wallace s condi T M S o n tions. his Mr urray cott agreed to do, and the 22nd of June 1 900 the Wallace Collection was o pened to the public at Hertford House . Sir John Murray Scott was the first Chairman of B T n the oard of rustees, and retained the chairma ship l 1 J n 1 1 2 i of ti l 7th a uary 9 , when he suddenly d ed hear t failure while on a visit to Hertford House .

33 THE ITALIAN SCHOOLS OF PAINTING

FEW peo ple go to the Wallace Co llection to study the earlier schools of art . It contains comparatively o f its few Italian paintings, and our memory pictures is fully occupied with thoughts o f the great masters of the seventeenth century and the wonderful series of works which form so glorious a monument to the of P i artistic genius France . r mitive masters, L confessed ord Hertford, I have not yet adopted, ” ’ ” and , he added, I don t think I ever will . N Sir evertheless, thanks probably to Richard W allace and Mr Mawson, a few primitives crept into the collection , and are to be found mostly in the third gallery to the extreme right o f the entrance hall as you enter the museum . The earliest school of painting represented is that S of iena, the little hill town which rivalled Florence

o f i n D in the dawn Ital a art . Its founder, uccio, was o i probably born five or six years bef re G otto , and scholars have yet to settle whether it originated 34

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

For centuries past the Venetian school has been l its e t ce ebrated for colour, and we g more than a hint of what is to follow from the glowing richness

St Roch . C of (III , by that early master, arlo “ 1 430 The Crivelli (c . latter half of the fifteenth century shows no art more intense in i i i ” conv ct on than that of Cr velli, says our catalogue , “ or more brilliantly decorative after its peculiar ” And Mr B B i fashion . ernhard erenson waxes st ll more enthusiastic “ He takes rank with the most i a ll i i genu ne artists of t mes and countr es, and does m ” not weary even when great asters grow tedious . T i a h s p nel , which probably formed part of a much ’ - i is l Cri ve lli s larger altar p ece, a fine examp e of best style . Another early Venetian master splendidly re pre i sented here is C ma da Conegliano, who died about

1 5 1 The St Ca therine Alexa ndria X VI. 7 . panel of of ( 1 L in 1 8 5 is ) was bought by ord Hertford 9 , and the i most important example of th s master in England . Originally it formed the central portion o f the altar M S. piece at the church of Rocco at estre, near i he i St Sebastia n St Roch Ven ce . T two w ngs, and , i n S M i are now the trasburg useum, wh le the lunette ,

ir in a nd Child with SS. D ominic a nd F ra ncis The V g , ’ i No . 1 3rd J 1 1 2 Mr wa s sold at Chr stie s ( 7, uly 9 ) to

Langton Douglas . 36 THE ITALIAN SCHOOLS A whole romance might be written round the

n A Bo Rea din . fresco pai ting known as y g (III , formerly catalogued as by Bra m antino but now to o f a ascertained be the work Vincenzo Fopp , who founded the Milanese school in the latter end o f the

o fifteenth century . Foppa was c mmissioned by that ’

. M great art patron, Cosimo de edici, to decorate the ’ of Via B a nd walls his bank in the de ossi, Milan, this charming work is a fragment o f what he painted there . It was still in its place and mentioned by o 1 862 contemp rary writers as late as , and some time after this it was saved from inevitable destruction o ut As o f by being cut clean of the wall . a panel P a plaster it found its way to aris, where it was prob bly T o f P sold by Vicomte de auzia, Keeper ictures at L Sir The the ouvre, to Richard Wallace . identity o f bo the y is uncertain . He has been called Gian S Galeazzo forza, but since this youth was only born

1 46 fi fte e nth- in 9, and since the century writer,

Fila re te , tells us definitely that Foppa was working o n some o f the fresco es for the Banco Mediceo in 1 463 o W , it is d ubtful hether this fresco was painted o f so much later as the age the boy, if Galeazzo,

. Fila re te would imply On the other hand, informs us that according to the contract Foppa was to “ adorn another pa rt of the building with portraits of D c S a the uke Frances o forz , of his illustrious consort 37 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

so o ne o f S o and their sons, this may be the f rzas, “ n o t But Ma Co ll if Gian Galeazzo . Mr c suggests it is m o re likely that it is emblematic of education o r eloquence ; it recalls illustrations o f lecture - rooms ” in i early pr nted Venetian books . B L 1 4 5 ernardino uini (c . 7 another Milanese o f painter, is represented by four works, which the most nota ble is unquestionably The Virgi n of the Columbine T i Lo (XVI ., h s was bought by rd L i i Hertford as a eonardo da Vinci, and exh b ted B under his name at ethnal Green . The ups and downs of collecting are well illus tra te d L when we compare this uini, bought as L t a eonardo, with the most famous I alian picture ’ T Perseus a nd Andromeda in the collection , itian s

- (XVI ., presumably bought as a school piece . It L was purchased by ord Yarmouth, the third

M 1 8 1 5 £362 . S arquess, in , for ome time in the

or Dr Waa fifties earlier it was seen by gen, and ot to by that time it had g attributed Veronese . 1 In his monumental work Dr Waagen accepts this The attribution , but comments conception is very animate d the colouring o f a power seldo m T Th seen in his pictures and approaching itian . e landscape also, which occupies a large portion of the ” picture, is admirable . 1 Th a su o f G ea a n. 1 8 - 1 8 e Tre r es Art in r t Brit i 54 57. 38 THE ITALIAN SCHOOLS

After this someone appeared to think that it o to T to appr ached closer itian than Veronese, and so it was written down in the inventory o f the “ ” S T no t collection as chool of itian . It was B thought worth showing at ethnal Green, and was so lightly esteemed that it was hung in a bath — room and high up even there . Hence it was happily rescued from obliv ion in 1 900 by Sir Claude P hillips, who recognised it to be an authentic work ’ T o w n from itian s hand . It is extraordinary that it should have been lost for sight of so many years, since it was sold from the Orleans Collection to a London dealer in 1 79 8 ;

not a s it is if it were an unknown work . It is highly T praised by Vasari , and mentioned by itian himself t P of S in an existing le ter written to hilip II . pain, 1 5 5 4 o n in , to congratulate him his marriage with o f our Queen Mary . In the light history it is tempting to construe the subject as symbolising Spain ’ s attempt to rescue England from the dragon — of nonconformity but veracity forbids " The exact i s no t Th date o f the painting easy to fix . e master 1 5 5 4 had evidently thought it out in , and it was possibly finished and sent to Spain with the Europ a 1 5 62 T in . It is worth noting that when itian sent in his bill (22nd December 1 5 74) for a number of pictures the Andromeda appears just before the Eur op a 39 THE WALLACE COLLECTION in Andromeda his list, and immediately before the

Dia na a nd Acta eon appears the , which we know was ’ 1 5 5 The T sent in 9 . engraving made under itian s eye in 1 5 65 was probably executed from a second version of the subj ect now at the Hermitage Museum

St P . At in etersburg all events, the following interesting passage from Vasari proves that when to 1 5 66 the biographer went Venice in , to collect “ L ” material for the second edition of his ives, this picture was already in Spain “ Titian painted Andromeda bound to the Rock with Perseus delivering her from the Se a - monster ; a more beautiful painting than this could not be o f imagined ; and the same may he said another, Diana Bathing with her Nymphs and turning T Actaeon into a Stag . hese pictures are in the

o p ssession of the Catholic King, and are held in high esteem for the animation imparted to them by the master, whose colours have made them almost alive .

“ SO many people have remarked how modern ’ T old this masterpiece of itian s age appears , that ’ it is worth quoting Vasari s continuing remarks . “ “ s It is nevertheless true, he observe , that his ’ "Titian s"mode of proceeding in these last - mentio ned works is very different from that pursued by him n o f i i those his youth, the first be ng executed with 40 THE ITALIAN SCHOOLS

i a certain care and del cacy, which renders the work equally effective whether seen at a distance or d examined closely ; while those of a later perio , i executed in bold strokes and w th dashes, can scarcely be distinguished when the observer is near a them, but if viewed from the proper dist nce they And o o f o appear perfect. this meth d pr ceeding o ne is a judicious, beautiful , and admirable , since the it causes paintings so treated to appear living, they being executed with profound art, while that art is nevertheless concealed .

’ To m any o f Titian s contemporaries the paintings o f his last manner must have seemed a s unfinished as did those o f Gainsborough to the ca ptions o f his W u o f generation, those Of histler to R skin , those the French Impressionists to the critics o f the las t i century . It was a happy coincidence that S r ’ ’ Claude Phillips rediscovery o f Titian s impressionist masterpiece sho uld have occurred just about the P a time when Claude Monet, iss rro, and the other great masters o f modern France were at length accepted and appreciated by the educated London ’ o f T public . Some idea itian s earlier style may Venus Dis a rmin Cu id be gained from the g p (XVI . , which is remarkably close to Titian in his G ior ione s ue T ai g q period . his p nting al so w as once 41 THE WALLACE COLLECTION i n i it the Orleans Collect on, where was classed as a Giorgione , a name it bore till quite recently ; but

o f the weakness the construction generally, and i of the landscape in part cular, has caused it, not withstanding its richness of colour and dignity o f design, to be considered by modern connoisseurship o f T nor o f as the work neither itian his first master, i Giorg one, but by some hitherto unidentified Venetian painter in the first half of the sixteenth century.

In passing, we must note that the catalogue 1 4 ’ queries 77 as the year o f Titian s birth . Few is modern students can accept this date , which only given by the artist in a begging letter to Philip ’ o f S i T pa n, when it was to itian s advantage to make o u t The himself to be older than he was . indica tions given by Vasari and Dolce that Titian was 1 4 8 born in 9 are more credible, but probably the nearest approach to the truth is given in a letter, 8 D 1 6 S dated th ecember 5 7, from the panish Consul T Co rno a in Venice ( homas de c ) , which fixes the ’ T 1 482 For year of itian s birth as . a full review ’ o f the evidence concerning the date o f Titian s birth the interested reader is referred to Giorgione i by Mr Herbert Cook, who nclines to agree i with Vasar . To another and very much later age belong the 42

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

“ ” - ts these pot boiling imitators . In some respec i ni he surpasses his master, not in formal d g ty of design but in his vivacious charm and the brilliant o f W luminosity his colour. here Canale gave precise i linear perspective, Guardi g ves us atmospheric perspective . His views are never cold , but bathed in light and air ; they are full of movement, and the little figures peopling them are exquisitely drawn i and grouped . Compar ng him with his master, Mr Berenson shrewdly observes that Guardi had more of an eye for the picturesque and for what may be ff a called instantaneous e ects, thus anticip ting both the Romantic and the Impressionist painters o f our " ow n r centu y . He was a great colourist, and his i f o f o technique, w th its small de t touches col ur, conveys the sparkle o f Venice with a brilliance which, in its own way, has never been surpassed by any painter . His pictures have excited the intense admiration of Whistler and many other The W modern artists . allace Collection contains

o f No s 4 1 4 4 5 02 - 5 04 nine of his views Venice ( . 9 , 9 , ,

5 08 5 1 - 5 1 8 X L , 7 , and , all , except the last, in

o f T Gallery XII . ; and these are his best . hey ’ a represent the maturity of Guardi power, and in no other museum in the world is his delightful art seen to better advantage .

44 THE MASTER - PAINTERS OF THE SEVEN TEENTH CENTURY

W G r P in 1 8 63 L RITIN f om aris , ord Hertford invites L se e his ondon agent , Mr Mawson, to come over and a goodish portrait by Rubens which he had b B T I a b ll ought that year in russels . his is the s e e

Bra nt rst w e o Rubens i , fi if f (XVI ., a sl ghtly t i The varied version of the por ra t at Hague, and Lord H e rtfo rd might pardonably congratulate himself But i on the purchase . he ought to have been st ll more delighted when Mr Mawson secured for him in 1 8 5 6 45 5 0 The Ra inbow , at a cost of guineas,

La ndsca e . dl t o f p (XVI , undoubte y the nobles

Rub e nse s in . the many the collection In all likelihood , M o f however, Mr awson had need his considerable L persuasive powers, for ord Hertford once confessed ’ I do not much like Rubens landscape s . W i l i hether or no we agree w th his ordsh p depends, to some extent, on what we demand of a landscape . There are landscapes which soo the and calm o ur 45 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

i i . spir ts, and there are landscapes which exh larate T hose by Rubens come under the latter category . The Fleming was no mystic in his attitude towards N i t ature ; he approached her w thou awe, without i humil ty, and with the friendly arrogance of a strong man who respects strength in others . He w a s i o f a p oneer landscape painting, but most of his landscapes were painted in the neighbourhoo d of

C a S his - the h teau de tein, country seat near Mechlin , ’ and in them we may trace not only the painter s glory in the pomp and prowess of Nature but the ’ landowner s pride in a handsome and well - ordered estate . An admirable commentary o n The Ra inbow La nd sca e i Dr p has been written by the German cr tic, “ Richard Muther : The struggle of the elements i is past, everything glitters with mo sture , and the trees rejoice like fat children who have just had ” 1 i The l the r breakfast . ast touch is masterly ; it expresses exactly that healthy and contented animalism which radiates from every work by this master . i Rubens lived and painted on the phys cal plane , is and that why, though we pay homage to his A w a s masterpieces at ntwerp, we always feel that he

1 “ ” The H s o of Pa n . ans a e b Ge o . K riehn i t ry inti g Tr l t d y ,

Ph. D . , 1 90 7. 46 SEVENTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTERS unfitte d by his temperament to the treatment of o T religi us subjects . here are five of these at

Adora tion o Hertford House, including the sketch, f the Ma i - g (XXII ., for the altar piece in the A The i The Hol ntwerp Gallery . most satisfy ng is y F a m ily with Eliz a beth a nd St John the Baptist (XVI . which is unusually pleasin g in conception as

The o f St well as in execution . expression the John ff is charming, full of human a ection, and the whole composition is rhythmically balanced and sumptuous ’ in Christ s Cha r e to St Peter . 3 colour . g (XVI , 9 ) is o greatly inferior, and th ugh its authenticity is beyond dispute the work deserves the censure it “ received from Sir Joshua Reynolds : The char a cte rs w i or heavy, thout grace dignity ; the handling on a close examination appears tame even to the suspicion of its being a copy ; the colouring is Th o f remarkably fresh . e name Rubens would not stand high in the world if he had never produced other pictures than such a s this .

