“British history looks bloody and macabre in this painting of the last moments of Jane Grey, who was installed on the throne for just a few days to preserve a Protestant succession before being overthrown by Henry VIII’s eldest daughter, Mary. Delaroche spares no pathetic detail. She shakes with horror in her matching silk dress and blindfold as her ladies in waiting wail and swoon. Even the executioner feels the tragedy of it. Delaroche often homed in on the violence of the British past and its grim stage, the Tower of London, where this is set: he also depicted the young 15th-century princes murdered in the Tower, probably by their uncle, Richard III. But appearances can be deceptive. While he choses to project his nightmares on the British past he is clearly also representing a more recent French history. For Lady Jane Grey, read Queen Marie-Antoinette going to the guillotine. ...”
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