The Death of Cardinal Beaufort (1399–1447) is an oil painting by the English artist Joshua Reynolds, illustrating a scene from William Shakespeare’s play Henry VI, Part II.
Now in the possession of the National Trust, recent renovation work has revealed the presence in the picture of a demon lurking in the shadows. The presence of the fiend was controversial when the painting was first exhibited in 1789, as it was not considered proper to include an imaginary creature in such a painting, and over time, with some overpainting and revarnishing, the demon had gradually disappeared.[1]
Detail from the restored version Source: BBC News
The Death of Cardinal Beaufort (1377–1447), 1789 Oil on canvas, 218.5 × 157.5 cm (86 × 62 in) Source: Wikimedia Commons
Description
The painting depicts the second part of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part II, Act III, Scene iii, showing Cardinal Beaufort, Chancellor of England, on his deathbed, surrounded by his great nephew King Henry VI and the Lords Warwick and Salisbury.[1] In the play, King Henry laments the cardinal’s imminent death, saying:[2]
Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch; O! beat away the busy medling fiend That lays strong siege unto this wretch’s soul And from his bosom purge this black despair.
Exhibition and provenance
The painting was first exhibited at the Shakespeare Gallery in 1789.[1] It was bought in 1805 by the 3rd Earl of Egremont for £530.5s, equivalent to about £45,800 as at 2021,[a]Calculated using the retail price index.[3] and by descent came into the possession of Charles Henry Wyndham, 3rd Lord Leconfield, who died in 1952.[2]
The painting, along with many other items in the family’s collection, was accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of death duties on Leconfield’s estate in 1956, the first ever such agreement with HM Treasury, after which the painting was transferred to the National Trust. It is currently in the Trust’s collection at Petworth House in West Sussex.[4]
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service. By clicking on “All cookies”, you consent to us using all cookies and plug-ins as described in our Cookie policy.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.