How greatly quality is to be preferred to quantity, even in a Rubens, may be recognised when we compare this painting with the Rubens sketches in ri Gallery XXII . , the masterly and spi ted little

- D e ea t a nd D ea th o Max entia s battle scene , f f ’ and the three tiny panels (5 22 - 5 24) of the master s fo r his i The Birth first sketches decorat ve pictures, 47 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o H enri IV. rium ha l n I i t Pa ris T E tr o Henri V. n o f , p y f ,

a nd d édecis . and Ma rri ge of Henri IV. a Ma rie e M

It is interesting to recall that the battle - scene i s one of twelve sketches illustrating the history of C i i in l the Emperor onstant ne the Great, or g a ly designed by Rubens for the tapestry manufacture M at ortlake . Another exuberant Flemin g was Jacob Jordaens 1 5 3 ( 9 the contemporary of Rubens, and greatly influenced by that master though never

u The Riches Autumn . actually his p pil . of (XVII , 1 20) is a splendid example of his baccha nalian

Opulence, finely decorative both in design and colour. The ui i in fr t, vegetables and most of the fol age i S fre th s picture are painted by Frans nyders, who quently collaborated with Rubens and other Antwerp

i i - pa nters . He was a noted pa nter of still life sub

e cts D ead G a me . j , as (XVI , But the most famous pupil o f Rubens w a s tempera W mentally poles apart from his master . here his Rubens made all sitters strong and lusty, Van D i yck made his refined and spir tual . From Rubens l so o as he learnt how to hand e his tools, but so n he had mastered them he obtained widely different s His him re ults . master did well by when he D The m urged Van yck to go to Italy . drea y, poetic - looking youth was spiritually nearer akin to 48

Pm u p p n LE ROY

V a n Dy ck

THE WAL LACE COLLECTION i profound, probably because the art st knew the

i - man more intimately . He was only th rty two i P when he pa nted hilippe, and ten years later he in L died, ondon, but he lived long enough to set a style in portraiture which generations of painters have aimed to emulate, never surpassing, rarely n approachi g . ’ The elegance of Van Dyck s portraits is commonly remarked, but what the casual observer is apt to overlook is that this elegance penetrates below externals to the mind and spirit within . How many ’ portrait painters who have aimed at Van Dyck s elegance have given us nothing but chic " Van Dyck was not only a most accomplished and fluent master of the brush ; he must also have been a keen D psychologist . In the history of art Van yck takes rank with Botticelli as a poet - painter who strove exquisitely to mirror not merely the bodies but the very souls of humanity. The temperamental contrast between R ubens and Van Dyck finds a parallel in the two great portrait painters of Holland of the same century, Frans o n Hals and Rembrandt. Hals also lived the l physical p ane, but whereas Rubens for all his exuberance of spirits never forgot his courtly i o f w a s manners, the bo sterousness Hals that of The a good burgher on the spree . swagger of the

5 0 SEVENTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTERS

The La u hin Ca va lier . 8 4 is brushwork in g g (XVI , ) as provocative as the unconcealed disdain and

conceit of the young soldier depicted . Nobody can dispute the vital force of a canvas by Hals o r contest the supremacy o f his realistic rendering o f

externals, but sometimes we wish that he had dived deeper into character and had concealed his own extraordinary cleverness a little more effectually . ' o Of one thing we may be certain, that Hals th ught

n - o - painti g tremendous fun, and as a happy g lucky Bohemian he would doubtless have roared with laughter if he had been told that o ne day an En glish nobleman would pay £2040 for this portrait . T i Sir W hat lyrical prose wr ter, Frederick edmore , has summed up the difference between Rubens and Rembrandt in a singularly happy phrase A blare ’ Rub e ns s of trumpets announces presence, he “ ” writes ; but Rembrandt simply holds your hand . To o sa c ntinue the analogy, we may y that Hals burs ts in through the door which Van Dyck opens i Sir A no selessly . ntony gives you the most graceful b o w and a most penetrating look ; but he does not “ ” T ff hold your hand . hat is the di erence between B him and Rembrandt. oth have sympathy and ’ D ck s to insight, but Van y are limited the upper o f classes ; those Rembrandt are universal . SI THE WALLACE COLLECTION Rembrandt ’ s intense interest in the humble and lowly may be seen in his tender little panel of

The ood Sa ma ri ta n T i is G (XIV ., h s probably the earliest picture by the master in the Wallace o i C llection, and well illustrates the careful precis on his An of first manner. etching of the same sub ’ j e c t was executed by one of Rembrandt s pupils 1 33 so o ut in in 6 , we shall probably not be far conjecturing that this w a s pain ted in the previous i year or earl er . Lo ok at the portrait of J ea n Pellicorne with his son

as a r Susa nna va n C llen W e o G p (XVI ., or o , if f

Jea n Pellicorne with her Da u hter . o u , g (XVI and y ’ will get a good idea of Rembrandt s ordinary professional style in portraiture about this time ( 1 6 32 We do not count these among ’ n r i Rembra dt s great maste p eces, but this was the o f i sort portrait which his contemporar es liked, which for some twelve years or so kept him a popular and prosperous portrait painter. Had he settled down to this style and not aspired higher — he might have escaped bankruptcy b u t then he would never have become the great master he is . He began his experiments towards evolving a more profound and artistically richer style of portraiture i i i Th by paint ng h mself again and aga n . e portraits

The Artist in a Ca . 5 2 The Artist in a of p (XVI , ) and 52 SEVENTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTERS

Plumed Ha t . 5 5 o f (XVI , ) are early examples this o f ceaseless experimenting, and the development ’ of the master s second manner . Had he stopped even here all might have been well with him from a worldly standpoint, but b o t Rem randt never stood still . How far he had g some twenty years later we know from his Portra it ’ o the Artist s Son Titus f (XVI ., painted about 1 65 i 7, and one of the great masterpieces of portra t painting in the world . How thin and shallow those earlier portraits look by comparison with this haunt ing and passionate portrait o f the boy he loved fo r T loved and lost , eight years later itus died, in 1 665 : the third great loss Rembrandt had f o f su fered since the death his parents . His first S i in 1 642 wife, ask a, had died ; her successor, Hen

dri ck e . S j , some twenty years afterwards urely with a ll reverence we may say that Rembrandt was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. S ff u ering sours or ennobles character, and Rem brandt was o ne of those who are ennobled by the

o trials they un dergo . He lost his popularity alm st 1 642 synchronously with his first wife , in , when he T Ni ht Wa tch u painted he g . Few sitters wo ld go to a madm an who painted faces in shadows which concealed warts and pimples and other characteristic And u traits . he took such liberties with his s bjects 53 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

- that few would go to him for works other than

. The Centurion Cornelius portraits (XVI . , which Dr B 1 65 0 ode places about , is a glorious example o f this tendency . For years experts have been i o f worried to dec pher the subj ect this painting,

The Unmer ul nt which used to be known as cif Serva . By this reading the figure in the turban and red i robe was held to be the Christ, and cr tics enlarged on the displeasure expressed in His face, and the guilt and fear of the Unrighteous Servant whom they took to be the central of the three figures to H o w the right . easily we may misread pictures i if we approach them with preconce ved ideas, and how vastly more important are their decorative than their illustrative qualities " A mezzotint by James W in 1 8 00 i r ard , published , g ves the cor ect title, and

i - we may gather that Cornel us, the red robed figure, in i is no way displeased, while the remain ng three “ he e hold figures are merely two of his servants, and a devout soldier of them that a ite d o n him A i struction continually ( cts x . rece ving s to

diffit t go to Joppa . Of course, all the y has been ’ lo r brought about by Rembrandt s w. o Oriental r Ron i splendou , which led him to habit a centur on “ ” is in Asiatic costume . It not correct the way ’ that Alma Tadema s Roman painting re ; but is in it great a way they are not, because greatness 54 S T T - . EVEN EEN H CENTURY PAINTERS

in art does n o t rest on pettifogging accuracy o f on of antiquarian details but largeness conception, o n ble design and splendid colour . All Rembrandt’ s landscapes were painted between 1 640 1 65 2 too and , and perhaps it is not fanciful to imagi ne that he found in Nature consolation for the loss of his first wife and his waning

popularity .

The La ndsca e with a Coa ch 2 2 s p (XIII ., 9) belong

to the earlier years of his landscape period . It An Idea l La ndsca e old used to be called p , and the title is serviceable as indicating that this picture is almost certainly no t a realistic view of any particular place but a studio composition made u p fro m various sketches of nature put together with

no out regard to topographical accuracy . It may t o f be nature in a petty, literal reading the word, but it is a most po etic rendering of a theme which nature has suggested . Rembrandt excelled in landscape as in every other branch of painting, and in his appreciation of the veil o f beauty which atmosphere casts over a scene, as well as in his capacity to find strangeness in the familiar and beauty in the commonplace , he anticipated the of B romantic landscapes the painters of arbizon . Velasquez was one of the few really great artists in the world who enjoyed a comfortable life and the 55 THE WALLACE COLLECTION general esteem of his contemporari es . He had the gravity and intellectuality of Van Dyck without his ’ D ck s Spirituality . Van y personages are sometimes refined to the point of appearing ghostly ; the men and women of Velasquez are always substantial . o f His realism is as intense as that Hals . Compare ’ La d with a Fa n 8 8 his y (XVI ., ) with the latter s La u hin Ca va lier on The g g the same wall . Velasquez f is literally truer, because it is more di fuse, more

The S o seen as a whole . paniard silently pens a wi ndow on life ; Hals smashes it with a brick - and some have their vision disturbed by the noise of the falling splinters . Nobody has established the identity of this lady i B h w th a fan . eruete has suggested that s e may n be Francisca, the daughter of the pai ter and the M a wife of his pupil , azo, but he brings forw rd no evidence worth talking about to support this A identification . spirited sketch of the same lady ’ D o f D is in the uke evonshire s collection . Of the remaining pictures at Hertford House ascribed to Velasquez the only one whose a uthe n ticity has not been questioned seriously is D on Ba ltasa r Ca rlos in I a nc The nf y (XVI ., present Keeper stoutly defends Don Ba ltasa r Ca rlos in the Ridin School i Sir W g (XVI . , wh ch both alter A B s A rmstrong and eruete a cribe to Mazo . ccording 56

’ T H E ART I ST S SO N T ll’ ’ US

Rem br a ndt SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY PAINTERS

“ Ma c Co ll M o so to Mr , az was incapable Of original ” a design and magical an execution . Perhaps the m o st interesting of the acknowledged “ ” school - pieces is the full - length portrait of Don

Ba ltasa r Ca rlos . (XVI , which was once in the ir possession of S Joshua Reynolds . Northcote relates that on seeing this picture in his master’ s studio he “ greatly admired it and with much ‘ how simplicity said , Indeed it is very fine ; and ’

in Sir J . exactly it is your own manner, oshua Yet it never entered into m y mind that he had touched upon it, which was really the fact, and particularly A i Sir on the face . close nvestigation reveals ’ “ J no t o oshua s restorations, nly in the forehead, hair and shadows round the jaws, but in the whole of the left hand and throughout the background . The original picture at Vienna, of which this is probably a copy by Mazo, has a table with a black o n o f hat it, and beyond that a grey piece wall . “ Mr Macco ll points o ut that Reynolds seems to have taken the dark patc h of the hat as definin g the shape of the table in a curve ; has made the wall a sort of mantelpiece with a little book lying ” n on it, and has broke a second curtain across it . The adventures of an artist do not cease with his C P P death . Velasquez, ourt ainter to hilip IV. of S a P p in and Mayor of the alace, met with a decline 57 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

f i i a ter his decease . He was, comparat vely speak ng, neglected and underrated till the third quarter of the last century, when he was rediscovered and his praises sung loudly and enthusiastically by Manet in W At France and histler in England . a time when artists were preoccupied with problems of i render ng light and air, with colour rather than with i o f i l ne, a multitude worsh ppers was ready to pay o f i homage to the master Madr d, who built up his aerial vistas by the juxtaposition o f subtly harmon The o f ised planes Of colour . vehemence his i o f adm rers was not to be denied, and the name

To - Velasquez became a hou sehold word . day the pendulum has swung so far in his favour that many i T i forgett ng Rembrandt, it an and a few others do not hesitate to call him the greatest painter who ever lived .

Murillo, on the other hand, is less highly esteemed now than when Lo rd Hertford bought a roun d W o ur dozen of his works . hen grandfathers and great - grandfathers spoke of Spanish painting they thought first of Murillo ; when it is mentioned to - day we think of Velasquez, Goya, El Greco, and The almost forget Murillo . present generation ’ finds a flavour of confectionery in Murillo s religious W subjects . e look for sentiment and discover i sentimentality. Murillo was possessed ne ther of 5 8 ' SEVENTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTERS

i i great orig nality nor deep religious feel ng . Indeed, he w a s at his best painting the beggar bo ys o f

S J ose h a nd eville rather than the Holy Family . p his Brethren 46 The Cha rit St Thoma s (XVI . ) and y of o illa nueva f V (XVI . 9 7) are the nearest approach in the Wallace Collection to those pictures in which ” Murillo prettily plays the Lady Bountiful among S The the slums of eville . Of the remaining works,

Ma rria e the Vir in . 1 4 g of g (XVI , ) is perhaps the o most pleasing, while of the f ur canvases not from

. 7 . 1 04 1 33 his own but other hands (XXVI , ; XVII , , ,

Vir in' a nd Child 1 3 3 the oval g ( ) is the best . But D beside Rubens, Van yck, Rembrandt and o Velasquez, Murillo is outclassed at every p int . The official catalogue sums him up kindly but firmly “ He had an unerring instinct fo r graceful and finely balanced composition of the more academic uma to o r type, but, even in his famous sf vaporous style, he cannot be ranked high among the true ” colourists .

59 DUTCH GENRE PAINTINGS AND LANDSCAPES

ALL great art springs from great emotion, and the wonderful artistic activity in Holland during the seventeenth century was inspired by the wave o f patriotism which had broken the yoke o f the Spaniards and established the independence o f the

D o utch Republic . It was l ve of country and con te ntm e nt o f in peaceful domesticity, after the stress

D - war, which made the utch artists pre eminent as of painters the homeland and the hearthside . The Wallace Collection is particularly rich in

o f i L examples th s school , whose ittle Masters are so numerous that it IS a task to mentio n each by o f name, whose work is so full charm and distinction that it becomes invidious to give precedence to o ne over the other . i Chronolog cally, and perhaps artistically as well, A B the first place is claimed by driaen rouwer, whose

B or Aslee . 2 1 1 i s o ne o f o p (XIII , ) the brightest s a j ewels in the Hertford trea ury . He was prob bly

60 DUTCH GENRE PAINTINGS b as 1 606 orn in the same year Rembrandt, in , or w as a few months earlier, but whether he born in l i The Holland or F anders is d sputed . latest authorities favour the latter and give Oudenarde the honour of being his birthplace . More certain is a our knowledge that he spent his youth in H rlem , La where he came under the influence of Hals . ter A A and he worked at msterdam and ntwerp , how highly he was esteemed by his greatest con temporaries may be gathered from the fact that Rub e ns o sse ss d o f w p e seventeen his pictures, hile ’

- Rembrandt had eight and a sketch book . In a sense, ’ B is i rouwer a painter s pa nter, for only those who have studied painting can fully appreciate the greatness o f his achievem ents : but all can admire the humorous vividness of his vision , the summary i m perfection of his draw ng, and the har onious

- o beauty of his enamel like c lour.

His works are exceedingly rare, for, like Giorgione, he died at the early age of thirty - tw o but Brouwer also left a rich foundation for other artists to build i upon and a fame that is ncreasing yearly . How fine a colourist was Brouwer may be re cognised when we compare his little masterpiece o f with any the works by his Flemish successor,

D T Boors Ca rousin avid eniers the Younger . g (XIII . B i in the same room as the rouwer, is qu te a

6 1 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o T in g od example of eniers his silvery manner, but it looks commonplace beside the distinction of the W T i i other. hile en ers endeavoured to ideal se his peasants and make them fit company for respectable i his D A i c tizens, utch contemporary, dr aen van

O sta de l i n his . his , was more ruth ess realisms From version of Boors Ca rousing ( 765 ) close by we learn his tendency to caricature and to amuse his patrons by exaggerating the stupidity and ungainliness of his

Isa ck v a n O sta de victims . His younger brother, , holds the balance more evenly, extenuating no man The Winter nor setting down aught in malice .

Scene 3 his i (XVI . 7 ) is a good example of ser ous and i The A Villa e unprejud ced vision . authorship of g Scene 2 1 it (XVI ., ) is more questionable, and may conceivably come from the hand of one of the Mole na e rs i i , a family of pa nters who extens vely O sta d s copied the style of the e . Dou i o f Gerard , one of the many pup ls Rembrandt

i i da and financ ally the most successful pa nter of his y, made his fortune by never progressing beyond the

A Hermit 1 0 first manner of his master. (XIV., 7 ) is a typical example of his precise, minutely finished i n style, which reta ns its popularity among those u able i i to distinguish between industry and insp rat on .

