Follower of Paul Delaroche; 19th century

Follower of PAUL DELAROCHE (Paris, 1797 - 1859); 19th century.
"The Beheading of Lady Grey".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements. 73.5 x 100.5 cm; 89 x 116 cm (frame).
Historicist painting that represents the beheading of Lady Jane Grey, made in a style that is part of the academic tradition of the nineteenth century that combined meticulous historical rigor with a theatrical staging full of pathos. Directly inspired by Delaroche's own celebrated play The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833), this interpretation maintains the emotional intensity and technical preciosity characteristic of the French master, reaffirming the Romantic ideal of history as human drama.
The meticulous realism of the fabrics, textures and folds of the dresses is executed with an almost photographic fidelity, which reinforces the verisimilitude of the moment represented. The secondary characters - the executioner with the axe lowered, the priest with a grave expression, and the servants holding back tears, are integrated into a carefully balanced composition.
The style, deeply influenced by Delaroche, is manifested not only in the fidelity to the historical context and in the archaeological accuracy of the details, but also in the choice of the moment represented: a moment of maximum psychological tension, prior to the act of execution itself, which appeals more to the intimate drama than to the spectacle of violence.
Hippolyte Delaroche, also known as Paul Delaroche, was a French painter born in Paris into a wealthy family. He developed his artistic training as a disciple of Antoine-Jean and Baron Gros, prominent history painters of the time. The first work that Delaroche exhibited was "Josabeth saving Joas" (1822), a painting that attracted the attention of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, outstanding masters to whom he would become close friends. Thus, the three formed the nucleus of a large group of Parisian history painters. Delaroche visited Italy in 1838 and 1843 when his father-in-law, Horace Vernet, was director of the French Academy in Rome. This painter developed a style characterized by a firm, solid and polished finish, in a style in keeping with the contemporary works of Vernet, Ary Scheffer, Louis-Leopold Robert and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. He had a large studio in the Rue Mazarine, where British artists such as Henry Mark Anthony, a landscape painter, and Edward Armitage, a history painter, were trained. His works, of impeccable execution and dramatic compositions, enjoyed great popularity. He applied essentially the same treatment for the characters of historical scenes from antiquity, biblical passages and even for characters of his time, as in "Napoleon at Fontainebleau", "Napoleon at St. Helena" or "Marie Antoinette leaving the Convention after her sentence". However, Delaroche also painted scenes that were not purely historical, such as "Cromwell Lifting the Coffin Lid to Look at the Body of Charles," based on an urban legend; or "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey," set in a dungeon, which was historically erroneous. In fact, he was often more concerned with dramatic effect than with historical truth itself. In 1837 Delaroche was commissioned to execute a large painting, 27 meters long, in the hemicycle of the theater of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The painting depicts seventy-five great artists of all times, conversing with each other, arranged in several groups around three thrones where the creators of the Parthenon sit: Phidias, Ictinus and Apelles, symbolizing the union of sculpture, architecture and painting. Delaroche is currently represented in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Louvre, the National Gallery, the Victoria & Albert and the Royal Collection in London, the Chi-Mei in Taiwan and the Wallraf-Richartz in Cologne, among others.