Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a dinner held by Anglia Ruskin University at The Wallace Collection in London as the guest of Professor Laurie Butler, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
The Wallace Collection is a national museum that displays the art collections assembled by the first four marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace. It was bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace, Sir Richard’s widow, in 1897. Among the Collection’s treasures are an outstanding array of 18th-century French art, many important 17th and 19th-century paintings, medieval and Renaissance works of art and one of the finest collections of princely arms and armour in Britain.
The Wallace Collection is displayed at Hertford House, formerly the principal London residence of the marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace. It was opened to the public as a museum in 1900.
Highlights include The Laughing Cavalier (1624) by Frans Hals (who’s not actually a cavalier nor laughing), Perseus and Andromeda (1554–56) by Titian and The Arab Tent (1865–66) by Landseer.
I also learned from Professor Anna Nekaris who was on our table, that there are in fact 8 main “types” of venomous mammals; I was embarrassed to only be able to name three; the Platypus, the Slow Lorus and the Vampire Bat!
