Saturday 17th December - The Princes in the Tower

I'm a little later than usual today but it has been a very busy day including a trip into big town (the city near where I live) which was a complete mistake as it was bedlam and I couldn't even find the book I was after anyway.  Enough of my whinging as I am under a lovely warm blanket next to a lovely warm dog in a lovely quiet room, about to put up our Christmas decorations, so on with today's murders!

The Princes in the Tower (1864) Henrietta Mary Ada Ward

Look out, some kiddiewinks are about to be bumped off by their dastardly uncle.  Can I just pause and say what an interesting word 'dastardly' is? I just had to look it up as I thought 'it has to do with bastard, surely?' but no, it's old English meaning dullard or coward, which is interesting as we tend to think of someone who does dastardly acts as being just wicked, but I supposed there is a hint of cowardice in there too.  Underhanded, maybe, sneaky evil? I digress.  Anyway, these two winsome poppets are Edward V and his little brother the Duke of York who have been kindly placed in a nice comfy, safe room by their loving Uncle, the Duke of Gloucester.  Look how lovely it is, with lovely curtains and nice food.  Honestly, I've stayed in far ropier hotels that this. The food in the middle is a particularly splendid still-life and I wonder if Henrietta Ward wanted to just paint that but found out she could make more money if she lobbed in some historical figures...

It's lovely, now add some people...

Actually, Henrietta Ward is a really interesting lady - daughter of animal painter James Ward RA and wife of Edward Ward RA who painted the frescoes at the House of Parliament.  She was commonly referred to as Mrs E M Ward (t'uh) in the press, but she did get quite a bit of attention for her work due to these connections.  The Illustrated Midland News spoke of the painting, noting Edward V 'seated in a chair in one of the prison-rooms, moodily pining'. Who doesn't enjoy a moody pine? When it was sold in the 1890s, one of the dealers allegedly remarked to another "It will go for 'alf its worth, for it's too 'arrowin' for present taste" (as recorded in The Gentlewoman, 28 November 1891).  Mind you, Henrietta was not the only artist to tackle the 'arrowin' subject...

The Princes in the Tower (1878) John Everett Millais

Pre-Raphaelite OG Millais even gave those doomed Princes a bit of a go, although it was not popular. The London Evening Standard, in its review of the 1878 Royal Academy exhibition, reported that the painting was 'not a work which the world will speak with approval. It will be speedily forgotten.' Ouch. The Sheffield Independent merely remarked 'I will not stop to talk about it', which is fairly damning. However, the Jersey Independent and Daily telegraph (clarion of truth) pronounced it the 'picture of the first room' and rhapsodised about the little blonde poppets' clothing and expressions as their doom approached. Smashing.

The Sons of Edward IV (1880s) Pedro Americo

There is an interesting dichotomy between artists who show the young princes as awake and conscious of their doom and those who show the little lambkins asleep, completely unaware of the impending smothering. Pedro Americo, Brazilian painter who worked in Europe, presents two frilly-sleeved children, sleeping innocently in their prison cell among some luxurious bed linens.  This image was repeated in three dimensions by Augusta Freeman...

The Princes in the Tower (1862) Augusta Freeman

I am always struck as to whether images of the princes asleep are actually post-mortem and we are looking at the poor murdered children without having to see anything too gruesome.  For the Victorians, post-mortem images of loved ones, where they appear sleeping, were not unusual.  One of the most difficult things to write about in Light and Love were the images of Adeline Clogstoun, dead and laid out with flowers in the upstairs room at Dimbola.  Not only that, Cameron also posed a living child as a dead one in this photograph...

The Shunammite Woman and her Dead Son (1865)

Cameron posed Mary Ryan over the sleeping form of the very-much-alive Percy Keown - the asleep-ness of the child was a bonus to the long exposure.  This was a trick she used a lot, but usually the slumbering children were just that, sleeping. The casualness of death in the image shows its currency as commonplace, but not in itself casual.  It is an acknowledgement that death waited in the wings. Disease, injury, murder, all stalked the defenceless and there is nothing more defenceless than sleeping children as it could be perceived they could slip between the world of the living and the dead without anyone noticing.  The power of the images of the sleeping princes is that we don't know if we are viewing living children or dead; the image of the Shunammite child is not particularly different to the image of the body of Adeline Clogstoun only our knowledge makes it different. We are comfortable looking at Percy Keown as we know that he is pretending (or in fact completely oblivious to the whole art thing).  I can't bring myself to post the images of Adeline as they make me very uncomfortable, so unused we are these days to seeing dead bodies.  

The Princes in the Tower (1786) James Northcote

That's better, far more silly.  I love the two rather cartoonish blokes with the massive pillow sneaking up on the heavenly pair. I think the bloke in the armour would have clanked and woke them up.  The other one is liable to set Jesus on fire if he isn't careful with that candle. This level of melodrama reminds us that the story of the Princes in the Tower is just that - drama. It probably didn't happen, and even if it did, not that elaborately.  Oh, Shakespeare, you have done a right hatchet job on Richard III!  To be honest, I always love seeing the 1996 film with Ian McKellen as the dastardly Richard (who you also sort of root for, such is the genius of Ian McKellen, National Treasure) and you would completely believe he'd bump anyone off (including Robert Downey Jnr!) for the crown. However, we will never know their fate, they will remain Schrödinger's Princes, both simultaneously alive and murdered.  Mind you, thinking about it, they are bound to be dead by now. Rats.

See you tomorrow...