Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne

Artist: Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852–1911, M.A. (Hon.) 1897)

1896

American Paintings and Sculpture

In this scene from William Shakespeare’s Richard III, the villainous, humpbacked Richard, Duke of Gloucester, brazenly attempts to woo the Lady Anne, the widow of a man he has recently stabbed to death, as she walks in the funeral procession of her father-in-law, King Henry VI, another of Richard’s victims. Richard pleads his case and offers her a ring, asserting that he killed the two men in order to get near her. Anne reacts with fury to his words, but like a fly caught in a net, she soon succumbs to his flattery, and the artful duke becomes her husband and England’s next king.

Audio Guides

Mark D. Mitchell, Curator

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I am Mark Mitchell, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture here at the Yale University Art Gallery. We are looking at Edwin Austin Abbey's "Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Lady Anne" from 1896.

As the title suggests, this is Richard, the duke of Gloucester, in red; he is the hunchback, the title character of Shakespeare's tragedy of Richard III. He is conniving to become the king of England, and he is, at this very moment, in the funeral procession of the late King Henry VI, whom he has personally killed. He is wooing the king's daughter-in-law, the lady Anne. I should say that she is widowed also by Richard's hand. So he has killed her husband and her father-in-law, and now he is wooing her in the funeral procession for her father-in-law. You can see in the very center of the painting that he's holding a ring, and he is asking her to marry him. He thereby hopes to ascend one step closer to the throne. And you see her fist reaching out to him, pushing him away, resisting his entreaties. This is interestingly the very beginning of the play. This is the first act, scene 2, of "Richard III."

I've heard such interesting interactions with our educators and the public around this painting. I know that very few elementary school students know the story of Richard III, and yet I've seen with unerring accuracy that the students are able to decode the narrative of the painting and what's happening here. It's really astonishing. They pick up things that I would not have thought about, like the way in which the red of Richard's sword blade reflects his bright red coat, suggestive of violence. It seems like maybe this sword has been used, perhaps. The students picked right up on that and said, "He has done something bad, and he has killed someone or hurt someone."

It is an incredibly elaborate series of historical events compressed into a single narrative moment in Abbey's conception—and one that was widely admired. It was shown in 1896 at the Royal Academy in London. Edwin Austin Abbey is an American painter, but he lived much of his life in England. You see here a painting that is and was considered one of his finest works and would really bring him to prominence in the London art scene.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

52 5/8 × 104 3/8 in. (133.7 × 265.1 cm)

Credit Line

Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Collection

Accession Number

1937.2224

Culture
Period

19th century

Classification
Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Provenance

Edwin Austin Abbey Estate, 1911–1937; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1937
Bibliography
  • American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023), 25, 164–65, no. 72, ill.
  • Angus Trumble et al., Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, eds. Angus Trumble and Andrea Wolk Rager, exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2013), 115, 334, no. 72, 75, 76
  • Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 109, fig. 104
  • Lucy Oakley, Unfaded Pageant: Edwin Austin Abbey's Shakespearean Subjects from the Yale University Art Gallery and Other Collections, exh. cat. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 40–44, fig. 39
  • Great Victorian Pictures: Their Paths to Fame, exh. cat. (London: The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978), 24–25, fig. 1
  • Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911), exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1973), 40, ill.
Object copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

histories (visual works), human figures (visual works), literature (general genre)

Signed

Signed lower left "E.A. Abbey/1896"

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