MEDIA
King Charles I
Original Author: Unidentified artist; after work by Sir Anthony Van Dyck
Created: Possibly 1700–1750
Medium: Oil on canvas
Publisher: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

King Charles I

A three-quarter-length portrait of Charles I, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1625 until his execution in 1649, shows him dressed in armor with his right hand resting on a luminous orb. A scepter and crown sit on the table holding the orb; all three items denote that the subject of the painting is a monarch.

An unidentified artist based this painting on an earlier work by Flemish artist Sir Anthony Van Dyck, who served as official court painter during Charles's reign and created some forty portraits of the king. This painting from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation had previously been part of the collection belonging to the Marquis of Waterford.