Do u o f D foreshadows the decay the utch, when prosperous shopkeeping has dulled the fine spirit o f

62

THE WALLACE COLLECTION greater influence on Dutch genre painting than has i T a yet been recogn sed . here are p ssages in ’ T La d a t her Toilet 2 35 i erborch s y (XIII ., ) wh ch recall the colour schemes and enamel - like qua lity of paint which Vermeer learn t from Fabritius and i exquis tely perpetuated . T ’ P 1 630 erborch s greatest rival , ieter de Hooch ( may also be seen at his best in the Interior with W T ma n a nd Bo . o y (XVI , hese two and the other great masters o f the Dutch school are each in his way so perfect that, Rembrandt always excepted,

a s Dr B i it is, ode says, a matter of ndividual taste i i wh ch we place first . For my part, I g ve Vermeer the hegemony for soft radiance of colour, but when it comes to Terborch and De Hooch I can only ’ The bracket them as equals . latter s figures are i i T not so ar stocrat c as those of erborch, but they are seen as finely and have their being in the same clear light which both these masters observed and i rendered so lov ngly .

Gabriel Me tsu ( 1 629 - 1 667) is a fo rmidable rival to W u 40 The Letter riter S r rised . 2 both . p (XIII , ) shows has how close he went to Vermeer, and his colour a tenderness which tends to make even a Terborch ’ ’ i Me tsu s look a l ttle hard . On the other hand, i i s i observat on less subtle, his research into l ght and shade is not carried so far ; but he knows well how 64 Bo o n ASLEEP

Br ouw er LADY READI N G A LETTE R

Te r bo r ch DUTCH GENRE PAINTIN GS to set his stage decoratively and his pictures are always sprightly and dramatic . i Known formerly chiefly as a portra t painter, Nicolas Maes ( 1 632 another pupil o f Rem a ll brandt, is now valued above for his genre

o The paintings . Of the two at Hertf rd House ,

Listenin H ousew e . 2 2 4 g if (XIII , ) is by far the better, though it is one of his earlier works in this style . In the best of his works there is a real passion of “ o T i s bservation and penetrating intimacy . here ’ ” Dr B scarcely any pupil Of Rembrandt s , says ode , “ who appro aches the great master so nearly as

Maes does in this series of pictures . Unfortunately the series is severely limited ; some thirty only are 1 6 1 665 ai e 5 5 . known to exist, all p nted b tween and “ After this date circumsta nces drove him into po t boiling portraits, of which we have no examples T here . he two attractive po rtraits of boys with 2 0 6 hawks (XVI . , , 9 ) have been taken away from Maes by the most recent scholarship and given to

o J . his slightly lder contemporary , oannes van Noord

Ja n Steen ( 1 6 26 - 1 67 represented by five pictures T here , must be rated with eniers as not more than

o a sec ndary genre painter . He is cleverly satirical , s m i n occa ionally acco plished , but his l ghti g is rarely true o r beautiful and his colour never ri ses to pre

i n s a n i c o us e s d is frequently downright nharmonious . 65 THE WAL LACE COLLECTION Between the genre painters and the landscape painters o f Holland stands Aart v a n der Neer ( 1 603 1 6 7 a most convenient and fascinating causeway . B orn three years before Rembrandt, he is one of the f great Early Fathers o landscape, and he is splendidly represented in the Wallace Collection . He antici n 1 6 1 pated Whistler in painting noctur es (XIV . , , Wi t n Dr B n er Sce e . while ode ranks his (XIII , “ 1 5 Ska tin Scene . 2 1 7 9) and g (XIV , ) here as among ” the most perfect landscape delineations of winter . L so L of ike many of the ittle Masters Holland, Aart v a n der Neer deteriorated towards the end

- - of his life . He was a tavern keeper and wine seller in as well as painter, and conceivably reverses business may have dri ven him to pot - boil in his But last years . the two winter scenes here belong i 1 65 5 1 665 to his best period , approx mately to , when he was not dependent on painting for a liveli hood and as a happy amateur could paint how he pleased . Farming has always been a very importa nt industry of Holland , in the seventeenth century as it is

- to day, and the homely realism which is the feature of Dutch art was directed towards the co untry a s i well as the town . Of those who pa nted cattle P P 1 62 5 —1 65 4 is aul otter ( ) the most celebrated,

- The though he died in his twenty ninth year . 66 DUTCH GENRE PAINTINGS precision of his drawing has been adm ired for

i o ne centur es, and the Wallace Collection contains o f Ca ttle in Storm Wea ther his best and latest works, y But (XIII ., as well as two others . his objective , i m personal accuracy o f delineation is apt to tire us by its very impartiality and lack of strong perso nal feeling ; though we do not all dare to be as severe ’ Dr P as Muther, who regards otter s cattle as

D fo r n o essentially utch , they know either passi ns, nor struggles, nor movement, but chew the cud ” o phlegmatically or lie down in comf rtable repose .

A i v a n son o f o dr aen de Velde, the fam us marine o f painter and member a great family of artists,

i - was another accompl shed and short lived painter. But whereas with Potter the cattle were the principal theme, with Van de Velde they were only o f part the landscape . Even a religious subject,

The Mi ra tion Ja cob 8 0 such as g of (XVI . ) was seized u u pon as an excuse to paint animals o t of doors . Bu t the sunn iness and atmospheric charm which distinguished his art is not so well seen in this

Noonda Rest . large work as in the smaller y (XIV , As so frequently happens with him and other artists , the little pictures are the greatest . Cattle figure largely also in the paintings o f Aelbert Cuyp ( 1 620 so numero usly and finely But represented at Hertford House . his principal 67 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

s interest lay neither in the bea t nor in the earth, o o f but ab ve, in the mighty vault the heavens ; and it is in his painting o f skies and sunlight that his

Shi in on the Ma cs mastery is most clearly seen . pp g a t Do rdrecht . 4 The Fer B a t on the (XVI , 9) and ry o

Ma es . 5 4 O f (XVI , ) are both brilliant examples ’ Cu s o yp glowing light and golden col ur. T fo r o P hough distinguished his h rses, hilips Wo uw e r m a nn was a painter no t of animals but o f genre , and we shall find many pictures here, whether ’ H rse F ir F r Sh a a rrie s o . o (XVI ., p (XIV , o r Ca m Scene p where in his clever, character istic way he puts i n a white horse just where his i composition requ res a spot of light colour . A D part from all other utch landscape painters, i belonging ndeed to another race altogether, stands the austere and m ajestic figure of Jacob v a n Ruisdael ( 1 62 8 We may easily pass by his two i in i Rock paint ngs the Wallace Collect on, the y

La ndsca e . 5 0 La ndsca e with p (XVI , ) and the p Wa terfa ll for they have none of the bright colour and lively detail which draws o ur eyes to the work of lesser men . Yet if we search we shall find therein all the essential details of a scene in so nature, and these are ordered into unity that the

f o f o whole gives the e fect an instantaneous impressi n . “ The lasting, singular impression made on us by 6 8

THE WALLACE COLLECTION splendidly represented here by his Wa termill

(XVI . , 99) and four other landscapes . He was ’ Ru sda e l s ff y pupil and friend , but as di erent in temperament from his master as a man could well N be . Ruysdael goes to ature with the devoutness o f a worshipper approaching a shrine ; Hobbema, with the unconscious ease of a man entering his o wn home .

He painted the same subjects over and over again, so and he painted them so naturally, freshly and i conv ncingly, that they take us straight to nature rather than to pictures by other artists . In the humble ness and sincerity o f his naturalism he i s so near to o ur own feelings o f delight in sunny weather and fresh country air, that nobody requires his pictures W to be explained to them . hat does require explanation is how it happened that this most simple, honest, and easily understood painter fared so poorly in the profession o f art that at thirty he was thankful to take a small position in the wine customs to gain his independence . ElG HTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTING IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND

IN art the eighteenth century belongs to France

o and England . It was the age in which each f und to a national style, and though owing the exclusion o f English furniture but a limited idea o f the unity and co mpleteness o f our o wn culture at this

o period can be formed fr m the Wallace Collection, it reflects the artistic activity and thought o f eighteenth - century France with a rounded fulness that is given nowhere else in this country, that is hardly to be found in France except at Versailles . France had great masters of painting before the eighteenth century . Recently we have learnt that she too had her primitives, and one of her earlier sixteenth - century painters is brilliantly represented at Hertford House, among the miniatures, by the Da me de Clous T t exquisite (XI . his undoub edly o f J comes from the hand ean Clouet himself, but the

. Ma r panels in Gallery III , including the charming y 7 1 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

Stua rt o r hi s are not by the master, son,

Francois Clouet, but able contemporary copies . Though the almost feminine grace and finesse ’ of Clou e t s drawing may be held to be characteristic Of ca n France, his hardly be styled a national art .

It is too near to that of his contemporary, Hans

Holbein the Younger, whose more tender qualities

The a ne Se m ur are not represented here . J y o 5 5 4 nor (III ., ) is pretty good, but neither this the Edwa rd VI 5 4 . ( 7) are true Holbeins ; they are adaptations o f the originals to be found respectively in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna and our o wn

N P To se e m ational ortrait Gallery . the aster himself, in a double sense, we must again hunt among the miniatures till we find the tiny but colossal circular portrait o f the artist by himself X L B The i ( , Case , tremendous vir lity expressed in this little masterpiece is eloquent of the sturdy workman w ho would brook no interruption when “ o f he was busy . Memories Father William rise

o ur to mind, and as we linger we can almost hear “ ’ f i : Be o ff or Ill o u a gru f voice excla ming , kick y down stairs . England imported her earlier masters fr om the o o f C ntinent, though the brilliance her indigenous miniaturists suggests that some day research may unearth native primitives . France bred them, but 72 INT E RI O R W l'l‘ H W O M AN AN D BO Y

1) e flung /i

5 EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTING 3. when they were full grown they went and lived ’ T P Da nce to in Italy . hat is why neither oussin s

the Music Time . 1 08 Ita lia n of (XVII , ) nor the

La ndsca e . 1 1 4 L p (XVII , ) Of Claude orrain can be o o T c nsidered alt gether Gallic in origin . hey were

- great men, world masters whose innovations left — an indelible impress o n landscape painting the o f development which , by the way, can be traced with rare co mpleteness in the Wallace Collection

o to o but their art bel ngs the world , to Eur pe P generally rather than to France . hilippe de

Champaigne again, though usually numbered among

o the French school , was b rn a Fleming and a

o Fleming he remained, as his p rtrait and religious

. 1 1 1 2 7 f . paintings here (XVII , 9, ) su ficiently prove No ; that painting which we rightly look upon as essentially and characteristically French was b o rn La r illiere Louis X IV a nd his when g began painting .

Fa mil . 1 2 2 y (XVII , ) and Watteau left Valenciennes for Paris . The Wallace Co llection is so infinite in its variety that it necessarily stands in the minds o f visitors fo r many things, according to their private inclinations . To mos t people it stands above a ll for French art O f the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but some analyse their preferences more minutely, and among thes e are individuals with whom the Wallace 73 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

- for W T Collection stands pre eminently atteau . hese o f o n fanatics have some show reason their side , for not even in the Louvre can the obj ect of their P adoration be more delightfully worshipped . erson if f ally, I confess that a grateful nation o fered me for i pr vate use during my lifetime one picture, and one picture only, from the Wallace Collection, I should n o t hesitate a moment before unhooking A Lady a t her Toilet . Venus (XIX , It is as unique as the of Velasquez, and dare I add that to my thinking it is lovelier and more joyous " It is n o t at all typical o f

Watteau, and that partially accounts for its supreme beauty and charm . For it rarely happens that an ’ artist s greatest efforts are superficially typical o f Th i his more ordinary professional practice . e N ght ” Wa tch is no more typical of Rembrandt than the M o f A a ss of Bolsena is Raphael . t the same time none but these great masters could have painted o ne o them , and no but Watteau c uld have painted

La Toilette. His alone is the tender, impeccably correct yet expressive draughtsmanship ; his alone is of the subtle orchestration ethereal colour . There “ have been many painters who were great draughtsmen, there have been many painters who were great colourists ; but those w ho were supreme both in drawin g and colour we can almost count o n

W a s o f r Lo our fingers . atteau w thei number . ok 74

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

fi cia l d age, and being a true artist, he could har ly s t i o f its a rtifi cialit But escape reflecting ome h ng y. if he showed us the hectic charm o f a civilisation

his already being consumed by mortal malady, honesty and insight into character forbid his allow ing us to imagine that the happiness o f his puppets is anything more than a passing moment of forget

- d ha s fulness and self eception . He the sensitive o f soul the true Frenchman, the sensitiveness that makes France the gayest and saddest of nations . With his remarkable sympathy for French art and Sir French character, Frederick Wedmore has rightly “ o n i o n laid stress the reflect ve pathos, the p ig ant melancholy, which are among the most appealing gifts o f him who was accounted the master o f the frivolous, of the monotonously gay . ’ When I wrote just now o f Wa tte a u s successors I P L was not thinking of his imitators, ater and ancret, whose elegant pastorals were so eagerly bought up

P o by Lord Hertford . ater was a type Of the pr sper ous plagiarist, whose confections are Often pretty

too and dainty but never profound . His colour is greatly inferior to that of his master, as we may ’ learn by comparing Wa tte a u s ex quisite little H a rle

uin a nd C lumbine P q o (XVIII .) with any ater in the o L o ut collecti n . ancret was cut for better things . If Pater pleases us best when he com es nearest to 6 . 7 EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTING L his master, ancret impresses us most favourably o f when he is farthest removed . He had a grasp t i s P charac er wh ch the hallower ater never possessed, o f and at his best, as in his superb portrait an actress La Belle rec ue known as G q (XX . , he has a dramatic force which Watteau never possessed . Had he never approached nearer to Watteau than

Ma demoiselle Ca ma r o Da ncin . he does in g g (XVIII ,

another spirited and individual figure subject, his reputation wo uld stand higher than it does to day ; but he could not resist the temptation of being Pi in the fashion . ctures which are based merely on other pictures and not on personal feeling and

s o ob ervation are m ribund before they are dry, and ’ La ncre t s clever but unscrupulous plagiarism lo st ’ him the higher fame as well as Wa tte a u s friend ship . If Watteau laid the fo undations for the romantic o f La r and landscape art modern France , Rigaud, gilliér e and Nattier evo lved the French portrait in to the grand style . It is impossible do justice to these portraits in an ordinary picture gallery, and it is only when we se e them spacio usly h o used in co nj unction with the ornate furniture o f the period that we realise how admirably they reflect the ’ o f P Ma d temper the time . ortraits like Nattier s e ’ moiselle de Clermont 456 Bo Ma r uise (XX , ) and ucher s q 77 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

de Pom a dour . 4 1 8 p (XVIII , ) are not to be judged as easel paintings but as items in an elaborate scheme o f interior decoration . In that they take their place with an arrogant confidence that is justified by the T result . here is nothing like them in the history of

o a s p rtraiture, just there never was a Court exactly like that of the “ Grand Monarch and of his immediate successors . In these portraits is recon v e e d o its y to us all the splendour of that C urt,

its . T ostentation, luxury and its heartlessness hey o f i so o f are the quintessence ar stocratic feeling, full is culture that there little room for humanity, the most po mpous paintings the world has ever seen . Beside their measured stateliness our English i o f portra ts, even the highest personages, never appear more than genteel ; for England in the eighteenth century was already in the grip o f ir no t democracy . S Joshua Reynolds may have had

Willia m ourthDuke o ue ens a promising subj ect in , f f " ben I. B y ( , but oucher, who was not over s particular about getting likenesses, would at lea t

k . o have made him look li e a duke Reyn lds, with the bluff irreverence and common - sense w hich used to characterise our countrymen, makes him look “ ” Sir J exactly like Old Q . oshua and his con “ ” temporaries ta lked a lot about the grand style, but whenever they attempted it they only made 78 EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTING themselves look ridiculous . When they forgot what had been d one in Italy and what w a s being done in o w n France, and were content to be their homely natural selves, then they give us masterpieces like ’ M r Ri h r H Nell O Brien . 3 8 s c a d oa re the y (XVI , ) and with her Infa nt Son masterpieces which we “ ” not love, because they are in the grand style, though we admit their decorative qualities, but because they are intimate and familiar and full o f s — in in per onal feeling short, because they are wa s tensely human . Nelly, we are told, no better

she than should have been, and a French painter of that period w o uld have thrust her misfo rtune in her

But Sir J - t face . oshua, great hear ed gentleman and no t she true Christian, painted her, because was my ’ Lo rd Bolingbro ke s mistress but for his o w n go o d

she w a s because a woman, God bless her, a pleasure to o to kn w and look upon, and, above all, a human being compact of faults and virtues like himself. We must admit that Sir Joshua and the rest l o ok heavy - handed beside their contemporaries across the

Channel . We will give the Frenchmen their due, they could be magnificent in the lightest and airiest The fashion . Englishmen were too solid for airiness

o o fo r T and t stolid magnificence . hey could only

s ; f be sub tantial and comfortable and a fectionate .

