Lot 113: Circle of Samuel Cooper (British, 1609-1672) Charles II (1630–1685), wearing white lace falling collar and long natural wig

Charles II (1630–1685), wearing white lace falling collar and long natural wig.
Watercolour on vellum, gold bracelet clasp mount with paste border.
Oval, 23mm (7/8in) high
Provenance: Christie's, 11 July 1985, lot 532 (as by David des Granges)
Christie's 17 November 2009, lot 251

For a similar portrait of Charles II see G. Reynolds, The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 1999, p.145-6, no.126.

Charles II was the son of Charles I (1600-1649) and his French queen, Henrietta Maria (1609-1669). Upon the death of Oliver Cromwell, he was restored to the British throne in 1660. His twenty-five year reign was marred by periods of religious and political strife, in part precipitated by his own Catholic sympathies. Nevertheless, this was also the age of Pepys, Newton and Wren and Charles himself enjoyed great popularity, earning the nickname of 'the Merry Monarch' for the glamour, gaiety and hedonism which characterised his court.

His marriage to the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza proved childless but Charles fathered many illegitimate children through his liaisons with a sequence of mistresses, such as Barbara Castlemaine, Nell Gwynne and Louise de Keroualle.