I am beyond excited about the news that the Wallace Collection is going to lend its 'Perseus and Andromeda' by Titian to the National Gallery 'Titian; Love, Desire, Death' exhibition, opening on 16th March 2020. This means that, for the first time since the King of Spain, Philip II, commissioned the series of paintings from Titian over 450 years’ ago, all of the six great 'poesie' will be displayed together. Titian named the series of paintings 'poesie' as he regarded them as his equivalents to poetry in painting. He was given unprecedented freedom in his choice of subject matter, albeit all from classical mythology and specifically Ovid’s Metamorphoses, so that his interpretation of the stories was entirely his own. The series is divided between the National Gallery London, Prado Madrid, Isabella Gardner Museum Boston, Wellington Collection London and the Wallace Collection London.
In a reciprocal agreement, the National Gallery’s 'View of Het Steen in the Early Morning' by Rubens will travel to the Wallace Collection to be reunited with its companion picture, Rubens’ 'The Rainbow Landscape'. The two landscapes were painted by Rubens for his own pleasure whilst he was living in retirement at his 'Chateau de Het Steen' in the Brabant countryside between Antwerp and Brussels. He hung them either side of a window in his home, so that the natural light continued that of the sunlight depicted in the paintings. They will be on public display together for the first time in 105 years from May 2020.
The Wallace Collection has recently changed its lending policy in a landmark decision as a result of a re-interpretation by lawyers and art experts of the terms of the will left by Lady Wallace when she bequeathed the collection to the nation. Previously considered a closed collection, the Wallace will now lend works of art on an "exceptional basis".
‘Perseus and Andromeda’ by Titian
‘View of Het Steen in the Early Morning’ by Rubens
‘The Rainbow Landscape’ by Rubens