Née Rigby. Journalist and writer on art.
Elizabeth Rigby, Lady Eastlake
1809 - 1893
This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.
Biographical notes
Slavery connections
No known connections with slavery.
Abolition connections
No known connections with abolition.
National Gallery painting connections
Donor: purchased from Lady Eastlake in 1867: NG766, NG767, NG768, NG769, NG770, NG771, NG772, NG773, NG774, NG775; in 1868: NG783. Presented by her in 1867: NG776; in 1870: NG812.
Former owner of NG666, NG1399, NG1400, NG1410, NG1411.1–2, NG1412, NG3911, NG3916, NG3937 and NG4945-4946.
Bibliography
A. M. Ernstrom, 'Eastlake family (2) Lady Eastlake [née Elizabeth Rigby]', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T024751
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Item on publisher's website
History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/
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R. Mitchell, 'Eastlake [née Rigby], Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/8415
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UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
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Paintings previously owned by Elizabeth Rigby, Lady Eastlake
(Showing 6 of 25 works)
‘Ecce Homo’, the Latin title of this painting, is taken from the Bible, and means ‘Behold the man!’ These were the words of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, when he was sitting as the judge during the trial of Christ. Pilate, here shown wearing a turban and rising to his feet, is pres...
This is a fragment of a wall-painting made using the fresco technique (painting directly onto wet plaster). It comes from a ’street tabernacle‘ – an outdoor religious painting – that showed the Virgin and Child surrounded by two saints.It is the head of one of the saints. We can’t identify him fr...
Not on display
This is a fragment of a wall-painting made using the fresco technique (painting directly onto wet plaster). It comes from a ’street tabernacle‘ – an outdoor religious painting – that showed the Virgin and Child surrounded by two saints.It is the head of one of the saints. We can’t identify him fr...
Not on display
The inscription at the top of this picture tells us this is a portrait of Leonello d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara. Leonello succeeded his father in 1441 and this picture was painted six years later. It shows him in profile, drawing attention to his sloping forehead and distinctive long nose – accord...
Not on display
The man in this portrait was once thought to be Gerolamo Casio, a poet from Bologna. He and Boltraffio knew one another and Casio even mentioned Boltraffio’s skill at painting in his sonnets.This attractive idea is now doubted, but there’s no question that the work is by Boltraffio. One of Leonar...
Not on display
In the early 1660s, when this portrait was made, this fancy outfit, bedecked with ruffles, ribbons and lace, was the height of sophisticated dressing, inspired by the latest fashions in Paris and employing the most expensive fabrics and tailoring.We don’t know who the sitter is, though it seems a...
Not on display
The optical illusion created by this painting is a powerful one. Rembrandt has used contrasts between light and dark – for example, the blacks and whites of the sitter’s clothes, the highlights on her nose and the heavy shadow under her chin – to create a highly convincing three-dimensional effec...
Saint Jerome spent two years in the desert, living a life of poverty and self-denial. As a punishment for sinful thoughts, he would – as we see here – beat his body until it bled. He was originally shown looking towards a vision of Christ, arms outstretched on a cross made of beams of light. This...
Not on display
A barefoot and bearded saint sits in a rocky landscape, prayer beads in hand. Discarded behind him is a red cardinal’s hat, and he wears a cardinal’s ermine cape over his rough wool habit. This is Saint Jerome, monk, hermit and translator of the Bible.Here he seems to have been up all night worki...
Not on display
A bearded saint stands in a stone niche. He holds a book and a pen: he is one of the Four Evangelists, the authors of the Gospels – possibly Saint Mark. Although a saint, he has no halo or attribute; he looks more like a Roman philosopher. The quiet stone, the saint’s abstracted and unfocused gaz...
Not on display
The Archangel Michael led an army of angels to battle against the devil and cast him down from heaven (Revelation 12: 9). Piero shows him as a beautiful, youthful soldier. He clutches the severed head of the devil, represented as a snake with pointy ears.The panel was part of a polyptych (multi-p...
