The Wallace Collection

A Venetian goblet just crying out for a glass of summer rosé...

A highly skilled glass worker probably created this vessel around 1500 for the luxury market. As a prized work of art, it may never have been used for drinks.

Do you notice the swirling purple, green and orange curves? This 'calcedonio' glass emulated precious stones like turquoise and rock crystal. Renaissance glassmakers had become interested in classical texts during this time, such as Pliny's 'Natural History.' Their imitation of jewels sought to evoke both Roman objects and distant foreign lands.

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Goblet, Venice, about 1500

Celebrating the start of with one of our glorious still lifes. Simon Saint-Jean was a 19th-century French painter who specialised in flower paintings for wealthy collectors in Paris and abroad. He scrupulously painted this bouquet of poppies, roses and grapes for the 4th Marquess of Hertford, explaining in a letter: ‘I have taken time over it, hoping that you would understand both how long this style of painting takes and how necessary it is to wait for the right season. I have painted it all from life...’

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Simon Saint-Jean, Flowers and Grapes, 1846

Did you know that even the woman’s fingernails were originally gilded? ✨

This sculpture is the finest early Renaissance bronze in our Collection. The nymph’s finely chiselled hair and hands, her sensuous curves, and the bronze’s polished surfaces would have made it a treasured object in a Renaissance collector’s Wunderkammer – or cabinet of curiosities. 🦇

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Giovanni Fonduli da Crema, Seated Woman, about 1480–90 🕊️

The adorable Miss Haverfield tying her shawl 🎀 ⁠
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Happy birthday to Thomas Gainsborough, born on this day in 1727. The great English artist painted this charming portrait of a young Elizabeth Anne Haverfield, daughter of the Superintendent Gardener at Kew Gardens, in the early 1780s, when he was experimenting with an increasingly loose, fluid style. Despite his brilliance, Gainsborough wrote to a friend in 1774: ‘I'm sick of Portraits and wish very much to take my Viol da Gamba and walk off to some sweet Village, where I can paint Landskips and enjoy the fag End of life in quietness and ease.’ ⁠
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Behind Miss Haverfield, the trees sweep sideways in the wind, adding to the romantic spontaneity of the little girl’s rosy cheeks and tiny orange slippers. Bluebells still grow at Kew Gardens today. 💙 ⁠
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Thomas Gainsborough, Miss Elizabeth Haverfield, early 1780s ⁠
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A rather tiny head...

But who does it belong to? This sad fellow is Holofernes, an invading Assyrian general from the Book of Judith who laid siege to ancient Israel. The widow Judith cunningly lures Holofernes into her tent, where he gorges on a feast of cheese and wine before falling into a drunken stupor, whereupon she seizes the moment to decapitate him.

The hallucinogenic yellows are typical of the Sienese school of painting, of which Domenico Beccafumi was considered the last great representative. Judith appears muscular and vividly human, like a Renaissance heroine, while the background retains the sacred, remote quality of medieval religious art.

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Domenico Beccafumi, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, c.1510

Can you guess the artist? 🎨

Gold star ⭐ for anyone who guesses Anthony van Dyck.

This striking full-length portrait shows Marie de Raet, the sixteen-year-old fiancée of Philippe Le Roy, the illegitimate grandson of a wealthy Antwerp manufacturer. By 1630, Le Roy had become independently rich enough to buy a small town called Eels and Ravel — and the title ‘Lord of Ravels’. To mark his 1630 engagement to Marie, daughter of an Antwerp lord and almoner, he likely commissioned these grand portraits, painted in Van Dyck’s loose, expressive brushstrokes.

Pearls, flowing black silks, and an extravagant feather fan reflect Le Roy’s newfound status, while Marie — eighteen years his junior — appears pale and vulnerable. Inspired by the drama and colour of Italian artists like Titian, Van Dyck quickly became celebrated for putting ‘ladies’ dress into a careless romance,’ as one admirer remarked.

Want to learn more about this legendary artist?🖼️ Visit the link in bio to join 'Van Dyck: The Great 17th-Century Influencer', running 13–27 May — a fascinating three-part course led by two expert art historians.

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Anthony van Dyck, Marie de Raet, 1631
Anthony van Dyck, Philippe Le Roy, 1630

A delicate 18th-century chair 🪑

In the tumultuous years between the French monarchy, Revolution and later empire, Georges Jacob was a celebrated French cabinetmaker whose furniture captivated figures as different as Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon. This chair, adorned with pearls on the back, has been recovered in coral and white lampas silk. The princesse de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette’s ill-fated best friend who was later beheaded by the crowd, is believed to have lived with a similar set, now owned by the Met.

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Georges Jacob, armchair, about 1780

Is she bored or concentrating? 🤔

A lady in red satin draws from statuettes based on ancient sculpture. By the 17th century, the Dutch nation had acquired an embarrassment of riches but lived in constant dread of being corrupted by materialism. Moral paintings like this one – in which elegant female figures read, draw or play music – give us a fascinating glimpse into the desire to be both prosperous and good.

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Eglon Hendrick van der Neer, A Lady Drawing, about 1665