Monsieur, Wallace and Rose

It's turning into a busy week!

On Tuesday, Alistair, Madam Arcati and I went to the fantabulosa Wallace Collection museum for a very special LGBT History Month lecture about the outrageously camp "Monsieur" - Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, brother of Louis XIV of France.

Read the story of the life of Monsieur, the latest "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers - Museum of Camp

The lecture was indeed fascinating - as is its subject - delivered by the museum's new Curator of pre-1800 Pictures Christoph Vogtherr. Despite some obvious peculiarities of his use of English, he nevertheless delivered a very comprehensive and informative discourse on the behaviour of this extraordinary Duke. Opening with a series of pictures from the Collection - official and those from private collections - he tied together neatly the concepts of how official marriage and the pleasures of the flesh were kept entirely separate in the Royal Courts of Europe in the 17th century, and the way that this provided evident freedoms to those of higher breeding to indulge in affairs with "mistresses" of both sexes without reproach.

"Without being really fond of any woman, Monsieur used to amuse himself all day in the company of old and young ladies to please the King: in order not to be out of the Court fashion, he even pretended to be amorous; but he could not keep up a deception so contrary to his natural inclination. Madame de Fiennes said to him one day, "You are in much more danger from the ladies you visit, than they are from you."

Every bit as intriguing as the outrageously gay character of Monsieur was that of his second wife Lieselotte, a sturdy German no-nonsense princess with a penchant for letter-writing. It is thanks to her remarkably comprehensive - and brilliantly written - accounts of the gossip and scandals of the court that we have such a clear idea of what exactly went on in the corridors of Versailles and the other Royal Palaces.

We were enthralled - despite the very elderly audience, whose shuffling, apoplectic coughing and fidgeting were a bit of a distraction to say the least...

Then it was on to the collection itself, one I had never visited before - and you would be hard pushed to find a grander assemblage of examples of the opulent living of the European aristocracy anywhere in the UK. From their website: "The wonderful works of art were collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, in 1897. Displayed at Hertford House, the main London townhouse of its former owners, the Wallace Collection presents its outstanding collections in a sumptuous but approachable manner which is an essential part of its charm."

Among the displays are magnificent paintings by Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velàzquez, Poussin, Canaletto, Gainsborough and the world famous Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, beautiful sculptures (including the classic bust of Dante), militaria, ceramics, ornaments and possibly the most gilded and extravagant furniture ever commissioned (whole rooms full of grand Rococo pieces formerly owned by Louis XV, Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette).

I loved it. Being free to enter, and conveniently situated in the tranquil Manchester Square just off the madness of Oxford Street, I can see me popping in again in the future.

The Wallace Collection

From the sublime to the ridiculous, we of course ended up at Halfway to Heaven for the rest of the evening, topped off with a cabaret by the hilarious Rose Garden - talk about a contrast between cultures!

LGBT History Month continues throughout February 2012. Tonight Madam Arcati and I are off the the quaint Petrie Museum for a lecture about Antinous, the boy beloved of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and on whose death was created a God by his lover. Should be intriguing...