Lot 50: Edward Matthew Ward R.A. , 1816-1879 marie antoinette oil on canvas

signed l.l.: E. M. Ward/ R.A. oil on canvas

measurements note 63.5 by 84 cm., 25 by 33 in.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
This dramatic work depicts a scene from A. du Bois de Beauchesne's account of the life of Louis XVII as he and his family are held in the Temple prison. Louis XVI was executed in January 1793 and and a few days later the Queen was presented with an order that the Dauphin be separated from his mother and family - the moment so vividly portrayed in the present work. Members of the revolutionary committee stand in shadow to the left of the composition, one wearing the Phrygian Cap, a symbol of Liberty adopted by the pro-revolutionaries. Mother and son look each other in the eye for what would turn out to be the last time as the Queen was executed in October that year. Princess Marie-Therese kisses her bother's hand while Madame Elizabeth, sister to the late monarch, cast her gaze heavenward.

The artist included a passage from de Beauchesne's account in the Royal Academy catalogue of 1856; 'At last, the Queen, having collected all her energies, seated herself, drew her son near to her, and placed both her hands on his little shoulders; calm, motionless, so absorbed in grief that she neither wept nor sighed. She said to him in a grave and solemn voice, My child, you are going to leave us: remember your duties when I am no longer near to remind you of them; never forget the merciful God what has appointed you this trial, or your mother, who loves you; be modest, patient and good, and you father in Heaven will bless you." She said these words, kissed her son on the forehead, and gave him back to the gaolers.

Ward painted a number of works depicting the plight of the French Royal family. The prime version of the present work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856 (no.75). Ward also executed the same subject in watercolour, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862 (no.798). Both exhibits were well received; the critic for Art Journal described the larger oil version thus,'The character and the accessories of the picture-the poignant distress on the one side, and the course insolence on the other, with the peculiar personalities, declare the subject as unmistakably an incident in the history of the royal family of France after the first revolution' and goes on to declare 'Upon the whole we think, it cannot fail to be pronounced the best of the pictures which the artist has executed from the history of these "unfortunates"'(Art Journal, June 1856, p.163).