Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009389The Life of Buckingham
About the Artwork
Augustus Leopold Egg’s The Life of Buckingham depicts a fictional moment in the debauched, roguish life of George Villiers (1628–1687), 2nd Duke of Buckingham (seated at the center, wearing white). Although the scene is invented, the merrymakers and courtesans depicted around the table (among them King Charles II, to Buckingham’s right) were characters the duke would have personally known and were familiar to Victorian audiences who delighted in the cautionary tale of excess.
Provenance
by 1865 - 1876: James Dugdale (1813-1876), Wroxall Abbey, Warwick 1876 - 1927: by descent to his son James Broughton Dugdale (1855-1927) 1927: James Broughton Dugdale sale, Christie's, June 24, 1927, (lot 133 with 134) 1927 - ?: "bt. Martin and Sampson, respectively The Toast of the King and The Death Chamber, both for total price of £25 4s [Christie's notes say 24 gns to Harrison with lot 134; research ongoing] ?: with Anthony Hordern, Sydney, Australia [research ongoing] ? - 2014:hitherto undisclosed American private collection [research ongoing] 2014: bought in at Christie's London "Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art" sale on June 17, 2014 (lot 13) 2014-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Augustus Leopold Egg (British, 1816-c. 1863)
- Date
- c. 1855
- Medium
- oil on board
- Dimensions
- Framed: 54.1 x 64.5 x 10.2 cm (21 5/16 x 25 3/8 x 4 in.); Unframed: 30.5 x 40.5 cm (12 x 15 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
- Accession no.
- 2014.373
More by Augustus Leopold Egg in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009389
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