painting (oil): ["Quentin Durward At Liege"]

The scene is set in a narrow city street. A young man, Quentin Dunward, clad head to foot in armour and wearing a sword secured by a red sash, stands, legs apart, on the left. He looks straight out at the spectator. To the left of Durward is a balding man in a red and orange tunic, leaning forward and looking up at him. Durward's right arm is grasped by an elderly man who wears a black hat with red lappets. Behind this group is a man, yelling and waving his fist, and a crowd of people looking at Durward. In the right half of the picture, in the foreground, a man lies sprawled on the ground. Above him is a man in a white shirt and green leggings who is brandishing an axe. To his right is a turbaned man, leaning forward, and behind them an angry mob, one of whom carries aloft a scythe. Above the crowd, women lean from the windows. The end of the street, with a distant church tower and the sky, can be seen at the top centre of the picture. ("Sir Walter Scott - Quentin Durward. Chapter…") "Delacroix recalled. that Bonington “at the end of this life too soon extinguished, [he] seemed afflicted with depression, and especially because of his keenly felt desire to paint large pictures” Quentin Durward, a scene from the novel by Sir Walter Scott, is an example of one of Bonington’s larger scale works. There are several sources for the details in this painting, including Sir Joshua Reynolds via Hogarth’s caricatures and Wilkie’s The Chelsea Pensioners, Rubens’ Village Festival and Jordaens’ The King Drinks, as well as northern European medieval images such as Schongauer’s Christ Bearing the Cross (Cats.135-137) and Flemish altar screens." (Cambridge 2002), "One of Sir Walter Scott's historical novels. The action is set in France in the year 1468. Quentin Durward arrives in Touraine and enrols in the Scottish Guard as an archer. Following a conference between Louis XI and the Duke of Bergandy a united attack is made upon Liege in Oct. 1468 in order to exact revenge for the murder of the Bishop. Quentin Durward takes part in the attack after various adventures at Peronne, Nainar and Charleroi and a period as escourt to the ladies of Croye. Unfortunately for the historical authenticity of the novel the Bishop was not in fact murdered until 1482. Both Bonington and Delacroix were intensely interested in the renewed study of mediaeval subject matter with all its romantic associations - a preoccupation which was to influence work of many artists throughout the rest of the century." (Memorandum from chief museums officer to Director of Leisure Services 16/4/1974), Bonington Sale, 29-30 June 1830, Lot 222, bought Bone for Joseph Neald MP; Neald Collection; Neald Sale, Christie’s 13 July 1945, Lot 120, bought Mrs. Dudley Tooth, from whom purchased 1974.