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Augustus Leopold Egg

The Life of Buckingham

c. 1855
oil on board
30.5 × 40.5 cm (12 × 15.9 in)

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● On view now — 203B British Painting and Decorative Arts

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · verified July 2026

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FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

Augustus Leopold Egg’s The Life of Buckingham depicts a fictional moment in the debauched, roguish life of George Villiers (1628–1687), 2nd Duke of Buckingham (seated at the center, wearing white). Although the scene is invented, the merrymakers and courtesans depicted around the table (among them King Charles II, to Buckingham’s right) were characters the duke would have personally known and were familiar to Victorian audiences who delighted in the cautionary tale of excess.

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