1. Five themed sessions
2. Enjoy a glass of wine in the galleries
3. Be invited to Wallace Collection private views
4. Welcome pack
5. Optional dinner in the glazed courtyard Wallace restaurant

Friday evenings, 6.30 – 8.30pm

5, 26 October, 9, 23 November, 7 December

£150, £180 including 3-course welcome dinner

We are now FULLY BOOKED for the 2012 Art Cavaliers courses, but we can take reservations for the 2013 sessions.

Booking and enquiries on 020 7563 9567

Click here for a full information pack

The Wallace Collection’s Perseus and Andromeda can be appreciated at a short distance from Diana and Actaeon, Diana and Callisto and the Death of Actaeon which will be united for the first time since the 18th century in The National Gallery’s exhibition ‘Metamorphosis: Titian 2012’ (11 July-23 September 2012). Learn more about the National Gallery’s Poesie paintings here. Dulwich Picture Gallery will also be displaying a studio copy of the original Venus and Adonis which has recently undergone extensive restoration, while another studio version, on loan from the National Gallery, will be on show at the British Museum, in the exhibition ‘Shakespeare: Staging the World’ (17 July-25 November 2012).

Titian’s Perseus and Andromeda at The Wallace Collection

You will find Perseus and Andromeda, the only work by Titian in the Wallace Collection, in the Great Gallery until 22 October. During the closure of the Great Gallery for refurbishment (to reopen at the end of October- Autumn 2014), the painting will be on show in the Dining Room, where it will be displayed beside Spanish masterpieces to highlight the Spanish context of this commission. Perseus and Andromeda was probably painted in 1554-6 and may have been sent to Philip II in 1556. Andromeda is shown chained to a rock, as a sacrifice to appease the sea monster that had been sent by Neptune to punish her mother’s hubristic claim that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the Nereids. The hero Perseus swoops down to rescue her, his powerful vertiginous descent contrasting vividly with her vulnerable, helpless pose. Titian gives extra poetic resonance to the terrifying scene by including pieces of coral at Andromeda’s feet. These refer to another danger overcome by Perseus: the slaying of the Gorgon Medusa, whose snaky locks petrified into coral on her death. Titian heightens the mood of sexual tension by relegating Andromeda’s parents to the background, thus concentrating our attention on her naked captive body. X-rays of the painting reveal a tortuous creative process, during which the artist changed his mind about the composition at several stages: the figure of Andromeda, for example, was originally placed on the right. If you look closely, you can see some of these changes with the naked eye.

The Poesie were destined for the Alcázar Palace, Madrid.  However, Cassiano dal Pozzo’s record of 1626 indicates that Perseus and Andromeda had been replaced with a copy. The painting is subsequently recorded in the collection of the son of the sculptor Leone Leoni (Leon Battista Leoni) at the Casa degli Omenoni in Milan (1609; 1615); it may have been given to Leone by his son Pompeo Leoni, court sculptor to Philip II, or directly by the king  to Leone himself. Over several centuries the picture changed hands and places repeatedly. Travelling from Italy to France and from England to the Southern Netherlands, it belonged for about two decades to Anthony van Dyck, who probably bought it from the heirs of Leone Leoni in Milan, as well as to Philippe, Duc d’Orléans (1674-1723) who succeeded in uniting it with four other Poesie (Diana and Actaeon, Diana and Callisto, The Rape of Europa and the unfinished The Death of Actaeon). At the end of the 18th century, Perseus and Andromeda returned to the English art market where it was claimed that the picture had once belonged to Charles I. In a sale of pictures in April 1815, Sir Gregory Page Turner sold it for £326 to the 3rd Marquess of Hertford. By the end of the century, the picture’s identity had been completely forgotten. Thus, it ended up hanging unglazed over a bath in Sir Richard Wallace’s dressing room in Hertford House, where it was identified only in 1897 as a work by Titian. 

X-ray of ‘Perseus and Andromeda,’ (c) Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge

Booking essential - 020 7563 9551 booking@wallacecollection.org.uk,

The presentation of Damien Hirst’s No Love Lost, Blue Paintings at the Wallace Collection highlights the intense and sometimes surprising links which relate contemporary art to old artistic traditions well before Modern Art. A series of lunchtime lectures sets out to explore the relationship between great modern and contemporary artists and the Old Masters.

