MY OWN PIECE OF PARIS!

Of course, whilst I was in London I HAD to visit The Wallace Collection. This time around I didn't indulge in their amazing afternoon tea but my eyes did a little indulging of their own, talk about room goals!!

Pictured: Back State Room The Rococo at the time of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.

The Back State Room is today dedicated to the patronage of King Louis XV (1715-74) and his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. It displays some of the greatest examples in The Wallace Collection of art in the Rococo style, which flourished under their auspices. 'Rococo' derives from the French word 'rocaille', which means loose stones or rocky ground. This exuberant, animated style explores asymmetrical natural shapes with fountain imagery, foliage, and flowers, swirling scrolls, and sea animals.

Sir Richard Wallace used the Back State room to entertain guests to Hertford House. During his lifetime it had wooden boiserie paneling on the walls, the great chandelier, by Jacques Caffiéri, dating from 1751, remains in the room. 

Vivienne Westwood and The Wallace Collection

Pictured: Vivienne Westwood speaking on how The Wallace Collection has influenced and inspired her career. 

"My collection that was most inspired by The Wallace Collection was a collection called Portrait. I wanted to use the things that most epitomised paintings, for example, I chose pearl drop earrings because I decided that was the most typical jewellery throughout the century somehow. I wanted canvas in my collection, and even more, I wanted an actual photographic painting and that is when I decided to use the Boucher as being so typical and so pretty and had it printed on corsets."

Rare and iconic Vivienne Westwood corset from the 'Portrait Collection' AW 1990. Features the Boucher oil painting 'Daphnis and Chloe'. 

'Daphnis and Chloe' by Francois Boucher

Pictured: Staircase Balustrade French 1719-20 and 1874

Wrought iron and gilt brass. Installed in 1719-20 on the front staircase of the Banque Royale, Paris, which ultimately became the Bibliotheque Nationale. Removed from the Bibliotheque between 1868 and 1874 and adapted for installation in Hertford House in 1874 by the Parisian firm of Geslin.

The Wallace Collection is an internationally outstanding collection which contains unsurpassed masterpieces of paintings, sculpture, furniture, arms and armour, and porcelain. Built over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, it is one of the finest and most celebrated collections in the world.