Charles I Insulted by Cromwell's Soldiers
Encyclopedia
Charles I Insulted by Cromwell's Soldiers is an oil painting
by the French artist Hippolyte Delaroche
, depicting Charles I of England
taunted by the victorious soldiers of Oliver Cromwell
after the Second English Civil War
, prior to his execution in 1649. Completed in 1836, it is thought to be one of Delaroche's greatest masterpieces. It was displayed as part of the Bridgewater Collection in London, although it was latterly thought to have been lost when, during The Blitz
of 1941 a German bomb struck close to Bridgewater House
, causing shrapnel damage to the canvas in the ensuing explosion. In 2009 it was rediscovered in Scotland in an unexpectedly good condition, having been rolled up and stored after the war, but recorded in the intervening years as badly damaged or destroyed. After a partial restoration it went on display in the National Gallery in London, in an exhibition re-appraising Delaroche's work. After the exhibition, it is to be fully restored.
Charles I Insulted features Charles I, the King of England, who had by 1648 lost the Second English Civil War fought against Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army, after the Battle of Preston
. By January 1649, he was being put on trial for treason, and on 30 January, he was beheaded
.
The painting depicts Charles in the days before his execution, being bullied and taunted by Cromwell's defiant troops, one of whom is blowing pipe smoke
in his face. The deposed king remains calm, holding a book which he appears to have been reading.
's Charles I Insulted was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
, who was known as Lord Francis Leveson-Gower until 1833 when, following the death of his father he was created the first Earl of Ellesmere
, inheriting Bridgewater House
in London from his bachelor great uncle, Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater
. The family line of the Earls of Ellesmere became the Dukes of Sutherland when, in 1963, John Egerton, 5th Earl of Ellesmere
, succeeded to the title of duke of Sutherland on the death of the 5th Duke of Sutherland with no male heir in the elder line. As of its rediscovery in 2009, the painting remained privately owned by the present Duke, Francis Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland
. The 7th Duke was the 6th Duke's cousin and heir to the Dukedom, since the 6th Duke had no children himself.
in London. The painting was then hung for decades as part of the semi-public Bridgewater Collection in Bridgewater House in London.
The painting suffered serious damage during a Second World War German bombing raid on London. Unlike other collections, the Bridgewater artworks had not been stored underground before the war, due to the 5th Earl having been captured at Dunkirk in 1940. On 11 May 1941, during the last night and most deadly raid of what became known as The Blitz
, one bomb landed on the street outside Bridgewater House, leaving a 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep bomb crater. Hanging in the dining room at the time, the painting suffered extensive shrapnel damage. At least four paintings in the collection were totally destroyed in the raid, while others less damaged were eventually restored. Charles I Insulted was demounted, and rolled up, having been given a rudimentary repair using paper to hold together the largest tears. After the war, it was transported to Mertoun House
in St. Boswells
, Scottish Borders
, the family's Scottish home, for storage.
While stored safe and dry in Mertoun, over the next 68 years years the existence of the painting was gradually forgotten about by its owners, and presumed by the art world to be lost as irreparably damaged in the raid. In subsequent catalogues of Delaroche's work, it had been listed as either 'badly damaged' or sometimes 'destroyed'.
, and found rolled up in 1973.
On 7 June 2009 at Mertoun, it was unrolled for the first time since being moved to Scotland. To the surprise of those present, the painting was largely intact and entirely legible, having "lost none of its intensity". The explosion damage consisted of around 200 individual tears in the canvas, which still contained plaster fragments and dust from the blast.
After moving the painting to London, it was restored sufficiently to be able to be displayed in the exhibition, albeit with the shrapnel scars still visible, and "somewhat yellowed by a layer of discoloured varnish". Because the canvas had been rolled up for nearly 70 years, it had to be weighed down flat for six weeks. The tears were then stitched together, and the canvas lined.
The painting's first ever public display since rediscovery was as part of the exhibition, Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey, running from 24 February to 24 May 2010. It went on display on 23 February in a separate room in the museum's free admission area, with the main part of the exhibition held in the adjacent Sainsbury Wing of the gallery. The painting is to be fully restored after the London exhibition whereupon work would start to remove the discoloured varnish and retouch the damaged areas.
