(British 1595/1610? - 1659?)
Portrait of Oliver Cromwell, in armour, holding a baton,
oil on canvas, 132 x 106 cm, framed

The present striking portrayal of English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) who headed England, Scotland and Ireland’s brief period as a Republican Commonwealth, is characteristic of the hand of Robert Walker, who as chief portraitist for the Parliamentary side on the Civil War, established a successful studio in London. In the present picture, one of several portrayals by the artist and his studio, the overwhelming presence of the ruthless but brilliant tactician - arguably the last figure ever to pacify the British Isles’ Celtic fringe - can be sensed through his shimmering armour and firmly gripped baton of command which exude Walker’s own stylistic debt to Anthony van Dyck, ironically the artistic propagandist of Cromwell’s vanquished opponent Charles I.

However, Walker’s own handling, along with that of his workshop, differs sufficiently from the Flemish master’s to preclude the possibility of Walker having been van Dyck’s pupil. The pose and register of the present portrait also are redolent of continental court painting of the time, such as the work of Gerrit van Honthorst at the Hague. Indeed, the practice of simply re-purposing Royalist compositions during Cromwell’s lifetime was not uncommon, as seen in the prints of Pierre Lombart, who engraved Van Dyck’s equestrian portrait of Charles I, merely exchanging the head of Charles for that of Cromwell. Equally the present canvas still hangs in a typically seventeenth century gilded auricular frame, a manner of embellishing such works employed by both sides, regardless any supposed puritanical leanings on the part of the parliamentary side.