Artware Fineart has dated this piece to the 19th Century.
Engraved by John Sartain
The chiefs of the new republic saw the importance of securing the services of a distinguished man who had so powerfully spoken out in favour of their tremendous act. In March 1649, accordingly, Milton was offered at the age of 40, and accepted, the secretary ship for foreign tongues to the council of state of the new Commonwealth. The council held its sittings for the first few weeks in Derby House, close to Whitehall, but afterwards regularly in Whitehall itself, he removed at once to temporary lodgings at Charing Cross. In the very first meetings of council which Milton attended he must have made personal acquaintance with President Bradshaw, Fairfax, Cromwell himself, Sir Henry Vane, Whitelocke, Henry Marten, Haselrig, Sir Gilbert Pickering and the other chiefs of the council and the Commonwealth.His special duty was the drafting in Latin of letters sent by the council of state, or sometimes by the Rump Parliament, to foreign states and princes, with the examination and translation of letters in reply. As Latin was the language employed in the written diplomatic documents, his post came to be known as the secretaryship for foreign tongues. In that post, however, his duties at first, were very light in comparison with those of his official colleague, Walter Frost, who had to be present in every meeting of the council, keeping the minutes, and conducting all the general correspondence, Milton's presence was required only when some piece of foreign business turned up. The council looked to him for everything in the nature of literary vigilance and literary help in the interests of the struggling Commonwealth. He was employed in the examination of suspected papers, and in interviews with their authors and printers; and he executed several great literary commissions expressly entrusted to him by the council. The first of these was his pamphlet entitled Observations on the Articles of Peace (between Ormonde and the Irish). It was published in May 1649, and was in defence of the republic against a complication of Royalist intrigues and dangers in Ireland.
Frederick Newenham was an exceptional Cork artist, who has escaped critical attention due to the rarity of his works. Just over two hundred years after his birth it seems appropriate that he finally be given his just deserts as one of the remarkably talented group of artists to emerge from Cork in the nineteenth century. Although he is not mentioned in standard works such as Crookshank and Glin's Ireland's Painters, he is noted in Peter Murray's history of Cork art as one of the immensely talented artistic family whose members also included Robert O'Callaghan Newenham, the landscape painter and William Newenham of Coolmore, County Cork who combined his role as Superintendent General of Barracks with an active career as a topographical artist. According to Strickland, Frederick Newenham was born in Cork in 1807. Like Daniel Maclise and James Barry he made his name in London where `he achieved some success, becoming a fashionable painter of ladies' portraits'. However he also painted history and anecdotal pictures which he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1838 to 1885. He died on 21 March 1859.
Artware Fineart has dated this piece to the 19th Century.
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The Protector Dictating the Letter to John Milton, 1a655 by Frederick Newenham (1807–1859)