, the rediscovery was "huge" and its redisplay would be an historic moment, describing it as "an extraordinarily powerful work", "one of the great French paintings" and by "one of the greatest painters" of the 19th century. According to Penny, Delaroche, a Frenchman, was a notable painter of Tudor
and Stuart
history, as a method of "exploring the violence and vicissitudes of the French Revolution
" without actually portraying the events themselves, which were regarded as too recent to paint.
According to the National Gallery's exhibition curator Christopher Riopelle, both Charles I Insulted and Delaroche's other painting, Marie-Antoinette Before the Tribunal, painted fifteen years later in 1851, "suggest episodes of the suffering of Christ". Riopelle added that Delaroche's "obsession with English royalist history" was "classic displacement of what you want to talk about but can't, because it's still so raw and recent", particularly referring to the execution
of Louis XVI of France
in January 1793, and nine months later of his Queen Marie Antoinette
.
Charlotte Higgins
of The Guardian
described it as "one of Delaroche's masterpieces", which "owes a debt" to Anthony van Dyck
's famous painting of Charles I. Higgins also said that it "clearly references the popular artistic subject of the mocking of Christ by his guards". According to Arifa Akbar of The Independent
, "Delaroche's monumental painting featuring Charles I as a Christ-like figure" is regarded as "one of Delaroche's most powerful pieces", commissioned at the "height of his fame".
David Horspool
of The Times
, reflecting on the fate of Delaroche's Execution of Lady Jane Grey which was relegated to a basement, in which it was later flood damaged, due to Delaroche's falling fame, said "there seems no chance that [Charles I Insulted] will be rolled up and put away. Delaroche’s days as the forgotten master seem to be over", predicting the rediscovered piece would be perhaps "the most exciting exhibit to go on display" in the 2010 National Gallery exhibition.
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
by the French artist Hippolyte Delaroche
Hippolyte Delaroche
Hippolyte Delaroche , commonly known as Paul Delaroche, was a French painter born in Paris. Delaroche was born into a wealthy family and was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, who then painted life-size histories and had many students.The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large Josabeth...
, depicting Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
taunted by the victorious soldiers of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
after the Second English Civil War
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
, prior to his execution in 1649. Completed in 1836, it is thought to be one of Delaroche's greatest masterpieces. It was displayed as part of the Bridgewater Collection in London, although it was latterly thought to have been lost when, during The Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
of 1941 a German bomb struck close to Bridgewater House
Bridgewater House, Westminster
Bridgewater House is at 14 Cleveland Row, Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade I listed building.The earliest known house on the site was Berkshire House built in about 1626-27 for Thomas Howard, second son of the Earl of Suffolk and Master of the Horse to Charles I of England when he was...
, causing shrapnel damage to the canvas in the ensuing explosion. In 2009 it was rediscovered in Scotland in an unexpectedly good condition, having been rolled up and stored after the war, but recorded in the intervening years as badly damaged or destroyed. After a partial restoration it went on display in the National Gallery in London, in an exhibition re-appraising Delaroche's work. After the exhibition, it is to be fully restored.
Subject
Battle of Preston (1648)
The Battle of Preston , fought largely at Walton-le-Dale near Preston in Lancashire, resulted in a victory by the troops of Oliver Cromwell over the Royalists and Scots commanded by the Duke of Hamilton...
. By January 1649, he was being put on trial for treason, and on 30 January, he was beheaded
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
.
The painting depicts Charles in the days before his execution, being bullied and taunted by Cromwell's defiant troops, one of whom is blowing pipe smoke
Pipe smoking
Pipe smoking is the practice of tasting or inhaling the smoke produced by burning a substance, most commonly tobacco, in a pipe. It is the oldest traditional form of smoking.-History:...
in his face. The deposed king remains calm, holding a book which he appears to have been reading.
Ownership
DelarocheHippolyte Delaroche
Hippolyte Delaroche , commonly known as Paul Delaroche, was a French painter born in Paris. Delaroche was born into a wealthy family and was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, who then painted life-size histories and had many students.The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large Josabeth...
