Publisher/Manufacturer: Art Union of London, 112 Strand, London 1897 Etching in black on thin cream paper backed with white card
385 x 764 mm. George Powell or John Williams??
A scene from Shakespeare's 'King Richard III'. Anne walks beside the coffin of her father-in-law, King Henry VI, when the hunchbacked Richard suggests that they should marry, even though he had killed her former husband, Edward, and is thought to have also murdered the King. Although he has killed both her husband and her father-in-law, Richard persuades Anne to marry him and she becomes Queen when he becomes King Richard III. The original painting by Edwin Austin Abbey was hugely popular, Punch magazine in 1896 proclaimed it to be 'The Picture of the Year'
A funeral procession on the death of Henry VI; foreground, Richard Duke of Gloucester (Richard III) walks with Lady Anne, Richard wears a cloak and a pouch and holds a sword in one hand and a ring in the other, Anne wears a large dress with a long trail and a French hood with a veil; middleground, on the left, pallbearers carry the body of Henry VI, the latter in full armour, shields and a tapestry adorn his canopied coffin, on the right, followers including monks carrying spears or torches, four pageboys and a young man wearing an embroidered cloak and a plumed hat; background, a large crowd and tudor buildings. Text on image, '? MON DROIT[?]'. A large, highly detailed, etching drawn in fine lines with extensive cross hatching and some stipple
