Queen Katherine and Patience

Queen Katherine and Patience
ArtistCharles Robert Leslie
Year1842
TypeOil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions58.3 cm × 50.7 cm (23.0 in × 20.0 in)
LocationVictoria and Albert Museum, London

Queen Katherine and Patience is an oil painting by the Anglo-American artist Charles Robert Leslie, from 1842. It is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London.

History and description

It depicts a passage in Act III Scene I from William Shakespeare's Jacobean era history play Henry VIII. Catherine of Aragon is attended by her lady-in-waiting Patience as she grows melancholy about her estrangement from her husband Henry VIII.[1] Leslie based his depiction of the queen on contemporary paintings.[2]

Scenes from popular literature were fashionable in the late Regency and early Victorian era. Leslie had produced a significant number of them including another Shakespeare-inspired work Autolycus.[3]

The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1842 at the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. It was acquired by the art collector John Sheepshanks, who donated it in 1857 to the new Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington.[4]

References

  1. ^ Roe p.357
  2. ^ https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O56693/queen-katherine-and-patience-oil-painting-leslie-charles-robert/
  3. ^ Leslie, Charles Robert (RA) (c. 1836). "Autolycus". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
  4. ^ https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/queen-katherine-and-patience-30807

Bibliography

  • Roe, Sonia. Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Public Catalogue Foundation, 2008.