[1] The painting interprets[2] the moments preceding the death of Lady Jane Grey, who on 10 July 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England, only to be deposed nine days later and executed in 1554.

[4] In 1833 Delaroche painted the subject of Lady Jane's execution, nearly 300 years after the event, drawing upon contemporary historical sources to help him portray it accurately.

In the painting, two stout Norman columns with cushion capitals, a blind arcade, and a large chevroned arch create a backdrop indicative of the antiquity of the site.

His choice of this building from several within the Tower of London that span the reigns of many monarchs seems intentional and may be for stylistic or symbolic reasons, since the execution actually took place outside the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, which was constructed not at the time of William the Conqueror but by order of Henry VIII nearly 500 years later.

Not only is the shadow of the upper section of the painting black, so also are the cloth that covers the platform, the dress of one of the ladies, the cloak of Baron Chandos, and the sleeves of the executioner.

Three garments form accents of warm colour, the brown dress of one of the ladies, the orange fur of the Lieutenant's collar, and the blood-red hose of the executioner.

The artist seizes the eye of the viewer by placing the most intense patches of white on Jane's blindfold and the area of her skirt just between her outstretched hand and the sharply defined edge of the block.

The figures play their parts like actors through the expressions and gestures of grief and despair of the two women, the almost fatherly tenderness with which the Lieutenant of the Tower assists the blindfolded girl to take up the required position, and the displeasure in the face of the executioner at the task that confronts him.

Kenyon points out that the clean straw, commonly placed near the site of an execution to soak up blood,[6] and the white dress were devices used by the artist to make the observer suppose what would happen to them next.

[7] It was bought by his son, William Eaton, 2nd Baron Cheylesmore, who bequeathed it to the National Gallery, London in 1902, with four other paintings, including two other Landseers from his father's collection.

[9] He was writing a book on the British painter John Martin and examining the damaged canvases remaining from the flood in search of a missing painting by the artist.