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The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (painting)
Encyclopedia
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey is an oil painting by Paul Delaroche completed in 1833. It is currently housed in the National Gallery in London. The painting portrays, erroneously in some regards, the moments preceding the death of Lady Jane Grey
, who, on July 10, 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England, only to be deposed less than two weeks later and executed in 1554. Jane is sometimes known as the "Nine Days' Queen" or the "Thirteen Days' Queen" due to the brevity of her reign.
and cousin to his son, the short-lived Edward VI
. After the latter's death she was proclaimed queen, being given precedence over Henry's daughters, Mary Tudor
and Elizabeth
. Two weeks after the death of her brother, Mary, who had the support of the English people, claimed the throne, which Jane relinquished, having reigned for only nine days. Jane, her husband Lord Guilford Dudley, and her father, were imprisoned in the Tower of London
on charges of high treason
. Jane's trial was conducted in November, but the death penalty handed to her was temporarily suspended. In February 1554, Jane's father, who had been released, was one of the rebel leaders in Wyatt's rebellion
, and on February 12, Mary had Jane, then aged 16, and her husband beheaded. Her father followed two days later.
The painting depicts the moment that Jane, blindfolded, is being assisted to lay her head upon the block for the executioner. She is being assisted by a man who is identified as John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos
. Chandos was a Lieutenant of the Tower at the time of Jane's execution. While imprisoned in the Tower, Jane was attended by ladies in waiting, one of whom was the nursemaid of her infancy. Two ladies in waiting are depicted in the painting, showing their grief at the event which is about to take place.
The execution actually was conducted in the open air, in a part of the grounds of the Tower of London that is known as Tower Green
, and where Henry VIII's wives Anne Boleyn
and Catherine Howard
had been executed. The painting indicates either that Delaroche was not familiar with this aspect of the event and has constructed the location according to his historical knowledge of other such events, or that he chose to take a great deal of artistic license
. In the picture, the execution is taking place upon a raised wooden platform similar to those on which executions of royalty and nobility had taken place in the French Revolution
. The edge of this platform can be seen, draped with a black cloth, across the foreground of the picture. At the rear of the pictorial space the handrail of stairs descends, and the tops of two weapons indicate the presence of guards. Delaroche was presumably aware that the Tower of London was founded by William of Normandy. In the painting, two stout Norman
columns with cushion capitals, a blind arcade, and a large chevroned arch create a backdrop indicative of the antiquity of the site. However, the buildings within the Tower of London span the reigns of many monarchs. In fact, the execution took place outside the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, which was constructed not at the time of William the Conqueror but by order of Henry VIII, and therefore in a style postdating that of the architecture in the painting by nearly 500 years.
It is difficult to ascertain by the setting and the lighting whether it was the artist's intention to create the impression that the scene was taking place outside a building or in an interior. The architectural features shown can occur on both interiors and exteriors of Norman buildings. The darkness of the upper part of the painting is suggestive of an interior, while the light that bathes the central figure is daylight. Ghislaine Kenyon, Head of Education at the National Gallery, commented on the sense of foreboding that the darkness was intended to create.
The intensely dark areas that occupy a large proportion of the painting's surface play a big part in the drama. Not only is the shadow of the upper section of the painting black, so also is the cloth that covers the platform, the dress of one of the ladies, the cloak of Baron Chandos and the sleeves of the executioner. Three garments form accents of warm colour, the brown dress of one of the ladies, the orange fur of the Lieutenant's collar and the blood-red hose of the executioner. The colour of Lady Jane's red-gold hair is picked up in the straw beneath the block. Against the darkness, Lady Jane, with her pallid flesh, her white bodice and satin petticoat, makes a splash of light. The artist seizes the eye of the viewer by placing the most intense patches of white on Jane's blindfold and the area of her skirt just between her outstretched hand and the sharply defined edge of the block.