A pale young man stands in a stone niche, almost naked and seemingly unaware of the arrows in his arm and leg. This is Saint Sebastian, a Roman soldier who secretly converted to Christianity. When his faith was discovered, he was shot with arrows but miraculously survived.Here, the saint seems mo...
Not on display
Two saints – Peter and Jerome – stand on an extravagantly carved stone pedestal. They once formed the left wing of a triptych (an altarpiece in three parts) painted by Antonio Vivarini and his brother-in-law, Giovanni d‘Alemagna, probably in the mid-1440s.The saints’ names have been painted as if...
Not on display
This small panel is painted in fine detail, resembling a precious painted miniature or illuminated manuscript. It formed the left side of a diptych (a work of two parts) joined with a central hinge; the other side showed The Dead Christ. Joseph, the Virgin Mary and a shepherd in torn clothes pray...
The Archangel Gabriel, huge peacock-feather wings outstretched behind him, kneels in front of the Virgin Mary, his head bowed in reverence. He has arrived with the news that she will conceive a child, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost.A small dove, the symbol of the Holy Ghost, flies towards t...
This scene tells the story of the murder of Saint Peter Martyr, a friar of the Dominican Order who was killed by members of the Cathars, a heretical sect whose teachings he had spoken against publicly. The saint is shown on the left – he has collapsed to his knees, an axe lodged in his skull. His...
This little picture formed the right side of a diptych (a work of two parts). It was joined with central hinges to The Adoration of the Shepherds. Ercole made this for the Duchess of Ferrara, Eleonora of Aragon, when he was court painter at Ferrara. Eleonora’s personal prayer centred on the Corpu...
Rogier van der Weyden and workshop
We are looking at the east end of a Gothic church, where the body of a bishop is being exhumed from his tomb in front of the high altar. This is Saint Hubert, Bishop of Maastricht and Liège, who died in 727. He is being moved from Liège to the newly founded abbey of Saint-Hubert-en-Ardenne, in 82...
Not on display
The Virgin Mary stands behind a stone parapet, supporting her infant son with one hand; Christ balances on a green cloth lying over the sill. In the background you can see monks in white habits strolling in the grounds of a large church – one is accompanied by a layman and his dog.The monks are C...
The Christ Child looks up at the Virgin Mary, raising the index finger of his right hand as though he is preaching, which refers to his divine authority. The Virgin’s cloak would have originally appeared more blue, but the pigment, azurite, has changed over time.The bold colours of the striped te...
The Virgin Mary sits on a high marble throne with a curved back, the naked Christ Child asleep in her lap. An eagle crowns the throne. It – like the winged lion, bull and reading man – symbolises one of the authors of the Gospels. The Old Testament is evoked by the stone tablets to either side of...
Not on display
This is one of only two surviving images of the Virgin and Child by Gentile Bellini. Its large size suggests that it was probably the central panel of a large polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece). It has been connected with the apparently now-lost altarpiece that we know Gentile made for the Scu...
Not on display
This painting is among the earliest known works by Filippino Lippi, probably made when he was still a member of the workshop of the Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ in her right arm. He plucks seeds from a pomegranate – the fruit was a symbo...
Workshop of Dirk Bouts
The Virgin, holding the infant Christ, sits on a marble throne with a luxurious material stretched across it – a cloth of honour, something often hung behind medieval royalty. Two saints stand with them, and particular symbols tell us who they are. On the Virgin’s right is Saint Peter, a key peep...
Not on display
This puzzling painting seems to be a picture in two halves. At the top the Virgin and Child embrace in a gilded sunburst. Below, Saint Anthony Abbot rings his bell and glowers at an elegant knight. This is Saint George, dressed in fifteenth-century armour, and a stylish straw hat – a contemporary...
You've viewed 6 of 25 paintings