Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the House & Home myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.“Nobody has ever attempted to move Napoleon,” says Olivia Fryman, keeper of the Wellington Collection, referring to the huge marble statue at the foot of the staircase in Apsley House, on London’s Piccadilly.The nude — commissioned by the French emperor but dismissed by him as “too athletic” — was presented to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, by the Prince Regent (later George IV) following his victory at the Battle of Waterloo, which ended the Napoleonic wars. Antonio Canova’s work, “Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker”, is the most striking of the items associated with the emperor that populate Wellington’s former home. The floor beneath it had to be strengthened to accommodate its 13 tonnes.The original Apsley House was built in red brick to the designs of the Neoclassical architect Robert Adam for Henry Bathurst, 1st Baron Apsley, in the 1770s. After taking up residence in 1817, Wellington made the house “more fitting for his status” by employing architect Benjamin Dean Wyatt to make extensions and alterations, including facing it with Bath stone, says Fryman. The grandest addition was the Waterloo Gallery, completed in 1830 to host his annual Waterloo Banquet celebrating the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. The double-height room has an ornate gilded ceiling and a Versailles-style wall of seven mirrors that act as window shutters, sliding open to reveal views of Hyde Park. On display are paintings from the Spanish Royal Collection that Wellington received from King Ferdinand VII of Spain. Wellington commissioned a lockable glazed cover for his favourite work, “The Agony in the Garden” (c1525) by Correggio — he held the key himself. The field marshal received so many gifts from grateful monarchs that he created a museum in his house to display them. A porcelain service from King Frederick William III of Prussia features scenes from Wellington’s life, including his school, Eton College.The field marshal received so many gifts from grateful monarchs that he created a museum in his house to display themMany pieces in the house reflect Wellington’s military career but personal items on show when I visit include his false teeth and a walking stick with an inbuilt hearing aid. Fryman says he experienced hearing loss in the 1820s after standing too close to an artillery gun as it was fired. There is also a portrait of his wife, Catherine Pakenham, to whom Fryman says he was “very unhappily married”. They had two sons. The 1772 piano in the yellow drawing room probably belonged to Wellington’s father, a professor of music at Trinity College Dublin.Wellington, who was born in Dublin in 1769, was twice prime minister during his political career that followed Waterloo. Apsley House remained in the family after his death in 1852 until the 7th Duke of Wellington donated it and many of the contents to the nation in 1947. Part of the house remains a family home for the current and 9th Duke, Charles Wellesley. In one of the public rooms cared for by English Heritage, William Allan’s Battle of Waterloo painting (1843) depicts Napoleon in the foreground on his white horse. Fryman interprets the preponderance of objects associated with the French leader as showing “a degree of respect” on the part of Wellington. “It’s almost a way of telling the story without blowing your own trumpet as well,” she says. english-heritage.org.ukFind out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
