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Paintings: G0841

Title

Elizabeth Whitlock

Technique

Oil on canvas

Subject

Character

Margaret : Earl of Warwick

Artist

Dimensions

Height: 36.5cm
Width: 28.3cm
height (frame): 46cm
width (frame): 37cm

Provenance

John Bell; Thomas Harris; Harris sale, 12 July 1819 (62); Charles Mathews

Other number

Mathews 173
RW/CKA 450

Exhibition history

1833 London, Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, "Mr Mathews's Gallery of Theatrical Portraits" (173)

Engraving history

Philippe Audinet for Bell's British Library 6 October 1792, line 11.1 x 7.95, pub. Bell's “British Theatre” (1797), vol 17

In Act V, scene 5, Margaret of Anjou has just told King Edward and Lady Elizabeth Grey, the Earl of Warwick's wife, that she has fatally stabbed the Earl of Warwick in revenge for the death of her child: " - From my breast I drew / A poignard forth and plunged it in his heart" (quoted on the engraving). She strikes a dramatic attitude, her right hand to her heart and her left arm extended. She has a spiked steel crown with yellow cap of liberty, and wears a long silver dress with vertical purple panels, each with four diagonal gold fringes, a long sleeveless cloak in purple velvet edged in ermine trailing away to the left, and a V-shaped ruff.
Francklin's tragedy was first performed at Drury Lane on 13 December 1766, with Mrs Yates as the original Margaret of Anjou. Elizabeth Whitlock never acted the role in London, but she did appear as Lady Elizabeth Grey at Drury Lane on 3 November 1784, when Mrs Siddons (her sister) played Margaret.
See also G0374.
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