Mansion House Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1700s.
This portrait of the king in garter robes shows him as he appeared to his subjects at the Restoration, a tall and imposing man in his thirties; in old age Charles's features would show the ravages of personal indulgence. The portrait is in an exceptional period original frame.
ABOUT KING CHARLES II
Fugitive
Philanderer
Fireman
Charles II’s life was hugely eventful.
When he was twenty-one he launched a daring invasion of England, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Worcester.
Charles spent six weeks on the run before he escaped the country disguised as a servant.
He was restored to the throne in 1660 but in 1665 was forced to flee from London with his family to avoid the plague.
Charles also had a busy private life; his court was notorious for its easy-going morality and he fathered fourteen illegitimate children by seven mistresses.
Hardly surprising then that when the Great Fire of London broke out in 1666, this man of action personally directed the fire-fighting effort and worked manually with his brother James to throw water on the flames.
LABEL 1/ VERSO:
ON LOAN AS EXHIBIT ON 29/1/1972
CARNEGIE INSTITUTE PITTSBURGH USA
Label 2/ states: Michele Setton Fine Art
Rosebank Johannesburg
ARTIST:
"STUDIO OF" JOHN MICHAEL WRIGHT.
TERMINOLOGY:
A picture catalogued as ''Studio of''...is in our opinion a work executed in the studio of the artist, probably under his supervision
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
John Michael Wright (May 1617– uly 1694) was a portrait painter in the Baroque style.
Described variously as English and Scottish,
Wright trained in Edinburgh under the Scots painter George Jamesone,and acquired a considerable reputation as an artist and scholar during a long sojourn in Rome.
There he was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca, and was associated with some of the leading artists of his generation.
He was engaged by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, to acquire artworks in Oliver Cromwell's England in 1655.
He took up permanent residence in England from 1656, and served as court painter before and after the English Restoration.
A convert to Roman Catholicism, he was a favourite of the restored Stuart court, a client of both Charles II and James II, and was a witness to many of the political maneuverings of the era.
In the final years of the Stuart monarchy he returned to Rome as part of an embassy to Pope Innocent XI.
Wright is currently rated as one of the leading indigenous British painters of his generation, largely for the distinctive realism in his portraiture. Perhaps due to the unusually cosmopolitan nature of his experience, he was favoured by patrons at the highest level of society in an age in which foreign artists were usually preferred. Wright's paintings of royalty and aristocracy are included amongst the collections of many leading galleries today.
CONDITION:
This fine portrait is in very good condition, benefitting from a professional clean and revarnish in past years,as well as being wax relined.
The colours are still vibrant and rich and convey the full charactor and charm of this early oil on canvas portrait,still retaining its original frame.
FRAME:
ORIGINAL GESSO & GILT
Finished with a florrel design.
MEASUREMENTS :
54.5 x 45.5 Inches (139 cm x 116 cm) Inc Frame
ACTUAL Canvas Size:
44 x 35.25 Inches (112 cm x 90 cm)
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Mansion House Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1700s.
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17th Century Oil Portrait of King Charles II B1630-d1685 Studio of John Michael Wright (B.1617-d.1694) English School & Measuring 54.5 X 45.5 Inches in Period Gilt Frame.
