Home News Did you know? The remains of the three founders of Dulwich Picture Gallery are buried in the Mausoleum
August 2024
Dulwich Picture Gallery sprung out of one of the most successful art dealerships in London during the late 18th century - the partnership of Frenchman, Noël Desenfans (1745 - 1807), and his younger Swiss friend, the painter, Sir Francis Bourgeois, RA (1756 - 1811). The enterprise appears to have been launched by the dowry of Desenfans' wife, Margaret Morris.
Image credit: Dulwich Picture Gallery
In 1790 the pair were commissioned by Stanislaus Augustus, King of Poland, to form a Royal Collection from scratch. They devoted the next five years exclusively to this task during which time Poland was gradually partitioned by its more powerful neighbours leading in 1795 to its complete disappearance as an independent state. The King was forced to abdicate, which left the two dealers with a Royal Collection on their hands.
Image credit: Dulwich Picture Gallery
This was an age when artists were working for radically different societies and did so with astonishing individualism and experimental audacity. The result is an impressive range of style and different ways of looking at the world.
Image credit: Dulwich Picture Gallery
Today Dulwich Picture Gallery houses one of the finest collections of Old Masters in the world.
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