's Charles I Insulted was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere KG, PC , known as Lord Francis Leveson-Gower until 1833, was a British politician, writer, traveller and patron of the arts...
, who was known as Lord Francis Leveson-Gower until 1833 when, following the death of his father he was created the first Earl of Ellesmere
Earl of Ellesmere
Earl of Ellesmere, of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire , is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1846 for the Conservative politician Lord Francis Egerton. He was granted the courtesy title of Viscount Brackley, of Brackley in the County of Northampton, at the same...
, inheriting Bridgewater House
Bridgewater House, Westminster
Bridgewater House is at 14 Cleveland Row, Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade I listed building.The earliest known house on the site was Berkshire House built in about 1626-27 for Thomas Howard, second son of the Earl of Suffolk and Master of the Horse to Charles I of England when he was...
in London from his bachelor great uncle, Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater
Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater
Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater , known as Lord Francis Egerton until 1748, was a British nobleman, the younger son of the 1st Duke...
. The family line of the Earls of Ellesmere became the Dukes of Sutherland when, in 1963, John Egerton, 5th Earl of Ellesmere
John Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland
thumb|right|200px|Portrait by [[Allan Warren]]John Sutherland Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland , styled Viscount Brackley until 1944 and known as The Earl of Ellesmere between 1944 and 1963, was a British peer.-Background and education:the son of John Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere and Lady Violet...
, succeeded to the title of duke of Sutherland on the death of the 5th Duke of Sutherland with no male heir in the elder line. As of its rediscovery in 2009, the painting remained privately owned by the present Duke, Francis Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland
Francis Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland
Francis Ronald Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland , known as Francis Egerton until 2000, is a British peer.Sutherland is the son of Cyril Reginald Egerton, the grandson of Francis Egerton, 3rd Earl of Ellesmere. His mother was Mary, daughter of Sir Ronald Campbell...
. The 7th Duke was the 6th Duke's cousin and heir to the Dukedom, since the 6th Duke had no children himself.
1836 to 2009
Charles I Insulted is a large piece, painted on a canvas measuring 13 feet (4 m) by 10 feet (3 m)., also described as being nearly three metres square. It was completed in 1836. It was first displayed at the Paris Salon of 1837, and in 1838 at the British InstitutionBritish Institution
The British Institution was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it was also known as the Pall Mall Picture Galleries or the British Gallery...
in London. The painting was then hung for decades as part of the semi-public Bridgewater Collection in Bridgewater House in London.
The painting suffered serious damage during a Second World War German bombing raid on London. Unlike other collections, the Bridgewater artworks had not been stored underground before the war, due to the 5th Earl having been captured at Dunkirk in 1940. On 11 May 1941, during the last night and most deadly raid of what became known as The Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, one bomb landed on the street outside Bridgewater House, leaving a 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep bomb crater. Hanging in the dining room at the time, the painting suffered extensive shrapnel damage. At least four paintings in the collection were totally destroyed in the raid, while others less damaged were eventually restored. Charles I Insulted was demounted, and rolled up, having been given a rudimentary repair using paper to hold together the largest tears. After the war, it was transported to Mertoun House
Mertoun House
Mertoun House is a country house situated by the River Tweed, east of St Boswells in the Scottish Borders. It is home to the Duke of Sutherland for the majority of the year. The early 18th-century house is category-A listed, and was designed by Sir William Bruce...
in St. Boswells
St. Boswells
St Boswells is a village on the south side of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders. It lies about 1 mile SE of Newtown St Boswells on the A68 road....
, Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
, the family's Scottish home, for storage.
While stored safe and dry in Mertoun, over the next 68 years years the existence of the painting was gradually forgotten about by its owners, and presumed by the art world to be lost as irreparably damaged in the raid. In subsequent catalogues of Delaroche's work, it had been listed as either 'badly damaged' or sometimes 'destroyed'.
