Related works: The Children of Edward: The Princes in the Tower, The Wallace Collection, London, no. P276 (43.5 x 51.3 cm); Les Enfants d'Edouard, 1831, Museé du Louvre, Paris (181 x 215 cm) ; Version sold at Sothebys 23 May 1975 (lot 95), then again at Sothebys 25 November 1981 (lot 15) (35.5 x 42.5, signed and dated 1832) ; Watercolour version formerly in the collection of Sir Richard Wallace, then by bequest to Sir John Murray Scott, London Christies, Murray Scott Sale, 27 June 1913 (lot 25)
From his first great success at the 1824 Salon with Joan of Arc in Prison to the 1857 retrospective exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts following his death Paul Delaroche was one of the most popular and respected French painters of the nineteenth century. He was trained first by the landscape painter L.-E. Watelet and then by Baron Gros, who influenced his development as a history painter and later called Delaroche "the glory of my school." Delaroche's historically accurate and technically skilled style of history painting seemed to some a stylistically neutral compromise in the raging battle between classicism (exemplified by Ingres) and Romanticism (exemplified by Delacroix).
Set in 1483 in the Tower of London, the painting depicts the moment before the young King Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York (the sons of King Edward IV), are to be assassinated at the order of their ambitious uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had usurped his nephew's throne as Richard III. The scene is taken from the Shakespeare play, Richard III, Act 4, Scene 3.
The painting is a psychologically sobering study of the minutes before the children’s' execution, evoking an anxious and suspenseful mood. By intimating danger, through the expression of the Duke of York and his dog's apparent awareness of people approaching the door, rather than by crudely illustrating the actual murder Delaroche enhanced the drama of the moment. To increase the air of veracity, he furthermore set the spectator's point of view extremely close to the scene and meticulously rendered details of period furnishings, costumes, and jewelry, gave the frail Edward V a sickly appearance, and included the book of prayers described by Shakespeare. So convincing was Delaroche in his attention to documentary verisimilitude that several critics were prompted to compliment him as Historian as well as Painter.
Considering the very favorable reception of this picture, it is not surprising that Delaroche chose to paint other versions. A small version of the subject dated 1831 was acquired by 4th Marquess of Hertford in 1843 and subsequently inherited by his son, Sir Richard Wallace, the founder of the Wallace Collection where it hangs today. Another even smaller version, dated 1832, is in a private British collection. While the early history of our painting is unrecorded, the painting has been examined by Dr. Norman D. Ziff, the principal authority on the artist, and author of Paul Delaroche (New York, 1977), who believes that it was painted by the artist contemporaneously with the Louvre version.
