Delusions of Grandeur by Grayson Perry

This publication accompanies a major exhibition created and curated by Grayson Perry at the Wallace Collection. The Collection’s famous portrait of Madame de Pompadour (1759) by François Boucher has long fascinated Perry, as have a great many other pieces including its superb group of English miniatures and an early eighteenth-century bronze of Mezzetin, soulfully strumming his guitar.

Perry has created a fictional persona, Shirley Smith, who believes herself to be the rightful heir to Hertford House’s treasures – and indeed, the entire Wallace Collection. Through this persona, a series of new artworks have been made – inspired and influenced by those in the Collection – intended to decorate an imagined family home, complete with ancestral portraits, Old Masters and priceless antiques. Delusions of Grandeur presents this fantasy world and playfully explores themes including the meaning of home and how it creates a sense of safety, the gendering of decoration, perfection versus authenticity, and the exquisite and the pretty versus the brutality and pomp of masculinity. And through the backstory of Shirley Smith, the transformative and healing nature of art is demonstrated.

The book presents Perry’s new works in a variety of media: ceramic, sculpture, textile and works on paper, which themselves complement the diversity and variety of objects found within the Collection itself. This landmark exhibition marking Perry’s 65th birthday is both a meditation and an introspection and offers an elaborate commentary on the very nature of making and collecting art.