Charles II (1630–1685), King of England

The miniature is based on the formal state portrait of Charles II by Samuel Cooper in which the sitter wears armor and the blue ribbon of the Order of the Garter. There are examples on a larger scale in the Goodwood collection (7 1/2 x 6 3/8 in. [190 x 162 mm]; Daphne Foskett, Samuel Cooper, London, 1974, colorpl. 9) and in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The handling is not Cooper's, and the miniature, which is of the late seventeenth century, may be one of the portraits that Nicholas Dixon (active by ca. 1660–died after 1708) produced as king's limner after Cooper's death. It is not by Thomas Flatman (1637–1688), the attribution proposed by Paine (1960).

[2015; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

[Art Trading Company, New York, until 1938; sold to Fredrick]; Mrs. Leopold (Millie Bruhl) Fredrick, New York (1938–d. 1962; inv., 1943, no. 65; inv., 1960, no. 13)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 27.

New York. Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture. "English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580–1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature," December 11, 2008–April 12, 2009, no. 12.

Inventory of the miniatures in the Fredrick collection. 1943, p. 7, no. 65.

Edward Grosvenor Paine. Inventory of the miniatures in the Fredrick collection. 1960, p. 2, no. 13, attributes it to Thomas Flatman and dates it about 1685.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 11, 14, 82, no. 27. ill., state that it is based on the formal state portrait by Cooper, of which there are multiple examples; reject the attribution to Flatman (see Paine 1960), dating the miniature to the late seventeenth century and suggesting that it might have been made by Nicholas Dixon as king's limner after Cooper's death.

Melinda Watt in English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580–1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature. Ed. Andrew Morrall and Melinda Watt. Exh. cat., Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. New Haven, 2008, p. 133, no. 12, ill. (color).