Tea at Trianon: Unhappiness at The Wallace Collection

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Unhappiness at The Wallace Collection

From Once I was a Clever Boy:

The Wallace Collection is one of the lesser known parts of the national museums and galleries in London, a fact which to my mind makes it all the more appealing. Held in an aristocratic town house within its own gardens, yet still so very close to the West End, it has retained the feel of a very personal and very select collection, idiosyncratic at times, but rich in quality and full of familiar faces - not least the portrait of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester as a young and dashing courtier, Franz Hal’s ‘The Laughing Cavalier’ and Fragonard’s ‘The Swing’. The visitor can get close to such works - indeed it is difficult not to in so crowded a display space - and to the spectacular pieces of late medieval armour. This is a collection to go to and set out on a journey of intellectual discovery. It always seemed to me a very civilised place.

If the article is to be believed ( and I fear I suspect there is no reason not to ) my attitude would be condemned by the current state powers-that-be at the Wallace as wickedly old fashioned and elitist. By its very nature the Collection is elitist, and it should be properly proud of that fact. To lose curatorial excellence and expertise over the vain pursuit of some modish modern mode of appealing to the masses is very regrettable indeed. Dumbing down will not raise awareness of the Wallace Collection, but celebrating its richness and insight into the world of past elites will. (Read more.)