Wallace Collection Paintings

A couple of days before Rebecca and Penelope arrived--Bastille Day, I like to think--we visited the Wallace Collection, a London museum we'd not seen before. The usual line about the Wallace, which is true, is that if it were located in any place but a London, Paris, Rome, or maybe Madrid, it would be the main show in town. But, alas, it is in London, and so stands in the shadows of the National Gallery, the Tates, V&A, BM, and more. It still gets its share of visitors, however, and, from what I saw and heard (we did a tour before indulging ourselves on our own), far more than its share of the discerning ones. We were there for the paintings, but the Wallace exhibits far more than paintings...sculpture, ceramics, textiles, furniture, weaponry.... I'll do a second post on some of the "other" stuff.

Velasquez' Lady with a Fan

Murillo's Adoration

Titian's Perseus and Andromeda

Van Dyke's Man and Best Friend

Obligatory Rembrandt Self-Portrait

Rubens' Jesus Charging Peter: how much did he charge,
I wonder? The Papacy alone would have been worth
billions, gazillions...

There were many French 18th century works; here, Fragonard's
The Swing

Fragonard's The Scholar

And his The Schoolmistress

And a number of Watteaus...here, Gilles and Family

Watteau's The Music Party

Jan Steen's The Alchemist; one of many Steens

Franz Hals' Laughing Cavalier

A whole room of Canalettos

I never miss a Claude Lorrain...here, Mercury fooling around with Apollo...

Delacroix's Faust and Mephistopheles

And, finally, Poussin's Dance to the Music of Time