Delaroche's depiction of the beheading of Jane Grey
So-called history painting, a type of art defined by subject rather than by style or the period when it was produced, is an opportunity for artists to take artistic licence in depicting religious, mythological or historical events to bring them to life, often heightening the drama and tension of the scene depicted. Such an artist was the French painter Paul Delaroche, working in the early part of the 19th century, whose greatest claim to fame was his evocation of the beheading of Lady Jane Grey, often known as the Nine-Day Queen.
The execution of the 17-year-old was tragic and moving, an aspect of history that has continued to evoke compassion over the years both for her renowned beauty and the unfairness of her death. Following the death of Edward VI in 1553, by his dying wish he decreed that his cousin Jane Grey be nominated Queen, so circumventing his sister Mary who, by the conventional right of succession, would usually ascend to the throne. As a Roman Catholic in a largely Protestant country, Mary was not acceptable to Edward because of her religious beliefs, but she contested her brother’s decision and, too, claimed and won her right to the throne.
Following her father’s involvement in the popular Wyatt’s rebellion against Mary’s proposed marriage to Philip of Spain, Jane Grey stood trial for treason, was sentenced to death and imprisoned in the Tower of London. With an excellent humanist education, a reputation as one of the most learned women of her day and a committed Protestant, she was posthumously regarded not only as a political victim but also as a martyr.
With unnerving realism, in a large-scale composition Delaroche created a dramatic scene that owes little to fact. Set in a gloomy dungeon (the execution actually took place outdoors) centre stage is the fragile, slender figure of Lady Jane Grey, kneeling, blindfolded, wearing a gleaming white virginal satin dress that seems to radiate light, groping for the wooden block. She is comforted by a priest, supported by distressed maids while the burly executioner stands by holding an axe, seemingly unmoved by the duty he is about to carry out. With a combination of pathos and sentiment, Delaroche captures the tension and tragedy of the decapitation. With the freedom given to artists, he brings his own interpretation to the scene, which owes as much to 16th century propaganda as to historical fact.
In post-revolutionary France, artists began to combine monarchist sympathies with a Romantic interest in English literature and history, particularly if they were tragic. For Delaroche, this was powerful subject matter. In a society recovering from the violent upheavals of the Revolution, English history seemed to offer pertinent parallels with recent happenings in France. Lady Jane Grey, for instance, had echoes of the fates of Marie-Antoinette and the Dauphin. Other subjects Delaroche depicted include the death of the princes in the Tower, the Civil War in England and the regicide of Charles I.
In Princes in the Tower, Edward V and his brother are seen as children, huddling together on the edge of a vast four-poster bed, attempting to read a book, their vulnerability heart-warming and poignant. By contrast, in Cromwell and Charles I, a sombre and thoughtful Cromwell gazes thoughtfully at the corpse of his enemy, the executed monarch. With an abiding concern with usurpation and martyrdom, Delaroche’s vivid and dramatic interpretations of tragic events captivated contemporary audiences, who were enthralled by the realism and attention to detail. Despite their mannered and contrived composition, they still have the power to arrest and hold the imagination.
