The Wallace Collection at War

In 1942, with the museum’s treasures evacuated for safety, Hertford House became an unlikely stage for cultural diplomacy. Two exhibitions transformed the empty galleries into a forum for Anglo-Soviet friendship at a critical moment in the conflict.

Artists Aid Russia brought together over 900 works by living artists, from Augustus John to Jacob Epstein, with proceeds supporting Clementine Churchill’s Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund. Twenty-Five Years of Progress, designed by Ernő Goldfinger, filled the galleries with bold photomontages and banners celebrating Soviet achievements and Allied unity.

Launched by Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky and his wife Agniya, these exhibitions reveal how art, propaganda and architecture were mobilised to strengthen wartime alliances.

This free display draws on newly revisited archives, surviving catalogues and artworks actually shown in 1942 to illuminate how the Wallace Collection contributed to Britain’s wartime cultural front.

Free

daily from 10.00–17.00