The Execution of King Charles I

Art's Description

About this painting
One of my most surreal paintings, this was based on a subconsciously sketched note about the execution of King Charles I of England. The monarch and therefore commander of the royalist forces in the English civil wars, Charles I was executed in January 1649, under the banner of democracy, by English parliamentary forces. Four years later Oliver Cromwell dissolved parliament and became Lord Protector until his death in 1658.
A wave, like a hand, washes over a sinking skull. The transparent water above the horizon reveals a vivid red sunset, fading rapidly to darkness almost like the interior of a cave. Painted in one confident stroke, the long curling hair of Charles I falls from the back of the wave, with his distinctive beard and moustache before it. The blue water in the foreground looks like cloth, the draped flag of democracy perhaps.
Painted Dec 2006 to May 2007.

Style

Surrealism

Medium

Painting

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