Delaroche set The Execution of Lady Jane Grey indoors for maximum drama, even though the real execution took place outdoors at the Tower of London. The model for Jane is thought to have been his mistress, an actress known as Mademoiselle Anais. The painting was lost during the Second World War and remained missing until 1973, when a Tate curator found the canvas rolled up inside another painting while sorting through damaged carpets.

He was born in 1797 in Paris and specialised in English and French history scenes because they sold well. In his own lifetime, his commercial success often exceeded both Ingres and Delacroix. Upon first seeing the daguerreotype in 1839, he reportedly declared: from today, painting is dead.

He married Louise Vernet, daughter of the painter Horace Vernet, in 1835. She was the absorbing passion of his life. She died in 1845, aged thirty-one. He sketched her on her deathbed; the drawing survives at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. He never recovered from the loss. His later work turned exclusively to religious subjects. He died in 1856.