The Apsley House in Hyde Park, home of the Wellington Museum, has finally reopened after a three year, $9.5 million restoration. The paintings now appear just as the Duke had them originally hung.

Many great art collections come about as the result of war, whether by gift or as a result of pillage. To his credit, the Duke's collection of paintings, silver, and porcelain came mostly from donations from the grateful monarchs whose dynasties he helped save.

The Duke liked to call the house "the Waterloo Palace." Indeed, the reception hall, modeled after the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, is called the Waterloo Gallery. In it, an eleven-foot statue of Napoleon by Antonio Canova looms at the foot of the stairs. Bonaparte hated this statue. The Emperor's sister Pauline commissioned the sculptor to place her brother's head on a nude male model's body. Napoleon was not amused and had the sculpture "buried" in the cellar of the Louvre. In 1816, the British bought it and gave it to Wellington. For some reason, Wellington then went on a spree of purchasing portraits of Napoleon and Josephine to hang on the walls, alongside portraits of the kings of France, Austria, Holland, and Prussia donated by their heirs.

The best items in the collection came as a consequence of the Peninsular War. After the Battle of Salamanca in 1812, the Indiant of Segovia offered as a gift "the twelve best and most artistic pictures which I have been able to find."

In 1813, after the Battle of Vitoria, when the (French) King of Spain fled, the Duke captured Joseph Bonaparte's baggage train which contained some two hundred paintings stolen from the Spanish Royal Collection. Wellington sent these paintings off to England to be restored, and to his credit he offered to return them to King Ferdinand.

In 1816, when they were offered again, the Spanish representative replied, "His Majesty, touched by your delicacy, does not wish to deprive you of that which has come into your possession by means as just as they are honorable." This gave the Duke some magnificent items. The collection included works by Correggio, Flandes, Velazquez, Brugel, Rubens, Van Dyck, Murillo, Ribera, and Elsheimer.

Portugal gave its thanks with a thousand-piece silver dining service, which included a twenty-six-foot-long centerpiece depicting the four continents paying tribute to the armies of Britain, Spain, and Portugal. Louis XVIII sent a set of Sevres porcelain that Napoleon had given Josephine as a divorce present, a gift she'd rejected. More porcelain was sent by the King of Prussia, with scenes of the Duke's life and campaigns.

There are numerous portraits and busts on display. Wellington didn't like the portrait of him done by Goya in 1812, and it wasn't hung until 1950. Despite the artist's fame, Wellington's negative opinion may be more than aesthetic: X-rays showed that Goya painted the Duke's head over another portrait. Museum staff think it might even have been Napoleon's brother, King Joseph himself.

In his later years, the Duke became even more of a collector, commissioning portraits of generals who served with him in Spain and Waterloo. These all hang in the Striped Drawing Room. This and other gallery rooms on the second floor have been restored with the aid of surviving pieces of fabric and wallpaper found here and at the Duke's summer house, such that it appears as it did in contemporary watercolor views.

The art collection now consists of only seventy paintings of the original one hundred and thirty, as many of the Duke's relatives kept items. Nevertheless, it is still an impressive gallery and museum, and a fitting tribute to a famous general.

Museums:

Napoleonic Museums in and around Paris
Napoleonic Museums at Waterloo
Napoleonic Museums in Rome, Monaco, S. France
The Wellington Museum in London
Ultimate Reference for Finding Napoleonic Sites

Related:

The Museo de Risorgimento in Milan, Italy