Editing Wallace Collection (section)

==History==
[[Image:Sir Richard Wallace.jpg|left|thumb|Photograph of Richard Wallace, 1857]]

The Wallace Collection is a museum which displays works of art collected in the 18th and 19th centuries by five generations of a British aristocratic family – the first four [[Marquess of Hertford|Marquesses of Hertford]] and [[Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet|Sir Richard Wallace]], the illegitimate son of the [[Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford|4th Marquess]].  In the 19th century, the Marquesses of Hertford were one of the wealthiest families in Europe. They owned large properties in England, Wales and Ireland, and increased their wealth through successful marriages.  Politically of lesser importance, the 3rd and 4th Marquess and Sir Richard Wallace became leading art collectors of their time.

The Wallace Collection, comprising about 5,500 works of art, was bequeathed to the British nation by Lady Wallace in 1897.<ref>Lasic, Barbara.(2009). ‘Splendid patriotism’: Richard Wallace and the construction of the Wallace Collection, ''Journal of the History of Collections'', V.21 (November 2009): 173–182.</ref> The state then decided to buy Hertford House to display the collection and it was opened as a museum in 1900. As a museum the Wallace Collection's main strength is [[18th-century French art]]: paintings, furniture, porcelain, sculpture and gold snuffboxes and 16th- to 19th-century paintings by such as [[Titian]], [[Van Dyck]], [[Rembrandt]], [[Frans Hals|Hals]], [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]], [[Thomas Gainsborough|Gainsborough]] and [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]], a collection of arms and armour and medieval and Renaissance objects including [[Limoges enamel]]s, [[maiolica]], glass and bronzes.  Paintings, furniture and porcelain are displayed together in the manner of private collections of the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Cusk|first=Rachel|date=3 June 2016|title=The Wallace Collection|url=https://www.ft.com/content/fb7f6578-284b-11e6-8b18-91555f2f4fde |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/fb7f6578-284b-11e6-8b18-91555f2f4fde |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-26|website=[[Financial Times]]}}</ref>