Location

203B British Painting and Decorative Arts

Description

Augustus Leopold Egg’s The Life of Buckingham depicts a fictional moment in the debauched, roguish life of George Villiers (1628–1687), 2nd Duke of Buckingham (seated at the center, wearing white). Although the scene is invented,
the merrymakers and courtesans depicted around the table (among them King Charles II, to Buckingham’s right) were characters the duke would have personally known and were familiar to Victorian audiences who delighted in the
cautionary tale of excess.

Provenance

by 1865 - 1876: James Dugdale (1813-1876), Wroxall Abbey, Warwick

1876 - 1927: by descent to his son James Broughton Dugdale (1855-1927)

1927: James Broughton Dugdale sale, Christie's, June 24, 1927, (lot 133 with 134)

1927 - ?: "bt. Martin and Sampson, respectively The Toast of the King and The Death Chamber, both for total price of £25 4s [Christie's notes say 24 gns to Harrison with lot 134; research ongoing]

?: with Anthony Hordern, Sydney, Australia [research ongoing]

? - 2014:hitherto undisclosed American private collection [research ongoing]

2014: bought in at Christie's London "Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art" sale on June 17, 2014 (lot 13)

2014-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Temple, A. G. The Art of Painting in the Queen's Reign; Being a Glance at Some of the Painters and Paintings of the British School During the Last Sixty Years. London, United Kingdom: Chapman and Hall, 1897. Mentioned: p. 54-55

Faberman, Hilarie. Augustus Leopold Egg, R.A. (1816-1863). Thesis PhD Cambridge, MA:Yale University, 1983, 1985. Mentioned: p. 488-489

Exhibition history

British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).