Papers relating to Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-1870)

Richard Seymour Conway (1800-1870), the 4th Marquess of Hertford, was bought up in Paris by his Mother. He was briefly an MP and a cavalry officer; in 1829 he bought a large apartment at 2 rue Laffitte and determined to settle in Paris. In 1835 he acquired the chateau de Bagatelle, he occasionally ventured into Parisian society but he was largely a recluse. The last thirty years of his life were devoted to collecting works of art; he bought Dutch paintings (including Hals' 'The Laughing Cavalier'), old masters (including masterpieces by Poussin, Van Dyck, Velázquez and Rubens) and most of the nineteenth-century paintings now in the Wallace Collection. He acquired furniture by the greatest French cabinet-makers such as Gaudreaus and Riesener as well as miniatures, gold boxes, tapestries and sculpture. He usually bought at auction through agents and as one of the richest men in Europe was rarely disappointed. His taste dominates today's Wallace Collection more than any other founder. He died at Bagatelle in August 1870 as the Prussian army marched on Paris; he left his un-entailed property to Richard Wallace who is thought by many to have been his illegitimate son. The title and entailed property was inherited by a second cousin.

These papers have been broken down into the following series: HWF/M4/1 Personal Papers HWF/M4/2 Correspondence HWF/M4/3 Material relating to Henry Seymour HWF/M4/4 Property HWF/M4/5 Receipts & Financial material

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