The Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot

The Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot
Artist	Henry Perronet Briggs
Year	1823
Type	Oil on canvas, history painting
Dimensions	149 cm× 199 cm(59 in× 78 in)
Location	Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

The Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot (or The Taking of Guy Fawkes) is an 1823 history painting by the British artist Henry Perronet Briggs. ^[1] It portrays the moment that 1605 Gunpowder Plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament was unmasked. One of the plotters Guy Fawkes is being arrested by Sir Thomas Knevet and Edmund Doubleday.

The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1823 at Somerset House in London. ^[2] Today it is in the collection of the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, having been donated by Viscount Ridley in 1908. ^[3]

References

1. British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections p. 118
2. https://chronicle250.com/1823#catalogue
3. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-discovery-of-the-gunpowder-plot-and-the-taking-of-guy-fawkes-36358

Bibliography

• Fraser, Antonia. The Gunpowder Plot: Terror And Faith In 1605. Hachette UK, 2010.
• Wright, Christopher, Gordon, Catherine May & Smith, Mary Peskett. British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Yale University Press, 2006.