Dublin Core
Title
The Flight of Jane Shore
Subject
Art, Edward IV (1442-1483), Elizabeth Shore (1445-1527), imprisonment, Jane Shore (1445-1527), Ludgate prison, mistress, Pre-Raphaelite, Richard III (1452-1485), royal mistress, Thomas Grey (c.1455-1501), VIC, Victoria, Wars of the Roses, William Hastings (c.1430-1483).
Description
This painting by Val Prinsep was gifted to the National Gallery of Victoria in 1934 by A L Prinsep. It depicts a woman, who the title identifies as Jane Shore, crouching under a bridge in an attempt to hide from a group of soldiers looking to arrest her. Shore, whose birth name was actually Elizabeth, is believed to have been Edward IV’s royal mistress from approximately 1476 until his death in 1483. Following Edward’s death, she was linked by contemporary sources to Thomas Grey, marquess of Dorset, and William, Lord Hastings. Some historians have claimed that she was involved in a Woodville-Hastings plot against Richard (while he was still the Duke of Gloucester and attempting to secure the throne), while others have suggested different, but similarly political, motives for his (mis)treatment of her. Shore was arrested on Richard’s command in 1483 and imprisoned, firstly in the tower of London and later in Ludgate prison. She was pardoned and released upon her marriage to the king’s solicitor, Thomas Lynom. For more on Jane Shore, see: Rosemary Horrox, ‘Shore , Elizabeth [Jane] (d. 1526/7?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25451, accessed 6 Feb 2012]
Creator
Prinsep, Val
Source
National Gallery of Victoria
Publisher
National Gallery of Victoria
Date
c. 1865
Rights
National Gallery of Victoria
Format
Oil on Canvas, 155.3 x 92.4cm;
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