CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Apsley House, English Heritage

Information

Apsley House has been home to the Dukes of Wellington since 1817. The house was extensively remodeled by the 1st Duke of Wellington, who updated the Robert Adam interiors to house his internationally important collection of fine and decorative art. The core of the collection was formed of paintings from the Spanish Royal Palaces captured from Joseph Bonaparte on the battlefield at Vitoria, Spain in 1813 and later given to Wellington by King Ferdinand VII. The Dutch and Flemish pictures from the Spanish Royal Collection include five paintings by Jan Brueghel, David Teniers, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, Marcellus Coffermans and Cornelis van Poelenburch and ‘The Last Supper’ by Juan de Flandes. In 1816 and 1817 in Paris the Duke made purchases of Dutch Paintings, including four by Jan Steen, two by Nicolaes Maes – one of them being The Eavesdropper – Pieter de Hooch, Jan van der Heyden, Jan van Huijsum, Willem Cornelisz. Duyster and Ludolf Bakhuizen.

Apsley House is managed by English Heritage

Josephine Oxley, Keeper of the Wellington Collection, Apsley House, English Heritage (June 2021)