The Wallace Collection at War

The Wallace Collection is running a display called The Wallace Collection at War in the Housekeeper's Room at Hertford House, on from 15 April to 25 October 2026. It's a free display, so you can just drop in whenever you're around Marylebone.

The whole thing starts with a bit of history that's easy to overlook. When war was declared in September 1939, the collection's treasures were evacuated from London. The large-scale works—monumental canvases by Boucher among them—went to Hall Barn in Buckinghamshire, Balls Park in Hertford, and later West Wycombe Park. While the galleries sat empty, the staff, under Director James Mann, worked to keep the dispersed collection safe. With the main rooms cleared, Hertford House became a strange stage for cultural diplomacy.

In 1942, the Ministry of Works staged two exhibitions there, both championing the Soviet Union. The first was Artists Aid Russia, which brought together 904 works by living artists; half the proceeds went to Clementine Churchill's Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund. The second was Twenty-Five Years of Progress, an agitprop installation by the modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger, launched by Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky. The display pulls from newly revisited archives, surviving catalogues, and artworks that were actually shown in 1942.

It's a small, focused look at a time when the collection was scattered and the house was being used for something entirely different from its usual role. It also runs alongside the retrospective Winston Churchill: The Painter, so you can see both in one visit. The display is free to see, and it stays open until 25 October.