But n o t if there were some things they could do, 79 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o hi there were also ther t ngs , impossible to their h neig bours, which they could achieve with ease . ’ Among these are Sir J oshua s two child portraits

The Stra wberr Gir l 40 here, y (XVI . , ) and the little Miss Bowles girl with the dog,

We can understand Reynolds a lot better, and perhaps appreciate his qualities more keenly , when we learn of the preliminaries which preceded the i i l Sir B pa nt ng of this ast . George eaumont advised

Mr B e so owles to ask Reynolds to din , that the great man might become acquainted with his sitter . The advice was taken ; the little girl placed beside Sir J so oshua at the dessert, where he amused her much with stories and tricks that she thought him the most charming man in the world . He made her look at something distant from the table and l to o stole her p ate ; then he pretended l ok for it, then contrived it sho uld come back to her with o ut The she her knowing how . next day was delighted she sat to be taken to his house, where down with

a t a face full of glee, the expression of which he ” 1 once caught and never lost . To have told Sir Joshua that he was just a m ass

o i of emoti ns would, no doubt, have been to inv te a sound cudgelling, but it would not have been far

1 “ L a nd T me s o f Sir os ua Re o s Le s e a nd ife i J h yn ld , li

Ta ylo r . 80 NELLY O ’ B RI EN

' 5 fr j os hua Rey no la s MISS H AVE RFIELD

Ga i ns bo r oug h

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

Sir J r less emotional than oshua, but he is a greate i i colour st, and there can be l ttle doubt that he took in a W a hint this dep rtment from atteau, whom in one picture at least he directly emulated. His treatment of foliage greatly resembles that of W W atteau, and it is the technique of atteau which bears the closest resemblance to that network of small touches of colour which gives so great a vi vacity to the Mrs Robins on ( 4 2) and other works in co m re by Gainsborough, touches which were p h nsi l ir e b e to so many of his contemporaries . S Joshua could not altogether approve of these

his to eccentricities, but honesty would not allow him ’ ff i o deny their e ectiveness when, after Ga nsb rough s “ i . is death , he pa d his tribute to the painter It “ o dd certain , he said , that all those scratches and

o n o so o b se rv marks which , a close examinati n, are ’ in able Gainsborough s pictures, and which even to experienced painters appear rather the effect of — accident than design this chaos, this uncouth and ’ i shapeless appearance, by a kind of mag c at a certain d distance assumes form, and all the parts seem to rop so into their proper places, that we can hardly refuse i ff o f acknowledg ng the full e ect diligence, under the ” appearance of chance and hasty negligence . Inherited tendencies so quickly accustom us to o f s the outlook a great ma ter, that few people now

82 EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTING are even conscious o f this peculiarity in Gains ’ But o borough s paintings . to his contemp raries a Gainsborough must have seemed as strange as P a Mancini, a Monet, or a issarro did to us only a few years ago . Romney, the third great English

so painter of the period, is not well represented his his here as rivals , and it must be confessed that ” Perdita as is charming she , looks a little wooden beside those of Reynolds and Gainsborough . It is worth noting that the portraits by Romney and Gainsborough were done while this gifted actress and authoress was under the “ protection o f Bu t o George IV. that royal rascal so n tired — - o of her, and at the age of twenty f ur when — Reynolds painted her she had already been “ abandoned by the first gentleman in Europe .

When he sent her away, the scamp gave her a bond P for but he never paid it, and erdita

1 800 . Robinson died in , poor and paralysed

o n e - Curiously enough , the eighteenth century

o French artist tainted with dem cracy, Chardin, whose intense humanity links him to his c on temporaries acro ss the Channel as his colour exalts — him over most o f their heads this great painter was unaccountably missed both by Lo rd Hertfo rd Sir W and Richard allace . His pupil , Fragonard,

f o f a very di ferent sort man , appealed to them more 83 THE WALLACE COLLECTION strongly and their group of nine Fra gona rds is to i hardly be equalled in any other collect on . Fragonard was only for a few months with i Chardin, by whom he was little nfluenced . It would be extravagant to se e much o f the latter ’ Fra o n a rd s Yo un even in g domestic subjects, the g

Schola r 4 5 5 o r The Schoolmistr ess (XX . ) (XVIII . s Chardin is always serious and earne t, Fragonard o o f is fr licsome and playful . How characteristic him is his signature in the latter delightful picture , where the subject suggests the alphabet and he “ impishly traces o n the backgro und A B C D E B Fragonard He learnt more from oucher, his B second master, for oucher also in his own way was a master in the harmonising of schemes of ’ l Bu t Fra o na rd s has delicate co our. g paint a fat,

u o o to Bo m l scious b dy unkn wn ucher, and this ost

o T o likely he got fr m iepolo, whose w rk he studied attentively in Italy after he had won the Prix de B Rome . oucher, as I have already hinted, was

o T a decorat r rather than a painter . hat is where his ff o for w a s pupil di ers fr m him , Fragonard a

o We painter as well as a decorat r . should know this if no thing o f his existed but the La dy Ca rving

her Na me . L (XVIII , It cost ord Hertford £ 1 400 1 8 65 w a s in , but it not a penny too dear,

o it so i it is for th ugh is t ny (nine by seven inches) , 84

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

But a bad time was co ming fo r all these

i o aristocrat c painters . Happy th se who died before

o the French Rev lution set in . Fragonard lived o n and nobody then wanted panels like those on o f The the staircase Hertford House . Cupids were asleep with a vengeance and only the gods of war were in demand . Even Greuze, distinctly a l bourgeois painter, cou d not accommodate himself to the change in taste , and both died in poverty . r r It seems extraordina y that Greuze, most popula O f a ll so painters at times, should have fared badly But at the end of his life . there is an explanation . T hat innocent, sweet little person who looks out at you from so many frames o n the walls o f Hertford House brought her immortaliser to a o u o f o u miserable end . If y are a judge character y will probably have come to the conclusion long ago that the Greuze girl is not so innocent as she “ ” She pretends to be . is eminently kissable, and ou if yo u are wise y will leave it at that . Greuze ’ married her to save her reputation, so tis said, and o o f She lived t repent his bargain . was the daughter

‘ Old bo okse lle r on i A i of an the Qua des ugust ns, and her latest biographer does n o t conceal the fact that “ her every feature announced a hasty, passionate, ” 1 and rather voluptuous nature . 1 G euz e and his o e s o n R e s. r M d l , J h iv r 86 EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY PAINTING

’ o o o f Owing to her husband s exp siti n her charms, Anne Gabriel became o ne o f the noted beauties o f she the day, and repaid him by robbing him not only of his peace o f mind but o f large sums o f money that he had saved . But all Frenchwomen were not like that, even o o W before the Rev luti n, and happily the allace m o f i o f Collection re inds us the ex stence another, an honour to her sex, her country and her time . We cannot do full justice to the art of Madame Vige e le Br Of un from what we see it in Hertford House . Of the charm of her personality we get some idea D ’ X L 244 from umont s miniature ( , Case C, ) and

Portra it a Bo in Red 4 4 Mada me her of y (XX , 9) and Pe rr ega ua: (45 7) tell something of her executive o f o f ability, her understanding children , of her But human sympathy . to take her measure we must see he r portrait o f herself and her little L n daughter at the ouvre , and then we k ow she was not only the most human portrait painter practisin g in France during her time but also one of the truest and most accomplished artists of her century . MODERN FRENCH PAINTI NGS

To examine critically a gift - horse is n ot supposed

l no t to be good form . It is impo ite, tactful ; but if yo u W ish to form a just estimate o f its value the The proceeding is highly sensible . modern paintings acquired by Lord Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace include many works of fine quality, but they also include a gr eat number o f pictures which are poor

o f in quality, were popular in their time, and are

- T dis little or no interest to day . hat both these cri minating art patrons should have made so few mistakes when purchasing “ old masters ” and so many mistakes when buying the wo rks of living

- artists , merely proves what the well informed have — difli cult long known namely, that it is infinitely more to recognise great talent among our contemporaries than among the dead whose praises have already been sung . Where so many collectors err in their patronage of livi ng art is that they are tempted to be gu ided 88

LADY CA RV I NG H ER N AM " F r ag on a r d MODERN FRENCH PAINTINGS in their choice no t o nly by the merit o f the work

o s T o w ho o but by the positio n f the arti t . h se f rget thi s tendency will be tempted to wo nder whatever in the world induced Lord Hertford to acquire

- twenty nine pictures by Horace Vernet, a painter whose existence we sh o uld have fo rgotten long a go o but fo r his tires me intrusion at Hertfo rd House . o At The explanati n is very simple . the time these paintings were bought Horace Vernet was President O A his f the French cademy, a great man to con

o o f o o temp raries because he was head a great sch l, o to o and a charming and c urtly man bo t . Many people would think they were quite safe in buying the pictures o f a president o f an academy ; but

L o ord Hertford, had he lived l ng enough , would have discovered that it all depends o n w ho is the

J n o president . If he is a oshua Rey lds, well and no t ou good ; but more often he is , and then y get o r no t an Eastlake a Vernet . It infrequently ’ happens that an artist s reputatio n after his death in is in inverse ratio to what it was his lifetime .

So o f with Horace Vernet, his little pictures soldiers are tolerably pleasing as unimportant illustrations, but the large canvases admired by kings and emperors in his day are as dead as those monarchs, and on the whole are rather less respected . The case of H o race Vernet proves how fallible 89 THE WALLACE COLLECTION the most experienced collector may be when he T exercises his judgment among the living . here are always people to be found who will maintain that preferences in painting are merely “ a matter ” o f W taste . hen dealing with what is excellent o f i its k nd, this is true . It is a matter of taste ou to whether y prefer Watteau Chardin, Rousseau D to Corot, Courbet to elacroix , but if it was possible fo r you to prefer Vernet to any o f these it would no t of o f be a matter taste, it could only be a lack

Fo r o ur knowledge . if taste dictates choice between equals, it is knowledge which enables us to dis cri mi nate between what is excellent and what is inferior. I have no desire to dwell unduly o n Lord ’ H e rtford s mistakes ; it is plea santer to dwell on what is true and beautiful and lasting in its charm but I am thankful that not a single Vernet in the collection can be traced to the instigation of Mr M o Mawson . I like to think that awson w uld have known better. The pomp and circumstance o f what I may call Ludov icia n art was utterly destroyed by the French T ae Revolution . heocritus gave place to C sar, and Davi d and his school arose to paint Roman histo ry and military subjects to meet the popular demand ’ i vi B of the t me . Da d s pupil, aron Gros, another 90

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

Ingres was the o n e great arti st w ho came o u t o f the studio o f David and had Raphael fo r his The o o f D o model . id l elacr ix was Rubens, and he o f o f was as enamoured colour as was Ingres line . 1 8 24 In , when the paintings of Constable were P S exhibited for the first time in the aris alon ,

D - elacroix, then twenty six years of age , was greatly ’ o impressed by the Englishman s work, and n Varnishing Day he made his o w n picture brighter with more luminous colouring . He was probably the first of modern painters to study colour scie ntifi c

: fo r ally to ask of a red , example, not merely whether it was light or dark but whether it a p d u pro a che orange or purple . H e studied the magn m us o n Op of the great scientist Chevreuil colour, but he based his practice far more on his o w n Observations W than on scientific theories . hen he w as in Morocco he wrote in his journ al about shadows o n had and the faces of two peasant boys he seen ,

- remarked that whereas the sallow, yellow faced boy

- one had violet shadows, the ruddy faced had green shadows . He began that research into the colour of shadows the expression of which has been the i supreme achievement of modern paint ng . All no w s colour, we know, is relative, not ab olute, and depends on many things : the colour o f the light, the distance of the object from the eye, and 92 MODERN FRENCH PAINTINGS

The o f its surroundings . colour an object close to

is o o fo r the eye what we call l cal col ur ; example, the white of the newly fallen snow o n the ground just

But - i s beneath us . snow topped h ll lighted by the setting sun are reddish in hue, and this is an

of example illumination colour . Hills covered with i green grass seen from a great d stance appear blue , and thus we learn of the existence of atmospheric o But no t c lour. this is all, for further complications are brought about by the fact that when two co lours are juxtaposed each tends to throw its a complement ry into the other. Delacro ix learnt something about this while he was painting The Execution of the Doge Ma r ino F a liero (XV., He had been trying hard to get o brilliancy in his yell ws, without succeeding to his

o ne da n liking ; and then y, while walki g through o f P sa w the streets aris, he a black and yellow cab, and he noticed that beside the greenish - yellow the o n o f black took a tinge violet, its complementary . He had disco vered another secret law of colour : that to obtain the full brilliance o f any given hue it should be flanked and supported by its co m ple m e n tary colour . He did no t attain to full knowledge ; it was left fo r later generations to make finer distinctions and reco gnise that if vio let is the right

- complementary for a greenish yellow , an orange 93 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o D o no t yell w requires turquoise blue . elacr ix did

i o get further than opposing yellow by V let, as we

se e i may in his work at Hertford House , a p cture 1 8 26 painted, we should remember, in , before he ’ o T went to Morocc . his was one of the painter s favourite works, and a very splendid and glowing

a creation it is, as we may realise by comp ring it with the works hung round it . Many of these are is very beautiful in colour, but none more alive and is e vibrating in its colour . It fin ly dramatic as well , Spirited in its design and the general presentatio n o f S the subject . ome day , perhaps, it will be hung a s in a better place, where its qualities a landmark in the rise of romantic painting may more easily be

is D perceived . It the finest elacroix in any English gallery, but all the same we cannot take the full measure o f the painter till we have seen his Triumph of Traj a n at Rouen or his works in the Louvre . The smaller F a ust a nd Mephistopheles ( 342) is interesting as showing ho w Delacroix was moment l of B o a ri y influenced by the style his friend oningt n, but it can hardly be regarded as a representative “ o f i example of the leader the Romantic pa nters ,

o f o whose aim was the substitution c lour, life and poetry for the frigid G raec o - Roman classicality o f ’ David s school . Richard Parkes Bo nington was born near Notting 94

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

n Wa n F n La dsca e with Timber o ra ce . p gg , (XV , i ia D we beg n to understand the enthus sm of elacroix , ’ who hailed hi s friend s works as diamonds by which i the eye s fascinated .