Gerhard Richter: Old and New
Tuesday 3 November, 1pm
Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery

Jeff Wall: Modern History
Tuesday 10 November, 1pm
Christoph Vogtherr, Acting Head of Collections and Curator of Paintings Pre-1800, The Wallace Collection

La Di Da: The way Damien Hirst Sees It
Monday 16 November, 1pm
Richard Wentworth, Sculptor

Bill Viola
Tuesday 8 December, 1pm
Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director, Holburne Museum of Art

Ron Mueck
19 January 2010, 1pm
Colin Wiggins, Head of Education, National Gallery

The first will be a two-day colloquium in London on 2 and 3 December, 2010, concentrating on European collecting, in particular in Britain, from c1800 to c1870; there will be a second conference in New York, 4-5 March 2011, focussing on the following decades and the United States.  They will continue the lines enquiry of the 2003 conference on “Auctions, agents and dealers: the mechanisms of the art market 1660-1830” into the immediately following periods. The aim of the two colloquia is to encourage and present new research, concentrating on the theoretical and practical approaches to the history of collecting, the art market and the possible interconnections between old and new world collecting patterns. More specifically, we wish to consider secondary markets: old masters, sculpture, works of art and the decorative arts, but not media that could not easily be displayed such as prints, drawings and books.

The early nineteenth century saw the dramatic rise in the European art markets with the flooding of works of art onto the market. Resulting changes have often been described and analysed. In comparison, the middle of the century has hitherto been a period that has been under-researched and yet it is a period that sees important transformations in the type of collector and how they collected.

The London conference will discuss these issues in four thematic sessions.

The first session takes stock of the position at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the establishment of canons of taste in Europe through the Grand Tour and traditional habits of collecting. It concentrates on the contribution made by Francis Haskell and the methodologies that have been developed for research into the history of collecting since his writings. We would invite case studies that explore the validity of Haskell’s model as formulated in Rediscoveries in Art.

The second session will discuss the growing importance of art historians, academic art history and the public art museum for European collecting in the decades after the Musée Napoleon. It would be of particular interest to examine the role of the National gallery in London for English collecting. Papers might consider the relationship between new academic paradigms and collecting.

The third session will cover a generation of major collectors in terms of their background, motives and sources; to explore whether there are new patterns evolving, within questions of taste, the types and scale of collections.

The aim of the fourth session is to explore ways by which collections were formed, considering both the roles of collector and dealer. We are interested in the history and business strategies of individual players in the art market as well as in the economic forces faced by dealers, collectors and advisors.

We hope to publish the papers of both conferences. The conference language will be English.

Further information about the New York sessions of this joint conference will be posted by the Center for the History of Collecting in America on The Frick Collection website (http://www.frick.org/center/index.htm) in early 2010.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 1 February, 2010. We would ask for a 500-word outline of your proposal for a twenty-five minute presentation, along with a CV and a list of publications. We will inform you of our decision by the end of the month.

We hope to be able to contribute to travel costs.

Please send your proposal to Christoph Vogtherr at christoph.vogtherr@wallacecollection.org

Discover art in a beautiful and inspiring environment with our series of bite-sized evening classes for those with a busy schedule. Learn about art in an informal and ‘hands on’ way in the glorious setting of the Wallace Collection:

• Get up close to the works of art with our curators

• Enjoy a glass of wine in the stunning galleries  after hours

• Be invited to Wallace Collection private views

• Dine under the stars in the beautiful glazed courtyard restaurant, The Wallace, with Director, Dame Rosalind Savill, after the session (not included in price)

Fortnightly Friday evening sessions, commencing 18 September, 6.30pm – 8.30pm

£150 for a course of five sessions

For enquiries or to book, please call 020 7563 9567

Looking for inspiration for Spring-time re-decoration? This evening event will offer an insight into how colour can be used to great effect in both modern and period houses.

Joa Studholme, colour consultant with Farrow & Ball, will give an illustrated, informal talk on using colour in the home, while Dame Rosalind Savill, Director of the Wallace Collection, will talk about the ongoing restoration of the amazing formal rooms using hand-woven silks, acres of gilding and a range of sumptuous colours – supplied by Farrow & Ball.

After both talks, enjoy a glass of wine in the upstairs treasure filled rooms, including the newly refurbished Boudoir and West Room, not yet open to the public. Joa and Rosalind will be on hand to answer any questions.

Finish your evening by taking home a goodie bag – or why not book a table for dinner in the beautiful Wallace Restaurant, open specially.

Tickets: £14.50 including talks, reception, glass of wine and goodie bag

To book please call Ana Horton on 020 7563 9567
(limited availability)

Please leave a message requesting how many tickets you would like if calling over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Cartoons and Coronets remains open until 11 January 2009. For more information click here

• Create your own fantasy creature inspired by mythical creatures in ceramics, armour and furniture.

• Discover what it was like to have breakfast in the 18th Century! Artist Gayna Pelham will help you create the best ever breakfast using mono-print and collage.

• Other events include a Figures in Action Sculpture Workshop where you can create your own 3D mythical figure using plaster, wire and mod-roc.

For more information click here