By Stephen Duffy
The Wallace Collection which is a national museum, containing an outstanding array of paintings, furniture, porcelain, arms and armour and other works of art, was brought together by five generations of one family. The greatest collectors were the 4th Marquess of Hertford and his illegitimate son, Sir Richard, who lived most of their lives in Paris. It is their French upbringing which largely explains the strong but by no means overwhelming French emphasis to much of the Collection. The lecture presents many of the Collection’s finest treasures as well as the history of its formation.