Ah, The Wallace Collection! Even as I contemplate only tackling the highlights, the vastness of this collection overwhelms me and I know that it is a practically impossible task.
Still, today I am in London and, after a long, long time, have returned to my favorite museum. Although I do love a good museum and have been fortunate enough to have browsed through many a fine collection, The Wallace Collection is firmly at the top of my list. So I am certainly not going to let a little thing like whittling the collection down to a select few get me down. And so, I begin.
An Enquiring Mind: Manolo Blahnik at The Wallace Collection
As I walk in I am greeted by the grand staircase and have a feeling of homecoming. It would certainly have been a privilege and a pleasure, one imagines, to have called this house a home. Today, I am especially delighted that my love of the collection has merged with another love as I find a Manolo Blahnik exhibition in residence.
I take a moment in the hall to peruse the brochure for the exhibition and consider some of the artworks displayed. And then, I plunge in.
Manolo Blahnik, a long time fan of the Wallace Collection has personally selected 12 sketches and more than 100 shoes for display throughout the Collection. The collaboration sees Blahnik turn his creative eye from shoes to the furniture, paintings and porcelain of the Collection that have inspired and influenced him over the years.
Blahnik has been referred to as the pied piper of shoemaking. Revered for his exquisite creations each which contain a sense of magic. He once said “shoes are jewelry for the feet”, and I don’t disagree. However in this context I might well go one further to suggest that shoes are art for the feet.
The process for shoemaking begins with drawing with the sketches translating from a vision that references many sources, showcasing the process and rigour with which Blahnik’s shoes take shape from the initial creations of his mind.
As I move through the Collection, Blahnik’s inspiration is evident reflecting in the detail of the artwork and even the decor of the room. In the Small Drawing Room, a 2013 creation, Blahnik’s ‘Margolotta’ daisy ankle boots sit next to two ewers from the Meissen porcelain factory. The factories were located in Germany and France and it is unclear which one these originated from although they are dated between 1740 and 1745. The pretty pattern of the porcelain is picked up and given a perfectly modern interpretation using leather as a median.
“The Wallace Collection’s exquisite fetes galantes by Watteau, Lancret, and Pater speak to an eighteenth century fascination for theatre and spectacle, one that finds a modern-day echo in Blahnik’s creations. The light-hearted shoes presented here evoke – in texture, pattern, and colour – the bright costumes of the commedia dell’Arte and the contemporary passion for vibrant, multi-colored porcelain.”
An Enquiring Mind: Manolo Blahnik at the Wallace Collection, Exhibition Catalogue
The porcelain in delicate yet playful, practical yet decorative and just a little indulgent. The boot mirrors these sentiments. I want to put them on and go running through a sun drenched daisy filled meadow. Alas, this is not to be.
Next, is the first of the downstairs rooms on the Ground Floor, the Front State Room.
Good To Know
See some of the other rooms in The Wallace Collection or explore another of my favorite museums:
- The Front State Room
- The East Gallery II
- National Museum of Beirut
- Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar
- National Gallery of Australia
Would I Return?
Yes. An absolute, unequivocal yes.
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