Royal Collection

Anthony van Dyck: Charles I with M. de St Antoine (1633).

The Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation.12 It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as tapestries, furniture, ceramics, books, and other works of art. It is physically dispersed between a number of locations some, like Hampton Court Palace open to the public and not lived in by the Royal Family, whilst others like Windsor Castle are both residences and open to the public. The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London exists to show displays and exhibitions from the collection for several months at a time. There is also a Queen's Gallery next to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Its total value has been estimated at least £10 billion.

Contents

History

Few items survive from before King Henry VIII. The most important additions to the collection were made by Charles I, a passionate collector of Italian paintings, and a major patron of Van Dyck and other artists. His collection was sold after his execution in 1649, but large numbers of works were recovered for the collection after the Restoration of 1660, when the Dutch Republic also presented Charles II with the Dutch Gift, and Charles later bought many paintings and other works. George III with the assistance of Frederick Augusta Barnard, added very large numbers, especially of prints and drawings, and Queen Victoria and her husband Albert were keen collectors of contemporary and old master paintings. Many works have been given from the collection to museums, especially by George III and Victoria and Albert.

Collection highlights

Paintings, prints and drawings

Canaletto: Return of the Bucentoro to the Molo on Ascension Day (1732)
Caravaggio: A boy peeling fruit (1593)
Rubens: The Assumption of the Virgin (1612-17)

Anglo-American

Dutch school (200+ works) 3

English school

Flemish school

French school

German school

Italian school

Furniture

Decorative arts

  • Fabergé - One of the finest collections in the world;
  • Sèvres Porcelain - Arguably the world's largest collection;
  • Chelsea porcelain - Complete service completed 1763
  • Gobelins Tapestry - Sets of: 28 Don Quixote Tapestries, Jason and the Golden Fleece & Les Amours des Dieux

Sculpture

Management

The Royal Collection Department is part of the Royal Household, responsible for the cataloguing, conservation, cleaning, restoration and display of the books, pictures, sculptures and other works of art collected by the British Royal Family. Buildings do not come under its remit.

Galleries

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Furniture

Jean Henri Riesener - Louis XV Roll-top Desk (1700)

Pierre-Philippe Thomire - Pair of Candelarbra (1828)

Sculpture

Antonio Canova - Dirce, 1820-4

Antonio Canova - Fountain Nymph (Ninfa delle fontane), 1815-17

Antonio Canova - Mars & Venus, 1815-17

Paintings

Dutch paintings

Frans Hals - Portrait of a Man (1630)

Rembrandt - Agatha Bas (1641)

Jan Steen - A Woman at Her Toilet (1663)
English paintings

Thomas Gainsborough - Johann Christian Fischer (1774)

Joshua Reynolds - The Death of Dido (1781)
Flemish paintings

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Massacre of the Innocents (1565-7)

Anthony van Dyck - Cupid and Psyche (1639-40)

Peter Paul Rubens - Pythagoras advocating vegetarianism (1618-20)

David Teniers the Younger - The Virgin and Child with Saints Stephen, Jerome and Maurice (1656)
French paintings

Claude Lorrain - A view of the Roman Campagna from Tivoli, evening (1644-5)

Georges de La Tour - St Jerome (1621-3)
German paintings

Lucas Cranach the Elder - The Judgement of Paris (1537-40)

Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of Burkard von Speyer (1506)

Hans Holbein the Younger - 'Noli me tangere' (1524)

Johann Zoffany - The Tribuna of the Uffizi (1772-78)
Italian paintings

Alessandro Allori - Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1613)

Fra Angelico - Blessing Redeemer (1423)

Giovanni Bellini - Portrait of a young man (1505-09)

Canaletto - Entrance to the Grand Canal; Looking East (1744)

Caravaggio - The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew (1571-1610)

Annibale Carracci - An allegory of Truth and Time (1584-5)

Correggio - The Holy Family with Saint Jerome (1517-19)

Bernardo Daddi - The Marriage of the Virgin (1330-42)

Duccio di Buoninsegna - Triptych (1305-8)

Domenico Fetti - David with the head of Goliath (1620)

Leonardo da Vinci - The Babe in the Womb (1511)

Lorenzo Lotto - Andrea Odoni (1527)

Andrea Mantegna - The Triumphs of Caesar, IX - Julius Caesar on his triumphal chariot (1484-92)

Michelangelo - The Resurrection (1532)

Raphael - St Paul Preaching in Athens (1515)

Guido Reni - Cleopatra with the Asp (1630)

Sebastiano Ricci - The Adoration of the Magi (1726-30)

Tintoretto - Esther before Ahasuerus (1547-48)

Titian - Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro (1514-18)

Paolo Veronese - The Marriage of Saint Catherine (1580)

See also

References

  1. ^ The Royal Collection - What is the Royal Collection?
  2. ^ The Royal Collection > About the Royal Collection
  3. ^ The Social Affairs Unit - Web Review: Dutch Paintings at the Royal Collection
  4. ^ The real Da Vinci code | | Guardian Unlimited Arts
  5. ^ The Royal Collection - The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection: Renaissance & Baroque

External links

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  • This page was last modified on 20 November 2008, at 02:14.

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