Frank Cadogan Cowper

Frank Cadogan Cowper, Fair Rosamund and Elanor

Property from a Private Collection, Indiana (sold: Sotheby's, New York, October 28, 2003, lot 69, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale

London, Royal Academy, 1920

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has not been cleaned recently. The canvas is still on its original stretcher and is unlined. The varnish has cracked in a few spots in the upper center. The paint layer itself has cracked in the interior of the church above the red cushions on the right. It seems that much of the paint layer itself may be slightly toned and glazed in order to produce a slightly more complex patina. Cleaning should be handled with caution. There is a possible restoration in the lower center in the edge of Rosamund's dress and a small loss on the bottom left edge. The painting is in very fresh condition, but requires a cautious approach to conservation due to the complexity of the paint layer.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

At the age of fifteen, the legendary medieval queen Eleanor of Aquitaine married Louis VII, heir to the French throne, in the wake of her father's death. She presided over one of the most joyful courts in Europe, filled with troubadours, poets and romantic adventures. Sadly, when she could not bear her husband a son, their marriage was annulled and she married Henry II, Duke of Normandy and future king of England. For Eleanor, her years in England did not hold the gaiety of her time in France, or as it did for her husband Henry and his many mistresses.

The story of Eleanor and Rosamund fascinated nineteenth century society as an indiscernible mixture of fact and apocryphal legend. In this work, Cowper depicts the version of the story in which Queen Eleanor penetrates the labyrinthine castle that Henry II built for his mistress Rosamund, intent upon killing her rival. The queen grasps the thread, which she used to guide her through the maze, and now extends it like a web encroaching on a weaker Rosamund. Legend stated that Eleanor poisoned her victim; in this picture, however, Cowper chose to paint the Queen clutching a dagger with a golden handle that reflects as brilliantly as her gilded brocade. After the Queen slew Rosamund, her body was buried near Oxford, with this verse upon her tomb:

Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda;
Non redolet, sedolet, quae redolere solet.

(Here lies entombed Rose of the World, not the pure Rose;
She no longer smells as sweetly as once she did.)

The legend of Rosamund and Queen Eleanor was a favorite subject of many Victorian painters including Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Frederick Sandys and Arthur Hughes.