Valentine Cameron Prinsep, R.A.

Councillor Michael Davis of The Corinthians, 26 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham;

His sale, Edwards, Son & Bigwood, Birmingham, 29 April – 2 May 1890 (according to Birmingham Daily Post, 22 April 1890, p. 1);

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 28 May 1971, lot 8;

Anonymous sale, Belgravia, Sotheby's, 10 April 1973, lot 174;

John Constable, by 1977;

Anonymous sale, London Sotheby's, 17 June 1986, lot 27;

Where purchased by the present owners.

London, Royal Academy, 1870, no. 16;

London, South London Art Gallery, Val Prinsep RA (1838–1904): A Jubilee Painter, 1977, no. 8.

Pall Mall Budget, 12 February 1870, p. 35;

Marylebone Mercury, 12 March 1870, p. 2;

Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 12 March 1870, p. 6;

Kentish Gazette, 15 March 1870, p. 2;

London Daily News, 28 March 1870, p. 2;

Pall Mall Budget, 9 April 1870, p. 19;

Liverpool Albion, 2 March 1870, p. 6;

Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, 14 May 1870, p. 20;

Pall Mall Gazette, 20 May 1870, p. 12;

Building News, 27 May 1870, p. 2;

Pall Mall Budget, 28 May 1870, p. 15;

Birmingham Daily Gazette, 29 August 1870, p. 6;

Illustrated Midland News, 17 September 1870, p. 7;

Watford Observer, 13 May 1871, p. 4;

Nantwich Guardian, 13 May 1871, p. 6;

Tablet, 1 July 1871, p. 9;

Pall Mall Gazette, 22 May 1872, p. 15;

Birmingham Daily Post, 23 May 1872, p. 2;

Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 23 May 1872, p. 1;

The Graphic, 25 May 1872, p. 3;

Birmingham Daily Post, 22 April 1890, p. 1;

Cheltenham Examiner, 8 July 1892, p. 2.

‘The romantic story of Cleopatra’s crimes, fascinations, and misfortunes is too well known to need repetition here; but the scene represented by the painter may with advantage be given as described by Plutarch in his “Lives.” “The messengers from Augustus came at full speed to the temple where Antony was buried, and found the guards apprehensive of nothing; but on opening the doors they found Cleopatra lying stone dead before the tomb of Antony on a throne of gold, set out in all her royal ornaments. Iras, one of her women lay dying at her feet, and Charmion, just ready to fall, scarce able to hold up her head, was adjusting her mistress’s diadem, and when one came in said angrily, “Was this well done of your lady, Charmion?” “Right well,” she answered, “and as became the descendant of so many kings,” and as she said this she fell dead by the throne’s side.’ (The Graphic, 25 May 1872, p. 3)

Valentine Cameron Prinsep was born in Calcutta on St Valentine's Day, 1838, the second son of Thoby Prinsep, an Indian civil servant and Director of the East India Company. He was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father in the Indian civil service, but his interest in writing and art put him on a different path when the Prinseps returned to England in 1843. In 1851 the family took a lease on Little Holland House in Kensington, where his mother Sara entertained a lively salon, including Rossetti, Carlyle, Thackeray, Tennyson, Browning, Burne-Jones and Leighton. The artist George Frederick Watts lived with the Prinseps for many years and it was from him that Val received his earliest art education.

Prinsep was also influenced by Rossetti and Burne-Jones and they invited him to help them to paint murals illustrating the Morte d'Arthur in the Oxford Union. He went on to study under Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he encountered Whistler, Poynter, George du Maurier and other members of the so-called 'Paris Gang'. He appears as Taffy in Trilby, du Maurier's romanticised account of the vie de bohème published in 1894. In the 1860s Prinsep came under the influence of Frederic Leighton, his neighbour in the colony of artists that was rapidly establishing itself to the south-west of Holland Park, and in 1879 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, of which Leighton had become President the previous year.

Prinsep’s work is eclectic – unsurprising considering the varied influences to which he was exposed in his early life. He initially painted in a style based on the medievalism of Rossetti's circle but by the early 1860s he was working in the 'Venetian' idiom that was attracting many of the Pre-Raphaelites and their contemporaries. The Death of Cleopatra is one of the most significant examples of the style he latterly adopted, which was in an academic mode, reflecting his training in Paris. Like that of Leighton, who also studied abroad, his work often seems more continental in spirit than English. It was well-received at the Royal Academy in 1870.

‘This is a successful and telling piece of composition in rich colours.’ (Pall Mall Budget, 28 May 1870, p. 15)

‘Mr. Prinsep has arranged the death of Cleopatra and her two attendants in a great sweep of line, and told the tale as Shakespeare has it. The basket of figs is on the floor. Iras is dead, the Queen is dead, and Charmian just about to fall.’ (London Daily News, 28 March 1870, p. 2)

‘’The Death of Cleopatra’ by Val Prinsep is admirably drawn; the fore-shortened figure on the ground being especially striking. The scene is too well known to need recapitulation, but, for a full conception of the startling nature of the incident before the tomb of Antony it is necessary to study this work.’ (Birmingham Daily Gazette, 29 August 1870, p .6)