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WALLACE, SIR RICHARD

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 277 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WALLACE, See also:SIR See also:RICHARD , See also:Bart. (1818–1890), See also:English See also:art See also:collector and philanthropist, was See also:born in See also:London on the 26th of See also:July 1818. According to Sir See also:Walter See also:Armstrong (see Did. of See also:National See also:Biography, art. " Wallace "), he was a natural son of Maria, marchioness of See also:Hertford (wife of the third See also:marquess), under whose auspices the boy was educated, mainly at See also:Paris; but it was generally supposed in his lifetime that he was a son of the See also:fourth marquess (his See also:elder by only eighteen years), and therefore her See also:grandson. At Paris he was well known in society, and became an assiduous collector of all sorts of valuable objets d'art, but in 18J7 these were sold and Wallace devoted himself to assisting the fourth marquess, who See also:left London to reside entirely in Paris, to acquire a magnificent collection of the finest examples of See also:painting, See also:armour, See also:furniture and bric-a-brac. In 1870 the marquess of Hertford died unmarried, bequeathing to Wallace an enormous See also:property, including Hertford See also:House and its contents, the house in Paris, and large Irish estates. Pending the reopening of Hertford House, which had been shut up since the marquess had gone to live in Paris, Wallace sent some of the finest of his pictures and other treasures to the Bethnal See also:Green Museum for See also:exhibition; they were then transferred to Hertford House, which had been largely transformed in See also:order to receive them. In 1871 he was created a See also:baronet for his services during the See also:siege of Paris, when he equipped several ambulances, founded the Hertford See also:British See also:hospital, and spent See also:money lavishly in See also:relief. This munificence endeared Sir Richard Wallace to the See also:French See also:people. From 1873 to 1885 he had a seat in See also:parliament for See also:Lisburn, but he lived mostly in Paris, where, in the See also:Rue See also:Laffitte and in his See also:villa in the Bois de See also:Boulogne, he dwelt among art treasures not inferior to those at Hertford House. In 1878 he was made one of the British commissioners at the Paris Exhibition, and he was also a trustee of the National See also:Gallery and a See also:governor of the National Gallery of See also:Ireland. He died in Paris on the loth of July 1890.

He had married in 1871 the daughter of a French officer, by whom he had a son, who, however, died in 1887; and See also:

Lady Wallace, who died in 1897, bequeathed his See also:great art collection to the British nation. It is now housed in Hertford House, See also:Manchester Square, which was acquired and adapted by the See also:government for the purpose.

End of Article: WALLACE, SIR RICHARD

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