Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Paintings, Room 82, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries

Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru

Oil Painting
1846 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The unusual subject of this painting is the capture of the Inca emperor Atahualpa by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532. As a model for Pizarro, Millais used an actor who had recently appeared in a play of the same name. Millais was only 16 when he painted this work. It belonged to his half-brother.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitlePizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on canvas
Brief description
Oil painting, 'Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru', John Everett Millais, 1846
Physical description
Oil painting
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 128.3cm
  • Estimate width: 171.7cm
  • Frame height: 1630mm
  • Frame width: 2065mm
  • Frame depth: 155mm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990
Style
Marks and inscriptions
'JEM/1846' (Signed (in monogram) and dated indistinctly in red by the artist, lower right)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Henry Hodgkinson
Object history
Bequeathed by Henry Hodgkinson, 1897
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
The unusual subject of this painting is the capture of the Inca emperor Atahualpa by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532. As a model for Pizarro, Millais used an actor who had recently appeared in a play of the same name. Millais was only 16 when he painted this work. It belonged to his half-brother.
Bibliographic references
  • Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 191-93
  • Rosenfeld, Jason and Smith, Alison, John Everett Millais: illustrator and narrator, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, 2008
Collection
Accession number
121-1897

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Record createdMay 8, 2003
Record URL
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