Quartered arms of Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, KGThe Château de Bagatelle, Hertford's home from 1848Hertford House, home of the Wallace Collection
Captain Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of HertfordKG (22 February 1800 – 25 August 1870) was an English aristocrat and sometime politician who spent his life in France devoted to collecting art. From birth to 1822 he was styled Viscount Beauchamp and from 1822 to 1843 Earl of Yarmouth.
Although Lord Hertford was born in England, he was brought up in Paris by his mother, who had become estranged from his father.[3]
Career
While Earl of Yarmouth he served as a British MP for County Antrim from 1822 to 1826, but he spent most of his life in Paris, in a large apartment in the city and, from 1848, at the Château de Bagatelle, a small country house in the Bois de Boulogne on the outskirts. When shown the extent of his Irish possessions, he is reported to have replied, "Well, I see it for the first time, and pray God! for the last time."[4] His English residences were Hertford House in Manchester Square, London, now home to the Wallace Collection, and Ragley Hall, which still belongs to the family.
According to the Goncourt brothers, Lord Hertford was "a complete, absolute, unashamed monster" who once proudly declared that "when I die I shall at least have the consolation of knowing that I have never rendered anyone a service."[5]
Lord Hertford died in 1870, aged 70 in Paris, unmarried and without legitimate issue, and his titles passed to his second cousin Francis Seymour (their parents were first cousin).[1] Lord Hertford's illegitimate son and secretary, Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet (1818–1890), inherited his art collection.[1]
Art collection
Hertford was an important art collector. Manchester House (as Hertford House was originally known) was let until 1850 as the French embassy, but from 1852 was used principally to house items from Hertford's art collection. He had left it and the property that was not entailed to his illegitimate son Sir Richard Wallace.[6] Wallace's widow bequeathed the collection of paintings and objects to the nation and they form the nucleus of the Wallace Collection.[1]
^Bernard Falk, "Old Q's" Daughter: The History of a Strange Family, Hutchinson & Co., 1937.
^Edmond de Goncourt, Jules de Goncourt, Pages from the Goncourt Journal, translated by Robert Baldick, New York Review of Books, 2007, page 154 (14 August 1869).