Robert Walpole. A Portrait of the Collector against the Background of the Collection

The exhibition will feature engravings reproducing world-famous works that belonged to that collection, such as Rembrandt’s Sacrifice of Isaac, Snyders Birds’ Concert, Murillo’s Immaculate Conception, Van Dyck’s Madonna with Partridges, Poussin’s Holy Family and Maratti’s Portrait of Pope Clement IX. Today those paintings adorn the halls of the Hermitage and are key features in the displays of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch and French schools of painting, so they very rarely leave their places. People can, however, be helped to form an idea of them and of Walpole’s collection by the prints produced in the 1770s and ’80s by the finest exponents of copperplate engraving then working in Britain – Richard Earlom, Valentine Green, James Walker, Jean-Baptiste Michel and others.

At the centre of the display is a portrait of Robert Walpole painted by Jean-Baptiste van Loo, the only family portrait to have left Houghton Hall, the stately home in Norfolk built for Walpole where descendants of his still live. It was produced by a member of a celebrated dynasty of French painters with Dutch roots in the year 1740, as is proclaimed by the signature on the base of the column at the bottom right: F.P.J.B. Vanloo 1740.

Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1684–1745) worked in a range of genres but was chiefly famed for his portraits. In 1738, Walpole commissioned a half-length likeness of himself from the artist (National Portrait Gallery, London). Sir Robert was entirely satisfied by the resemblance and a little later decided he wanted to have a full-length portrait. Since the existing depiction was fully to his client’s liking, the artist simply repeated it, adding the elements lacking for a formal portrait and the Chancellor’s robes with the Order of the Garter. The picture immediately found a place in the Blue Bedroom at Houghton Hall.

Houghton Hall was also home to the bulk of Walpole’s collection of paintings. The collection became widely known through the efforts of Horace Walpole (1717–1797), Sir Robert’s youngest son. He compiled a catalogue that he managed to complete shortly before his father’s death in 1745. The very title that he gave to it – Aedes Walpolianae, “Walpole’s Shrine” – indicates that Horace perceived Houghton Hall and the masterpieces kept there as a sort of memorial to the accomplishments of Robert Walpole. The catalogue was published in 1748, and until the end of the 18th century it continued to serve as a pattern for all descriptions of the art collections of the English aristocracy.

In 1774, the prominent London-based engraver and publisher John Boydell (1720–1804) began producing the illustrated publication Houghton Gallery. It contained 129 prints, while by way of commentary Boydell included the description of the collection from the Aedes Walpolianae. The publication of prints was completed only after the paintings themselves arrived in Russia in 1789, a fact reflected in its final title: A Set of Prints Engraved after the Most Capital Paintings in the Collection of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress of Russia, Lately in the Possession of the Earl of Orford at Houghton Hall in Norfolk. Twenty works from that publication are included in the exhibition at the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts. The prints make it possible to assess Robert Walpole’s artistic preferences and the diversity of genres in his collection, in which large canvases by 18th-century Italian painters could be found along with intimate “cabinet pictures” and works on historical subjects or profound allegories next to little scenes from daily life and likenesses of the powerful politician’s favourite dogs.

The exhibition’s curator is Sergei Sergeyevich Orekhov, head of the prints sector in the State Hermitage’s Department of Western European Fine Arts.

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Sir Robert Walpole (1676–1745), 1st Earl of Orford, leader of the Whig faction, is best known for effectively being the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. He entered parliament in 1702 and soon attracted attention with his intelligent, clear and persuasive speeches in the House of Commons. He also grew closely involved with young influential Whigs and by 1704 he had become one of their leaders. Queen Anne, however, tired of the way the War of the Spanish Succession was dragging on, began to show preference for the Tories, the party opposed to the war. After a Tory victory and dismissal from his high offices, Walpole fell into deep disfavour. In 1712, the House of Commons even charged him with corruption during his time as Secretary at War. He was found guilty by the Lords and briefly imprisoned in the Tower. The next year, however, he returned to parliament, and with the succession of King George I to the throne in 1714 the Whigs were again firmly back in government. Robert Walpole’s career really took off. He soon regained his previous standing, before rising to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Treasury, as well as Leader of the House of Commons. For his last seven year as head of the cabinet, Walpole was constantly under attack from a strengthening opposition, especially one of its leaders – the upcoming young statesman William Pitt. The powerful forces ranged against Walpole finally obliged him to resign in 1742.

Robert Walpole was a passionate collector of works of art. He began buying paintings at the time when he was still in opposition and did not hold any high offices of state. The growth of his power and financial capacity in the years that followed enabled him to assemble an exceptional collection, the equal of which it was difficult to find not only in Britain, but beyond its shores as well. By 1736, he had already acquired around 400 pictures.

After Robert Walpole’s death, the former Prime Minister’s title, estate, collections and also his debts amounting to 50,000 pounds passed to his eldest son, another Robert, and then to his grandson, George. The auctions at which they both sold off pictures that had not made it to Houghton Hall in their time failed to bring in any large sums, putting George Walpole off for a long time from the idea of improving his finances through the sale of art treasures and allowing the collection to continue as it was for another quarter-century. In 1778, however, George unexpectedly resolved to part with his grandfather’s collection, offering it to the Russian Empress Catherine II. The negotiations, conducted under conditions of the strictest secrecy, ended in 1779 with the purchase of 206 works from Houghton Hall for 40,000 pounds sterling. This caused a great stir in English society since the British saw Russia as an exotic, uncultured country and Catherine herself as a despotic ruler invested with unbridled power. Nevertheless, in late 1779 the collection was delivered safe and sound to Saint Petersburg, where it soon occupied a worthy place among Catherine II’s other acquisitions, in her Hermitage.