Apsley House

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Apsley House

Apsley House, also known as Number One, London, was the London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
residence of the Dukes of Wellington

Duke of Wellington

The Dukedom of Wellington, derived from Wellington, Somerset in Somerset, is an hereditary title and the senior rank in the Peerage of the United Kingdom....
and stands alone at Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner is a place in London, at the south-east corner of Hyde Park, London. It is a major intersection where Park Lane , Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Grosvenor Place and Constitution Hill, London converge....
, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park

Hyde Park, London

Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine ....
, facing south towards the busy traffic circulation system.

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the Waterloo Gallery At Apsley House By Joseph Nash, 1852

Apsley House On An 1869 Ordnance Survey Map

Apsley House, also known as Number One, London, was the London

London

Duke of Wellington

The Dukedom of Wellington, derived from Wellington, Somerset in Somerset, is an hereditary title and the senior rank in the Peerage of the United Kingdom....
and stands alone at Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park, London

English Heritage

English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England....
and is open to the public as a museum and art gallery, although His Grace the 8th Duke of Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington

Brigadier Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, Order of the Garter, Royal Victorian Order, Order of the British Empire, Military Cross, Deputy Lieutenant, Fellow of King's College London is a British peerage and a retired Brigadier in the British Army....
still uses part of the building as a part-time residence. It is sometimes referred to as the Wellington Museum. It is perhaps the only preserved example of an English aristocratic town house from its period. The practice has been to maintain the rooms as far as possible in the original style and decor. It contains the 1st Duke's collection of paintings, porcelain, the silver centrepiece made for the Duke in Portugal, c 1815, sculpture and furniture. Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova was a Republic of Venice sculpture who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nudity flesh. The epitome of the neoclassicism style, his work marked a return to Classicism refinement after the theatrical excesses of Baroque sculpture....
's heroic marble nude of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker
Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker is a colossal heroic nudity statue by the Italian artist Antonio Canova of Napoleon I of France in the guise of the Roman god Mars ....
holding a gilded Nike

Nike (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Nike , was a goddess who personified triumph throughout the ages of the ancient Greek culture. The Roman equivalent was Victoria ....
in the palm of his hand, made 1802-10, standing 3.45 metres to the raised left hand. It was set up for a time in the Louvre

Louvre

The Louvre Museum , located in Paris, is a historic monument, and a national museum of France. It is a central landmark, located on the Rive Droite of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement of Paris ....
and was bought by the Government for Wellington in 1816 (Pevsner) and stands in Adam's Stairwell.

History

The house was originally built in red brick by Robert Adam

Robert Adam

Robert Adam was a Scotland neoclassicism architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him....
between 1771 and 1778 for Lord Apsley

Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst

Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst Privy Council of Great Britain King's Counsel , known as the Lord Apsley from 1771 to 1775, was a United Kingdom lawyer and politician....
, the Lord Chancellor

Lord Chancellor

The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom....
, who gave the house its name. Some Adam interiors survive: the semi-circular Staircase, the Drawing Room with its apsidal

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault . In Romanesque architecture, Byzantine architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the altar....
end, and the Portico Room, behind the giant Corinthian portico

Corinthian order

The Corinthian order is one of the Classical orders of Greece and Rome architecture, characterized by a slender Fluting column and an ornate capital decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls....
added by Wellington.

In 1807 the house was purchased by Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley

Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley

Richard Colley Wesley, later Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley Order of the Garter, Privy Council of the United Kingdom was an Kingdom of Ireland politician and colonial administrator....
, the elder brother of Sir Arthur Wellesley

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Order of the Garter, Order of St Patrick, Order of the Bath, Royal Guelphic Order, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Royal Society , was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the nineteenth century....
, but in 1817 financial difficulties forced him to sell it to his famous brother, by then the Duke of Wellington, who needed a London base from which to pursue his new career in politics.

Wellington employed the architect Benjamin Dean Wyatt

Benjamin Dean Wyatt

Benjamin Dean Wyatt was an English architect. He was the son and pupil of the architect James Wyatt, and the brother of Matthew Cotes Wyatt....
to carry out renovations between 1818 and 1819. He extended the house by adding two bays westward to the original five; built the Waterloo Gallery for the Duke's paintings, and faced the red brick with the grander golden Bath stone

Bath Stone

Bath Stone is an Oolite Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, Somerset, England its distinctive appearance....
. He also introduced his own version of French style to the interior, notable in the Waterloo Gallery and the florid wrought iron stair-rail, "just turning from Empire to a neo-Rococo" (Pevsner).