Gericault ( 1 79 1 another short- lived painter

D on who also influenced elacroix , was built a more i hero c scale , as we may gather even from his little sketch of A Ca va lry Skirmish How spirited and full o f animation this appears beside man y similar subj ects in its neighbourhood " It w a s fro m Gericault perhaps that Delacroix caught the fire of s n pa sionate drawing, that tempestuous renderi g of form which characterises the work of both these i o f But e in pa nters revolt. G ricault, though his pa t is always of good quality, was not really a fine

colourist . In this he was surpassed by many lesser

No t D i men . by elaroche, whose comprom se between the classicism o f Ingres and the romanticism of Delacroix was highly popular and successful in his a s a i day, but appears to us t me and unspir ted as u compromises in art sually are, but by men like ’ P De o rud hon, camps and C uture, who usually become tiresome and depressing when they attempt a large

canvas, but are almost invariably delightful in small W pictures . hen they felt themselves obliged to paint a g ra nde ma chine they fo rced their genuine ta lent

beyond its capacity, and the perpetuation of their 96 LADY AT H E R TO I LET

lVa tte a u L A BELLE G REC" U E

L a nc r e t

THE WALLACE COLLECTION interest us by their industry and exactitude of detail ; they have the greater qualities o f freedom of o f handling, intense virility and glow colour. Have you noticed the family resemblance between the De fat, luscious paint of camps, Couture and a few " T more hey got it, like Millet and some other ’ a Co rre io s gre t men not represented here, from gg

Ju iter a nd Antio e L . T p p at the ouvre hey could be, Corre io s i and were, gg in little ; but when they tr ed o n his o w n to rival him scale disaster awaited them . D : D iaz drew inspiration from the same source iaz,

o D i whose w rks fit the phrase of elacro x, diamonds is by which the eye fascinated , far more closely o f B o 266 2 68 than those oningt n . His little Cupids ( , ) and Founta in a t Consta ntinop le (3 1 2) are among the most precious things in colour in the whole c o lle c

- tion, and they also possess pre eminently that charm “ o f surface which we hopelessly define as quality

— b a flle s of paint hopelessly, because, in truth , it f ff de inition . We know the di erence between velvet i we and velveteen, between satin and sat nette and should be able to feel the difference between the D D surface quality of a elacroix and a elaroche, a B We Diaz and a onheur. feel that the one is but ” bread and scrape compared with the other ; but we canno t get over the difficulty by thinking we have only to spread on paint thickly enough in order to 9 8 MODERN F RENCH PAINTINGS

“ u get q ality . For it has been Obtained with the thinnest and most liquid of vehicles by Gainsborough

o w ho and a few others , and un btained by many have loaded their canvases with pigment .

fo r Once our eye is trained to look it, we mark the difference in surface between a Dupre and a

o is o n R usseau, and it his want of this quality, am g o o D e low thers, that f rces us to rank upr among the B so r e re painters of arbizon . Rousseau , finely p sented here by his Gla de in the F orest of Fonta ineblea u

o we must rate high , very high , for ther q ualities besides those of the surface of his paint .

He is the great realist among the landscape men, n o t limited in his choice of themes like Corot, but o to mnivorous, painting everything be found in the

o . n o t f rest, at all seasons, at all hours He does look

o f o at Nature with the dreamy gaze a p et, but with the fiery glance o f a phil o sopher w ho would rend her secrets from her . In this passionate search fo r N plastic form, for the very anatomy of ature , his paintings may appear prose beside the poetry o f Co ro t ; but it is the sonorous prose o f exact language

o grandil quently phrased in carefully rounded perio ds . R is o ousseau an eagle, said C rot, with charming “ m o desty ; as for me I am o nly a lark who utters But little cries among the grey clouds . ho w ex q uisite are his trills " We cannot judge him by his 99 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

Macbeth a nd the Witches 2 8 1 fo r i ( ) here, , fel citous its as this may be in rhythmic design and. silvery o n o t o f t nality, it is an altogether frank expression ’

. s o f the painter s soul Corot, the supreme ma ter reveries in paint, had to force himself not a little to become dramatic, and somehow , despite the charm o f and mystery the evening landscape , we feel that

too i o he is a little stra ned to be alt gether himself, It is interesting because it is of so exceptional a to character, and , relative what many others have

. But o o no done, it is a thing of beauty for C r t, ;

no t to se e here he does give us of his best, and that we must go at least as far a s the Salting Bequest in

o the Nati nal Gallery .

T D fo r o rc e royon, who like iaz had worked the p i a t Se B la n factory vres before he went to arbizon , began his career as a landscape painter ; but at thirty - eight he discovered that he co uld paint cattle

w a s and what more important, could sell his paintings o f them . Combining the cattle demanded by the public with the landscape which really interested i him most, he contrived to rema n an artist and yet make a good thing o ut of painting . Corot sold his

first picture when he was fifty, and, though fourteen years his senior, was still an unknown man when

T o - r yon was a well known and prosperous painter. But neither his art nor his nature was spoilt

IOO

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

” painting o f Boudin and prepared the way for the

o f P luminist landscapes Claude Monet and issarro . The modern paintings o f schools other than the

To French hardly bear talking about . have bought V e rb o e ckho v e n G alla it B L , and aron eys, and to have A S W missed lfred tevens and illem Roelofs, throws ’ little credit on our collectors excursions to Belgi um . No r are the modern British painters much to brag o The T ab ut. urner sketches are nothing out of the — B — way, and the rest onington excepted is little o f B above the low level the Chantrey equest . Our co llectors do no t appear to have pro fited by history when they started to collect works by living on painters . Else had they known that it is the pictures which academies reject that the art of the future is built, and that posthumous fame has a way of unseating the mighty from their safe o fli cia l seats and o f exalting the meek and lowly to the throne o f Le t o f grace . us think Corot and Horace Vernet

sa and y no more .

1 0 2 BRON"ES AND SCULPTURE

I REMEMBER visiting the Wallace Collection on one occasion with a foreign lady who was no t interested i or u She in the least e ther in pictures f rniture . was an authority on what are known as Swedish move ments, and her absorbing interest was in the human form and its full plastic expression in art . A ccordingly, we spent a very pleasant afternoon looking exclusively at the bronzes and sculpture in

Hertford House, and in her company I examined carefully, for the first time,many pieces that hitherto

I had only cursorily regarded .

It was this lady, if I remember rightly, who first called my attention to the boxwood stat uette of

H ercules swin in his Club X . A g g ( , Case , an Object , as I afterwards discovered, of the highest celebrity . But my fri end knew nothing o f its history ; she did not know that it had been attributed to the early ’ - P S sixteenth century aduan artist, Francesco da ant A gata, or that it had probably been inspired by a 1 0 3 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o D C . She Greek antique of the f urth century . only

o knew it was a consummate rendering of liss me, athletic form , of muscles taut but elastic ; an extra

o f ordinarily actual impression vital , physical move ment . Everyone can see how superbly the form is modelled, how true it is to life ; but the trained eye will also perceive how exquisite is the flow o f line

o thr ughout the figure, and how admirably and inevitably the thick end o f the club balances the T advanced right foot . his little masterpiece is only i t about nine and a half inches high, and serves to remind us o nce again that in art the real greatness

ha s to Of a work nothing do with its dimensions . Among several bronzes which date from about the — same period namely, the first part of the sixteenth — century fi rst place perhaps should be given to the X L throned goddess ( , a signed work by Giovanni da Cremona, though its patina is so suspiciously brilliant and light that this surface colouring may

o f The o f conceivably be later date . modelling this statuette canno t approach that o f the boxwood o Hercules, as we rec gnise the moment we look at

ft - o f the le fore arm and right leg the goddess . Its charm is rather In the pose and general conception o f the whole figure, which is possibly intended not so much to represent Venus herself as to sym bolise The the mystery of love . sphinx and the Cupid , 1 0 4

BRON"ES AND SCULPTURE

o low o n o f m delled in relief either side the throne, lend some colour to the latter interpretation . Of the numerous small bronzes by Giovanni da Bolo gna ( 1 5 24 which were acquired either by L Sir o ne o f ord Hertford or Richard Wallace, the most conspicuous is the spirited group o f Nessus ca rr in o D a nira T y g f ej his fine bronze, to be fo und o n the landing at the head o f the grand o f staircase, is another example sculpture that is o T dec rative rather than realistic . here is great strength and virility in the human part o f the no o not fo r o f centaur, d ubt ; still it is subtlety

o ur o modelling that this group commands admirati n .

Its pre - eminent distinction lies in the skill o f its pyramidal composition, the main lines of which are o f D suggested by the outstretched arm ejanira, the curved fo re - legs o f the centaur and the rhythmical re - o ech Of this curve in the waving tail .

A o s s nother bronze gr up by thi Italian ma ter,

H r ul s m ta ur e c e overco in a Cen . g (IX , should be i mentioned, not only for its ntrinsic interest but also fo r its bronze base, chased and gilt, which is also Italian work dating from the end o f the seventeenth o r early beginning o f the eighteenth century . A still earlier marble relief is o f to o curi o us a T character to be passed over in silence . his is the

H a d o P e Christ . circular f (III , executed by ietro 1 0 5 THE WALLACE COLLECTION T orrigiano, a Florentine artist who came over to o 1 5 1 5 England somewhere ab ut . It will be noticed that the face o f Christ is not at all I talian in type

o is o n but G thic, and the explanation that his way to England Torrigiano probably visited Amiens

Bea u Christ Cathedral , where the famous so impressed it fo r him that he made his model this head . Now we may reasonably suppose that a Florentine

D a vid of this period, coming straight from the of A o f A Michael ngelo to the sculpture miens, would get a shock approaching to that experienced by a to Cez a nne modern Frenchman coming from Ingres . ’ Co nsequently it says much for Messer Torrigia no s broadminded discrimination that he could so enthuse over this m asterpiece o f the early thirteenth century . His deliberately assumed archaism is marked in his treatment Of the hair, which is most

on o f b ut o natural the crown the head, a mere r pe like convention in the locks falling over the The shoulders . circular frame decorated with T foliage and udor roses , which surrounds this high relief, is itself a fine piece of decorative sculpture, no w for it is all stone , though painted and gilt . i In the corridor between galler es VI . and VII . is a bronze relief ( 1 ) which has puzzled the most eminent The f is experts . subject presents no di ficulty ; it a

ia l Da nce o Ma idens i Ceremon f , and is an adaptat on

1 0 6

THE WALLACE COLLECTION reasonable to suppose the author was a French sculpto r of the late seventeenth o r early eighteenth for century, who worked from the cast made

Louis XIII . Here it may be permissible to remark that towards the close o f the seventeenth century and it is after, in France that the great sculptors must o f be sought . Indeed France possessed masters T J this art in the preceding century . here was ean

o o f Gouj n, traces whose influence may be found in the carved panels o f two sixteenth - century

- 1 5 V . 1 3 . T walnut wood armoires (VI . , ; , ) here here P was Germain ilon, whose noble and arresting

o f Cha rles IX 1 6 ha s r o bronze bust . (VI . , ) been p “ n ou nc e d of its class and school unique, both as regards concentrated power o f conception and ” technical perfection . And then came Charles Antoine Co ysevox ( 1 640 It is instructive to compare his sumptuous ’

Bronz e Bust Lo uis X IV. V. 2 P of ( , ) with ilon s

ha r l I Th C es X . e Coysevox has neither the in ’ te lle c tua lity nor the spirituality o f Pilon s thoughtful masterpiece ; but it is no whit less expressive o f o o r character. C uld mind conceive hand execute a more magnificent presentation of the arrogant “ self- s uffi cie n cy o f the Grand Monarque " There o f is no portrait the King, either at Versailles or

1 0 8 BRON"ES AND SCULPTURE

L o f so in the ouvre, precisely the same type, or admirable in the quality of the bron z e a s well as ” the breadth and finish o f the executio n . In the museum o f Dijon there is a similar bust by Coysevox is n o in marble, but it certainly finer than the bro nz e and many find the Hertfo rd H o use versio n the m o re impressive . Another admirable example of the power and accomplishment of Coysevox is his Terr a - cotta Bust o Cha rles Le Brun . f (IV , who was first painter ’ o L m s t ouis XIV. and the director of that onarch

T - o artistic enterprises . his terra cotta is the riginal — model for the slightly larger marble b u st now in — the Salle Coysevox at the Lo uvre which was 1 6 fo r A executed in 79 the French cademy . Francois Girardon ( 1 62 8 the contemporary o f o o f C ysevox and in the opinion many his equal ,

no t so o o is splendidly represented at Hertf rd H use .

Here we only get echoes, as it were, of his genius .

The E uestria n Sta tuette o Lo uis X IV. X X L 3 q f ( , 9) is only one of several small variants o f his great statue in the Place Ve ndOm e which was destroyed Th during the Revolutio n . e two bronze garden 1 06 vases (IV. , , showing in low relief the T riumphs respectively of Galatea and Venus, are contemporary reducti o ns of the great marble vases P at Versailles . erhaps we get nearest the master 1 09 THE WALLACE COLLECTION in the bronze groups o f Boreas ca rrying of Orithyia ’ 4 m G ira rdo n s (XVI ., , which are fro marble o riginal . Diminished echoes again are the gilt bronze

Ma r t 2 6 Les Cheva ua: de . groups of y (XVI , , Every visitor to Paris will remember the fine originals by Guillaume Constou the elder which E e are placed at the entrance to the Champs lys es . Co ustou w a s the nephew and most famo us pupil o f i Coysevox , and even the small reproduct ons here of n reveal the power the master . It was Co stou who first broke away from the grandiloquent rhetoric L X IV of the ouis . style, and led the way towards that ruder but still decorative realism that w a s to reinvigorate French sculpture . The next great step in this direction was taken P by igalle, who was not only influenced by Constou

so n but for some time the pupil and assistant of his ,

ts Guillaume Constou fi , himself an accomplished sculptor. Pi is From galle, who most unfortunately not i i represented in this collect on, descends a long l ne o f great sculptors . Claude Michel, known as Clo dio n i so w a s J n , was among his pup ls, and ea Antoine Houdon ( 1 74 1 who is one o f the great sculpto rs not only of France but of the modern world .

1 1 0

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

Bust Ma da me de Seril X i of ly ( L, reveals qu te M another type of womanhood . adame Victoire

o f o is the personification graci usness and amiability,

she but is neither a thinker nor a scholar . Madame de Serilly is both she is distinctly spirituelle in type

o and , as opposed to Madame Vict ire, we imagine she t is governed by her head rather han her heart . All i in his this Houdon has div ned , and expressed

o The reading of the characters of these two w men . 1 8 2 second bust was executed in 7 , and twelve years later Madame de Serilly was condemned to i T She death by the Revolut onary ribunal . escaped, i however, because her devoted fr end , Madame

l enceinte But Elizabeth, false y declared her to be . Houdon persuades us that if this miracle had not happened , she would have met her fate with calm self- possession and philosophic fortit ude .

o o to Compared with H ud n, it is idle pretend that Clodion his contemporaries, Falconet and , were T master sculptors . hey were great decorators, good o u modellers, clever designers , if y like, and they, t o f with many o her sculptors their time, were

a s employed , we shall see later, to enrich and adorn o Clodio n the furniture of the peri d . , to my thinking, is so immeasurably the superior o f Falconet that it seems unfair to couple their names together . ’ Clo dion s figures show distinction and observation

1 1 2 B RON " E B UST O F LO U I S X IV

Coy sev ox R MARBLE BUST o r MADA ME V I CTO I RE DE F ANCE

H o urion

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

i to no other nat on than Italy in the modern world, se e o that we should have liked to a collecti n, P beginning with Goujon, ilon, Coysevox, Constou l o and Houdon, end with the no ess illustri us names P D of igalle , Rude, Carpeaux, alou ,

11 4 FRENCH FURNITURE

“ C i " it FREN H furn ture Yes, is very handsome, no S o f doubt, but I do not care for it . omething this kind is what one often hears when the subject is i mentioned, and th s attitude is not altogether e n The confin d to the u trained . writer remembers having heard a very distinguished critic declare that “ French furni ture made him positively uncomfo rt — able - as he phrased it and that he could not easily compose himself for thought in a room so furnished . Many appear to have experienced a similar

o o sensati n , and the explana ti n probably lies in sur the temperament of the beholder . Facing roundi ngs and Objects pitched in a higher key than l that in which he ordinarily moves, the p ain man is discom fite d by the wrench of trying to adjust himself to the indoor livi ng conditi ons o f an o ld regime that had surrounded itself with a rare i i o f br ll ance and beauty equipment. 1 1 5 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

The o f i abundant use of gilt, delicate embroider es

o o f and tapestries, the manif ld use ornamental bronze decoration— all this richness that plays so great a part in the composition of fine French pieces, is

of o i out sympathy with our h mel er moods, and even

' with the very thoughts and manners of to - day . But whatever the cause of this distaste that i i somet mes makes itself audible, its ex stence shows the risk there is of underestimating or ignoring this W B important section o f the allace Collection . efore

discussing the rare objects it contains , therefore , it may be permissible briefly to review the position

of French furniture and its claims to o ur regard . Otherwise the visitor may look o n its presence a s

no more than a pleasant accessory to the pictures . Now we may safely say that few visitors enter tain a suspicion that the Wallace Co llection is probably more memorable for its collection of T furniture than for its pictures . his view may is appear startling to some, yet it held by many

competent judges .

