oil on canvas, unsigned, of Thomas Wentworth, Earle of Strafford. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland & C. as inscribed in the upper right corner. The Earl is formally posed in full armor before a red velvet curtain, wearing the "Great George" (Order of the Garter) on a chain, his left hand on the hilt of his sword and a baton in his right; his plumed visor rests on a red-draped table in the background. In a later frame; 42" x 50" (w/o frame), 52" x 60" (w/frame). Strafford played an interesting part in the events leading up to the English Civil War. Having aroused the ire of the Puritans, he was executed in 1641 pursuant to a bill of attainder enacted by the British Parliament and assented to - doubtless against his better judgment - by King Charles I. (Nearly a century and a half after the attainder of Strafford, the people of the United States were to adopt a Constitution providing - in Article I, Section 9 - that "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.") King Charles appointed Thomas Wentworth Lord Deputy General of Ireland in 1632. He became Lord Lieutenant eight years later. The army that Strafford led earned a reputation for using harsh tactics in the pacification of the Emerald Isle, but the general evidently had a softer side as well. He commissioned numerous portraits of himself by Sir Anthony Van Dyck and the modern scholar Oliver Millar observes that Thomas Wentworth "was one of Van Dyck's most sensitive patrons...." He may also have been one of the thriftiest; in a 1636 letter to his London agent about multiple versions of a new portrait type developed for him by Van Dyck, Wentworth told the agent to "gett them as cheape as you can." This portrait is a three-quarter-length version of a much larger full-length picture. The prototype still was owned, as of 2004, to Strafford's descendants. In theirs, instead of holding a baton in his right hand (as he does in the present piece), the Earl has his right hand on the head of a wolfhound (symbolizing Ireland). A three-quarter-length copy in which a baton has replaced the wolfhound was executed by a follower of Van Dyck around 1640; it may be seen in Dublin's National Gallery of Ireland. The brushwork of the present piece is that of a skilled artist, but is clearly not Van Dyck's. Opinions differ as to whether the work is a period piece done before the Earl's dramatic demise or an 18th-century copy. Provenance: Ex Collection the Honorable David A. Nelson Condition: Frame appears to be 19th century, has some small cracks and has been restored, canvas has been relined.
oil on canvas, unsigned, of Thomas Wentworth, Earle of Strafford. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland & C. as inscribed in the upper right corner. The Earl is formally posed in full armor before a red velvet curtain, wearing the "Great George" (Order of the Garter) on a chain, his left hand on the hilt of his sword and a baton in his right; his plumed visor rests on a red-draped table in the background. In a later frame; 42" x 50" (w/o frame), 52" x 60" (w/frame). Strafford played an interesting part in the events leading up to the English Civil War. Having aroused the ire of the Puritans, he was executed in 1641 pursuant to a bill of attainder enacted by the British Parliament and assented to - doubtless against his better judgment - by King Charles I. (Nearly a century and a half after the attainder of Strafford, the people of the United States were to adopt a Constitution providing - in Article I, Section 9 - that "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.") King Charles appointed Thomas Wentworth Lord Deputy General of Ireland in 1632. He became Lord Lieutenant eight years later. The army that Strafford led earned a reputation for using harsh tactics in the pacification of the Emerald Isle, but the general evidently had a softer side as well. He commissioned numerous portraits of himself by Sir Anthony Van Dyck and the modern scholar Oliver Millar observes that Thomas Wentworth "was one of Van Dyck's most sensitive patrons...." He may also have been one of the thriftiest; in a 1636 letter to his London agent about multiple versions of a new portrait type developed for him by Van Dyck, Wentworth told the agent to "gett them as cheape as you can." This portrait is a three-quarter-length version of a much larger full-length picture. The prototype still was owned, as of 2004, to Strafford's descendants. In theirs, instead of holding a baton in his right hand (as he does in the present piece), the Earl has his right hand on the head of a wolfhound (symbolizing Ireland). A three-quarter-length copy in which a baton has replaced the wolfhound was executed by a follower of Van Dyck around 1640; it may be seen in Dublin's National Gallery of Ireland. The brushwork of the present piece is that of a skilled artist, but is clearly not Van Dyck's. Opinions differ as to whether the work is a period piece done before the Earl's dramatic demise or an 18th-century copy. Provenance: Ex Collection the Honorable David A. Nelson Condition: Frame appears to be 19th century, has some small cracks and has been restored, canvas has been relined.
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg?w=400?width=1600&quality=70 "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
