William Dobson : the King's painter
R. F. Jones (Author)
How did an ordinary Englishman from St Albans become painter to a king? William Dobson was a 31-year-old artist from London, who left the city in 1642 to join King Charles I at the new Royalist capital in Oxford. As civil war raged between Charles and his Parliament for the next four years, Dobson committed to canvas not only the image of Charles himself, but those of members of the royal family, and the courtiers and soldiers whose duty brought them to the King's side. Compared to his feted predecessor, the great Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Dobson's name is little known outside the art world today, and even then he is often dismissed as insignificant. Yet in this first biography of the man Charles I called 'the English Tintoret', we find the truth about his remarkable family, his journey from St Albans schoolboy to king's painter, and why the name of William Dobson should not be forgotten.--Publisher
Print Book, English, 2016
Tyger's Head Books, [Reading], 2016