A delighted group of Dukes Club members were treated to a tour of the exquisite Wallace Collection on London’s Manchester Square.
Candy Cave, art doyenne and founder of Hampstead Fine Arts college completed her series of autumn art tours for the Dukes Club with a selection of highlights from this preeminent and exclusive collection.
With silk hung walls, an astounding collection of art works, and a treasure trove of priceless furnishings and Renaissance objects, The Wallace Collection is a feast for the eyes.
Candy started her tour with the 17th Century Dutch. From Teniers with his depictions of everyday activities in ‘The Smokers’, to van der Meer and his moody landscapes. We went on to view what Candy described as “perhaps the jewel of the collection”, Rembrandt’s ‘Titus’, and learnt why despite his early success, this artist died in poverty.
Moving through the collection, Candy regaled the delightful stories behind Velasquez’s ‘Lady with a fan’ and Frans Hals’s bumptious and pretentious but instantly recognisable and undeniably spectacular ‘Laughing Cavalier’, before finishing with the frivolously ornamental, but often rather saucy Rococo pieces. Who wants to know the scandalous story behind Fragonard’s rather pretty depiction of a lady on a swing? Ask Candy on her next Dukes Club art tour!