Julie Amelie Charlotte Castelnau

Julie Amelie Charlotte Castelnau
Born	1819
Died	1897

Julie Amelie Charlotte Castelnau, known from 1871 as Lady Wallace (1819 – 1897) was a French-speaking art collector and British museum founder, best known today for her "bequest to the Nation" of circa 5,500 artworks that resulted in the Wallace Collection, which opened in her home 13 years after her death.

Julie Amelie met her illegitimately-born husband Richard Jackson in Paris and their illegitimate son Georges Henry Edmond Castelnau was born in 1840, 30 years before they were legally married as M. & Mme. Wallace. Since little of her own correspondence has survived, what few details of her early life are from her husband's correspondence or sources outside the direct family. Richard had been born in London but from age six he was raised in Paris by his grandmother, Maria Fagnani, 3rd Marchioness of Hertford, who was the estranged wife of the 3rd marquess.^[1]

Richard Jackson was a companion to her three children and by 1842 he, Julie Amelie, and son Georges were living nearby her together with Maria's youngest, Lord Henry Seymour. Their home was also close to Maria's eldest son, who had become Lord Hertford upon the death of his father, which expanded the family fortunes considerably. 1842 was also the year that Richard Jackson took on the maiden name of his birth mother Mrs. Agnes Jackson (née Wallace), presumably upon learning his true parentage at the inquest of his grandfather. In subsequent decades father and son remained neighbors and were art collectors together, following in the art collecting interests of (grand)mother Maria. After Lord Hertford's death in 1870, Julie Amelie and Richard finally obtained legal recognition of Richard's parentage as the son of Lord Hertford in 1871 and they married. Lord Hertford had never married, and his titles went to a distant cousin but he left his unentailed estates and art collection (which they had often jointly collected) to Richard.^[1]

The Wallace couple were well known for charitable works in Paris, especially during the Siege of Paris (1870–71).^[1] Richard was awarded a baronetcy 24 December 1871 and the Legion d'Honneur in 1872. The sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg made a bust of Lady Wallace that was shown at the Paris Salon in 1872.

Somewhat shaken after the war and worried about a home for their large art collection, the Wallaces decided to move to London. Though she spoke little English, Julie Amelie spent the final 25 years of her life running her home with its open collection and continuing various charity works. Her husband lent their collection to various exhibitions and sometimes objects lent by them had her name or his specifically, but no formal separation of the collection is known. Their home was open to visitors and it is unknown if Sir Richard meant it to become a museum. After his death, Lady Wallace continued her charity works and her son having pre-deceased her husband, she only left her French properties to her grandchildren and left the other properties to her private secretary John Murray Scott who had served the couple throughout their marriage.

The bulk of her art collection was left in her "bequest to the Nation", in a gesture that was unprecedented, as it stipulated that admission must be free of charge, which has continued up to the present day.

References[]

• Unmasking an Enigma: Who Was Lady Wallace and What Did She Achieve? by Suzanne Higgott, 2021

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