Oliver Cromwell was, without doubt, amongst the most important figures in 17th Century Britain, and even today looms as one of the most titanic, if divisive, men to have shaped the history of Britain’s four nations. Although he was never crowned monarch, Cromwell’s likeness is one of the best-known in English history and ranks alongside those of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I in terms of recognisability. This is the result not simply of his notoriety, but also of the concerted efforts made during his lifetime, and in subsequent centuries, to proliferate his image across a spectrum of media, from painting and prints to medals. The inevitable effect of centuries of prolific copying and dissemination is a dilution of the original artworks, on whose strength such repetitions were brought into existence. The state of Cromwellian portraiture being such, this work, a hitherto unrecorded and unfinished portrait by Robert Walker, constitutes not only a valuable addition to the artist’s canon, but, more significantly, a new image of this great and challenging figure.

Oliver Cromwell:

Puritan, Parliamentarian, General, regicide and Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell experienced an ascent to power that had many, often bloody, stages. He was born to minor landed gentry in Huntingdon, now Cambridgeshire, at the close of the 16th Century, but Cromwell’s early biography is relatively obscure. Aside from being a farmer and landowner, he was returned to Parliament three times, first as M.P. for Huntingdon in the Parliament of 1628-29 and twice again in 1640 (after the 11 years of Charles I’s rule without Parliament) as the member for Cambridge, serving in the Short and Long Parliaments.

Still a relatively minor figure at the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642, Cromwell raised and trained a cavalry troop and was promoted to Colonel in Parliament’s Eastern Association. Having distinguished himself in the opening encounters of the Civil War, he was, by 1644, a Lieutenant General in the Earl of Manchester’s army and commanded the horse at Parliament’s decisive victory at Marston Moor. The following year, by this point a commander of Parliament’s New Model Army, he dealt a terminal blow to the King’s army at the Battle of Naseby leading to Charles I’s eventual surrender to the Scots in 1646. Further victories in 1648 ended the Second Civil War and any Royalist hopes of eventual victory.

After failed negotiations with the King and the New Model Army’s takeover of power through the Rump Parliament, Cromwell served as a chief instigator of the trial and execution of Charles I for High Treason. Regicide was, in Cromwell’s view, necessary and biblically justified: ‘The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it’ (Numbers, ch. 35, v. 33).

The Scots’ proclamation of Charles II as King of Britain and their subsequent raising of an army ignited the Third Civil War in 1650, which saw Cromwell himself invade Scotland and then later crush Charles II’s army at Worcester in 1651, the future king famously escaping capture by seeking refuge in the Boscobel Oak.

Cromwell, refusing the crown for himself, accepted the title of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and ruled with Parliament until his death in 1658 aged 59. The Commonwealth period was characterised by Puritanical moderation, and a renewed focus on foreign policy, which ended the First Anglo-Dutch War and initiated the Anglo-Spanish War. Further to this, he established the beginnings of the Britain’s overseas empire, founding American colonies and taking colonial possessions in the Caribbean. He also continued to prosecute England’s on-and-off conquest of Ireland and his razing of Drogheda, in particular, is still remembered for its brutality.

Robert Walker:

Robert Walker (1599 – 1658) shares his dates with his most famous sitter. He was the principal painter to the Parliamentarians during this Civil Wars and can be regarded as Royalist portraitist William Dobson’s opposite number. Despite his Parliamentary clientele, Walker readily drew from prototypes left by Charles I’s great court painter, Sir Anthony van Dyck, who died on the eve of the War. His self-portrait in the Ashmolean Museum, shows a direct awareness of Van Dyck’s Self-portrait with a sunflower as do many of his portraits of Parliamentary commanders.[1]

Although Walker did admit that Van Dyck’s models were too good not to utilise himself, he was a painter of considerable talent, who produced what is perhaps today’s most recognisable image of Cromwell: his portrait in armour, now hanging in the National Portrait Gallery.[2] The interplay between Walker’s dependence on Van Dyck and his own artistic autonomy can be demonstrated by the fact that he took the figure of the page in Van Dyck’s double portrait of Mountjoy Blount and Lord George Goring, and integrated it into his martial portrait of Cromwell, which is otherwise his own invention. Despite the fact that this is likely the prime version of this very successful portrait type, the National Portrait Gallery does still consider this to be a product of Walker’s studio, although one in which he was clearly involved.[3] This type, Walker’s best known Cromwell variant, was prolifically reproduced by Walker’s studio, later copyists and engravers alike.