The Waterloo Gallery is, of course, named after the Duke's famous victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo

In the Battle of Waterloo forces of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte and Michel Ney were defeated by those of the Seventh Coalition, including a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Bl?cher and an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington....
. A special banquet is still served annually to celebrate the date — 18 June 1815. The Duke's equestrian statue can be seen across the busy road, cloaked and watchful, the plinth guarded at each corner by an infantryman. This statue was cast from guns captured at the battle.

The house was given the popular nickname of Number One, London, since it was the first house passed by visitors who travelled from the countryside after the toll gates at Knightsbridge

Knightsbridge

Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of Central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, London, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea....
. It was originally part of a contiguous line of great houses on Piccadilly, demolished to widen Park Lane

Park Lane

Park Lane may refer to:*Park Lane , a road in London, UK*Park Lane , a shopping mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia*Park Lane , a rugby stadium in Greater Manchester, UK...
: its official address remains 149 Piccadilly, W1J 7NT.

During the Second World War, it was rumoured that King George VI

George VI of the United Kingdom

George VI was British monarchy and the United Kingdom Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the last King of Ireland , and the first Head of the Commonwealth....
and Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the Queen Consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom and the British Empire Dominions from 1936 until his death in 1952....
heard that the treasures of the house hadn't been evacuated. The story goes that they both arrived in a van and quickly had the objects moved to Frogmore

Frogmore

The Frogmore Estate or Gardens comprise of private gardens within the grounds of the Home Park, Windsor, adjoining Windsor Castle, in the England county of Berkshire....
for safekeeping.

Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington

Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington

Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, Order of the Garter , styled Lord Gerald Wellesley between 1900 and 1943, was a British diplomat, soldier, and architect....
, gave the house and most important contents to the nation in 1947, but by the Wellington Museum Act 1947 the right of the family to occupy just over half the house was preserved "so long as there is a Duke of Wellington". The family apartments are now on the north side of the house, concentrated on the second floor (American

American English

PhonologyIn many ways, compared to English language in England, North American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast of the United States , partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties we...
third floor).

Paintings collection

The magnificent collection of 200 paintings includes 83 which were acquired by the first Duke after the Battle of Vitoria

Battle of Vitoria

At the Battle of Vitoria an allied United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Portugal, and Spain army under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington broke the France army under Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain, leading to eventual victory in the Peninsular War....
in 1813, the paintings were in Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph-Napol?on Bonaparte, King of Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sicily, King of Spain and the Spanish West Indies, Comte de Survilliers was the elder brother of French Emperor Napoleon I of France, who made him King of Naples and King of Sicily and later King of Spain....
's baggage train, they were from the Spanish royal collection and were presented to Wellington by King Ferdinand VII of Spain

Ferdinand VII of Spain

Ferdinand VII was list of Spanish monarchs twice, in 1808, and from 1813 to 1833 . He was also known as 'Ferdinand, the desired'.The eldest surviving son of Charles IV of Spain, king of Spain, and of his wife Maria Louisa of Parma, he was born in the vast palace of El Escorial near Madrid....
. The painting collection includes work by:

American: John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley

John Singleton Copley was an United States painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish....
British: Sir William Beechey
William Beechey

Sir Henry William Beechey , England portrait-painter, was born at Burford, the son of William Beechey and Hannah Read .He was originally meant for a conveyancer, but a strong love for painting induced him to become a pupil at the Royal Academy in 1772....
, John Burnet
John Burnet (painter)

John Burnet was a Scotland engraver and Painting....
, George Dawe
George Dawe

George Dawe was an England portraitist who painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleon's invasion of Russia for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace....
, John Hoppner
John Hoppner

John Hoppner , England portrait-Painting, was born in Whitechapel.His father was of Germany extraction, and his mother was one of the German attendants at the royal palace....
, Edwin Landseer, Sir Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence can refer to*Sir Thomas Lawrence , British artist*Thomas Lawrence , mayor of colonial Philadelphia*Thomas Lawrence , another mayor of colonial Philadelphia...
, Sir David Wilkie
David Wilkie (artist)

File:David Wilkie.jpgSir David Wilkie was a Scotland Painting....
Dutch: Pieter de Hooch
Pieter de Hooch

Pieter de Hooch was a Genre works during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a contemporary of Dutch Master Jan Vermeer, with whom his work shared themes and style....
, Jan van Huysum
Jan van Huysum

