Richard Parkes Bonington

Prior to its reemergence in 2010 (see Provenance) the composition of this previously unrecorded watercolor was only known, with slight variations, as a lithograph in the suite Cahier de Six Sujets of late 1826, entitled La Prière.¹ Noon has pointed out that the figures derive from studies of the funerary monuments of Lord Norris and Lord Shrewsbury in Westminster Abbey, which Bonington sketched in 1825. He has also noted that the physiognomies of the cavalier and his spouse in the lithograph closely resemble those of King Henri IV and Marie de' Medici,² an observation which applies to the present work as well. Noon has suggested that the blue ribbon worn by the kneeling chevalier probably alludes to the Ordre du Saint-Esprit, a French order of chivalry founded by Henri III, which further supports Noon's previous suggestion that La Prière represents an episode in the life of Henri IV and his queen, Marie de' Medici.

The aforementioned lithograph differs from the watercolor in a number of respects, such as the less elaborate architectural setting and the addition of the dog in the left foreground. 

1. For the lithograph see P. Noon, Richard Parkes Bonington. The Complete Paintings, New Haven and London, 2008, no. 360, p. 394 (ill. fig. 1)

2. Ibid. For the studies of the funerary monuments, see Noon 2008, cat. nos. 313-14