The Life of Buckingham - YCBA Collections Search

Augustus Leopold Egg, 1816–1863, British, The Life of Buckingham, undated, exhibited 1855

Creator:: Augustus Leopold Egg, 1816–1863
Title:: The Life of Buckingham
Former Title(s):: The Life and Death of Buckingham [1855, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]
Date:: undated, exhibited 1855
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 29 1/2 x 36 inches (74.9 x 91.4 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1978.43.7
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1978.43.7FR
Subject Terms:: candlesticks | chairs | costume | court (social group) | dinner | dinnerware | drinking | drinking glasses | duke | entertainment | feast | food | genre subject | historical subject | king (person) | meal | men | mirrors | night | paintings | party | royalty | symbolism | table | the episode of the Last Supper | window | wine | women
Access:: Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:41
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

Augustus Egg worked on this pair of moralizing pictures for two years, and they reflect the growing influence of the closely observed and accurate depictions of nature found in work by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Egg presents the decadent life of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham and friend of King Charles II. In the first picture, Buckingham is the toast of the court as Charles II raises a glass to him at a table crowded with admirers. In the second, Buckingham dies alone in a squalid inn in a scene adapted from the poet Alexander Pope's famous description of his death "in the worst inn's worst room." Although Egg intended his paintings to reinforce Victorian values, his meticulous and seductive representation of Buckingham’s dissolute life in the first painting provoked offense. In 1865, the Art Journal followed the disapproving example set by Queen Victoria in describing this painting as "repulsive.”

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Painted Ladies : Women at the Court of Charles II (Yale Center for British Art, 2002-01-26 - 2002-03-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Painted Ladies : Women at the Court of Charles II (National Portrait Gallery, 2001-10-11 - 2002-01-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Crown Pictorial - Art and the British Monarchy (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-12-05 - 1991-02-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

" Art ", British Quarterly Review, 22, no. 43, July 1855, p. 280, Online in British Periodicals II database Also available in hard copy WC190048 (LSF) [ORBIS]

[ Christie's Advertisement ], The Choice Cabinet of Pictures and Drawings of the Late James Coles, Esq. , Morning Post, Monday, June 6, 1870, p. 8, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Library Newspapers database [ORBIS]

[ Christie's Advertisement ], The Choice Cabinet of Pictures and Drawings of the Late James Coles, Esq. , Morning Post, Monday, June 13, 1870, p. 8, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Library Newspapers database [ORBIS]

Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977-1986, Yale Center for British Art , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1986, pp. 9, 13, no. 13, N590.2 A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Augustus Leopold Egg, R.A., Athenaeum, no. 1850, April 11, 1863, p. 492, Online: British Periodicals II also available in hardcopy : A88 At 421 + OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

Christie's Advertisement June 11, 1870, Choice Cabinet of Pictures and drawings of the Late James Coles, Esq. , Athenaeum, no. 2224, June 11, 1870, p. 759, Available Online in British Periiodcals II Also Available in Hard Copy A88 A421 OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

Christie's Advertisement June 4, 1870, Choice Cabinet of Pictures and drawings of the Late James Coles, Esq. , Athenaeum, no. 2223, June 4 1870, p. 728, Available Online : British Periodidcals II Also available in hard copy: A88 A421 + OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

Christie's sale catalogue : Catalogue of Narrative and Landscape Pictures c. 1775 - c. 1925 property of Maurice Bateman ... : 10 June 1966, Christie's, London, June 10, 1966, p.22, lot no. 55, pl. 55, Auction Catalogues (YCBA) Copy also available X348 C46 I.1966/6/10 (LSF/MUDD) [YCBA]

Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy : Exhibition Labels, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, p. 14-15, no. 37, N8219 K5 C761 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, p. 29, no. 37, no. 37, N8219 K5 C76 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 92-93, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Correspondence : Art-News from England -- No. 3, The Crayon, 1, no, 26, June 27, 1855, p. 407, Onine : JSTOR Also available in Hard Copy : N1 C75 OVERSIZE (LSF); reprint edition available at HAAS : N1 C73 1970 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Death of Mr. Egg, Nottinghamshire Guardian, no. 901, April 17, 1863, p. 10, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Library Newspapers [ORBIS]

Domestic Intelligence, Modern Pictures , The Bury and Norwich Post, no. 4591, June 21, 1870, p.3, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Library Newspapers [ORBIS]

