Friends excursions: Mansion House art collection
Tuesday 10 January 2017 11am - 12.30pm
Meet at Mansion House, Walbrook Entrance, EC4N.
£29
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Join Friends on a rare tour of Mansion House, one of the finest surviving Georgian town palaces in London.
On this tour, Friends will tour the home and office of the Lord Mayor of London and view the Harold Samuel collection of Dutch and Flemish 17th-century paintings. Lord Harold Samuel of Wych Cross was a wealthy property developer and entrepreneur who left his personal art collection to the City of London in 1987. The collection is made up of 84 Dutch and Flemish Golden Age paintings, including works by Nicolaes Maes, Jacob Ochtervelt and Jan Steen.
The highlight of the collection is Merry Lute Player by Frans Hals (1624-8), the purchase of which caused an international furore as it was the first artwork to have been bought by telephone bid.