Special note: The photos in this post are shown here with the permission of the Wallace Collection, many thanks to all concerned, especially Nell. More information on the Collection can be found here:
http://www.wallacecollection.org/
The beautiful Oval Drawing Room.
A couple of weeks ago I had a day in London with my daughter. We had planned a bit of retail therapy – we are women and need our retail therapy!! My daughter had been telling me about the Wallace Collection, and how she would like to re-visit the museum, so we decided to start the day with a visit there.
The Back State Room
I left home about 8am, and got to London shortly after 10am and met my daughter at St Pancras. We made our way to Oxford Street, and on to Manchester Square, where the collection is housed in Hertford House, a beautiful London Mansion, which is an amazing setting for what must be one of the best art museums in London. I am going to be honest here, I had not heard a lot about this museum before, but I was in for a most wonderful surprise. The museum is just amazing, housing many paintings, wonderful furniture, glass, ceramics and armour. It is the home of some very famous paintings including ‘The Laughing Cavalier’ by Frans Hals,‘The Lady on a Swing’ by Fragonard and many more works of the Old Masters including masterpieces by Gainsborough, Rubins, Turner, Van Dyck, Rembrandt and Reynolds. Of special interest to me was a ‘The Lace Maker’ painted by Caspar Netscher in 1662, as a lace maker myself it was lovely to see one of my hobbies in a painting, and to know such an old skill is still alive today.
The Billiard Room
The setting of the collection is worth a mention in itself, you will see from the photos the beauty of the rooms, which are wallpapered in silk with beautiful matching curtains, it is so lovely to see the treasures in this setting. I really wanted to see ‘The Laughing Cavalier,’ which is a wonderful painting, but, as with many paintings, the real thing is better than any photo. I also love glass and miniatures, of which there are many beautiful items to be seen in the Collection. My daughter and I were not so interested in the armour section, but the jewel encrusted sword and dagger hilts drew our eyes as did the two full size horses and riders complete with full armour. We had a wonderful few hours looking round, this visit made the perfect start to our day.
The Small Drawing Room
If you are in London do try to visit this amazing museum, it is certainly on my list to visit again in the future, one visit is not enough to take it all in!
The rest of the day was spent with the retail therapy as mentioned, we ended up in Covent Garden, where we had a lovely time in the bead shop, and from there we had dinner in Wagamama’s and finished the day enjoying a happy hour in a pub! I got home quite late, having had a really lovely day out
