Venus, Flora, Mars and Cupid (Allegory) (Detail) Paris Bordone. Oil on canvas, 108x129 cm, Italy, 1550s. © The State Hermitage Museum

HOUGHTON HALL (Norfolk) – On attribue à Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745) la création de la fonction moderne de Premier ministre. Leader des whigs, animateur de la politique anglaise jusqu’à la malheureuse guerre avec l’Espagne dite de l’oreille de Jenkins, il amassa une considérable fortune et une non moins célèbre collection de tableaux. Son fils, l’écrivain Horace Walpole, la maintint, mais son petit-fils la dilapida. Les plus belles pièces furent achetées par Catherine la Grande, dans une série de ventes demeurées célèbres, et installées à l’Ermitage. Plus de deux siècles après l’hémorragie, une soixantaine de tableaux, de Van Dyck à Rembrandt, sont réinstallés comme il l’étaient à la fin du XVIIIe siècle dans le château de Houghton Hall, dans le Norfolk, toujours habité par un descendant de Robert Walpole, le marquis de Cholmondeley. 

Houghton Revisited – Masterpieces from the Hermitage à Houghton Hall, du 17 mai au 29 septembre 2013.

Daedalus and Icarus (Detail) Charles Lebrun. Oil on canvas, 190x124 cm, France, Circa 1645/46. © The State Hermitage Museum.

HOUGHTON HALL (Norfolk) – The magnificent art collection of Great Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, sold to Catherine the Great to adorn the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, will be reassembled in its spectacular original setting of Houghton Hall for the first time in over 200 years.

Houghton Revisited runs from 17 May-29 September 2013 and is a unique opportunity to view one of the most famous art collections of eighteenth-century Europe. The display will include paintings from the English, French, Italian, Flemish and Spanish schools, with masterpieces by Van Dyck, Poussin, Albani, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Murillo..

Houghton Hall, now the family seat of Sir Robert Walpole’s direct descendant, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, is considered one of the country’s finest Palladian houses.

The Hall was designed to house Walpole’s prized collection of Old Master paintings, and the magnificent interiors and furnishings designed by William Kent are also still intact. The paintings in the Houghton Revisited exhibition will be hung in their original positions in the State Rooms, bringing them back to the splendour of more than two centuries ago.

As well as hosting the Houghton Revisited exhibition in 2013, Houghton’s unique history and interior, the award-winning five acre garden, the contemporary sculpture park, playground and restaurant, offer something of interest to everyone, and make for a great day out for all the family.

Walpole Immaculate Conception (Detail) Bartolome Esteban Murillo. Oil on canvas. 195x145 cm, Spain. Circa 1680. © The State Hermitage Museum.

Portrait of Pope Clement IX (Detail) Carlo Maratta. Oil on canvas, 123x170 cm, Italy, 1669. © The State Hermitage Museum.

The Prodigal Son (Detail) Salvator Rosa. Oil on canvas, 253.5x201 cm, Italy, First half of the 1650s. © The State Hermitage Museum

Portrait of Sir Thomas Wharton (Detail) Anthony van Dyck. Oil on canvas, 217x128.5 cm, Flanders, 1639. © The State Hermitage Museum.