Jan van Huysum, also spelled Huijsum, was a Netherlands Painting.He was the brother of Jacob van Huysum, and the son of Justus van Huysum, who is said to have been expeditious in decorating doorways, screens and vases....
, Nicolaes Maes
Nicolaes Maes

Nicolaes Maes, also known as Nicolaes Maas was a Dutch Baroque painter of genre and portraits.Maes was the son of Gerrit Maes, a prosperous merchant, and Ida Herman Claesdr....
, Willem van Mieris
Willem van Mieris

Willem van Mieris , the Netherlands Painting, was the son of Frans van Mieris sr..His works are extremely numerous, being partly imitations of the paternal subjects, or mythological episodes, which Frans habitually avoided....
, Antonis Mor, Aernout van der Neer
Aernout van der Neer

Aernout van der Neer , commonly called Aert or Artus, was the contemporary of Albert Cuyp and Meindert Hobbema, and so far like the latter that he lived and died in comparative obscurity....
, Adriaen van Ostade
Adriaen van Ostade

Adriaen van Ostade was a Netherlands Genre works painter....
, Cornelius van Poelenburgh
Cornelius van Poelenburgh

Cornelis van Poelenburgh, was a Netherlands painter of the 1600s.He initially trained with Abraham Bloemaert. He traveled to Rome where he was influenced by Adam Elsheimer....
, Jan Steen
Jan Steen

Jan Havickszoon Steen was a The Netherlands Genre works Painting of the 17th century . Psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour are marks of his trade....
, Willem van de Velde the Younger
Willem van de Velde the Younger

Willem van de Velde the Younger , was a The Netherlands painter.A son of Willem van de Velde the Elder, also a painter of sea-pieces, Willem van de Velde, the younger, was instructed by his father, and afterwards by Simon de Vlieger, a marine painter of repute at the time, and had achieved great celebrity by his art before he came to Londo...
, Jan Victors
Jan Victors

Jan Victors was a Dutch Baroque painter that focused mainly on painting subject from the Bible. He was a student of Rembrandt....
Flemish: Paul Brill
Paul and Mattheus Brill

Paul and Mattheus Brill were brothers, both born in Antwerp, who were Landscape art painters who worked in Rome after earning Pope favor....
, Adriaen Brouwer
Adriaen Brouwer

Adriaen Brouwer was a Flemings Genre works Painting active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century.At a young age Brouwer, probably born as Adriaen de Brauwer, moved perhaps via Antwerp to Haarlem, where he became a student of Frans Hals alongside Adriaen van Ostade....
, Jan Brueghel the Elder
Jan Brueghel the Elder

Jan Brueghel the Elder was a Flemings Painting, son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel, of which the latter two were derived from favored subjects, while the former may refer to the velveteen sheen of his colors or to his habit of wearin...
, Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck

Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque painting who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English school of painting for the next 150 years....
, Antony Francis van der Meulen
Antony Francis van der Meulen

Adam Frans van der Meulen was a Flemish Baroque painter specialising in battle scenes. He was active first in Brussels, where he was a pupil of was pupil of Pieter Snayers, and from the 1660s onwards in Paris....
, Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality....
, David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger

David Teniers the Younger , a Flemings artist born in Antwerp, was the more celebrated son of David Teniers the Elder, almost ranking in celebrity with Peter Paul Rubens and Van Dyck....
French: Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain was an artist of the Baroque Painting era who was active in Italy, and is admired for his achievements in landscape painting....
, Claude-Joseph Vernet
German: Hans von Aachen
Hans von Aachen

Hans von Aachen was a Germany mannerism Painting.His name is derived from the birth place of his father, Aachen in Germany. Other variations of the name include Johann von - and - von Achen and various concisions like Janachen, Fanachen, Abak, Jean Dac, Aquano, van Aken etc....
, Adam Elsheimer
Adam Elsheimer

Adam Elsheimer was a German artist working in Rome who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century. His relatively few paintings were small scale, nearly all painted on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings....
, Anton Raphael Mengs
Anton Raphael Mengs

Anton Raphael Mengs was an German painter, active in Rome, Madrid, and Saxony, who became one of the precursors to Neoclassicism painting....
Italian: Leandro Bassano
Leandro Bassano

Leandro Bassano, , also called Leandro del Ponte, was a Venice artist and younger brother of Francesco Bassano the Younger and third son of Jacopo Bassano, who took their name from the town of Bassano del Grappa....
, Giuseppe Cesari
Giuseppe Cesari

