Lot 4: William Dobson , 1611-1646 Portrait of King Charles I oil on canvas

head and shoulders, wearing armour oil on canvas

measurements note 47 by 39 cm., 18 1/2 by 15 1/4 in.

London, National Portrait Gallery, William Dobson 1611-46; The Royalists at War, 21st October - 8th January 1983, no.28, as by 'William Dobson

A note of the pictures of the Earle of Arans, 27 August 1696, MS in the collection of the Duke of Hamilton, no. 3, 'A Head of King Charles the first by Dobson'

First recorded in the collection of James, 4th Duke of Hamilton in 1696 as by Dobson;
listed at Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, "in the Great Dining Roome" in 1704 as by Dobson;
by descent to William, 12th Duke of Hamilton;
The Hamilton Palace Sale, Christie's London, 17th June 1882, lot 39, as by Van Dyck, (bt. J.Hollender for 190 gns);
Private Collection, England

'The English people are a sober people, however at present under some infatuation.... if God give you success, use it humbly and far from revenge. If he restore you upon hard conditions, whatever you promise, keep.' Charles I to his son Charles, later King Charles II.'[1]

In this moving and intimate portrait, William Dobson captures Charles I at his most vulnerable. Regardless of the countless biographies of the beleagured King which have attempted to convey his precise feelings at this point in history, this portrait surely speaks for them all. It is the solemnity of this King, this lonely husband and father's gaze, and the heavy weariness of his eyes which cannot fail to incite our empathy if not our sympathy. If historical accounts are correct, it was painted at a time when Charles was also full of remorse. He fully realised and was utterly convinced that the horrors of civil war and the miseries of it's outcome were attributable to his own weakness and to God's judgement on him for his weakness.

Van Dyck's earlier portraits, which advertise the cool and arrogant hauteur of the King and extoll the splendour of his position, are replaced with this intimate introduction to him, where the only indication of his status is the gold chain of the Garter which is just visible.[2] Van Dyck's death and the departure of Charles' wife to France in 1641 heralded the beginning of a new and comparatively unsettled era. As his young son Charles explained to his sister Mary in Holland, 'he is very much disconsolate and troubled, partly for my royal mother's and your absence, and partly for the disturbances of the Kingdom.' Earlier introduced to the King by Van Dyck in 1643, the young artist Dobson and his family moved to Oxford, joining the Royal Court who sought sanctuary there.[3] This portrait dates from the Court's stay there between 1643-1646 and his armour illustrates that his daily life and that of the Royal Court was now governed by training for, or the actual, call to arms as the Civil War battles ravaged the country. As a gentleman, Dobson would have brought a personal insight into the values of the aristocracy when many were under threat. A very promising career, with only some sixty known paintings to his credit was cut short at the age of thirty-five. Dobson's likeness is the only depiction of Charles in oil during his campaign against Parliamentary forces in the Civil War. [4] This portrait is arguably the finest surviving one of three similar pictures of the King by Dobson. The other two being an unfinished and very worn head and shoulders of the same type (Royal Collection), and one sold at Christie's on 17υth November 1989, lot 42 (£165,000). Following the National Portrait Gallery exhibition in 1983, this picture's status became uncertain following Oliver Millar's review of the exhibition (see Burlington Magazine, January 1984, vol. 126). Millar suggested that this portrait was 'too soft and dull to be regarded as an original.' However, recent conservation has led to the removal of several layers of thick and discoloured varnish and the picture's subtle characterisation can now be seen. Dr Malcolm Rogers has also examined this portrait following conservation and maintains his opinion that it is by William Dobson. Furthermore, the present picture is recorded in the collection of the Dukes of Hamilton in 1696 and was presumably intended for James, 1υst Duke of Hamilton (1606-1649), not only a great art collector but one of Charles' main allies.

[1] see Sir Charles Petrie ed., Letters of King Charles I, 1968.
[2] As Dr Malcolm Rogers points out, whereas the head is indeed very close to the central head in Van Dyck's triple portrait of the King (Royal Collection) or to that of the three-quarter length in armour at Arundel Castle which derives from it, this is nevertheless an independent and individual portrait. Not only is the King here portrayed as an older man, but in this Dobson paints in a more subtle and less idealised manner.
[3] Richard Graham suggests that it was through Van Dyck that Dobson received royal favour and as Dobson's first biographer he recorded that Charles I 'sat several times to him [Dobson] for his Picture' while in Oxford. A portrait of the King by Dobson is also the subject of Epigram LXXIX in J. Elsum's Epigrams upon the Paintings of the Most Eminent Masters (1700).
[4] Lely's portrait of Charles with his son James, by Lely (Duke of Northumberland) was painted in 1647 while he was held at Hampton Court after his surrender at Newark in 1646, while Edmund Bower's portrait of Charles at his Trial (Royal Collection), the final likeness of the King, was painted in 1649.