LONDON.- A miniature portrait of Oliver Cromwell, measuring just 10.4 x 8 cm (4⅛ x 3⅟2“), sold at Sotheby’s today for a record �535,200 – five times its pre-sale estimate of �100,000-150,000, and one of the highest prices ever achieved at auction for a miniature portrait (the record for a miniature at auction is $1,216,000 – achieved in 2001 for a portrait of George Washington by John Ramage). The portrait was bought in Sotheby’s sale of Important British Drawings, Watercolours and Portrait Miniatures by London dealers Browse & Darby on behalf of the Compton Verney art gallery in Warwickshire.

Sotheby’s specialist Mark Griffith-Jones, commented: “We were thrilled to see the portrait so hotly-contested. This is a portrait not only of huge artistic merit, but also of enormous historical importance – it was good to see that importance so fully recognised in the saleroom today.”

Widely considered to be definitive portrait of Oliver Cromwell, the Harcourt miniature is the portrait from which almost all later renditions of Cromwell derive and the image which has, to this day, defined our vision of this crucial figure in British history. A purposefully “warts and all” picture, it is just one of a small handful of lifetime portraits of Cromwell and of these, it is by far the finest, and most important, finished version.

Painted in 16571, a year before Cromwell died of an untimely bout of malaria, this powerful, strident miniature shows Cromwell (1599-1658) – Lord Protector of Britain since 1653 - looking strong and purposeful. The artist behind it, Samuel Cooper (1609-1672), was arguably the greatest British-born portrait artist of the 17th century –and a fitting match for the subject (their relationship has been described by art historian Graham Reynolds as “the meeting of two of the greatest geniuses of the 17th century”). As Cromwell’s preferred artist, Cooper played a crucial role in delineating the Protector’s image. Aware of the importance of his role, and of the need to be able to produce impressive portraits of his patron to order, Cooper created a powerful study from life (a sketch done in 1653 and now in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch) from which he could work up further, finished portraits to order. There is evidence that Cooper was called upon to produce multiple official portraits of Cromwell for distribution, for political purposes, throughout Europe (there are records of such portraits having been sent to the Swedish and Dutch courts, and there were certainly more besides), but of these only two survive: one in the National Portrait Gallery, in London, and this. Of the two, the Harcourt version is the more highly finished, and by far the more psychologically intense.

As the man who overthrew the monarchy, Cromwell sought to set himself apart from the traditions of Court portraiture. He therefore made a point of employing an artist (Cooper) who had never painted his nemesis Charles I, and he also insisted that his portrait be a truly “warts and all” image2: “use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me. & not flatter me at all, but… remark all these ruffness, pimples warts & every thing as you see me” – given the visibility of such blemishes in this portrait, it is unlikely that Cromwell was disappointed. Finally, he made sure that he was represented not in the flamboyant silks of his predecessors, but in the armour of the soldier and reformer that he was. But in fact the highly refined images of the Protector which resulted from the Buccleuch sketch came to serve just the same diplomatic purpose as Van Dyck’s portraits of Charles I, and – to judge by the extraordinary quality of this portrait – differed from traditional court portraits in little more than the costume of the sitter.

On loan from the Harcourt family to the Museum of London for the last 50 years, and still housed in its contemporary frame with the letters OP (Oliver Protector) engraved on the back, this small but powerful image of an individual wearing simple armour provided – and continues to provide - an enduring visual metaphor for Cromwell’s new regime.