Delaroche has used many small details in telling the story and increasing the dramatic and emotive quality of the painting. The figures play their parts like actors through the expressions and gestures of grief and despair of the two women, the almost fatherly tenderness with which the Lieutenant of the Tower assists the blindfolded girl to take up the required position and the displeasure in the face of the executioner at the task that confronts him. Other narrative details include the loopholes on the block and the ropes with which Lady Jane will be bound to it and well-honed but well-worn edge to the axe. Kenyon points out that the clean straw, commonly placed near the site of an execution to soak up blood, and the white dress were devices used by the artist to make the observer suppose what would happen to them next.
of 1830 which deposed Charles X of France
, the last of the French Bourbon monarchs. Charles X's brother was Louis XVI of France
whose throne was "usurped" and who was executed during the French Revolution
. It is also redolent of the execution of Marie-Antoinette. Unsurprisingly, the emotive painting caused something of a sensation. The painting was highly popular in the Paris salon, where it was first showcased in 1834.
It was originally bought by Anatole Demidov
, 1st Prince of San Donato as part of the Demidov collection
. It later came into the possession of Lord Cheylesmore, who bequeathed it to the Tate Gallery
in 1902.
The painting was thought to have been destroyed in the disastrous Tate Gallery flood of 1928 during the 1928 Thames flood
, and was only rediscovered in 1973 by Tate Gallery curator Christopher Johnstone. He was writing a book on the British painter John Martin
and going through the damaged canvases remaining from the flood in search of a missing painting by the artist. He found the Martin (albeit in very poor condition) rolled inside the Delaroche painting which was in perfect condition and transferred to the National Gallery where it should have gone when the national art collections were rationalized following the establishment of the Tate Gallery.
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey , also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed...
, who, on July 10, 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England, only to be deposed less than two weeks later and executed in 1554. Jane is sometimes known as the "Nine Days' Queen" or the "Thirteen Days' Queen" due to the brevity of her reign.
Subject
Lady Jane Grey was the grand-niece of Henry VIII of EnglandHenry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
and cousin to his son, the short-lived Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
. After the latter's death she was proclaimed queen, being given precedence over Henry's daughters, Mary Tudor
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
and Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. Two weeks after the death of her brother, Mary, who had the support of the English people, claimed the throne, which Jane relinquished, having reigned for only nine days. Jane, her husband Lord Guilford Dudley, and her father, were imprisoned in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
on charges of high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
. Jane's trial was conducted in November, but the death penalty handed to her was temporarily suspended. In February 1554, Jane's father, who had been released, was one of the rebel leaders in Wyatt's rebellion
Wyatt's rebellion
Wyatt's Rebellion was a popular uprising in England in 1554, named after Thomas Wyatt the younger, one of its leaders. The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain, which was an unpopular policy with the English...
, and on February 12, Mary had Jane, then aged 16, and her husband beheaded. Her father followed two days later.
Treatment
Delaroche painted the subject of Lady Jane's execution in 1833, nearly 300 years after the event, drawing upon contemporary historical sources to help him portray it accurately. Delaroche had built his reputation in the Paris salon with large, realistic portrayals of famous events from the previous few centuries. Despite the artist's familiarity with the painting of historical narratives, there are aspects of the painting which are inaccurate.The painting depicts the moment that Jane, blindfolded, is being assisted to lay her head upon the block for the executioner. She is being assisted by a man who is identified as John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos
John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos
John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos was an English Member of Parliament and later peer. His name is also sometimes spelt Bruges....
. Chandos was a Lieutenant of the Tower at the time of Jane's execution. While imprisoned in the Tower, Jane was attended by ladies in waiting, one of whom was the nursemaid of her infancy. Two ladies in waiting are depicted in the painting, showing their grief at the event which is about to take place.
The execution actually was conducted in the open air, in a part of the grounds of the Tower of London that is known as Tower Green
Tower Green
Tower Green is a space within the Tower of London where two English Queens consort and five other British nobles were executed by beheading. The Tower Green is located on a space south of the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula...
, and where Henry VIII's wives Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
and Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard , also spelled Katherine, Katheryn or Kathryn, was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, and sometimes known by his reference to her as his "rose without a thorn"....
had been executed. The painting indicates either that Delaroche was not familiar with this aspect of the event and has constructed the location according to his historical knowledge of other such events, or that he chose to take a great deal of artistic license
Artistic license
Artistic licence is a colloquial term, sometimes euphemism, used to denote the distortion of fact, alteration of the conventions of grammar or language, or rewording of pre-existing text made by an artist to improve a piece of...
