The Great Gallery, Wallace Collection, London
The museum has done justice to its founder's vision in a redevelopment of a gallery housing a fine collection of old masters, says Neil Handley
Hertford House was extended in 1875 when a purpose-built picture gallery was added to the rear of the building.
This new addition, the Great Gallery, was enormous for its day and is in contrast with the domestic scale of Sir Richard Wallace’s townhouse, which still delights visitors with its intimate spaces that press you into close contact with the artworks.
The Great Gallery was constructed as the epic culmination to a visit by those precious few privileged to be granted admission. It is still a challenge to end up there – you need to turn left when you reach the first floor – but since it opened to the public in 1900 sufficient numbers have trodden the floorboards that even the “new” extension was in need of refurbishment.
The team behind the two-year project that finished in September has not merely returned the gallery to its former glory, and undone some less successful modifications of the intervening century (notably the 1970s ceiling alterations), but has grasped the opportunity to amend and refine the rationale behind the display.
The gallery features some key artistic works such as The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, the Rainbow Landscape by Rubens, Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time and Velázquez’s the Lady with a Fan. Not only has the interpretative aim of the exhibition in this particular space changed, this is now a museum that happily discusses why.
The new approach is to hang works representing different schools of art alongside each other, reflecting the international and diplomatic links that were almost taken for granted by the artists and patrons of the time. A Dutch master sits between a Spanish and an Italian and opposite a French work.
This neatly mirrors the pan-European activities of its cosmopolitan collector, who moved most of his pictures and furniture to London from their original home in Paris. The museum justifies its approach on the grounds that it is in keeping with the world view of its founder, although it is not a replica of his original layout.
Clean and uncluttered
Some pieces, such as the Italian pier tables at each end of the gallery, have been placed where they originally stood in Wallace’s time. The detailed but user-friendly information folders, bound in red for paintings and brown for furniture, are particularly good at discussing the display history of each item as well as its provenance (even admitting where that is lacking).
Each item is marked on a simple to understand floorplan with a clear photograph alongside. It is worth taking a comfy seat in the centre and reading through these, though I saw few visitors actually using them.
This is unfortunate because the object captioning is minimal, with the furniture and sculptures typically labelled succinctly on gold-coloured plaques that blend in with the dado rail. The paintings bear only their title and artist’s name fixed to the frame. As this is a traditional double hang, some of those titles are a little high on the wall. So in some respects, nothing much has changed.
All this ensures a clean and uncluttered visual experience in which everything the visitors notice is equally deserving of their attention. There are some discreet audioguide symbols but I was disappointed that the app that was still being promoted on the museum’s website had been discontinued.
So, as visitors walk around the Great Gallery they are compelled to look longer at the works themselves and that is no bad thing. Wallace’s father, the fourth Marquess of Hertford, was recorded as saying, “I only like pleasing pictures”, but even he was prepared to make exceptions, such as the inclusion of the scene of brotherly betrayal in Murillo’s Joseph and his Brethren.
The marquess also made the occasional mistake, as the interpretation highlights. These include Carbone’s Portrait of a Nobleman, which was bought as a Van Dyck sometime before 1854.
But as the point of the interpretation is to emphasise the itinerant nature of court painters who trained and competed with each other across international borders, the collector’s mistake seems reasonable in this context.
Embrace the fakes
This openness even extends to a hint at fraudulent dealer activity, as the misspelled fake French stamp “Riesner” is shown on what is now known to be a German chest.
That leads into a discussion of how German manufacturers retained the earlier styles of André-Charles Boullé (1642-1732) in the 19th century. It is suggested that two coffers on stands bought in 1851 as “finest old boule” may have been almost new pieces.
There is also new knowledge to be conveyed and visitors should not miss the related display downstairs in the Conservation Gallery.
This highlights a project in which three colleges, City and Guilds of London Art School, Buckingham New University and West Dean College, were each given a piece of furniture to restore. This found that two tables are not the pair that Wallace or his father thought: one is a later copy of the other.
Wallace was a man of taste but no collecting superhero. His legacy to the nation is not without its imperfections and imposters.
In redeveloping the Great Gallery in an intelligent but light-handed way, the museum has avoided violating a much-loved space and instead given it a new reason for past visitors to return.
Neil Handley is the museum curator at the College of Optometrists, London
The refurbishment of the Great Gallery at the Wallace Collection in London's Manchester Square focused on a return to the historic arrangement, which included a high ceiling and large lay light through which daylight floods in.
The works also incorporated a new roof structure, services and all internal finishes. The existing roof was replaced almost entirely, with the exception of the historic steel trusses, which were preserved within the new profile.
The new structure at the museum was designed to provide adequate space for plant and services, including access for maintenance, while fitting within the existing silhouette of the Great Gallery roof.
The completed interior features a tripartite arrangement on the ceiling, lay light and wainscoting. The walls, which have been upholstered in crimson silk and bordered with a cast gilt fillet, remain uninterrupted to facilitate the hanging of artwork.
The opaque lay light incorporates walk-on glass, allowing access to the light well above for maintenance of the automatic blinds and solar cut-off grills, which are crucial to create a safe environment for the artwork below.
The ceiling of the Great Gallery was reinstated to its historical height, which returned the original proportions of the room.
The existing cornice has been retained and preserved behind the new ceiling cove, while a replica has been installed in the room.
Oculi are incorporated into the coved section of the ceiling to punctuate the long expanses of the gallery and allow for the discrete integration of the mechanical extracts for the ventilation system.
To achieve excellence in the gallery, extensive decorative plasterwork and joinery packages were prepared, which included the design of bespoke gilt fillets, wainscoting and ornate oculi.