W o Here is their argument . hile the collecti n of pictures here takes a respectable place among

the first two dozen art galleries of Europe, the collection o f furniture is equalled by few and perhaps The excelled by none in the world . furniture at L the ouvre equals, or some may think even Slightly

1 1 6

THE WALLACE COLLECTION furniture or were guided by it co nsiderably to modify their native tradition . Fo r two reigns, as already mentioned, England slighted French influence , but France triumphed

i As in the end, as it had in the beginn ng . early as Stuart times we se e France dictating the forms of

- i the high backed cha rs, console tables and heavy i armoires of the wealthy, these heavy pieces be ng or either imported adopted from France . L ater again, through the reigns of the third and

o on our . f urth Georges, we see its influence designers S Hepplewhite, heraton and Chippendale illustrated

so - in their catalogues called French designs, frank i in im tations, and their more personal work were o bviously indebted in some directions to prevailing

French types . l Intrinsically, French furniture has the most vita claims on our admiration by reaso n o f its beauty B for and sense for style . y this sense style we i mean the fitness, un ty and relation of pieces of furniture to the interior decoratio n and aspect of a room as a whole, which was always tenaciously held by French architects and designers .

Unfortunately, this sense for the completeness o f i i it the whole mpress on of an interior, as is ff its a ected by contents, cannot be seen at Hertford — House save perhaps in the great gallery upstairs .

1 1 8 FRENCH FURNITURE

For the very wealth o f the co llecti o n in the space at disp o sal implies a crowding o f the contents that i s a fat l . The existing crowded aspect o f the rooms takes on s o mewhat the air o f a well - arranged warehouse ’ or o dealer s shop . In this pr ximity to each other the very ri chness of the pieces of furniture cloys the i of sense, making, as it were, the qual ty these pieces their reproach . This decorative furniture was for the most pa rt i designed for spac ous and lofty rooms, where it was grouped parsimoniously in centres and sub - centres with intervening breadth o f empty spaces and a u prearranged background . In its original s r roundings the richness of colour and decoration gave the necessary fulness and concentration here and to there, which was required save the general aspect

of - T from a note baldness and over simplicity. hus disposed, the furniture glowed with proper interest amid surrounding spaciousness and against formally

o dec rated and usually pictureless walls . How existing conditions at Hertford House tell against the sense of style in the furniture becomes further evi dent when we consider the circumstances of its origin . Fine French pieces were largely designed or controlled by the distinguished archi teets of the time, and were executed by members 1 1 9 THE WALLACE COLLECTION o f the most accomplished schools o f cabinet - makers

’ e be ni t i o u t ( s es) Europe has seen . Each piece carr ed ’ and expressed the designer s unity of intention fo r a complete scheme, and, viewed separately, detached o from their original surr undings, the beauty and sense o f style aimed at in the pa rts can only be imperfectly suggested .

S to - on ome day, perhaps, when the p lit galleries the second floor are completed and opened, the present distinguished Director— greatly daring his will take life in his hands, as it were, and empty on e o f fitl his rooms, decorate it y, and only bring ou t of the storeroom such pieces as allo w of a

T s comfortable Spacious setting . hi , at least, is a pleasant fancy wherewith to tease our hopes . The o ther qualities which co ntribute towards the premier positio n o ccupied by French furniture can P be felt here more readily . rominent among these A is the beauty of compact, chastened form . dding a little emphasis here, refining and paring down a

- little there, the great cabinet makers worked in o o n a continu us tradition till, as time went , the finished pro duct became the polished result o f many T minds . his gradually matured suavity and com

a c tne ss o f d p form , with its elicately measured s emphasis, is common to mo t of the pieces at Hertford House that date from the late years o f

1 2 0

FRENCH FURNITURE

Lo X lV . o o f uis , the peri d the Regency, and onwards

o r tw o o f L T to the last year ouis XV. hese last

s o year , by the way, include the complete devel pment

- L a of the so called ouis XVI . style in all its essenti l T features . hese limits have to be named, since we must be careful not to push the claim fo r fine form o f i to o far. No doubt a good deal work done dur ng L the actual reign of ouis XVI . designed and executed

’ ebe nistes Rie se ne r G outhiére by such master as , and

: Saunier, still maintained form as a fine feature but the general tendency through this reign was on the o f whole either towards heaviness, as in the case

s s s the commode , or toward triviality and smallne s o f parts . This fineness of finished form must in part account — fo r the fact that each o fthe French styles familiarly L L known as ouis Quatorze, Regency, ouis Quinze and Louis Seize— when once evolved was never

P s subsequently dropped . iece in each style con tinue d to be made, notwithstanding the attraction so of the succeeding fashion , that each style per sisted through its successors right up to the present

. o f day For example, we may have a piece typical Lo the uis XIV . style made during the Regency or

o f L . o ut the reign ouis XV , and abundantly turned o f Lo in the time uis XVI . and the Restoration . o f It is this constancy types, when once evolved,

1 2 1 THE WALLACE COLLECTION that makes it so difli cult nowadays to settle the date o f most Old pieces and causes assignations frequently to be a matter of dispute even among experts . In passing it may be noticed that the French ebenistes often signed work they regarded as a masterpiece, and their fortunate habit in so doing occasionally comes in as a determining factor o f origin and date . Hence it happens that what is called a “ period ” i — is e v i p ece that to say, one which by internal dence or pedigree is proved to have been made — when its style was originally evolved becomes o f o f surpassing value and interest . One great merit the Wallace furniture is that so much of it consists “ ” ’ of period pieces made by great ebe nistes who developed the style and were leaders in the move W ment . hen we have appreciated the style and o use f rm , we must note the of colour, which is one of the distinguishing features o f French furniture . First we may call attention to its use fo r a scheme o f of sober richness, obtained largely by means the

o f fine marquetry woods , or boulle inlay, that forms so S the body of many pieces . econdly, we should realise what is a still more conspicuous characteristic — i o fL . introduc dur ng the reign ouis XV namely, the tion then and successful use of delicate gay schemes O f colour in a higher key than had been previously used in Europe . This is shown at Hertford House

1 2 2

THE WALLACE COLLECTION fo r they exactly fitted the gaiety and temper o f the

i o f ro t me . Examples these delicate tapestries, p ’ duc e d B o under oucher s directi n, are included in the Wallace Collection .

o f In some directions, as already hinted, motives in decoration came from Italy to France, though the latter country they were always modified in use and were worked o ut with the French instinct for unity and harmony, as opposed to the Italian love s of glitter and emphasi . “ ” 1 The so - called Boulle inlay that we see so — much of here which is an arabesque pattern made

- Of tortoise shell, and engraved brass and white metals o f is a modified use an older Italian practice .

i o f It is not, as Often supposed, the nvention the

ebeniste A B fo r u great , ndré oulle, it was sed. in France still earlier ; but his great reputatio n and frequent use o f it throughout a long life has made his name associated with it ever since . France also too k from Italy the initial precedent Of applying bro nze mounts to furniture and O f n gildi g that metal, but largely developed its principle and practice . In French hands the metal m o untings Of pieces are invariably richly gilt as well as very finely chased by the highly trained

ciseleurs o f engravers ( ) the time, whilst their forms 1 ” om im u S e t e s spe lt B hl . 1 2 4 FRENCH FURNITURE were in many cases designed by the leading sculptors of the time . This application of gilt bronze (o rmolu) mounts to o o is the feet, legs and ther outlines of the f rm, the

o most persistent feature of its rnament, running through all the styles in succession . It can be seen i e rtford on almost all p eces at H House, and will be o i l n ticed in the accompany ng i lustrations . It was — always the most costly item in its production the great artists in it requiring and Obtaining enormous i prices for the work . Of the estimat on in which it is held to - day we o ccasionally get a glimpse in the

i o f o saleroom, when some p ece Oriental p rcelain, sa £ 1 00 intrinsically worth, y, , but with ormolu mounts o f a fine French period, brings seven or eight

o hundred p unds . Mention has already been made of the u se of rich exotic and stained woods for the d o f As bo y French furniture . produced by such ebenistes Cre sse nt Ri e se ne r great as and , particularly o f the latter, it was applied to the body the piece in patterns of the utmost delicacy and of con summate workmanship ; and the presence o f this marquetry o f woods is o ne o f the striking things in the to tal effect of French furniture all through its

i o t history, g ving its main form a s ber richness tha

’ enabled it to carry without bizarre e fle c t the piquant i i i po nt ng of ts metal mounts . 1 2 5 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

The only other staple decoration of the body of a piece w as the triumphant French use of the choicest Japanese lacquer and French substitutes for the same . Some of the French commodes of the more L i in restrained ou s XV . design, cased throughout J l rare apanese lacquer, with its co our element in in relief upon the dazzl g black ground, and u i surro nded by g lt bronze mounts , may be con side re d as the most distinguished and complete result the furniture - ar t has ever evolved in Europe . T hese rare pieces, however, emanate from two i for cont nents, the panels them having been sent to Japan to be lacquered and thence sent back i i t to France , a proceed ng wh ch sometimes mean the lapse of years before an order could be completed . But in , for the most part, the lacquer used French i B furn ture was of French make . y far the most distinguished of the producers of lacquer in France i i i was the Mart n family, who worked dur ng the re gn L of ouis XV. and adopted European fanciful figures and flowers as decoration in place of Ori ental motives . ’ Unfortunately there is no example of the Martin s —it 1 work in this collection is now rare anywhere . ’ But the Martins influence and fame may still be

1 An e xa m e w be ou in the V c o a and be use um pl ill f nd i t ri Al rt M ,

South K e nsington .

1 2 6

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

’ an artist, he shared Rembrandt s passion for collect ing beautiful things ; an d after a life o f affluence he died, like Rembrandt, in poverty . In his matured and late work he loosened the formality in the i il outl nes of his furniture, and also read y took up the fanciful motives of great contemporary de — signers like Berain and Gillot w ho were intro du cing a new temper and foreshadowing the li berty i and lightness of the succeed ng style, Régence . ’ The fanciful waywardness of Be ra in s ornament can be seen on the top of his ebony console table X X L T L i ’ ( , owards the end of ou s s reign we se e the approaching change taking a very definite

A Lo . character . late and beautiful uis XIV table ,

B 4 3 o n by oulle (XVI ., ) has taken a new suavity of form and looks almost like a completed Regency T h piece . his fact illustrates w at we shall notice — repeatedly namely, that each successive style was almost fully developed before the nominal period of o n 1 Th the older e had ended . e splendid workman ship and exquisite finish of Boulle ’ s pieces can be

o i - . seen at Hertf rd House in his wr ting table (IX ,

2 7) and his cabinet (IX . surmounted by a bronze group .

1 This n o ta bly ha pp e ne d in the de ve l o pm e nt of the style Lo u s Se z e c w a s co m e e a ll its e s ea u es e fo e i i , whi h pl t d in b t f t r b r m Louis Se iz e ca e to the thro n e .

1 2 8 UPRI GHT SECRETA I RE XVI I I 1 2

' Rz ese ne r BUREAU T O IL E ’ I‘ T E XVI I I 2 0

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

in it br g about the change, but was, so to speak, in the air . In furniture design and decoration the central and great figure of this period and style is Charles

’ Cr ss n L so o f e benist s e e t. ike many the great e of the i i t me, he was a dist nguished sculptor and worker in A o f metals . lso he was the son a sculptor, and had the considerable advantage of being a pupil o f the

B So . Sa lio great oulle . excellent an authority as M g regards him as the best decorative artist of the T on e W century . here is only work in the allace i him — Collection wh ch can be said to be by and , unfortunately, there are but few examples of the

— - Regency style a graceful writing table (35 ) with the esp agnolettes (charming heads o f women) at ’ W a tte a u s the corners, rather suggestive of types o f A beauty . llusion has already been made to the ebony console table and other Regency I 1 2 pieces are a cabinet ( ., ) in various woods, surmounted by a clock, and the fine monumental IL 26 o f clock ( , ) boulle and gilt bronze, a fully developed Régence piece showing the influence of De Cotte . As i we m ght expect, there is no sudden transition between the style of the Regency and that of Louis

Quinze, but only a gradual development and emphasis The L i of its tendency . ouis Qu nze is, in fact, simply 1 30 FRENCH FURNITURE

f In the opening out o a continuous tradition . a mo dified way the change bears some resemblance to the co ntemporary English change from the earlier ’ Georgian types to Chippendale s full and florid

m . The anner new curves become more pronounced , The general and much more profuse . principle of the cabriole leg and its curve is universally applied to chairs, tables, sofas and console tables ; finished in the case of chairs and sofas ' with a small vertical o m toe , and in other pieces, where orm lu ounts are u t The o f s sed , wi h little metal sabots . use thi cabriole form is a very distinguishing feature for the

o beginner, and is easily rec gnisable amongst the objects at Hertford House . The straight line disappeared everywhere in the

The o f new furniture . outlines chairs, tables, cabinets, etc. , are all bounded by curves, as also are o T the dec rative panels they co ntain . hese curves to o o f develop a new characteristic . On account the

a nd length of the curve, and the frequency duplica

w a s no w tion with which it employed, the sweep had to be relieved in some way to avoid a sense o f weakness . It was checked with a slight arrest here u o tw o and there ; being, in fact, broken p int

o n inverted secti ns, as we get roughly by arrangi g the letters 8 one under the other with reversed faces . The inside faces of the reversed curve were also 1 31 THE WALLACE COLLECTION punctuated by allowing the tips o f leaves to emerge T slightly in the same direction . his is the new feature omnipresent and unmistakable in all L o uis in Quinze furniture . It was adapted from prevail g

