Oil on canvas, 109.9cm by 88.9cm.
Charles succeeded to the throne on the death of his father James I in 1625.
He was a great collector and patron of the arts, but his firm belief in the Divine Right of Kings and his ability to rule according to his own conscience, brought him into conflict with Parliament.
This led to the English Civil War, his execution in 1649 and eleven years of Parliamentary rule.
The painting is said to be the only copy of the celebrated portrait of Charles by van Dyck, which was esteemed the best likeness of the King, but was sadly destroyed in the Whitehall fire of 1698.
It appears in the 1763 Burghley Inventory: ‘Queen Elizabeths room … King Charles the 1st, his family, and his Queen by Vandyke.’