John J O’Connell is a director of John J O’Connell Architects
This new addition, the Great Gallery, was enormous for its day and is in contrast with the domestic scale of Sir Richard Wallace’s townhouse, which still delights visitors with its intimate spaces that press you into close contact with the artworks.
The Great Gallery was constructed as the epic culmination to a visit by those precious few privileged to be granted admission. It is still a challenge to end up there – you need to turn left when you reach the first floor – but since it opened to the public in 1900 sufficient numbers have trodden the floorboards that even the “new” extension was in need of refurbishment.
The team behind the two-year project that finished in September has not merely returned the gallery to its former glory, and undone some less successful modifications of the intervening century (notably the 1970s ceiling alterations), but has grasped the opportunity to amend and refine the rationale behind the display.
The gallery features some key artistic works such as The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, the Rainbow Landscape by Rubens, Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time and Velázquez’s the Lady with a Fan. Not only has the interpretative aim of the exhibition in this particular space changed, this is now a museum that happily discusses why.
The new approach is to hang works representing different schools of art alongside each other, reflecting the international and diplomatic links that were almost taken for granted by the artists and patrons of the time. A Dutch master sits between a Spanish and an Italian and opposite a French work.
This neatly mirrors the pan-European activities of its cosmopolitan collector, who moved most of his pictures and furniture to London from their original home in Paris. The museum justifies its approach on the grounds that it is in keeping with the world view of its founder, although it is not a replica of his original layout.
Clean and uncluttered
Some pieces, such as the Italian pier tables at each end of the gallery, have been placed where they originally stood in Wallace’s time. The detailed but user-friendly information folders, bound in red for paintings and brown for furniture, are particularly good at discussing the display history of each item as well as its provenance (even admitting where that is lacking).
Each item is marked on a simple to understand floorplan with a clear photograph alongside. It is worth taking a comfy seat in the centre and reading through these, though I saw few visitors actually using them.
This is unfortunate because the object captioning is minimal, with the furniture and sculptures typically labelled succinctly on gold-coloured plaques that blend in with the dado rail. The paintings bear only their title and artist’s name fixed to the frame. As this is a traditional double hang, some of those titles are a little high on the wall. So in some respects, nothing much has changed.
All this ensures a clean and uncluttered visual experience in which everything the visitors notice is equally deserving of their attention. There are some discreet audioguide symbols but I was disappointed that the app that was still being promoted on the museum’s website had been discontinued.
So, as visitors walk around the Great Gallery they are compelled to look longer at the works themselves and that is no bad thing. Wallace’s father, the fourth Marquess of Hertford, was recorded as saying, “I only like pleasing pictures”, but even he was prepared to make exceptions, such as the inclusion of the scene of brotherly betrayal in Murillo’s Joseph and his Brethren.
The marquess also made the occasional mistake, as the interpretation highlights. These include Carbone’s Portrait of a Nobleman, which was bought as a Van Dyck sometime before 1854.
But as the point of the interpretation is to emphasise the itinerant nature of court painters who trained and competed with each other across international borders, the collector’s mistake seems reasonable in this context.
Embrace the fakes
This openness even extends to a hint at fraudulent dealer activity, as the misspelled fake French stamp “Riesner” is shown on what is now known to be a German chest.
That leads into a discussion of how German manufacturers retained the earlier styles of André-Charles Boullé (1642-1732) in the 19th century. It is suggested that two coffers on stands bought in 1851 as “finest old boule” may have been almost new pieces.
There is also new knowledge to be conveyed and visitors should not miss the related display downstairs in the Conservation Gallery.
This highlights a project in which three colleges, City and Guilds of London Art School, Buckingham New University and West Dean College, were each given a piece of furniture to restore. This found that two tables are not the pair that Wallace or his father thought: one is a later copy of the other.
Wallace was a man of taste but no collecting superhero. His legacy to the nation is not without its imperfections and imposters.
In redeveloping the Great Gallery in an intelligent but light-handed way, the museum has avoided violating a much-loved space and instead given it a new reason for past visitors to return.
Neil Handley is the museum curator at the College of Optometrists, London
Project data
- Cost £5m
- Funder Monument Trust
- Lead architect Purcell
- Design architect John J O’Connell Architects
- Quantity surveyor Alan Pfeffer Associates
- Structural engineer The Morton Partnership
- Services engineer Project Design Services
- Lighting engineer Sutton Vane Associates
- CDM coordinator PFB Construction Management
- Main contractor Coniston
In focus: architecture
The refurbishment of the Great Gallery at the Wallace Collection in London's Manchester Square focused on a return to the historic arrangement, which included a high ceiling and large lay light through which daylight floods in.
The works also incorporated a new roof structure, services and all internal finishes. The existing roof was replaced almost entirely, with the exception of the historic steel trusses, which were preserved within the new profile.
The new structure at the museum was designed to provide adequate space for plant and services, including access for maintenance, while fitting within the existing silhouette of the Great Gallery roof.
The completed interior features a tripartite arrangement on the ceiling, lay light and wainscoting. The walls, which have been upholstered in crimson silk and bordered with a cast gilt fillet, remain uninterrupted to facilitate the hanging of artwork.
The opaque lay light incorporates walk-on glass, allowing access to the light well above for maintenance of the automatic blinds and solar cut-off grills, which are crucial to create a safe environment for the artwork below.
The ceiling of the Great Gallery was reinstated to its historical height, which returned the original proportions of the room.
The existing cornice has been retained and preserved behind the new ceiling cove, while a replica has been installed in the room.
Oculi are incorporated into the coved section of the ceiling to punctuate the long expanses of the gallery and allow for the discrete integration of the mechanical extracts for the ventilation system.
To achieve excellence in the gallery, extensive decorative plasterwork and joinery packages were prepared, which included the design of bespoke gilt fillets, wainscoting and ornate oculi.
John J O’Connell is a director of John J O’Connell Architects