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Anonymous painter
King Charles I with Sir Edward Walker
ca. 1650
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"Charles I was a brave soldier and by the standards of the Civil War, a competent general. Walker, 'a very importunate, ambitious and foolish man, that studies nothing but his own ends', wearing his badge as Garter King-of-Arms, is shown as the King's Secretary-at-War, a post he also held under Charles II in exile. The scene is probably intended to represent one of the West Country campaigns of 1644-45, with what is perhaps a skirmish in front of Winchester in the background."
Caption texts by curators at the
National Portrait Gallery in London for a series of portraits made in the middle decades of the seventeenth century, mainly in England. The subjects are people whose lives were sometimes uprooted, sometimes improved, sometimes ended by the political and religious convulsions of the day.
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Anonymous painter
Sir Arthur Hesilrige
ca. 1650
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"Colonel Sir Arthur Hesilrige was a powerful Republican politician and distinguished soldier. He was one of five Members of Parliament who, warned of Charles I's intention to impeach them, fled the House of Commons on 3 January 1642; this was a key moment in the breakdown of the King's authority. In the war Hesilrige commanded a cavalry regiment known as the 'lobsters' on account of their old-fashioned full armour. At the Restoration his life was saved because he had refused to sign Charles I's death warrant, but he was committed to the Tower of London, where he died shortly afterwards."
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Robert Walker
Self-portrait
ca. 1645-50
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"Robert Walker painted both John Evelyn and Oliver Cromwell and is known to have been favoured by leading Parliamentarians. He was a member of the Painter-Stainer's Company, had rooms in Arundel House in 1652 and maintained the style of Van Dyck for his portraits of the Parlimentarian leaders.In 1658 he was described as one of the most eminent masters in England. Beyond this, little is known about the artist. Almost the only evidence of his personality appears in this dashing self-portrait."
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Anthony van Dyck
Sir Kenelm Digby
ca. 1640
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"A founding fellow of the Royal Society, Digby was a prominent Royalist who served as Chancellor to Queen Henrietta Maria. His social position added lustre to the new body and he was invited to write the Society's first authorized publication, A Discourse Concerning the Vegetation of Plants (1661). However, Digby increasingly fell out of step with the approach to scientific enquiry that the Society wished to promote. His interests lay in alchemy and a 'sympathetic powder' which he claimed could heal a wound be being applied to the weapon that had inflicted it."
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Gerrit van Honthorst
Prince Rupert
ca. 1641-42
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"Prince Rupert (1619-1682) was the third son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Elizabeth Stuart, the 'Winter Queen', sister of Charles I. He was a dashing military leader who fought for the Royalist cause and was active both as an artist – he practised the new technique of mezzotint – and as a patron of art and science."
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studio of Gerrit van Honthorst
William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven
1647
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven, fought for the Elector Palatine, Frederick V in Germany, a campaign which began a lifetime of devoted service to Frederick's family and his wife, Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of James I. On the outbreak of civil war in 1642, Craven was living at The Hague with Elizabeth, whom he supported financially for many years. He took no direct part in the civil wars, but had royalist sympathies and his involvement with and financial assistance to the Crown provoked retaliation. In 1651 his English estates were seized and sold to raise funds for the Commonwealth fleet."
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Gerrit van Honthorst
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
1642
National Gallery, London |
"Elizabeth was the only surviving daughter of James I. In 1613 she married Frederick, the Protestant ruler of the Palatinate, an area of present-day Germany. In 1619, following a rebellion against the Catholic Habsburg rulers, Frederick accepted the throne of Bohemia. He and Elizabeth were expelled after less than a year, however, in one of the early battles of the Thirty Years' War. Living in exile in the Hague, Elizabeth came to be seen as an ideal Protestant heroine, her hardships in exile, combined with her beauty, made her a legend in England as 'The Winter Queen'. Her large family of children included Prince Rupert and Princess Sophia, the mother of King George I."
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Gerrit van Honthorst
Frederick V, King of Bohemia
ca. 1635
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
The Honthorst portrait above was apparently painted a few years after Frederick died in 1632, embroiled in war. His wife Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, was a widow for thirty years.
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John Michael Wright
Elizabeth Claypole
1658
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"The second daughter of Oliver Cromwell, and his favourite child, Elizabeth Claypole is supposed to have exercised a moderating influence on him. She married John Claypole, a leading Partliamentarian, in 1646."
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Anonymous
Richard Cromwell
ca. 1650-55
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"Nominated Lord Protector in succession to his father, 1658; deposed 1659."
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Samuel Cooper
George Fleetwood
1647
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"Regicide; member of Cromwell's House of Lords."
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Samuel Cooper
Oliver Cromwell
1649
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
"Emerged as head of state when the 'Rump' Parliament was dissolved in 1653, and created Lord Protector. He refused the crown in 1657, dying in 1658."
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attributed to Samuel Cooper
Oliver Cromwell
ca. 1655
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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Samuel Cooper
Oliver Cromwell
1656
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