This portrait:

This painting is one of few known autograph variants of the National Portrait Gallery picture, the main point of difference being the positioning of the page to the right of Cromwell, who lifts his baton of command upward. The page, still dressed in his red doublet, this time ties a sash or scarf around Cromwell’s left arm, presumably for recognition on the battlefield. The landscape setting is unchanged – the cloudy sky and left-hand escarpment are present – although the repositioning of the page means the view out to sea is obscured. Cromwell is here, as in all his other portraits, depicted in a suit of armour. Full suits of armour such as this had long been abandoned as battle dress, but despite this anachronism, it remained a mode of depiction popular with both sides during the Civil Wars and one that exuded strength, heroism and a dash of romance.[4] Although there was a distinct Van Dyckian precedent for this – seen in his English (Sir Edmund Verney, c. 1740) and continental portraits (The Lomellini Family, c. 1625-27) – it seems very likely that this dress was eagerly adopted by Parliamentarians, not for abstract and archaic notions of chivalry, but in order to signal their willingness to execute the grim necessity of the military task at hand.

Of the small number of examples of this portrait type and aside from the present work, the portrait at Chequers Court and a picture listed as being in the Government Art Collection in a photograph in the Witt Library appear to be autograph.[5] A well-documented studio picture recently resurfaced on the London art market and a later copy resides in the British Museum.[6] This type was also engraved in the 18th Century.

The present version is important, not only because it is a newly discovered example of this uncommon type, but for the fact that it is an unfinished work by Walker. This, certainly for autograph portraits of Cromwell, is unique and offers a fresh insight into the artist’s technique and studio practice. There is some studio involvement in the production of this picture; the page and the helmet and gauntlet to the left were painted by an assistant, with the figure of Cromwell reserved for completion by the master. This was customary not only in Walker’s case but in 17th Century portrait painting as a whole. Indeed, even in the Chequers version, these proximal elements were very likely painted by an apprentice. The fact that the page is in a rather more finished state than that of Cromwell only lends credence to this fact.

These lesser, more mechanical passages aside, Cromwell, his armour and the sky behind him are all painted in a rapid manner. Some elements, like the sky, are loose and painterly, and others, such as Cromwell’s armour, are thoughtfully constructed and drawn in with paint.

Another telling sign of Walker’s authorship is the ‘halo’ that surrounds Cromwell’s head. The presence of this feature (often seen in Van Dyck’s portraits) signals that the area around the head was painted in by Walker first to demarcate Cromwell’s head, this being the most important part of the picture and consequentally left to the master. The unfinished nature of the portrait is perhaps best appreciated in the sitter’s face. Here Walker has economically painted in the principle fleshtones and drawn in the eyes, eylids and eyebrows with paint. The canvas, prepared with a grey ground, has been reserved in some areas, probably for the artist to paint over at a later point with more delicate glazes that would have allowed some of the blueish grey to permeate the final fleshtones. The area of the sitter’s linen collar is also largely unfinished, being reserved as ground, apart from a few dexterously applied patches of white highlighting which lend a wholly convincing form to the garment. Further evidence of Walker’s compositional decision-making is found in three pentiments, the first being the positioning of the line of the sitter’s waist while the second is the previous extension of Cromwell’s index finger and the third a change in the angle of the baton.

The present version of this relatively rare portrait type is therefore a new admission into Walker’s oeuvre and a unique example of an unfinished autograph work, one that affords a rare insignt into his working practice. Moreover, the portrait is, perhaps most significantly, a new painting of the titanic figure that is Cromwell, painted during his lifetime by Parliament’s preferred artist.

We are grateful to Angus Haldane for confirming the attribution to Robert Walker, following first-hand inspection of the picture.

[1] A. Haldane, Portraits of the English Civil Wars (London, 2017), 132.

[2] Walker stated ‘if I could get better [compositions], I would not do Vandikes’, M.D. Whinney and O. Millar, English Art 1625 – 1714 (Oxford, 1957), 77, quoted in Haldane, Portraits of the English Civil Wars, 132.

[3] https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitExtended/mw01594/Oliver-Cromwell

[4] Haldane, Portraits of the English Civil Wars, 47.

[5] https://photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/sec-menu/search/detail/046a24be-249a-11ee-83f0-ac1f6ba5d150/media/972620bd-ce22-a844-32ac-9acde5ad79dd?mode=detail&view=horizontal&rows=1&page=102&fq[]=search_s_collection:"The Witt Library"&fq[]=search_s_box_name:"Courtauld_002162 / Walker, Robert / Portraits identified; A-F; Oliver Cromwell"&sort=random{1678204031915} asc

[6] https://historicalportraits.com/artists/431-studio-of-robert-walker/works/2436-studio-of-robert-walker-portrait-of-oliver-cromwell-1599-1658-with-a-page-1650s/

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/PA_Painting-8