Today, the Wallace Collection, home to one of the world’s most significant collections of fine and decorative arts and arms & armour in the heart of London, celebrates its 125th anniversary with its first collaboration with Google Arts & Culture. In 1897 Lady Wallace bequeathed the family’s legendary collection of over 5,500 objects to the nation, in the largest gift of art ever left to the British state. This partnership with Google Arts & Culture honours the complex histories and beauty woven into this renowned collection, through newly digitised artworks, including 59 in stunning gigapixel detail, 50 expertly curated digital stories and an immersive 3D exhibition, all accessible to a global audience. This extensive digital experience culminates in a playful experience, Whispers from The Wallace Collection, where the museum comes to life and audiences are invited to meet the art for a very personal and unexpected journey.
Magnificent detail
The 59 ultra-high-resolution gigapixel captures show a level of detail normally lost to the naked eye. Viewers can appreciate remarkable subtleties, such as the unexpectedly vibrant red lashes of the maid in Watteau’s A Woman at Her Toilet , the translucent lace in Vigee Le Brun’s Madame Perregaux, hidden symbols in Jan Steen’s Celebrating the Birth, or atmospheric details in Ruben’s Rainbow Landscape.
The use of the Gigapixel imaging technology preserves these masterpieces for both everyone who cannot access the museum in person and future generations of researchers, safeguarding the knowledge of our historic works against possible degradation or loss.
To enhance this detailed exploration, these artworks can be explored using a Hotspots feature available to mobile users on the Google Arts & Culture app. Hotspots use Google AI to highlight specific details drawn from human-curated cultural sources. This makes art discovery more intuitive.
