This stunning exhibition celebrates the work of Paul Delaroche - an artist so often overshadowed by his contemporaries Eugene Delacroix and Theodore Gericault - and proves his paintings to be no less worthy of attention. Delaroche was born into post-revolutionary France, in which a growing nostalgia for the fallen royal family was beginning to have an impact on the arts. His work takes a romanticised look at England’s regal past and turns its fallen monarchs into martyrs of Biblical proportions.

Delaroche’s theatrical realism is not for everybody: his figures have been described as resembling slightly creepy waxworks. But love him or hate him, the National Gallery has certainly made the most of their collection in this exhibition. The exhibition takes the form of a kind of visual essay on Delaroche’s painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, and consists of works by Delaroche’s contemporaries, the large scale histories he completed prior to Lady Jane Grey and preparatory sketches for the masterpiece itself. These sketches provide a fascinating insight into the development of the masterpiece, charting the creation and reworking of each individual character.

Despite relying heavily on works from its permanent collection, the National Gallery has done well to reinterpret their existing pieces with the aid of large and small scale loans. Even though this exhibition has done much to bring Delaroche’s work into the spotlight, the show seemed rather scant on visitors, having been overshadowed by this spring’s blockbuster exhibitions. So if, like me, you crave a hiatus from jostling for position in front of some of Van Gogh’s scrawled correspondence, this may be the show for you, providing as it does an intimate look at the work of a long forgotten master. Until May 23

SOPHIE COSTIN