Apsley House - Softcover

Michael Kauffman compiled the precise, elegantly written and useful catalogue of paintings in the museum that has now been revised by its curator, Susan Jenkins ... This excellent catalogue of a fascinating collection raises hopes of one day seeing a full social history of the pictures at the Wellington Museum --The Art Newspaper, November 2009

In 1947 The 7th Duke of Wellington presented to the nation his London residence Apsley House together with a large part of its contents, the collection of the 1st Duke. There has seldom been a gift of equal magnificence. Among the painters are some of the finest canvases from the Spanish Royal Collection, captured from the French at the battle of Victoria in 1813 and subsequently presented to the Iron Duke by Ferdinand VII of Spain. These are also important seventheenth-century Dutch paintings bought by the Duke himself, as well as a series of portraits of his illustrious contemporaries and depictions of battle scenes, which provide a visual record of the Napoleonic period. With entries updated from the 1982 catalogue by C.M. Kauffmann, here the collection is published in colour for the first time. It contains details entries for 200 pictures including masterpieces by Velazquez and Murillo, Jan Steen and de Hooch, Correggio and Rubens. An introduction by Apsley House curator Susan Jenkins discusses the history of the collection, and a full inventory of the principal pictures found in the baggage of Joseph Bonaparte in 1813 is also included.