Edward and Eleanor

Although this scene appears to be taken from ancient Greek history, it actually depicts an episode of medieval British history centred on Prince Edward (1239-1307), who later became King Edward I, and his wife Eleanor of Castile. At Acre, in 1272, during the Ninth Crusade, the prince was stabbed with a poisoned dagger by a Muslim assassin. According to legend, Eleanor heroically sucked the poison from the wound, saving her husband’s life. While the assassination attempt is recorded in historical sources, the role of Eleanor is believed to be apocryphal.

Deare may have been inspired to depict the scene of Edward and Eleanor by a tragedy written by James Thomson in 1739. Originally banned, the play was first performed in London, at Covent Garden, in 1775. This historical melodrama received particular attention in those years. Deare was also likely aware of Angelica Kauffman's painting of the same subject, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776 and later distributed as a stipple etching by W. W. Ryland in 1780.

There are three marble versions of Deare’s composition and several in plaster. The first iteration was a partially coloured plaster, created in 1786 for Henry Blundell of Ince Blundell Hall in Lancashire, where it remains to this day. Prior to installation, the work was presented at the Royal Academy in 1788 as the sculptor’s first exhibition piece. Other plaster versions can be found at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, at Lyons Demesne in County Kildare (Ireland), and at Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire.

The first marble version was commissioned in December 1789 by Patrick Lattin, a Catholic Irish captain, for his Parisian residence. Due to the political unrest in those years, it isn’t known whether the relief ever went to Paris. A few decades later, the relief belonged to Henry Harrington of Grange in County Wicklow, a house located not far from Lattin’s Irish estate. It was sold in 1832 and reappeared on the London art market in the 1940s. It later belonged to art historians Hugh Honour and John Fleming, and was sold at Sotheby's London in 2017 (5 July, lot 35). This version bears the apocryphal inscription 'Roubiliac Sc.', referring to the French sculptor who was active in England in the 1700s. Although the composition is identical to the plaster versions, Deare adapted the design of the shield for this commission. For Lattin, a strong reference to English history may have been unwelcome. Deare therefore replaced the three lions passant, which represent the Royal Arms of England, with a single lion.

The V&A marble relief is signed “I DEARE FACIEBAT ROMAE” and dated 1790. It was probably carved around the same time as the one for Patrick Lattin, either for an undocumented patron who subsequently withdrew their offer or to be kept in the workshop for a future buyer. In May 1792, Deare sold the marble relief to Andrew Corbet Corbet (1752–1823), an Englishman who spent three years on a Grand Tour of Italy with his wife, Lady Hester. The following year, the couple commissioned a chimneypiece with a relief of the Nine Muses from Deare. By 1810, both the chimneypiece and the Eleanor and Edward relief had been installed in their house, Adderley Hall in Shropshire. When the house was demolished in 1955, the chimneypiece was sold and the relief remained with the family.

A third version in marble is listed in Deare’s post-mortem inventory; it’s current whereabout is unknown.