The Proscribed Royalist, 1651

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The Proscribed Royalist, 1651
John Everett Millais, 1853
Oil on canvas
Collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Proscribed Royalist, 1651 (1853) is a painting by John Everett Millais which depicts a young Puritan woman protecting a fleeing Royalist after the Battle of Worcester in 1651, the decisive defeat of King Charles II by Oliver Cromwell. The Royalist is hiding in a hollow tree, a reference to a famous incident in which Charles himself hid in a tree to escape from his pursuers. Millais was also influenced by Vincenzo Bellini's opera I Puritani.

Millais painted the picture in Hayes, Kent, from a local oak tree that became known as the Millais Oak.[1]


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Millais, J.G., Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, vol. 1, p.166; See also Arborecology, containing a photograph of the Millais oak