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The V&A is a direct legacy of the Great Exhibition of
1851 which received 6 million visitors. It was the first
event ever, anywhere, to which ordinary people could
travel on public transport, the newly built train, to come
to learn about the countries of the world through their
newly manufactured goods, their craftsmanship and
their cultures. The legacy of the Exhibition was the
development of the cultural quarter of South Kensington,
‘Albertopolis’ at the core of which was the Museum of
Manufactures. Its first Director, Sir Henry Cole, continued
with ideals of learning seen at the Crystal Palace. He had
gas lighting to allow for late night openings and sought
“to ascertain practically what hours are most convenient
to the working classes.” It contained the first refreshment
rooms in the country; designed by Philip Webb and
William Morris, they are still very much in use.
When it first opened in 1852 the core of the collection
of the Museum of Manufactures consisted of some of the
objects exhibited in the Crystal Palace. The intention was
to use the museum as an educational resource to help boost
productive industry. A Government Inquiry had concluded
that in order for manufactured goods to sell they needed to
be well designed. The Museum gave a platform to applied
art and science rather than the high art of the National
Gallery. From it came the School of Design which today
is the Royal College of Art. Later the Museum was divided
into two, with the patents and inventions being displayed
at the Science Museum and the fine and applied arts at the
Victoria & Albert or V&A, as we have all come to call it.
The Europe Galleries open later this year and the museum
has been blogging about some of the key artefacts that
will be seen in them, some of which will tell the story of
the French Bourbon dynasty, Louis XIII to Louis XVI.
There were in total nineteen Kings Louis in France. There
were Louis the Pious, the Stammerer, the Fat, the Lion and
the Quarreler amongst others but it was the Bourbon Louis
who ensured that the centre of European Art shifted from
through auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s,
making London the centre of trade in international art
.
The Marquises of Hertford, whose home in Manchester
Square we now know as the Wallace Collection, loved
nothing more than outbidding everyone else at auction
just because they could, to the point of obsession.
The 3
rd
Marquis collected much of the Sèvres porcelain
commissioned by the French Royal family and the
4
th
Marquis bought 600 paintings and some of the most
sumptuous furniture ever seen at Versailles. It was the
4
th
Marquis who left the collection to his illegitimate son,
Sir Richard Wallace who in turn left it to his wife, cigar
smoking former shop girl Amelie-Julie-Charlotte
Castlenau. And she left it to us. Until recent years
The Wallace Collection was a rather fusty gem behind
Selfridges, looking a bit tired around the edges.
In the past fifteen years the Collection has undergone
a room by room renovation, commissioning silk wall
hangings from Lyons in gorgeous colours to bring out
the stunning details of the paintings and to reproduce the
opulence that once was the royal palace. The effect is
dazzling and it works. The newly sumptuous surroundings
make the porcelain, the furniture and the paintings sing.
However, it’s the renamed and refurbished Europe 1600-
1800 Galleries at The V&A, due to open later in 2015,
that I am most excited about. The Europe Galleries are
essentially in the basement. Until now they have been
boarded up, gloomy and barely visited. Later in 2015,
however, they will be reopening as part of the Museum’s
FuturePlan which so far has transformed 70% of the
museum in the past ten years. Anyone who has visited
the British Galleries, the Medieval Galleries and the
Cast Courts will know how good they are at The Victoria
& Albert at displaying their exhibits to best advantage and
without a doubt some of their most fascinating objects on
display in the new Europe Galleries will be those from the
court of Versailles.
