1st Marquess
Francis Seymour-Conway (1719-1794), created 1st Marquess of Hertford in 1793, was born into a wealthy family. As ambassador to Paris from 1763-1765, he began the family’s close association with France.
Madame de Pompadour (1759) by François BoucherThe Wallace Collection
He moved in a circle whose taste would come to epitomise one of the strengths of the Collection. Meeting Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, whose taste for contemporary French Rococo is sumptuously reflected in the Wallace Collection.
2nd Marquess
Francis-Ingram Conway-Seymour (1743-1822) held diplomatic posts abroad and continued his father’s close association with the Royal Household. In 1797 he acquired the lease to Manchester House, now known as Hertford House and home to the Wallace Collection.
Mrs Mary Robinson (Perdita) (18th Century) by Thomas GainsboroughThe Wallace Collection
Between 1806-1819 Manchester House was a major hub of the social life of the court due to Francis-Ingram's wife becoming a favorite of the Prince of Wales, later George IV.
3rd Marquess
Francis Charles Conway-Seymour (1777-1842), the 3rd Marquess of Hertford, was the first of three major contributors. He also collected for the Prince of Wales, sharing a similar taste for fine 17th-century Dutch genre scenes, Boulle furniture, and Sevres porcelain.
Titian's Perseus and Andromeda (1554/1556) by TitianThe Wallace Collection
The 3rd Marquess also contributed superb Italianate bronzes and was responsible for the acquisition of Titian’s magnificent Perseus and Andromeda, one of the six large-scale mythological pictures commissioned from Titian by Philip II of Spain.
As a collector he had an excellent eye for quality but had a rebellious and libertine lifestyle. In 1798 he took advantage of his father’s absence in Ireland to elope with Maria Fagnani, the illegitimate daughter of an Italian dancer who married into Milanese aristocracy.
4th Marquess
On his father’s death in 1842 Richard Seymour-Conway (1800-1870) became the 4th Marquess of Hertford. Of the four marquesses, he was the one who had the most influence on the character of the Wallace Collection.
Although an English aristocrat, he grew up in Paris and lived the greater part of his life there. His address in central Paris was 2 Rue Laffitte, at the heart of the art market district and close to his mother Maria, half-brother Lord Henry Seymour, and Richard Wallace.
Snuff Box (18th Century) by Philip Ernst Schindler (1723 - 1793) , (miniatures), Johann Rusch (active between: master goldsmith (1757-1800), GoldsmithThe Wallace Collection
He was a very private and reserved person, though witty and entertaining in his own social circle, and never married. He was an exceptionally knowledgeable connoisseur and collecting was his life’s passion. His first love was snuff boxes and paintings.
The Lady with a Fan (1640) by Diego VelázquezThe Wallace Collection
He had many special areas of interest, all well represented in the Wallace Collection today: 18th century French painting and decorative arts, 17th-century paintings (particularly Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish schools), and ‘oriental’ arms and armour.
The Laughing Cavalier (1624) by Frans HalsThe Wallace Collection
He was a formidable competitor in the field of Old Master paintings. His agent’s sale room bidding against Baron James de Rothschild for Frans Hals’ now iconic Laughing Cavalier famously led to a hammer price six times more than the picture’s estimate.
The 4th Marquess evidently defined himself by his collection, and there is no doubt his most trusted and significant agent was Richard Wallace, whose own knowledge and taste were formed from his earliest years with the 4th Marquess as his mentor.
Richard Wallace
Richard Jackson, later known as Richard Wallace, and after 1871 Sir Richard Wallace, was born in London in 1818 to Mrs. Agnes Jackson.
It now seems beyond a reasonable doubt he was the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford. Wallace's mother brought him to Paris, presumably in search of his father, where the 4th Marquess and 3rd Marchioness, Maria, eventually saw to his upbringing.
He grew up to be a man of considerable charm and became his likely father’s assistant and adviser in Paris, particularly in matters relating to art. In 1870, he inherited Lord Hertford’s un-entailed collection and property in France, England and Ireland.
A great philanthropist, Wallace was knighted in 1871 for his charitable services during the Siege of Paris. Before leaving Paris, he presented the city with fifty cast-iron fountains, known as ‘Les Wallaces’, which provided free clean drinking water to the public.
While Hertford House was being converted to accommodate his collection (1872–5), Wallace’s loan of more than two thousand works of art as the opening exhibition of the Bethnal Green Museum in the East End of London was a popular sensation.
Untitled (1800)The Wallace Collection
Lady Wallace
Born Amelie-Julie Castelnau, Lady Wallace first met Richard Wallace when she was an assistant in a fashionable perfumer’s shop. In 1890, Richard Wallace bequeathed his property to his widow Lady Wallace.
Lady Wallace led a quiet, secluded life and was exceedingly shy. After Richard Wallace’s death, she continued to live in seclusion at Hertford House where she was supported by her late husband’s secretary John Murray Scott who acted as her interpreter and adviser.
History of Hertford House Contemporary Gallery Photo (2023) by UnknownThe Wallace Collection
Lady Wallace died in 1897, and her will bequeathed to the British nation the collection. The bequest to the nation was made on certain express conditions that the collection: shall be kept together, unmixed with other objects of art, and shall be styled the Wallace Collection.
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