King Charles I

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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King Charles I

by Robert Cooper, after Goddard Dunning
stipple engraving, circa 1800-1820 (1649)
14 1/4 in. x 11 3/8 in. (361 mm x 289 mm) plate size; 15 in. x 11 7/8 in. (382 mm x 303 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D18305

Sitterback to top

  • King Charles I (1600-1649), Reigned 1625-49. Sitter associated with 335 portraits.

Artistsback to top

  • Robert Cooper (active 1795-died 1828), Historical and portrait engraver. Artist or producer associated with 195 portraits.
  • Goddard Dunning (circa 1614-after 1678). Artist or producer associated with 2 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This later print is based on one of the earliest posthumous portraits to show Charles I at his execution. The costume is correct and details such as the slightly greying beard suggest that Dunning may have based the portrait on notes made on the spot. Little is known about the artist but he seems to have specialised in pictures of the king during his imprisonment and execution. This composition was developed as one of the standard images of Charles as a martyr.

Related worksback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1800back to top

Current affairs

Widespread food riots after poor harvests of 1798-9. Theorist, Thomas Malthus, controversially argues that poverty and food shortages are an inevitable consequence of population growth, challenging assumptions that populousness was a sign of national prosperity and power. His thesis contributed forcefully to the debate over the existing Poor Law.

Art and science

William Wordsworth publishes his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads; a retrospective explanation of his experimental poems written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It becomes one of the best-known manifestos of Romantic literature.

International

Lord Castlereagh, Chief Secretary for Ireland, is the main architect of the Act of Union under which Ireland is merged with Great Britain and the Irish parliament is abolished.
British troops support successful uprising by Maltese against the French.
Napoleon is victorious against Austrians at Marengo and reconquers Italy.

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