The collection enriched the Picture Gallery of the Hermitage with works by Italian, Flemish and Dutch painters.
Frans Snyders
Concert of Birds
Circa 1630-1640
Oil on canvas
Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of England during the reigns of Kings George I and George II, was a notable collector of the first half of the 18th century. He kept his collection of paintings in his family castle, the Houghton Hall, in Norfolk. The collector's grandson, George Walpole, decided to sell the paintings to Russian Empress Catherine II. The deal was concluded through the Russian envoy in Great Britain, A. S. Musin-Pushkin.
Walpole’s collection formed the basis for Hermitage’s 17th-century Italian art collection with such remarkable works as Bacchus and Vulcan's Forge by Luca Giordano, The Prodigal Son and Democritus and Protogoras by Salvator Rosa and Guido Reni's The Fathers of the Church Disputing the Christian Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The collection of Flemish painting was considerably enriched and shaped so that it remains essentially the same today. Rubens's The Stone Carters, The Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee and several sketches in oil came from the Walpole collection, along with many of the works by Anthony van Dyck (such as The Virgin with Partridges and portraits from his London period) and four enormous canvases from the Market series and Birds' Concert, all by Frans Snyders. Works by the painters from other artistic schools were also acquired within the collection, including Moses Striking the Rock and The Holy Family with St Elizabeth and John the Baptist by Nicolas Poussin, The Immaculate Conception and The Adoration of the Shepherds by Bartolome Esteban Murillo and The Sacrifice of Isaac by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn.