. In the picture, the execution is taking place upon a raised wooden platform similar to those on which executions of royalty and nobility had taken place in the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. The edge of this platform can be seen, draped with a black cloth, across the foreground of the picture. At the rear of the pictorial space the handrail of stairs descends, and the tops of two weapons indicate the presence of guards. Delaroche was presumably aware that the Tower of London was founded by William of Normandy. In the painting, two stout Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
columns with cushion capitals, a blind arcade, and a large chevroned arch create a backdrop indicative of the antiquity of the site. However, the buildings within the Tower of London span the reigns of many monarchs. In fact, the execution took place outside the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, which was constructed not at the time of William the Conqueror but by order of Henry VIII, and therefore in a style postdating that of the architecture in the painting by nearly 500 years.
It is difficult to ascertain by the setting and the lighting whether it was the artist's intention to create the impression that the scene was taking place outside a building or in an interior. The architectural features shown can occur on both interiors and exteriors of Norman buildings. The darkness of the upper part of the painting is suggestive of an interior, while the light that bathes the central figure is daylight. Ghislaine Kenyon, Head of Education at the National Gallery, commented on the sense of foreboding that the darkness was intended to create.
The intensely dark areas that occupy a large proportion of the painting's surface play a big part in the drama. Not only is the shadow of the upper section of the painting black, so also is the cloth that covers the platform, the dress of one of the ladies, the cloak of Baron Chandos and the sleeves of the executioner. Three garments form accents of warm colour, the brown dress of one of the ladies, the orange fur of the Lieutenant's collar and the blood-red hose of the executioner. The colour of Lady Jane's red-gold hair is picked up in the straw beneath the block. Against the darkness, Lady Jane, with her pallid flesh, her white bodice and satin petticoat, makes a splash of light. The artist seizes the eye of the viewer by placing the most intense patches of white on Jane's blindfold and the area of her skirt just between her outstretched hand and the sharply defined edge of the block.
Delaroche has used many small details in telling the story and increasing the dramatic and emotive quality of the painting. The figures play their parts like actors through the expressions and gestures of grief and despair of the two women, the almost fatherly tenderness with which the Lieutenant of the Tower assists the blindfolded girl to take up the required position and the displeasure in the face of the executioner at the task that confronts him. Other narrative details include the loopholes on the block and the ropes with which Lady Jane will be bound to it and well-honed but well-worn edge to the axe. Kenyon points out that the clean straw, commonly placed near the site of an execution to soak up blood, and the white dress were devices used by the artist to make the observer suppose what would happen to them next.
Provenance
The painting was made after the July RevolutionJuly Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
of 1830 which deposed Charles X of France
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
, the last of the French Bourbon monarchs. Charles X's brother was Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
whose throne was "usurped" and who was executed during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. It is also redolent of the execution of Marie-Antoinette. Unsurprisingly, the emotive painting caused something of a sensation. The painting was highly popular in the Paris salon, where it was first showcased in 1834.
It was originally bought by Anatole Demidov
Anatole Demidov
Count Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato , was a Russian industrialist, diplomat and arts patron of the Demidov family.-Early life:...
, 1st Prince of San Donato as part of the Demidov collection
Demidov collection
The Demidov collection was a collection of artworks gathered by the Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov and considerably expanded by his second son Anatole. It was mainly on show at their Villa San Donato near Florence, in which a private museum of 14 rooms was devoted to them...
. It later came into the possession of Lord Cheylesmore, who bequeathed it to the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
in 1902.
The painting was thought to have been destroyed in the disastrous Tate Gallery flood of 1928 during the 1928 Thames flood
1928 Thames flood
The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. Fourteen people were drowned in London and thousands were made homeless when flood waters poured over the top of the Thames Embankment and...
, and was only rediscovered in 1973 by Tate Gallery curator Christopher Johnstone. He was writing a book on the British painter John Martin
John Martin (painter)
John Martin was an English Romantic painter, engraver and illustrator.-Biography:Martin was born in July 1789, in a one-room family cottage, at Haydon Bridge, near Hexham in Northumberland, the 4th son of Fenwick Martin, a one time fencing master...
and going through the damaged canvases remaining from the flood in search of a missing painting by the artist. He found the Martin (albeit in very poor condition) rolled inside the Delaroche painting which was in perfect condition and transferred to the National Gallery where it should have gone when the national art collections were rationalized following the establishment of the Tate Gallery.
External links
- How Tudorphilia rescued Delaroche by Tim Adams in New StatesmanNew StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....