The New Murrey and Blue blog

Here (with the prospect of York Minister through the window) is a composite picture of Richard III’s queen, Anne Neville, who died in 1485, not long after their son died too. Richard was left alone, facing the gathering storm of invasion by Henry Tudor. The original illustration (also above), much tweaked, is of Mary of Burgundy (whose very un-English steeple headdress has been felled with an e-axe!) and the view of York Minster is by Turner.

As you can see, the scene through Mary’s window was of a great church, with the Virgin and Child, but I simply wanted a picture of Anne at York. There were two red carnations on the sill, which looked a little too like red roses for a picture of Anne Neville. Also three actual red roses at the bottom right, which I changed to white. I also placed a white rose on Anne’s bodice.

I love doing these pictures, for which I make no claim at all of creating the original great artwork. I merely tweak, and apologise to the artists for my presumptuousness. But I hope others will enjoy looking at them.