New Road opposite Portland Place

by Nikolas Maisch

The construction of the Truchsessian Gallery

In order to be able to present his art collection to potential buyers and financiers, Count Joseph had his own gallery building constructed in London in 1803 and catalogs printed. The Truchsessian Gallery was thus created on what is now Park Square, south of Regent's Park. The exhibition building consisted of eight rooms. As before in Wurzach and Vienna, the paintings were largely arranged by artistic schools and geographical regions. Count Joseph wanted to show London art connoisseurs that his collection was not only valuable—the curatorial arrangement also presented his educational aspirations and the count's participation in current discourses. There were even plans for a permanent classicist building with eleven rooms for the gallery, but this construction was never realized for financial reasons.

The exhibition in London consisted of paintings that had been brought from Wurzach to Vienna a few years earlier. Among them were works by Flemish, Dutch, German, Italian, and French artists—the selection of different schools was intended to reflect the diversity of the collection. This ranged from late medieval panel paintings from the northern Alpine region to works from the Italian Renaissance and the Baroque period. The catalogs of the gallery exhibition feature well-known names such as Correggio (1489–1534), Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), and Diego Velázquez (1599–1660).

With this wealth of masters and their quality, the count wanted to inspire not only experienced art connoisseurs, but also potential investors from bourgeois circles – after all, the opportunity to participate in the subscription was intended to attract as many financiers as possible.

State-of-the-art marketing

To promote the sale in London, Count Joseph sent written explanations of his project to aristocrats, parliamentarians, and prominent art collectors, as evidenced by address lists. In an elaborately designed introduction, he emphasized the importance of the collection as the basis for a national gallery to be established: in addition to academies and cultural institutions, Great Britain still lacked a state art collection. An exclusive tour of the newly created premises was planned for the invited guests, closed to the public. The idea of an exclusive vernissage, or “VIP preview,” is still common in the art market today. In the gallery itself, visitors were asked to sign in, which could be used to generate another mailing list.

Early skepticism

Despite all the careful planning and advertising measures, the count's project was met with skepticism early on. The English upper class and art connoisseurs in particular were critical of the sale in the form of a subscription. In letters, British aristocrats expressed doubts as to whether wealthy private collectors would actually be willing to spend money on a national art collection out of pure idealism. Private collecting and the prestige associated with it were too widespread. In addition, there were already individual doubts about the authenticity of some of the works in the collection. Count Joseph remained confident, however. He saw his model of many donors collectively purchasing the collection as a real opportunity for sale.

His goal remained to establish a public national gallery with his paintings.

Continue reading here: William Blake in the Truchsessen Gallery

Citation: Nikolas Maisch, New Road opposite Portland Place, in: art&market. The Truchsessen Gallery in London and the English art market around 1800, URL: [...], as of June 2, 2025.