Lot 126: ISAAC FULLER 1606-LONDON-1672

THE PROPERTY OF DEREK JOHNS LTD.

PORTRAIT OF A ROYALIST GENERAL, POSSIBLY THE EARL OF SANDWICH, SUPPORTED BY PUTTI DRESSED AS MINERVA AND HERCULES

PORTRAIT OF A ROYALIST GENERAL, POSSIBLY THE EARL OF SANDWICH, SUPPORTED BY PUTTI DRESSED AS MINERVA AND HERCULES

measurements note
44 3/4 by 44 3/4 in.; 114 by 114 cm.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Major Mace;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, July 15, 1960, lot 132 (as Sir Anthony van Dyck), for 58 guineas, to Dent.

NOTE

Fuller was both a history and a portrait painter. He executed a number of large-scale biblical cycles, including a series at Oxford, for All Souls, Magdalen and Wadham Colleges, all of which have since been destroyed. The artist's portraits were strikingly original, though most of his works are now lost. Two powerful self-portraits have survived, both of which now hang in the National Portrait Gallery, London and Bodleian Library, Oxford.

The present painting is closely related to an example in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, now at Bolton Hall. The painting depicts Henry, Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of Charles II, in a similar feigned stone frame with putti. The traditional regal imagery is an indication of Fuller's known Royalist allegiance: He remained faithful to the memory of Charles I, who was tried and executed in 1649, when Fuller was living in Paris where he studied with François Perrier.