Italian usage, but modified and chastened by i French designers . In the ablest hands th s feature gave a wonderful suavity and movement to the — form , just as in less restrained hands like Meis ’ — so nnie r s it induced a florid exuberance that is often bewildering and weak . On a ll furniture o f this period there is also an e m la r e d use g of the richly chased gilt bronze mounts, that now trespass somewhat from the outlines and not seldom sweep energetically over the enclosed T panels . here can be no doubt these beautiful metal mounts were regarded by their contemporaries o f The as the distinguished feature their furniture . best sculptors and metal - workers of the day were employed to produce them , and the cost of the work was enormous . Ca fli e ri i is, perhaps, st ll the most celebrated of the artists who wrought o n them at this time : and rare s a signed and identified pieces of his work are now, the Wallace Collection happily possesses several o f M these m asterpieces . ost important of these is the The great commode (XVI . , illustration barely

i ff it o hints at its Splend d e ect, but serves to sh w 1 32

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o f o is elusive , like other work the date, as als the passage o f the bronze forms at the corners into their surrounding frill ; this feature recalls some great o ff m dern e orts in the same direction . The vigour and vitality of this commode may well be contrasted with the later large bureau by Rie sen e r o in the same r om, where the heavy floral swags and newer ornament seem merely to lie in o n lazy luxuriance the marquetry . ’ Nor can we pass over the restrained chef- d oeuvre o f O e b e n , the bureau toilette (XVII I . , though o f it is slightly later in date, and shows signs the reaction in favour of severer lines that came in o O e b e n t wards the close of the reign . had the distinction of being employed by the Marquise de P ompadour, whose conspicuous taste and intuition in matters o f art almost reached the point of

genius . We are now approaching the period when great A changes were to come about . part from its rich , ’ severe charm this fine piece o f O e b e n s has a great i nifica nc e o f g . It is the early sign a new departure that is finally to lead to the radical change o f the style called Louis Seize with its severe straight lines The and elaboration o f orn ament . change came

se e . gradually, as we shall For the moment it can be perceived in this bureau toilette by a certain

I3:4 FRENCH FURNITURE reticence it possesses and by the straightening of the lines in the body o f the piece . Similar features are marked in the large bureau ’

. 66 O e b e n s (XVI , ) made by pupil and successor,

Ri e sen r fo r of P . The e , the King oland older marquetry o f quiet pattern is here enriched by a beautiful inlay of flowers, birds and fanciful designs ; and these are made conspicuous against the quieter marquetry by being executed in lighter and delicately stained woods . An elaboration of inlay is o ne of the significant A o f features o f the approaching style . lso the same Bur ea u de Roi L period is the noble in the ouvre, Ri e se ne r made by Ceben and , whose magnificence o f aspect seems to have induced Lord Hertford to 6 8 commission the splendid copy (XVI . , ) in the T Wallace Collection . his fine replica, with its mounts D by asson, is said to have cost something like three thousand pounds and to have taken three years to

o f o make . Its profusion rnament befits its desti for o f nation the King France, whose initials were once elaborately intertwined in the Spaces now filled T by the biscuit plaques on the sides . his great piece shows brilliantly the new splendid marquetry i And we have not ced . its chased and gilt mounts, here intertwined with ribbon scrolls, take on the heavy swags o f foliage and flowers that are dis I3S THE WALLACE COLLECTION placing older motives adapted from acanthus and palm . With the completion o f this work the Louis

Seize style sets in and very rapidly develops . o f d Hertford House is richest in furniture this perio ,

o and we will n tice its outstanding characteristics, so that the visitor may recognise pieces in the The collection . straight line is its marked and central feature, and was adhered to with insistent o f virtuosity, alike in the legs furniture, in the u rectang lar forms of the body " and the framing o f in the panels . Further, the use of the frieze is introduced as a feature in tables large and small , o f o commodes, cabinets and escritoires, placed , c urse , t to o ff j us under the cornice at the p, and marked very sharply with surrounding rectangular lines .

’ o f Some curves remain in the backs sofas and chairs, to but this is the only exception the rule, and even here the prevailing aspect of these objects comes within the general principle . Another noticeable mark o f the style is the o f The slighter size and build the pieces . only exceptions to this are s o me ponderous commodes of made at the very end the reign , and those cabinets with boulle ornament that were so much made again in this reign in the style o f the

Lo uis XIV . period . 1 36

FRENCH FURNITURE

This general lightness o f form was in sympathy with the delicacy o f the newer m arquetry ; and in common agreement with these, the applied ormolu mounts became lighter and more refined . The metal mounts o f this period cannot be

o i dismissed with ut pay ng them some attention . In shedding the earlier vigorous features that had been in keeping with a larger intention , they took o n designs o f delicately chiselled flowers and

o f o i o o borders c nvent onal rnament, wh se chasing was carried to a pitch o f costly and exquisite ’ s refinement that resembles goldsmith work . The o f refined charm this new style, as it developed , may be readily imagined .

Rie se ne r w ho r , is its great figu e, was the eminent

o f o f o o French master delicate inlays coloured w ds, n o and also mean designer and worker in metals . So famous was his work with the great connoisseurs o f so o the period, and great the prices he btained, that in the prime o f life he had amassed an enormous But to o fortune . he died in comparative poverty,

o o T ruined late in life by the Rev luti n . hroughout his mature life he worked very continuously fo r A Marie ntoinette, and quite a number of the pieces he made for her are at Hertford House . A mongst these is the lovely commode (XVIII . , w a - ith the char cteristic lozenge shaped inlay, and 1 37 THE WALLACE COLLECTION the initials o f the Queen in metal intertwined with of roses and flowers in the centre the frieze . In the same room is an upright secretaire in the back o f which her cypher appears with the words

rd Meuble de la Ga e Reine.

It ' will be noticed that the official catal o gue in its noti ce o f these two pieces attributes their

r to G o uthiere chased metal mounts in pa t , and it would be impossible to close this chapter without a passing reference to the most celebrated worker i T G outhiere in g lt mounts of the period . hough

o n e o f - was also the great cabinet makers, it is upon his chiselled work in metal tha t his fame “ G outhier rests . e is said to have acquired such extraordinary skill as a chaser as to have been able i to make bronze look l ke gold . He began his career by working for the luxurious Madame du B arry, and consequently from his hand came the Sa lio work so enthusiastically referred to by M . g as “ the dainty delicate fairylike creations that made o f a o f L up the furniture the Ch telaine ouveciennes . G ou thiere claimed to have invented the new dead surface given at this date to the gilt . His master

- is piece, the perfume burner (XIV ., reproduced here in order to give a slight idea of the lovely design o f the metal - work that supports the rich Thom ire red jasper bowl . , his contemporary and 1 38

PORCELAI N

TH E porcelain at Hertfo rd House is almost all

o f French . Outside the china Vincennes and Sevres there are only some couple o f pieces o f Capo M o ne D di onte , of resden, and under a dozen

o f The o examples Chinese . Cap di Monte, figures

o no t in white , are go d but remarkable specimens o f D IL 5 the factory, and the resden vase ( , ) is most Ca fli r Th interesting for its ormolu mounts by e i . e o nly exceptional pieces not o f French origin are A the Chinese celadon vases (XIV. , Case ), which o are als splendidly mounted in metal . This bias fo r the rare chin a o f France might almost be assumed from the directio n the collectio n e o o of furnitur wisely to k, but m st probably this

o W c mmon nationality is a coincidence . ithout its positive knowledge, we may surmise that French exclusiveness was due to other impo rtant considera

o o r tions . One of these may easily have been the pp tunity the Revolutio n gave of securing valuable 1 40 PORCELAIN pieces during the break up o f ro yal and no ble o But h uses in France . the paramount reason must have been the rare charm and beauty o f the soft paste (pdte tendr e) porcelain made at Sevres and The o Vincennes . collection at Hertford H use is

o T entirely confined to the s ft paste ware . here are n o examples of the later hard paste that w as com m e nc e d Se 1 6 — so at vres about 7 9 and therefore, far

o . The as peri d goes, might have been included exclusi o n of this hard paste is another indication o f the wisdom and taste of the fo unders of the collection for th o ugh its first producti o n w a s l o oked upon as a great feat and exhibited with much écla t to Lo uis XV . at Versailles, the new china was incapable o f giving the charm and beauty o f the An earlier material . y claims the hard paste of Sevres has to distinction lie in its very white bo dy as oppo sed to the slightly creamy white o f the soft paste, and in its exceeding hardness and ability to t To withs and rapid changes o f temperature . this must be added the fact that from a commercial point o f View it was much less difli cult and costly to make, owing to the absence of accidents in the fifi ng. But o n the artistic side it could no t compare in i any degree w th the soft paste . On the extremely hard body of the new paste, the richness and softness 1 41 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o f . o The the older enamels were un btainable . o r colour decoration , painting in coloured enamels, o n was hard and dry in quality, and thin, the body o f ff the hard paste , and quite di erent from the earlier

l - make with its we l fused soft tints and rich fat body . The material o f the body of the soft paste had

o o f als the charm its unctuous softer texture, as opposed to the more brilliant hard translucence o f As i s the true porcelain . there no hard paste Sevres to se e beside the older material in the cases i at Hertford House, this cannot be llustrated here n o r can it be fully realised except by handling the

tw o . kinds side by side Enough has been said ,

o h wever, to indicate the wisdom of the Hertford family in restricting their collection to this delicate ware . A short consideration of what soft paste is will do much to explain why the material adapts itself so pre - eminently to the use of colour ; and as it will also show us what an interesting part these so ft pastes have played in the discovery and early triumphs of porcelain in Europe, the point may be i n worth explanat o . S oft paste was first discovered , probably in Italy,

o f i before the end the s xteenth century, and was 1 00 P i begun to be made in France about 7 . r or to this there had been no porcelain in Europe except

1 42

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

1 740 or thereabouts at Vincennes a n d a little later Se at vres . a It must be admitted, however, that this soft p ste is not, strictly speaking, a true porcelain , though f i it is a very e fect ve counterfeit, with the general outward appearance and much of the charm of the Th i real porcelain body . e Ch nese material was derived from china stone and china clay " ; the constituents of hard felspar and quartz were ex c e e dingly hard and required firing at a very high Th temperature . e new imitation was an artificial amalgam composed o f fine white clay highly refined

o sa and a glassy flux ; in other w rds, we may y that this soft paste was a fused combination of white clay and glass . Though it made a beautiful substitute for the true porcelain, it had two drawbacks . In the first i place , it was very brittle when made, but th s was

o f not extreme importance . Its great drawback was f it the di ficulty of firing successfully, the operation resulting in a considerable number of expensively decorated pieces being spoilt in the kiln . Owing to the glassy mixture in its body it fused quickly in to at a low temperature , and exposure the fire

1 ‘ C a c a is the e su o f the e com os o o f e s a and hin l y r lt d p iti n f l p r, i u m c a a s on i a m s fo nd in the fo r of a whitish l y. Chin t e s fo r o f

a e a e s ar so m e am ou of ua z . gr nit , f l p with nt q rt I44 PE RFU M E BU RN ER X IX 1 5

' G o u t/z zér e 1 6 2 PO T PO U RRI VASE XVI I I

Sev r es P or cela in

THE WALLACE COLLECTION result is due to the glassy nature of its body that so i agrees well w th its own glassy coloured enamels, producing at the same time not only clarity o f tint but also a soft fusion o f the coloured enamel with the surrounding white glaze . It is interesting to note that the combined results here described could not be obtained upon the celebrated hard paste porcelain that was being contemp oraneously pro duc e d D at resden, nor yet in the intensely hard Se o f paste of vres, manufactured towards the close ’ L i X V . S The ou s reign . enamel colouring of these i looks hard by comparison , th n and opaque in

o appearance, and will by no means fuse s ftly into the white glaze but rather ha s a look of being stuck thereupon . This defect w as really inherent in the harder

i o ground, and can eas ly be underst od with a word The c om of explanation . light firing that the position of the highly fusible glassy enamels of the p dle tendre rendered n ecessary was not enough to fasten the colours upon the enamel ground of the hard paste ; and so a modified enamel had to be used that was at once much thinner in body and c o n ta ine d a larger proportion of the pure o paque o o in And o c l ur g matter. with this m dified enamel bo dy it was impossible any longer to lay the colour in rich impasto o r to run it o n in the o ld 1 46 PORCELAIN liquid way . These rather technical explanations aid

dle tendr e o us to appreciate the delicate p p rcelain, and having stated them something may n o w be said o f the collection at Hertford H o use from a

o more general standp int . So In its way the collectio n is almost unique .

o M Ausche r D o f great an auth rity as . , the irector Se 1 8 1 8 8 the vres factory from 79 to 9, assures us in his luminous bo ok o n French po rcelain that “ the m o st glorious period of so ft paste porcelain at — — Se v iz 1 6 - 1 to vres . 75 769 can only be seen per fe c tion o f o f in the collections the King England , ”

o f . Hertford House, and some the Rothschilds And it is hardly to o much to sa y that of these the Wallace Collection is generally accepted as being the finest . This golden epoch o f French po rcelain is also

o f Po o essentially the period Madame de mpad ur,

- T when her artistic influence was pre eminent . hough it appears she took no special interes t in china St during its earlier development at Cloud, Chantilly o r o f o at Vincennes, directly the transfer the w rks

o Se to she fr m Vincennes to vres was suggested her, was an enthusiastic supporter o f the scheme and the o perating force in the r e - establishment and equip ment o f the works ; and it should be added that her wise patronage and directio n here was but a con 1 47 THE WALLACE COLLECTION tinua tion o f what she was so conspicuously doin g in

i for other direct ons the art of France . This activity of the Marquise and the rare taste that directed it has been but very sparely recognised so it is interesting to quo te this tribute from so high an authority as the late Lady Dilke “ The quality in her nature which le d her to reject all but the most perfect and distinguished i i work , coupled w th her defin te apprehensions of style enabled her, during the twenty years of her reign, to contribute in no unworthy fashion to the She progress of the applied arts . seems to have o ne been of those who, by born instinct, can more than match the calculations o f those who have the ’ to in 1 64 i right j udge, and her death 7 depr ved the great group of artists employed by the Crown o f a court o f appeal whose decisions were ruled by ” 1 a taste finished to the point of genius . Her activity in establishing the new works at

T o ld f Sevres was enormous . hough the sta f of i i B w Vincennes, ncluding the chem st ello and D She uplessis the sculptor, were retained ; obtained large grants from the King and gave a new impetus f and new standards to an enlarged sta f of experts .

