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<\/p>\nSelldorf Architects, the New York practice led by Annabelle Selldorf, has been appointed by the Wallace Collection to lead the design and delivery of a new masterplan to improve access, sustainability and visitor experience at Hertford House, the collection\u2019s historic London home.<\/p>\n
Selldorf\u2014who recently oversaw the successful refurbishment and reopening of the Frick Collection in New York, and the Sainsbury Wing in London\u2019s National Gallery\u2014will work on the project in collaboration with two UK practices. One is Purcell, the long-standing heritage consultants to the Wallace, and the other is Lawson Ward Studio, the east London practice led by Hannah Lawson, who developed the original project brief. Lawson also created the recently opened Roden Centre for Creative Learning at the National Gallery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe masterplan marks a significant investment in the long-term future of the museum,\u201d the Wallace said in a press announcement on 2 June, \u201cand its ability to connect diverse audiences with one of the world\u2019s most remarkable art collections.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are delighted to be working with Selldorf Architects, Purcell and Lawson Ward Studio on the next chapter in the museum\u2019s history,\u201d Xavier Bray, director of the Wallace Collection, said in a press statement. \u201cTheir thoughtful, collaborative approach and track record of working with complex heritage buildings gives us great confidence as we embark on this transformational journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Hertford House, Manchester Square, central London, home to the Wallace Collection, which opened to the public in 1900 Courtesy: Wallace Collection<\/p>\n
In a press statement, Selldorf said: \u201cWe are looking forward to working with the Wallace Collection to enhance the unique experience of visiting Hertford House, making their magnificent collection of paintings, decorative arts and arms and armour more accessible. Engaging a wider audience with art and the building\u2019s beautiful architecture is vital and the project presents an exciting opportunity to re-examine essential aspects of the visitor\u2019s experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wallace is a national collection and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)\u2014led by Bray and supported by a board of trustees appointed by the UK prime minister. The joint appointment of Selldorf, Purcell and Lawson Ward was made under public procurement regulations.<\/p>\n
A national collection<\/p>\n
Purcell has worked with the Wallace for three decades and executed the 2014 renovation of its Great Gallery, reintroducing natural daylight into a room once described by the art historian Kenneth Clark as \u201cthe greatest picture gallery in Europe\u201d. The huge top-lit gallery was added to Hertford House for the collector and philanthropist Richard Wallace in the early 1870s, 25 years before his widow, Amelie Castelnau, left the house and collection\u20145,500 pieces in all\u2014to the UK nation at her death in 1897.<\/p>\n
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The Great Gallery at Hertford House. The art historian Kenneth Clark once described it as “the greatest picture gallery in Europe” Courtesy: The Wallace Collection<\/p>\n
The collection was assembled by the first four marquesses of Hertford and by Richard Wallace, the son of the fourth marquess, much of it from private and auction sales in Paris. It was opened to the public in 1900 and remains, with the Wellington collection at Apsley House, one of just two great 19th-century aristocratic collections in situ in its historic London home.<\/p>\n
The Great Gallery is home to some of the collection\u2019s most celebrated works including Diego Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s The Lady with a Fan (around 1640), Frans Hals\u2019s The Laughing Cavalier (1624) and Peter Paul Rubens\u2019s The Rainbow Portrait (around 1636). Another highlight is Rembrandt\u2019s touching, separate portraits of Susanna van Collen and her husband Jean Pellicorne (both around 1632), each sitter pictured with one of their children. Of the collection\u2019s many other show-stoppers in painting, furniture and sculpture, Nicolas Poussin\u2019s A Dance to the Music of Time (around 1634\u20136) now hangs in the Billiard Room while Jean-Honor\u00e9 Fragonard\u2019s Les hasards heureux de l’escarpolette (The Swing, around 1767-68)\u00a0is to be found in the Study.<\/p>\n
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The West Room of Hertford House, demonstrates the Wallace Collection’s completeness, including examples of 18th-century furniture of the highest quality and the great Augsburg silver-gilt toilet service (1767-73, in the cabinet right), as well as paintings by Joshua Reynolds and George Romney. The view of The Grand Canal with San Simeone Piccolo (around 1737), above the Augsburg cabinet, was for long attributed to Canaletto. It was recently reattributed to his nephew and pupil Bernardo Bellotto<\/a>. The painting now hangs in West Gallery I, with a large collection of works by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi Courtesy: Wallace Collection<\/p>\n The project\u2019s full scope\u2014which will cover an improved visitor welcome, and circulation to enhancing gallery spaces, the creation of a new learning centre, upgrading environmental conditions and improving accessibility\u2014is due to be finalised, in conjunction with the collection\u2019s stakeholders, by the end of 2025. The masterplan\u2019s announcement comes during the collection\u2019s 125th anniversary year and at a poignant moment of memorial for museum staff and friends who recently attended the memorial service for Rosalind Savill, the transformational director of the museum and the curator of its outstanding collection of 18th-century French porcelain and goldsmiths\u2019 work from 1992 to 2011.<\/p>\n In 2019 the terms of Amelie Wallace’s original bequest\u2014that specified that the family bequest shall always be \u201ckept together\u201d and unmixed with other objects of art\u2014were reinterpreted so that that the Wallace Collection started making loans for the first time<\/a>. In 2020 it launched an international lending programme that has extended the collection\u2019s reach and led to a series of notable temporary exhibitions at Hertford House. These include Frans Hals: The Male Portrait (2021-22), with paintings loaned from collections across the UK, Europe and North America to hang with the celebrated The Laughing Cavalier. In November, Berlin\u2019s Gem\u00e4ldegalerie is lending Caravaggio\u2019s Victorious Cupid (1601-02) for a free exhibition at the collection in which it will be shown in company with the Wallace\u2019s own 1870s statue on the same theme, Love Triumphant<\/a>, after an 18th-century original by Jean-Pierre Tassaert.<\/p>\n