1867
oil
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Oliver Cromwell the Night Before His Death is a 1867 oil by David Wilkie Wynfield, a British Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows Oliver Cromwell in a dim room, sitting alone on a chair. His head leans on one hand. The colors are soft and a little blurry. It’s part of a series where artists dressed models like historical figures. The St John’s Wood Clique painted these for fun. The group lived in London and copied old art for practice. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more work by this group.
The painting depicts Oliver Cromwell reclining in a curtained four-poster bed, supported by pillows, with his hands clasped over a book titled *Holy Bible* as he gazes upward. Two women kneel in prayer at the foot of the bed, while a stand with an ornate jug and an armchair occupy the left side of the room, which features wooden panelling and multiple paintings on the walls. Two candlelit light fittings hang from the ceiling, and an open doorway to the right reveals two men standing in shadow, with four more men kneeling in prayer in the adjacent room. A total of thirteen paintings are…
Read the full account in the museum source.
David Wilkie Wynfield was a British painter and photographer who gained recognition for his historical genre paintings and his pioneering use of shallow-focus portrait photography.
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