The Wallace Collection is a hidden gem, slightly tucked away from Bond Street’s madness. It’s not on the main road, so I guess it gets missed by the usual tourist crowd.
Plus, London has a glut of museums, so it’s easy to skip over some of the other better-known museums.
But if you need a reason to visit, consider these attractions.
This Fragonard
Pictures cannot do justice to the absolute joy of this painting. My heart just exploded! You can go up close and see all the details. And OMG, the details are incredible! I can’t imagine the amount of work that would have gone into this piece!
Interesting backstory on The Swing. If you look closely at the painting, you’ll see a gentleman on the ground looking up the pretty woman’s skirt as she swings past, tossing one of her shoes into the air. In its day, this was such a naughty image, that another artist, Gabriel-François Doyen, actually turned down the commission to protect his reputation.
Doyen was offered the commission by an unnamed gentleman of the court to paint his mistress. At the time, he was building a reputation as a history and religious history painter and declined the offer to create an erotic image for a private gentleman’s enjoyment. He suggested Fragonard, whose career as a history painter was flagging. Fragonard’s subsequent success remade his career.
Marie Antoinette’s Furniture
If you look closely, you can see her initials carved into the furniture. My mum was amazed that she could see this furniture up close – with no barriers whatsoever. While Marie Antoinette’s furniture was most interesting to me (because of the initials), there is plenty of furniture from the time of Louis XV displayed in all its maximalist glory.
The Armories
The ground floor of this house (yes, it was originally a house) is devoted to military gear – armoury, knives, shields, guns, and more.
I am not very keen on military history, but The Wallace Collection is supposed to have one of the best collections of armour in the world, so it’s definitely worth a visit. I could have used a guide to understand and appreciate it more, but we didn’t want to wait for the scheduled tour, so I guess we missed this opportunity.
The Rooms
The rooms (remember this is an actual house) are magnificent! Each one more lushly decorated than the previous one! You go over from the drawing rooms to the smoking rooms, the great hall, the bedrooms, etc. Each one is painted a different color – lilac, purple, blue, red, all equally magnificent.
Apart from the paintings, the tapestry on the walls is magnificent, and so are the large clocks in each room. A man followed us from room to room, winding up all the clocks, and we got quite a close look at the inner workings of the clocks, which was also quite interesting!
The highlight of all the rooms is the great gallery. I’m not showing a picture here, because it was such a wonderful surprise to walk into the room without knowing about it, and I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone.
However, here is Piglet in one area of the great gallery to give you a hint of what to expect.
And of course all the art
Apart from the Fragonard, there is loads of art. Quite a lot of the art works are by not so well-known artists but there is also some Rembrandt and Rubens. Here are some of the paintings I loved.
It’s interesting that so many artists who were famous at that time are not really remembered as much now.
My favorites were all the landscapes, though – the ones of Venice were particularly stunning and looked so realistic.
This cathedral in Belgium by David Roberts looked super spooky.
The nice thing about The Wallace Collection is that it’s not too large. We went through all the rooms and were able to see everything without feeling overwhelmed. We finished the museum in about two hours and then headed to the museum restaurant for a quick coffee break and a chance to rest our legs before heading out into the craziness of Bond Street.
The restaurant is nice, they serve an afternoon tea, but I am not sure if it’s worth the price (~ £50 per person). To be honest, all afternoon teas seem super-expensive, and I am still on the fence whether to try one or not. I do want to do this, as it’s a typical British experience, but I still need to get over the sticker shock of it all. For now, we stuck to basic coffee and french fries for us all, which was excellent. The vibe in the restaurant is also lovely, and it’s definitely worth stopping for a bite.