2009 onwards
The painting was rediscovered in the summer of 2009 by National Gallery curators, after they made enquiries about the painting as they prepared a Delaroche exhibition. The 2010 exhibition was to be the first major show on Delaroche to be held in Britain, aiming to re-assess the works of Delaroche, who fell out of fashion during the early 20th century, and featuring his most famous work from the National Gallery collection, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833), which was also a rediscovered work: it had been thought lost when the Tate Gallery was flooded in 19281928 Thames flood
The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. Fourteen people were drowned in London and thousands were made homeless when flood waters poured over the top of the Thames Embankment and...
, and found rolled up in 1973.
On 7 June 2009 at Mertoun, it was unrolled for the first time since being moved to Scotland. To the surprise of those present, the painting was largely intact and entirely legible, having "lost none of its intensity". The explosion damage consisted of around 200 individual tears in the canvas, which still contained plaster fragments and dust from the blast.
After moving the painting to London, it was restored sufficiently to be able to be displayed in the exhibition, albeit with the shrapnel scars still visible, and "somewhat yellowed by a layer of discoloured varnish". Because the canvas had been rolled up for nearly 70 years, it had to be weighed down flat for six weeks. The tears were then stitched together, and the canvas lined.
The painting's first ever public display since rediscovery was as part of the exhibition, Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey, running from 24 February to 24 May 2010. It went on display on 23 February in a separate room in the museum's free admission area, with the main part of the exhibition held in the adjacent Sainsbury Wing of the gallery. The painting is to be fully restored after the London exhibition whereupon work would start to remove the discoloured varnish and retouch the damaged areas.
Reception
According to the London National Gallery, it is "one of the great paintings on themes of English history for which Delaroche had become renowned", in which Delaroche was "able to imply striking parallels between the poignant fate of Charles and the recent course of French history". According to the gallery director Nicholas PennyNicholas Penny
Nicholas Penny, FSA is a British art historian. Since Spring 2008 he has been director of the National Gallery in London....
, the rediscovery was "huge" and its redisplay would be an historic moment, describing it as "an extraordinarily powerful work", "one of the great French paintings" and by "one of the greatest painters" of the 19th century. According to Penny, Delaroche, a Frenchman, was a notable painter of Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
and Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
history, as a method of "exploring the violence and vicissitudes of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
" without actually portraying the events themselves, which were regarded as too recent to paint.
According to the National Gallery's exhibition curator Christopher Riopelle, both Charles I Insulted and Delaroche's other painting, Marie-Antoinette Before the Tribunal, painted fifteen years later in 1851, "suggest episodes of the suffering of Christ". Riopelle added that Delaroche's "obsession with English royalist history" was "classic displacement of what you want to talk about but can't, because it's still so raw and recent", particularly referring to the execution
Execution of Louis XVI
The execution of Louis XVI by means of the guillotine took place on 21 January 1793 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. It was a major event of the French Revolution...
of Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
in January 1793, and nine months later of his Queen Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
.
Charlotte Higgins
Charlotte Higgins
Charlotte Higgins is a British writer.-Biography:She was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford. She is a blogger and The Guardians chief arts writer...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described it as "one of Delaroche's masterpieces", which "owes a debt" to Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
's famous painting of Charles I. Higgins also said that it "clearly references the popular artistic subject of the mocking of Christ by his guards". According to Arifa Akbar of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, "Delaroche's monumental painting featuring Charles I as a Christ-like figure" is regarded as "one of Delaroche's most powerful pieces", commissioned at the "height of his fame".
David Horspool
David Horspool
David Horspool is a historian and sport editor of the Times Literary Supplement. His first book - Why Alfred Burned the Cakes: A King and His 1100-year Afterlife, was a scholarly yet popular history of the reign of King Alfred...
of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, reflecting on the fate of Delaroche's Execution of Lady Jane Grey which was relegated to a basement, in which it was later flood damaged, due to Delaroche's falling fame, said "there seems no chance that [Charles I Insulted] will be rolled up and put away. Delaroche’s days as the forgotten master seem to be over", predicting the rediscovered piece would be perhaps "the most exciting exhibit to go on display" in the 2010 National Gallery exhibition.