John Milton (1608-1674), Poet

Sitter associated with 70 portraits
Milton is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and a master of political pamphleteering. Forceful and idealistic, he served the Commonwealth as Latin Secretary but was arrested upon the restoration of Charles II. The tragic circumstances of his life - an unhappy marriage, the premature death of his second wife and his eventual blindness in 1652 - are reflected in the often despairing tone of his work. Milton is best known for his epics, Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (1671).