Famous work · not an exact-location map point
The Children of Edward
The two young sons of Edward IV waiting in a shadowed room of the Tower of London — the ‘Princes in the Tower’, about to be murdered.
No single real-world viewpoint
A 'troubadour' history piece: the Princes in the Tower (1483) in what scholarship (Bann) and the Louvre call an imagined interior, 'a stage set' — the Tower of London itself is not depicted.
The Children of Edward — at a glance
- Artist
- Paul Delaroche (1797–1856)
- Year
- 1830
- Movement
- French Romanticism / ‘troubadour’ history painting
- Place
- An imagined room in the Tower of London
- Viewpoint
- A staged interior — the Tower survives entire and is heavily visited; the room is invented
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 181 × 215 cm
- Now at
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
Overview
The Children of Edward is one of Paul Delaroche's most popular ‘troubadour’ history pictures, shown at the Salon of 1831. It shows the two boy princes — Edward V, aged twelve, and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York — sitting on a curtained bed in a dim room, a book open between them, a spaniel at the door with its ears pricked, listening: their gaolers are coming. It is oil on canvas, about 181 by 215 cm, and it hangs in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Where was The Children of Edward painted?
Scholarship After Edward IV's death in 1483 his two sons were lodged in the Tower of London by their uncle, who took the throne as Richard III; the boys were never seen again and are presumed murdered. Delaroche sets the scene in a bare, panelled chamber with a heavy bed and a barred window — an imagined interior, not a portrait of a specific room. The Tower of London itself survives entire and is one of the most visited historic sites in Britain, with the ‘Bloody Tower’ traditionally associated with the princes; the room in the painting is a stage set.
What is in the painting?
The two boys sit close together on the edge of a large curtained bed; the elder holds a prayer book, looking up and out with a fixed, frightened stare; the younger leans against him, less aware. A little dog stands rigid by the door at the right, staring at the threshold where light shows underneath. The room is shadowy, the boys' pale clothes and faces the brightest thing in it.
Look closely
The frightened elder boy
Edward V holds a prayer book and stares up and out with a fixed look of dread.
The alert dog
A little spaniel stands rigid by the door, ears up, staring at the threshold — the gaolers are coming.
The light under the door
A line of light shows beneath the closed door at the right — the only sign of the danger.
The dark bed
The boys sit on the edge of a heavy curtained bed that fills much of the shadowy room.
Analysis
Composition and technique
Two pale children on a dark bed, the danger indicated only by the alert dog and the light under the door.
Scholarship Delaroche builds tension by leaving the threat off-stage: nothing violent is shown, only the boys' waiting and the dog's alarm. The smooth finish, the exact costume and the theatrical lighting are typical of his manner, which aimed at emotional immediacy.
Meaning and interpretation
Interpretations differ. What the artist documented, what museums and scholars propose, and later or speculative theories are marked and kept separate.
Innocence and impending violence
The picture became famous as an image of helpless childhood innocence on the edge of murder, a subject perfectly suited to Delaroche's pathos-driven history painting; it made the ‘Princes in the Tower’ a stock image of political cruelty.
History & provenance
The painting is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Sources
- Musée du Louvre, Paris — collection entry for Paul Delaroche, ‘Édouard V, roi mineur d'Angleterre, et Richard, duc d'York, son frère...’ (‘The Children of Edward’, 1830)
- Stephen Bann, ‘Paul Delaroche: History Painted’ (1997)
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