The - i . 1 62 pot pourr vase (XVIII , ) of about this “ 1 Fre nch D e co ration and Furniture in the Eighte e nth ” Ce ntury. 1 48

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

25 o f tall companion (XVII ., ) the latter, with its o Tw o o f compact f rm and graceful handles . these “ " also show in parts the celebrated apple - green

- o - ground glaze, as does more fully the b ttle shaped T vase (XII . here is also a rare yellow ground colour on it characteristic of this class . Still more important is the deservedly popular “ so in turquoise blue glaze, much evidence in T this collection . his glaze was occasionally and most successfully decorated only by chased gilding of elaborate richness, but more usually delicately T executed Boucher panels were added . here are i cups and saucers of this kind here, and the r air of sumptuous Opulence is remarkable . “ ” T or ca r tels hese panels, or reserves, as they o n are described in the catalogue, appear French porcelain about the time of the establishment of Se the factory at vres, and are henceforward a At persistent feature on that china . first they are lightly decorated with birds o r with fl o wers painted on the white porcelain background ; a little later with the a mor ini subj ects made fashionable by T W Boucher. hen we get the fuller atteau type of subject inserted with the white picture ground i ent rely covered , and, last of all, as the classic

o i i i motive came in, the myth log cal pa nt ng appears treated also entirely in colour . 1 50 PORCELAIN This change of panel subject and disappearance o f its white ground is o f general assistance to i o f ndicate the period a piece . In examining the china a t Hertford House nothing is more noticeable than the very partial way the white porcelain ground is at first allowed to appear, and then , in the more costly and typical

s 1 o r o piece , disappears altogether about 770 s on T o f after . his treatment china is o ppo sed to the o f taste and practice other countries, particularly to that of China in these cases the white porcelain played a conspicuous part with the deliberate intent o f displaying the characteristic qualities of the The beautiful material itself. French, however, on were aiming more and more, as time went , at an ff e ect of richness and elaboration of the parts, alike in their furniture and interi o r decoration ; and the result in their porcelain is that it begins to have an exceeding richness towards the close o f the perio d that followed the death o f the Marquise P de ompadour. The decorated panels we have been noticing were

o f enclosed by gilded borders, the best which are to etched and chased add to their significance, and — fire d— the gilt itself never has a fat appearance,

Sir B o on being fastened, as William urt n explains, ’ o f As a bed japanner s varnish . the encroaching 1 5 1 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

elaboration of the parts proceeded , the beautiful

- o n to o ground glazes the pieces had g , and the gilt surrounds to the reserves also became replaced by a elabor te raised ornament, as we see encircling the

1 775 . panels in the vase of (XVII , o In the vase j ust menti ned appears a new feature . This consists of the beads of coloured enamel laid o n o o in separate drops, often applied ver a gold f il . This decoration gave to pieces o n which it w a s used “ ” o f J Se The J l the name ewelled vres . ewe led Sevres of a few years later was the m o st costly o f a ll o o f Se ff the s ft paste vres, and su ers from a W painful access of elaborate detail . ith all its

o r o r profuse ornament, it has little no seduction charm . — One o f the best examples of this type though it is catalogued as Slightly earlier— is the vase

(XX ., 7) with surmounting crown that was part of the service ordered from Sevres by Catherine II . o f o f O Russia . Most this heavily rnamented type 1 made its appearance after 78 0 . As some emphasis has been laid on the defect of these last porcelains , it may be added that the other reproach to the reputation o f this beautiful p dte tendre o f France came thro ugh its application B o to furniture . oth the material , its c lour and its

o S very nature were against this empl yment . trictly 1 52

PORCELAIN s n ot to peaking, it is even qualified play a con s ic uo u s o f o p part in the decoration a r om at all .

s u Its fragile daintine s and caprice , all ring as the o f for private appeal a mood, render it unsuitable general empl oyment and liable to leap o u t unduly from the whole unless the walls be keyed up to the

la decora tion la ir w a s pitch of c e . It this high pitch which caused its abs o lute failure when applied in — the shape o f plaques against low - toned w o o ds as w a s attempted too o ften towards the end o f Louis ’ X V s T w a s so . reign and later. hat it ever used by the great decorative artists o f that time can o nly be explained by its popularity and the desire o f the wealthy to have it used wherever the novelty o c uld be adapted . As a counsel o f perfection it may be said that

o to these enamelled p rcelains , be fully appreciated , must be enj o yed cl o se at hand for the sake o f their T separate and isolated charm . hey should be taken

n o r in the hand, just as a mi iature, a flower or a jewel is taken ; and thus at close quarters the

o o f s sensuous body , beauty and ex tic charm the e flow e rlik e objects yield the delight that is their ff legitimate o erin g . a: a: a: a: s

B o o o ef re c ncluding this chapter, a w rd should

o o o f be said ab ut the large collection f majolica, THE WAL LACE COLLECTION

- Italian and Hispano Mauresque lustred ware, which Th fills several cases in Gallery III . e maj o rity

r of these pieces date from the sixteenth centu y, and may fairly be said to represent the best that do And it European potters could at this time . is o f o generally admitted that this kind p ttery, with n its opaque glazi g and showy decoration, reached its greatest perfection in Italy in the sixteenth “ The century. name Majolica is said to be derived from the island of Majorca, an early seat of its manufacture, but to be able to do any justice to it we must remember that pottery differs from porcelain not merely in degree but in kind . We have already examined the composition of f porcelain , and we must now Show how it di fers M The o f from ajolica pottery . body the last was a its somewhat unrefined clay, coarse dark nature being disguised by a coating of stanniferous enamel . From a distance and from the outside this pottery looks showy and handsome in a barbaric way ; but it ha s The on so fatal deficiencies . enamel covering friable a base could no t be so hard an enamel ; it easily chipped at the edges o f the piece and showed its n coarse ground . It would not stand rapid cha ges o f temperature , and its colours are heavy and opaque

o l and br adly app ied .

Half- way between these enamelled faiences and I54

THE ARMOURY

To o f most people, I suppose, the fascination arms to and armour lies in its appeal the historic sense . Few objects are more potent to aid us in visualising the days o f o ld than a suit of armour which gives us

- . the whole external appearance of a. fellow man It has a completenes s and actuality which cannot fail to stir our imagination, and it makes real to us , as o f nothing else can , those desperate combats which we read in o ur history books . i It was not , however, merely for its histor c interest that Sir Richard Wallace go t to gether his great o f collection European arms and armour. His aim was not to illustrate the various armaments which succeeding generations had evolved for purposes of o ff o ence and defence, but rather to dem nstrate the ’ A i beauty of the armourer s art . Sim lar consideration

o L w ho must have ruled his predecess r, ord Hertford, o f acquired a great portion the Oriental armoury.

he o f o f T contents this section, however, are all late

1 56 THE ARMOURY b date, elonging to the seventeenth, eighteenth and

do not r nineteenth centuries, and consequently e present the finest and most resplendent period of

. a s Sir L Eastern armour Moreover, Guy aking “ points out, there is always the prejudice against

r o f ri the weapon of the O ient, that costliness mate al is ever upperm o st over the fertility o f design and o f fineness workmanship . Notwithstanding m any fine specimens in this sec tion, it is then the European examples which give

o to o o high distincti n the arm ury at Hertford H use . The earliest weapo n shown is the Scandinavian I m o r sword (VII . ) dating fro the ninth early tenth century, and in the same case will be found a series of Continental swords ranging fro m the eleventh to the early sixteenth century . Other cases in the same gallery contain fifteenth and sixteenth century

o f o s o is Tiltin helmets, which the m t fam us the g

H elmet possibly the only head - piece in the co llectio n that can be identified as being an exam ple A of English workmanship . similar helmet of the ’ o St same peri d and form , in George s Chapel , at

o s to Winds r, is aid by tradition have been worn by

Henry VI . But perhaps the most imposing exhibit in Gallery it Tiltin Armour 3 2 VII . is the Su of g ( 7) made at Augsburg about 1 5 00 to 1 5 20 for use in the jousts o f IS7 THE WALLACE COLLECTION

. A o f peace ugsburg, course, was a famous armorial

hi uildm a rk centre , and t s fine suit bears the g of the city stamped at the border of the elbow plates .

Radiating fan - shaped fluting constitutes the principal of Suit decoration of this suit, as it also does another

Armour 5 40 t e of ( ) near by, which , though much stored , gives an excellent idea of the war harness of a German knight towards the close of the fifteenth century .

T i - li hese suits, however, are plain and bus ness ke in comparison with the enriched armour in the next to gallery . First we may direct attention the

German mid - sixteenth century Thr ee- qua rter Suit of Armour (VII ., decorated with sunk vertical bands and borders o f bright steel o n a blackened

a ground ; and then p ss on to the still more gorgeous,

- Three ua rter Suit . though a little earlier q (VI , s W is al o of German workmanship . hat interesting to note here is ho w closely this war suit resembles i o f is the c vil dress the period . It decorated with

’ bombe i slashed and alternate bands, etched and g lt,

o o f . with a f rmal design scrolls, etc , the whole A presenting a very rich appearance . lthough o f slashes were a feature the civil dress, their introduction was a playful allusion to the cuts “ received in battle . In this suit they are faithfully Sir L represented , says Guy aking, who also points 1 5 8

THE WALLACE COLLECTION

o bands and borders over the granulated groundw rk , is deeply etched and partly gilt, while even the plain surfaces have an appropriate en richment of

T o colour. hese surfaces have been xidised to a rich

- u russet brown , a characteristic which causes the s it “ to be an example o f what has been called pur ple ” armour . So far we have o nly considered examples of T o n eutonic w rkma ship, and, fine as these are, it may be d o ubted whether they represent the highest

o o o achievement in Eur pean arm ur . Many c mpetent

o to judges hold that for this we must g Italy, the h o me and birthplace o f practically all that is most beautiful in the arts and crafts of Christian Europe .

o f n Of all the armourers Italy, not even excepti g

o o f o o f th se Milan , it is pr bably the masters Ferrara

And o f a ll who have secured the widest fame . the wo nderful contents o f the Hertfo rd House armoury few will hesitate to give first place to the magnificent

H a Suit o Armour . lf f (VI , known as that of A IL D o f r lfonso , uke Fer ara, and attributed to the

- L l P inin A ic o . Sixteenth century armourer, ue o whole volume might be written about this elaborately decorated suit, which contains every possible form o n To of decoration metal . begin with, the whole surface of the suit is russeted ; the entire design is worked o ut by the most cunningly graduated em

1 60 THE ARMOURY

is bossing. It chased, enriched with fine gold and An silver damascening, plating and overlaying . arabesque design flows throughout the suit, knitting

o o o together the vari us panels into a c herent wh le .

an d o s On the breastplate fruit, flowers min r figure lead up to the dominating figure of the G o d o f War ; while o n the blackplate we see Hercules strangling

Ne m a e a n the lion, supported by figures emblematic The ff of o f the art s and sciences . e ect the whole is

no t so dazzling, yet so harmonious, that we do wonder so competent a judge as Sir Samuel Rush “ Meyrick should have pronoun ced this to be without

o f doubt, one the most splendid suits in Europe, if, ”

- indeed, it be not entitled to pre eminence . More it over, is in an admirable state of preservation, and unfortunately the same cannot be said fo r another

o L o Pi inin half suit als attributed to uci c o . In thi s last the original russet surface and gold

s dama cening have perished, and the present aspect o f o f brightened steel is the result overcleaning, and o f fir e probably also damage by .

In the same gallery is the sixteenth - century “ Milanese Ova l Shield Showing Scipio r e c e iv ” m ing the keys of Carthage, another asterpiece of

- high relief embossing, chased , richly plated and damascened with precious metals, and with all the o f At exposed surface the iron russeted . the top

L 1 6 1 THE WALLACE COLLECTION are intr od uced the monogram an d in terlaced cre scent D D P “ T moons of iane e oitiers . his justly ranks as ” o n e o f the .fine st pageant shields in existence, says “ ’ ir L The S Guy aking . famous shield in his Maj esty s collectio n at Windsor and the Giorgio Ghisi shield in the Rothschild bequest at the Briti sh Museum may possibly have a prior place as regards quali ty

w o and technique of rkmanship ; but in that alone, for they lack that sense of dignity and completeness of design which has been attained in the shield

o under discussi n . Another fine emb ossed shield (66 1 ) w as once o thought to have belonged to the Emper r Charles V. but is now attributed to a Fre nch armoure r of the late sixteenth century . Passing by several items of historic interest among which we may note the dagger (669) given o f P a to Henri IV. by the City aris on his marri ge

M e - u with arie de M dicis , and the sixteenth cent ry Bavarian black and gold suit ( 8 5 1 ) conn ected by traditi on with the Electo r Joseph and stolen by — Napoleon from the arsenal at Munich a final word must be said about the Comp le te Wa r Ha m ess for

Man a nd Hor se . i i (VI , wh ch is an outstand ng o f feature this armoury . It is French in style, and

1 460- 1 480 probably in origin, dating from about , u and has been restored in some minor partic lars.

1 62

I ND E X

’ F a ce sco da Sa e a c o x 2 AGATA , r n nt , D l r i , 9 e a oc e 6 1 0 3 D l r h , 9 m ou 1 6 az 8 Ar r , 5 Di , 9

Dou, 6 2 BELLO ’I‘ T O u e , 43 D pr , 99 e a e a 1 2 8 um o 8 B r in , J n , D nt , 7 o o a G o a da 1 0 ck Sir o V a n 8 B l gn , i v nni , 5 Dy , Anth ny , 4 o eu R osa 8 B nh r , , 9 o o Ric a d Pa ke s FA O N 1 1 2 B ningt n , h r r , 95 LC ET, o uc e F a o s 8 1 2 F o a V ce z o B h r , r nc i , 4, 3 pp , in n , 37 oudi 1 0 1 F a o a 8 B n , r g n rd , 4 ou e d é C a e s 1 2 Fu u e 1 1 B ll , An r h rl , 4, rnit r , 5 1 2 8 G N B R H 8 1 o z e s 1 0 se . Br n , 5 q AI S O OUG , o uw e d ia e 60 Ge ca u 6 Br r , A r n , ri lt , 9 G a d o 1 0 ir r n , 9 C R ac ue s 1 2 G o u o 1 0 8 AFFIE I , J q , 3 j n , Ca a e o G o uthiere 1 8 n l tt , 43 , 3 Ca o t u us 1 1 G e uz e 86 y , A g tin , 3 r , C a m a e P e de G o s a o 0 h p ign , hilipp , 73 r , B r n , 9 C m a 6 Gua d i , 3 r i, 43 C a u d e Lo a l rr in , 73 HACK AER Clodion, 1 1 0 , 1 1 2 T , C o ue 1 H a s 0 l t , 7 l , 5

Co o u 2 H e fo d fa m I se . l r, 9 rt r ily , g q Co o H e fo d H ouse 2 r t , 99 rt r , 9 Co s ou 1 1 0 H o e ma 6 n t , bb , 9 Cou u e 6 H o e 2 t r , 9 lb in , 7 C o se o x 1 0 8 H ooc P e e de 6 y v , h , i t r , 4 r 1 0 Ho ne r 2 2 C e sse nt, 3 pp , C e 6 H o ud o 1 1 1 riv lli , 3 n , Cu 6 yp , 7 I M R O N I M 1 P ESSI S , 4 N 1 I e s 1 DASSO , 35 ngr , 9

eca m s 6 - 8 I sa e 1 0 1 D p , 9 9 b y , 1 65 R N 8 Po uss JO DAE S , 4 in , 73 ’ P u o 6 r d h n , 9

’ ‘ LANCRE I , 76 La r illi re R M BR N 1 - g e , 73 E A DT , 5 55 Le u Vi ée 8 Re o d s 1 8 8 - 8 1 Br n , g , 7 yn l , , 7 L m o e s e a m e s 1 Rie se ne r 1 - 1 8 i g n l , 4 , 35 3 Lu 8 Rom e 8 ini , 3 n y , 3 Ro usse a u eo do e , Th r , 99 6 Ru e s MAES , 5 b n , 45 a o ca 1 R uis a e 68 M j li , 54 d l , a w so 2 M n , 4 e sso e ea Lou s E e s S N R 1 2 1 M i ni r , J n i rn t , AU IE , Se es 1 1 97 vr , 4 Meissonnie r us e u e e 1 2 S e e se sc oo , J t A r l , 3 i n h l , 34 Me tsu 6 S e s 8 , 4 nyd r , 4 a u e s 1 2 8 8 S e e a n 6 Mini t r , 4, 7 , 5 , 7 t n , J , 5 u o 8 M rill , 5 R 1 2 TAPEST IES , 3 N R a s e 0 ATTIE , 77 T t , 9 Ne e a v a n de r 66 e e s 6 1 r, A rt , T ni r , No o 6 e o c 6 rd , 5 T rb r h , 3 om t e 1 Th i , 39 O EBEN 1 a 8 , 34 Titi n , 3 O mo u 1 2 o a o 1 06 r l , 5 T rrigi n , O sta de a e v an 6 2 o o 1 00 , Adri n , Tr y n , O sta de Isack v an 6 2 u e 1 0 2 , , T rn r ,

P R 6 V " - 8 ATE , 7 ELAS" UE , 55 5 Po m a dou a u se de 1 Ve e a e v a n de 6 p r , M rq i , 34, ld , Adri n , 7 I Ve r e H o ace 8 47 n t , r , 7 P a e 1 1 0 ig ll , P o 1 08 W Sir R c a d 2 6 2 8 il n , ALLACE , i h r , Po ce a 1 0 W a ace La 1 2 8 1 r l in, 4 ll , dy , 3, , 3

Po e Pau 66 W a ea u - 6 tt r , l , tt , 74 7 Po e 1 Wouw e rm a nn 68 tt ry , 54 ,

1 66