Paintings

The Queen Dowager of England, Widow of Edward IV, Delivering Her Son and the Duke of York to the Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury

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Type: Paintings(Opens in new tab)
Date: ca. 1786
Accession number: 2008.14
Maker: John Francis Rigaud(Opens in new tab) (French, 1742–1810)
Dimensions: 12 x 15 1/4 in. (30.5 x 38.7 cm.)
Medium: oil on copper
Description: In this oil painting on copper, Elizabeth Woodville, Queen dowager of England, hugs her young son, Edward V, in front of Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England, and other members of the royal court.
Credit: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Browning Memorial Art Fund
Department: European Art
Find out more: View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)

Label text

In this painting, Elizabeth Woodville, Queen Dowager of England, embraces her young son, Edward V, as Cardinal Bourchier reaches out to take him from her care. The scene evokes a key moment during the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), when the young king was removed from his mother’s protection and placed under the authority of his uncle, the future Richard III. Rigaud’s painting focuses on this emotionally charged scene, presenting Elizabeth as a tragic maternal figure, a characterization that resonated in 18th-century Britain. The story, widely circulated through prints, also found a powerful expression in Shakespeare’s play Richard III, in which the queen’s grief and growing
awareness of her son’s fate underscore the tragedy of his fate.