Giuseppe Cesari was an Italy Mannerism Painting, also named Il Giuseppino and called Cavali?r d'Arpino, because he was created Cavaliere di Cristo by his patron Pope Clement VIII....
, Carlo Cignani
Carlo Cignani

Carlo Cignani was an Italy painter of the Bolognese School school, active in the Baroque period.He was born to a noble family in Bologna, where he studied first under Battista Cairo and later under Francesco Albani, to whom he remained closely allied, and was his most famous disciple....
, Antonio da Correggio
Antonio da Correggio

Antonio Allegri da Correggio was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italy Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century....
, Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano

Luca Giordano was an Italy late Baroque painter and printmaker in etching....
, Antiveduto Grammatica
Antiveduto Grammatica

Antiveduto Grammatica was a proto-Baroque Italy painter, active near Rome. Born in Siena or Rome, 1571, he died in Rome in 1626.According to Giovanni Baglione the artist was given the name Antiveduto because his father had a premonition that he would be soon be born during a journey between his native Siena and Rome....
, Guercino, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Guido Reni
Guido Reni

Guido Reni was a prominent Italy Painting of high-Baroque style....
, Giulio Romano
Giulio Romano

Giulio Romano was an Italy Painting and Architecture. A prominent pupil of Raffaello Santi, his stylistic deviations from high Renaissance classicism help define the 16th-century style known as Mannerism....
, Salvator Rosa
Salvator Rosa

Salvatore Rosa was an Italy Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romanticism....
, Francesco Trevisani
Francesco Trevisani

Francesco Trevisani was an Italians painter, active in the period called either early Rococo or late Baroque ...
, Marcello Venusti
Marcello Venusti

Marcello Venusti was an Italy Mannerism painter active in Rome in mid 1500s.Native to Mazzo di Valtellina near Como, he was reputed to have been a pupil of Perino del Vaga....

Spanish School

Coello, Claudio
Claudio Coello

Claudio Coello was a Spain Baroque painting Painting. Influenced by many other artists, including Diego Vel?zquez who was also of Portugal descent, Coello is considered the last great Spanish painter of the 17th century....
Goya, Francisco
Francisco Goya

Francisco Jos? de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish Painting and Printmaking. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history....
Murillo, Bartolomé-Esteban
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo

Bartolom? Esteban Murillo was a Spain List of painters, one of the most important figures in Baroque painting in Spain. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children....
Ribera, Jusepe de
Velázquez, Diego
Diego Velázquez

Diego Rodr?guez de Silva y Vel?zquez was a Spain painting who was the leading artist in the Noble court of King Philip IV of Spain. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait painting....
- 4 paintings;

The 1st Duke received many gifts from European rulers that are displayed in the House:

A pair of large candelabra of Siberian porphyry
Porphyry (geology)

Porphyry is a variety of igneous Rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspar Matrix or groundmass....
, ormolu
Ormolu

Ormolu is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-karat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze. The mercury is driven off in a kiln....
& Malachite
Malachite

Malachite is a Carbonate minerals normally known as "copper carbonate" with the chemical formula coppercarbonate.copperhydroxide2. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmite masses....
centre and two side tables, presented by Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the List of Russian rulers. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometres....
.
A pair of Swedish
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
porphyry urns, from King Charles XIV John of Sweden
Charles XIV John of Sweden

Charles XIV & III John , born Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, later renamed Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death....
.
A dinner service of Berlin porcelain, from Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III of Prussia

Frederick William III was king of Kingdom of Prussia from 1797 to 1840....
.
The Egyptian dinner service of Sèvres porcelain
Manufacture nationale de Sèvres

The manufacture nationale de S?vres is a porcelain factory at S?vres, France.Formerly a royal, then an imperial, factory, the facility is now run by the Minister of Culture ....
, from Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII , Louis Stanislas Xavier de France, was a King of list of French monarchs and List of Navarrese monarchs. The brother of Louis XVI of France, and uncle of Louis XVII of France, he ruled the kingdom from 1814 until his death in 1824, with a brief break in 1815 due to his flight from Napoleon I of France during the Hundred Da...
.
The silver and silver-gilt Portuguese service of over a thousand pieces, from the Portuguese Council of Regency.
The Saxon Service of Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain

Meissen porcelain is the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his untimely death that October, Johann Friedrich B?ttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market, and he has often been credited with the invention....
, from Frederick Augustus I of Saxony.

External links

- Apsley House is marked "Wellington Museum".

Apsley House

History

Paintings collection

See also

External links