Rideau Hall - Art and Decoration

Art and Decoration

Rideau Hall has long been a collection point for Canadian art and cabinetry. As early as the first viceregal inhabitants, the hall has held pieces by prominent Canadian cabinet makers, such as Jaques & Hay of Toronto, James Thompson of Montreal, and William Drum of Quebec. Originally, the interior decoration was heavily Victorian, with many Rococo influences. Renovations, however, have turned the interiors into predominantly Georgian spaces, with Adam and Palladian elements. Until the 1960s, the contents and colours of the house changed with each successive royal and viceroyal family; the consort typically seeing it as her duty to update Rideau Hall to suit both her personal and contemporary tastes. As there were few paintings in the palace's permanent collection, the National Gallery would provide works on loan; a relationship that continues into the present.

Today the rooms are furnished both with elements from the history of the residence as well as art and other objects that showcase contemporary Canadian culture, including pieces by the Group of Seven's Lawren Harris, Emily Carr, Jean Paul Lemieux, and Bill Reid. The Long Gallery's Chinoiserie decoration was restored in 1993 at the direction of Gerda Hnatyshyn, wife of Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn, putting back much of the furniture and artifacts that had been collected by the Machioness of Willingdon throughout her tour of China in 1926. The space, used to greet and host functions for ambassadors and high commissioners to Canada, now contains five carpets donated by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and a Steinway & Sons baby grand piano that belonged to Glenn Gould. Other consorts left their mark on Rideau Hall, such as Princess Louise's painted apple branches on a 6-panel Georgian door in the first-floor corridor and Nora Michener's donated collection of Inuit sculpture. Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul, worked with Ontario potter Bill Reddick to develop Rideau Hall's first Canadian porcelain state dinner service.

Since Vincent Massey's time as governor general, the viceroy has worked closely with the Department of Public Works and Government Services in repairing and refurbishing Rideau Hall; the department now provides a more systematic approach to the maintenance of the palace, with a full-time building manager in charge of the project. The National Capital Commission is charged with the decoration of the rooms; since 2004 the commission has undertaken a project to restore many of the salons and other state rooms to the period in which they were first built. Many pieces—objets d'art, paintings, sculptures, books, furnishings, and rugs—are drawn from the Crown Collection, so that, in Adrienne Clarkson's words, "the mix of furniture and other objects here now reflects the country, the people who came and settled here, and became part of the Canadian story."