An extremely rich art collector and Francophile. Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet of Sudbourne Hall in Suffolk; of Hertford House in London; of Antrim Castle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland; of 2 Rue Laffitte, Paris; and of the Château de Bagatelle, Paris.
makes a valiant stab at explaining Wallace's possible origins, a story in which everyone seems to be illegitimate at a time when it really mattered. He was raised by the mother of the 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800–1870) (who we will call Hertford) who was probably his father, or possibly his half-brother. Unusually the identity of Wallace's mother is also in doubt, but at one stage Wallace understood that his mother was a Wallace, hence the name he used in his baptism, aged 24.
Born in London. Aged 7 his mother left him in Paris with Hertford's mother (Hertford living close by) with whom he happily lived until 1842. He learnt about collecting art from Hertford who was a collector and appointed Wallace as his secretary and agent.
When the immensely wealthy Hertford died in 1870 he left what he could to Wallace, and it must have been a lot, or collecting art is a more profitable occupation than we had previously thought. Wallace then lived mainly in England but returned to France in 1884, where he died.
Wallace's widow bequeathed the entire collection to the nation and it opened to the public in 1900.
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