Elizabeth Gaskell and Manchester:
Identity, Culture and the Modern City
Conference, 19/20/21 July 2005

As a result of the extensive professional investigation of treasures of art in Great Britain, Dr. Gustave Waagen, Director of the Royal Gallery of Pictures in Berlin remarked that among the collections of pictures, 'that of the Marquis of Hertford unquestionably takes the first place.' The 4th Marquis of Hertford who is now remembered as the founder of the Wallace Collection lived the life of an eccentric recluse in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, avidly collecting French 18th century art. In 1855 he worked as juror at Exposition Unverselle in Paris, and by encouragement of Samuel Mawson who had been acting as the curator of his English collection, Lord Hertford agreed to lend forty-four selections from his Manchester House.

The forty-four paintings comprising thirty-one Ancient Masters, five English and eight French paintings, were hung all together in the Hertford Gallery, the only one of the eight saloons that bore a personal name.The Manchester Guardian called them 'mine of wealth and excellence.' They caused a sensation, conducing as such to the success of the first major mixed exhibition to be held in England. Lord Herfod's contribution to the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition was indispensably valuable, because the Exhibition was designed to compete with the Exhibition of Fine Arts at Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855, as well as making up for the omission of paintings in the Art Department of the Great Exhibition of 1851. But what is more exciting is to see that the successful experiment of showing the collection to the public in Manchester was after all an auspicious step towards founding of the Wallace Collection at the Manchester House in London.

Masaie Matsumura is professor of English Literature and Comparative Culture at Graduate School, Otemae University, and president of the Victorian Studies Society of Japan.