A Royalist, formerly identified as Sir Charles Lucas, after a painting by William Dobson

Henry Pierce Bone's father, was the noted enamel painter Henry Bone (1755-1834) and his mother was also decended from an artistic family. Henry turned to enamels after first painting mostly in oils. He was appointed successively enamel painter to Queen Adelaide, and to Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort. Several works by the artist can be found in the Royal Collection. He typically copied other paintings for his enamels, such as with this example and his series of British monarchs.

The original painting that Bone copies in this miniature is by William Dobson, who became painter to King Charles I after the death of Anthony Van Dyck in 1641. The sitter was wrongly identified in the 19th century as Sir Charles Lucas, a cavalry leader who was court martialed during the second civil war in England, and was regarded as a royalist martyr after the restoration of Charles II. This identification is no longer accepted, and the painting, in the collection of the Royal Museums Greenwich, is now titled "Portrait of a Royalist."

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, 1843: Hollingworth Magniac, Bedfordshire [date and mode of acquisition unkown]; Sale, Christies, July 4, 1892; Marquis de Biron [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.