Hilarie Faberman, Augustus Leopold Egg, 1816-1863, New Haven, 1983, pp. 206-21, 232, 240-41, 244, 248, fig. 144, Film B15 (YCBA) Volumes I and II only; Also Available online (ORBIS) [YCBA]

Fine Art Gossip, Athenaeum, no. 2226, June 25, 1870, p. 844, Online: British Periodicals II also availavle in hardcopy: A88 At421 + OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

Fine Art Gossip, Athenaeum, no.1574, December 26, 1857, p. 1627, Online : British Periodicals II Also available in Hardcopy : A88 At421 + OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

Fine Arts, Royal Academy , Athenaeum, no, 1437, May 12, 1855, pp. 557-58, Online: British Periodcals II also available in hard copy : A88 At421 + OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

French Pictures at the Crystal Palace, Athenaeum, no. 1572, December 12, 1857, p. 1557, Online: British Periodicals II Also avaiable in hard copy: A88 At481 + OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

Catharine MacLeod, Painted ladies : Women at the court of Charles II, , National Portrait Gallery, London, 2001, pp. 65, 232-34, 241, 241, 243, 245, no. 115, ND1314.3 M23 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Miscellanea, The Reader, No. 15, April 11, 1863, p. 363, Online: Bristish Periodicals II [ORBIS]

Miscellaneous, The Royal Academy , Barrow's Worcester Journal, no. 7955, May 12, 1955, p.3, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Library Newspapers database

Modern Pictures, Morning Post, , Monday, June 20, 1870, p. 3, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Library Newspapers [ORBIS]

New England Dermatological Society, Meeting, Yale-New Haven Hospital, October 10, 2009 , 2009, Cover & Case 23, Not Available at Yale

Geraldine Norman, Renoir and Chagall Riding High, The Times (London), Wednesday, December 7, 1977, p.21, Available online : Times Digital Archive Also Avaialble on Microfilm : An T482 (SML) [ORBIS]

Notes of the Life of Augustus L. Egg, The Reader, vol. 3, no. 54, January 9, 1864, p. 56, Onine: British Periodicals II [ORBIS]

Obituary [ Augustus L. Egg ], Examiner, no. 2880, April 11, 1863, p. 237, Online: British Peridicals II [ORBIS]

Obituary, The Examiner, Saturday, April 11, 1863, p. 237, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Librray Newspapers database [ORBIS]

On Some Pictures in the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1855, Fraser's Magazine, 22, no. 43, June 1855, p. 711-12, Online : British Periodicals Ii Also available in hardcopy : A88 79 (SML); title of journal in 1855 was Fraser's magazine for Town and Country [ORBIS]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Pictures at South Kensington, The Times (London), Saturday, May 30, 1874, p. 7, Available Online : Times Digital Arcive Also Available on Microfilm : AnT482 (SML) [ORBIS]

Duncan Robinson, Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977 - 1986, , Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, October 1986, pp. 9, 13, no. 13, N1 B87 128:3 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Royal Academy, The Standard, no. 9591, May 5, 1855, p. 3, Online Resource Available in 19th Century Birtish Newspapers database [ORBIS]

Royal Academy Exhibition, The Albion , a journal of News, Politics and Literature, 14, no. 22, June 2, 1855, p. 261, On Line: Americans Periodicals II [ORBIS]

Royal Academy of Arts, Observer, 1855, May 6, 1855, p. 14, Online: ProQuest Historical Newspapers [ORBIS]

Royal Academy, , Morning Post, , Monday, May 7, 1855, p. 3, Online Resource Available in 19th Century British Library Newspoapers database [ORBIS]

Sotheby's sale catalogue : Fine Victorian paintings, drawings and watercolours : 6 December 1977, Sotheby's, London, December 6, 1977, p. 44, lot 61, pl. 61, Auction Catalogues (YCBA) [YCBA]

Summary of Art News, [ Obituary - Augustus L. Egg ] , The Fine Arts Quarterly Review, 1, May 1863, p. 200, Online: British Periodcals II Also Available in Hard Copy J10 F494 (LSF) and microfilm Film S4586 (SML) [ORBIS]

The International Exhibtion, Athenaeum, May 3, 1862, p.598, Online: British Periodicals II Also available in hardcopy : A88 At421 + OVERSIZE (SML) [ORBIS]

The Mails &c., Modern Pictures , The Times (London), Monday, June 20, 1870, p.20, Available Online : Times Digital Archive Also Available on Microfilm : An T482 (SML) [ORBIS]

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