The freshly dug grave, with its heap of earth and skulls and bones, the young children sitting behind it and the many hatchments hanging on the pillars are reminders of life's brevity. On another level, the picture is about William of Orange who was assassinated in Delft in 1584. This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.

Provenance

Presented to the Liverpool Mechanics Institution by Richard Vaughan Yates in 1833; Liverpool Institute Schools, on loan to the Walker Art Gallery since 1962.