2-888-615 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"James II., in his Palace of Whitehall, Receiving the News of the Landing of the Prince of Orange in 1688" - painted by E. M. Ward, A.R.A., 1850. Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. '"The King turned pale," says Dalrymple, "and motionless; the letter dropped from his hand; his past errors, his future dangers, rushed at once upon his thoughts; he strove to conceal his perturbation, but, in doing so, betrayed it; and his courtiers, in affecting not to observe him, betrayed that they did." Though Mr. Ward has found his subject in the dry pages of Dalrymple, he has treated it in the broad effective manner of Mr Macaulay. The action and look of the King are expressive and appropriate; Mary of Modena (his Queen) is well introduced, as is the little incident of the touching endeavour to call the King's attention to his infant son, the future Pretender'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.