The Wallace and Frick Collections and their link with Knole

After the summer break, members of The Arts Society Horsham were eager to start their new membership year and were treated to a most fascinating lecture on two major international art collections: the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, London and the Frick Collection in New York.  The lecturer Hilary Williams, illustrated their intriguing connections and their link to Knole, the ancestral home of the Sackville family in Kent.  

It was a story of illicit liaisons, inheritance, new fortune and fortuitous opportunities, such as the chance to procure the exquisite objets d’art from Versailles following the French Revolution.  What provenance!  Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890) was the illegitimate son of the fourth Marquess of Hertford.  He inherited the illustrious collection and continued to build on the vast treasures, ably assisted by his secretary and advisor, Sir John Murray Scott.  So we have the collector, the agent and the provenance!  In addition to the must haves of the day - Rembrandt, Rubens and Titian, the collection includes important works by Fragonard, Vermeer, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Turner, Frans Hals, Van Dyck and emerging French Impressionists.  

The Frick Collection, housed at the Frick Mansion was the creation of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) who made his fortune in steel with his business partner Carnegie.  Both men were dedicated philanthropists.  With her curator’s eyes, the lecturer explores and compares the uncanny similarities between the two collections.  Was it a case of keeping up with the Wallaces? Apparently Henry Clay Frick had visited Hertford House and his art agent was known to Murray Scott who would have met and mingled in the auction houses in Paris and London as they scouted the art market for their rich clients. 

The linchpin in all this intrigue was our man Sir John Murray Scott who was left a sizeable fortune including a significant art collection by Lady Wallace.  A chance meeting at a private guided tour at Hertford House sparked an affair between Sir Murray Scott and Lady Victoria Sackville-West who was to be gifted Murray Scott’s fortune and collection which was later contested, claimed and then sold!  However, a pair of Renaissance urns can be seen at Sissinghust Castle, the home and garden created by Vita (Lady Victoria’s daughter) and her husband Harold Nicholson.

Thanks to the philanthropy of the collectors, the Wallace and Frick collections are bequeathed to their respective nations for all to enjoy!