''Lady Jane Grey Preparing for Execution'' is an 1835
oil painting
Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
by the American artist
George Whiting Flagg
George Whiting Flagg (June 26, 1816 – January 5, 1897) was an American painter of historical scenes and genre pictures. He was from a family of artists including his brother, Jared Bradley Flagg, and uncle Washington Allston, with whom both b ...
which established his early fame. This fame was however to dwindle as a consequence of a decline in the role of historical painting in American art. It was originally meant to represent
Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, but Flagg decided to change it to
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage, and nicknamed as the "Nine Days Queen", was an English noblewoman who was proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland on 10 July 1553 and reigned ...
in mid-work.
In a letter to Lumen Reed on June 16, 1834, he said:
A heroic Lady Jane, Protestant martyr, clad in royal purple, head held high, is blindfolded for execution by sympathetic executioners. Notably absent are any crucifixes, beads, medallions or other signs of "
popery
The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox ...
" distinguishing the religious life of Catholics from that of Protestants.
The painting appears to show her being blindfolded indoors, in reality she was executed outdoors and would probably only have been blindfolded after she was led onto the scaffold.
See also
*''
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey
''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...
'', 1833 oil painting by
Paul Delaroche
Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (; Paris, 17 July 1797 – Paris, 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subje ...
Notes
1835 paintings
Cultural depictions of Lady Jane Grey
Paintings about death
American paintings
Paintings in New York City
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