The Portland Collection, built up over 400 years by the Cavendish family and their descendants, is vast and varied. Exhibitions in its dedicated museum change every three years.
For this display, opening 20 March 2026, exactly 10 years after it opened to the public in 2016, visitors will learn the stories behind the collection for the first time. Bringing together previously untold stories and new research, this exhibition explores how the Cavendish family saw and used the natural world, both at home and across the world.
At the heart of the display is the newly restored A View of Antwerp. Never publicly shown before, this 3-metre-wide painting was once thought to be a generic cityscape – but conservation and recent scholarship reveals that it captures the arrival of Prince Ladislaus of Poland in Antwerp on 22 September 1624. Teeming with detail, experts agree that the painting is a collaboration between multiple artists, but debate their identity.
Bryony Bond, Director of the Harley Foundation, explains:
“The collection is astonishingly varied and encompasses so many stories, from how raw materials were sourced, to the skilled makers and artists behind each artefact, to the lives of the people who collected, studied, wore and used these objects. This display begins to explore some of these stories, showing how Welbeck connects to the world and the legacies of colonialism.”
