'Love at the Wallace' London Walk with Dr. Richard Stemp - 18th February

‘Love at the Wallace’

by Dr. Richard Stemp

London Walk at the Wallace Collection

Guided Tour

18th February 2026

Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of London’s Oxford Street, the Wallace Collection houses masterpieces of painting, sculpture, furniture, arms and armour, and porcelain. Built in 1776, Hertford House was home to the Seymour family, later becoming a national museum in 1900 following its bequest to the British Nation three years before. This collection was amassed over the 18th and 19th centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, after whom the museum was named. Although the building has evolved over centuries, the collection has remained mostly untouched due to Lady Wallace’s request that the collection should not be mixed with any other – which, until 2019, was assumed to mean that they could not loan any works to other insititutions. A shining jewel within the Wallace Collection is the unrivalled assortment of French 18th-century decorative arts outside of France.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Dr. Richard Stemp will guide us around the main collection, paying particular attention to his favourite romantic works, including French Rococo masterpieces such as Fragonard’s The Swing and a variety of mythological paintings by Boucher. We will also see exemplary works on the themes of love from Dutch Golden Age painters Jan Steen, Gabriel Metsu and Gerard ter Borch, and discuss mythological statuettes and more as we explore this palatial museum. Dr. Richard Stemp will also give an introduction to Caravaggio’s Victorious Cupid, currently on loan from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, which you can visit independently after the tour of the main collection.

Please meet at 10:30am for a 10:45am start inside the foyer of the Wallace Collection. We will finish at around 12:45pm with a break for coffee. Please do join us afterwards for lunch in the museum’s courtyard restaurant.