Charles I Insulted by Cromwell's Soldiers

Charles I Insulted by Cromwell's Soldiers is an oil painting by Paul Delaroche showing the deposed English king shortly before his execution in 1649, after the Second English Civil War. Cromwell's victorious soldiers mock him; one blows pipe smoke into his face, while Charles stays composed, holding a book he seems to have been reading. The scene concentrates his humiliation in a crude, everyday gesture, and the contrast between the prisoner's calm and his captors' scorn gives the picture its dramatic core. Delaroche was known for his scenes from seventeenth-century English history, a subject that let him address political upheaval, including the French Revolution, without showing events too recent to paint. For decades the canvas hung at Bridgewater House in London, where it was badly damaged by shrapnel during the Blitz in 1941 and was presumed lost. Its rediscovery in Scotland in 2009, in better condition than expected, led to partial restoration and a display at the National Gallery in 2010.

Painter

Paul Delaroche

Date

1836

Medium

oil paint

Museum

Bridgewater Collection, London

Depicts

pipe, glass, book, Charles I of England

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