24/07/2011
Art Traveller Journey 30; Around Apsley House, the home of the Dukes of Wellington.
It was a chilly wet and road crowded Sunday on the day I made my to visit Apsley House, the London home of the Dukes of Wellington.
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The House was commissioned by the 1st Earl after his victory at The Battle of Waterloo, it was built by Adam Smith in 1771 and has remained the family home of the Wellsley family ever since. It is still their home today because in the 1947 when the 7th Earl gave the house and it’s contents to the Nation, the agreement reached with the government was that the family would retain part of it as their home. Apsley House is now looked after by English Heritage.
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The large house is located next to the Queen Elizabeth Gate of Hyde Park on the wide bend around Hyde Park Corner and overlooks it’s central green area on which stands (among other monuments) the Wellington Arch (also known as Constitution Arch) and the Wellington monument.
Designed by esteemed architect Robert Adams in 1771 when it was known simply as ‘No.1 London’ and was the height of fashionable London. In 1947 the seventh Duke gave the house to the nation although the family have retained a suite of rooms (behind locked doors) and it remains their family home to this day. There is an imposing central square hall is tiled in a tiny ceramic tiles of a repeating black and white design, there are marble busts of the important men of the day depicted as ancient Romans as well as a genuine first century bust of Cicero. In the grand stairway is a twenty-foot statue Napoleon himself commissioned from Canova, of himself naked, a toga draped over one arm and he carries a staff in the other hand. Apparently he didn’t like the finished sculpture, he was embarrassed by its athleticism and had it hidden away in the basement of the Louvre from where the British Govt bought it and presented it to Wellington as a gesture of gratitude.
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From 1815 to 1852 (when the first Duke died) a grand banquet was held on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo on the 18th June, and it always attracted large crowds lining the streets eager to see the famous invited guests. At first the banquets were restricted to thirty five guests as the dinning room could not seat more, but when Wellington had a special gallery built this increased the number to eighty five. In the dining room is an enormous painting by William Salter of one of the banquets it shows soldiers in ceremonial dress all around the table, their feathery hats and glistening sheathed swords lying on the floor behind their chairs. It was a mark of your social standing or lack of it whether you were invited to the banquet in the dining room itself or had to make do with the gallery above.
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Nothing quite prepares you for the Plate & China Room, for the eight magnificently grand floor to ceiling polished mahogany display cases; they have the cleanest glass I have ever seen. In just the top half of the first cabinet are thirty-six fine china plates, twelve of which come from Prussia (the Prussian service was a gift given after the battle of Waterloo). The plates are all hand painted with scenes connected to Wellington’s life and they are gifts of grateful nations.
There are also display cases full of soldiers batons, swords and sabres(including those Wellington used at the Battle of Waterloo, intriguingly the silver mounts of his sabre’s scabbard which were made by a Martin Guillame Biennais of Paris who also made the mounts for Napoleon’s scabbard) and shields, vases, silver and gold lacquer boxes. In the middle of the room is a large rectangular finely detailed model of ancient Egypt complete with pyramids and sphinx.
nx’s, it was actually part of Empress Josephine’s divorce settlement from Napoleon, apparently she didn’t like it. There is the 104 piece Saxon Service of hand painted Meissen china, the Austrian Service from the Empress of Austria, the 66 piece Egyptian piece, and the Portuguese Service. Just how much china does one man need !
It was fashionable at this time to present national heroes with monumental pieces of silver and the four gallon Wellington Vase designed by Tom Stoddert R.A. is truly monumental, it was paid for by subscription. One of the shields is 3 foot in diameter, its border engraved with scenes from Wellington’s battle
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s and the centre is a proud relief of charging cavalry crushing the defeated foe at Waterloo with the Duke in the centre and a winged angel hovering above crowing him with a laurel wreath
Upstairs in the Piccadilly Drawing Room with its beautiful tall yellow silk walls and deep central glass chandelier there are paintings by Dutch masters.
- Lovers with Woman Listening by Nicholas Maes.
- Landscape with Travellers by Johannes Linglebach
- Landscape with Shepherds and Catto by David Teniers
- The Holy Family and St John, by Jan Brueghel
- The Gamblers by a follower of Caravaggio
- The Musical Party by Pieter de Hooch
In the Waterloo Gallery:
- Charles 1st on Horseback by Anthony Van Dyke
- St Joseph by Guido Reni
- St Fancis of Assissi by Pablo Estaban Murillo.
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