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Yeames continued to exhibit paintings within the annual exhibition and themed most of his subjects around historical events from British history. In 1859, Yeames exhibited his first painting into the annual exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and he was eventually made an associate of the Royal Academy in 1866. He also visited Florence and Rome to continue his development in life studies, landscapes, and the old masters, eventually returning to England in 1858 and setting up his studio in Park Place, London.
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By 1848, Yeames had moved to England where he studied anatomy and composition under George Scharf. On his father’s death in 1842, he attended a school in Dresden, and he began to study painting. William Frederick Yeames was born in Russia on 18 th December 1835, fourth son of William Yeames, a British consul in Taganrog and his wife Eliza Mary Henley. ‘The little Jane is thoroughly well conceived and better executed by Mr Yeames than by Queen Mary’s executioner’ Of all the Lady Jane English painting’s, I know of none at once so touching and so true to historical character at this of Mr Yeames.’ ‘In 1868 was exhibited the picture which I should rank as the painter’s masterpiece thus far, ‘Lady Jane Grey in the Tower,’ wearily but gently listening to the exhortations of Feckenham, Abbot of Westminster. Yeames “Lady Jane Grey in the Tower,” is perhaps the best picture this young and hard-working artist has yet elaborated.’ When first exhibited, the painting entitled ‘Lady Jane Grey in the Tower’ received excellent reviews from observer’s who had visited the exhibition, with some reporting that Until recently, the original painting was thought to have been lost to the sands of time, however as discussed later in this article, an interesting email from a viewer of this website brought some fascinating news to my attention. In this article I intend to look at one of the more famous of these paintings, exhibited at the Royal Academy by William Frederick Yeames in 1868. Of the twenty- six paintings exhibited, a total of nine depicted scenes were from Lady Jane Grey’s imprisonment in The Tower of London between 19 th July 1553 and 12 th February 1554. The final two common events are a promotion of Jane’s role as a martyr and innocent victim, either when imprisoned in the Tower of London or her final moments on the scaffold. Again, this is based on true events that took place at Syon House and were described by Jane herself in a letter to Queen Mary written during her imprisonment, after she lost her crown in 1553. The second common theme is Jane’s initial refusal of the crown. The Victorian myth that both Jane and King Edward VI were educated together and were in fact childhood sweethearts is also depicted within this group of paintings. In this account, Ascham recalls the day on which he encountered Jane alone at Bradgate Park, engrossed in Plato whilst the rest of her family were out hunting. Many of the artists of the paintings based on this scene used the account published by Roger Ascham in 1570 as a source of inspiration. The first common scene often depicted is a promotion of Jane’s virtues as an exemplary pupil and her passion for learning. Some of these events are, in fact, based on contemporary descriptions from her time, whilst others are steeped in the air of myth which began to surround Jane from the moment of her death. When looking at the various titles of each painting exhibited, there appears to be a pattern of four significant events in Jane’s life which were prominent themes chosen by artists who opted to promote her story. Between 17, a total of twenty-six paintings depicting scenes from the life of Lady Jane Grey were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.