Alfred Borron Clay,
 
British 1831-1868-
 
Charles IX and the French Court...

Alfred Borron Clay,

British 1831-1868-

Charles IX and the French Court on the morning of Saint Bartholomew's Massacre;

oil on canvas, signed and dated 'A.B. Clay. 1865' (lower left), 47 x 71.5 cm.

Provenance: with The Cooling Galleries, London.

Note: The present work is a highly finished smaller version of the artists large-scale canvas held at Liverpools Walker Art Gallery [WAG2508], which was conceived a year earlier in 1864. The Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre was a targeted group of assassinations in 1572, directed against the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by the Catholic Queen Catherine de' Medici (here shown standing prominently in the foreground and wearing black), the mother of King Charles IX, she is still remembered as the 'Black Queen' of France, foe of all Protestants, and the Italian daughter of a merchant who dragged France into a series of bloody, religious civil wars.

The present work is a dramatic rendering of the historical scene, with a violent energy implied by the flashes of weaponry and armour, as well as the dense gathering of people, whilst at the same time retaining a degree of remove from the aggression, which has not yet begun in earnest. Another 19^th-century interpretation of the historical event was executed by French artist Édouard Debat-Ponsan (18471913), held at the Musée d'Art Roger-Quilliot [894.110.1].

Clay evidently enjoyed the subject of historical scenes, often densely packed and full of drama. See, as a further example, his Charles II Entering London, 1867, in the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery [BOLMG:1917.2.]