{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O121074"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O121074/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JY2274/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JY2274/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017JY2274","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O121074/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O121074","accessionNumber":"F.44","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"Oliver Cromwell the Night Before His Death","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"The Deathbed of Cromwell; Ministers at Prayer in an Adjoining Room - Whitehall Friday 3rd September 1658","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The painter and photographer David Wilkie Wynfield (1837-1887) was one of a group of artists known as the St John’s Wood Clique (or School), after the suburb in north London in which they chose to live.  Everyone in the group had attended the art school run by James Mathew Leigh and other members included: William Frederick Yeames, Philip Hermogenes Calderon, George Dunlop Leslie, Henry Stacy Marks, George Adolphus Storey, and John Evan Hodgson.  With the exception of Leslie, everyone in the Clique specialised in what is now called ‘historical genre’, paintings set broadly within medieval and Renaissance times featuring historical, domestic, or romantic incident.\r\n\r\nThis oil painting of Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was exhibited as ‘Oliver Cromwell The Night Before His Death’ in 1867 at the Royal Academy of Art.  It is based on a passage in the writings of Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), the nineteenth-century author, biographer, and historian.  Solemn subjects such as this were typical of Wynfield’s work.\r\n\r\nThe painting was part of an extensive collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, prints, drawings, watercolours and oil paintings bequeathed to the V&A  by John Forster (1812-1876) in 1876.","physicalDescription":"Oliver Cromwell lies in a curtained, four-poster bed, his shoulders and head propped up by pillows.  His hands are clasped over a book with the title 'Holy Bible'.  He gazes upwards.  Two women kneel in prayer at the foot of the bed.  To the far left of the image is some sort of stand with an ornate jug on it.  Next to this is an armchair pulled up to the side of the bed.  The room has wooden panelling and two paintings can be seen hanging on the far wall.  To the right of the image two steps lead up to another room off the main bed chamber.  The door is open and two men stand in its shadow.  Behind them can be seen a group of four men kneeling in prayer.  Thirteen paintings are visible on the walls of the chamber and two light fittings with candles hang from the ceiling.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Wynfield, David Wilkie","id":"A9018"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"canvas","id":"AAT14078"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil on canvas","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Interiors","id":"THES48933"},{"text":"Scotland","id":"THES262877"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2017JY2274"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"A","id":"THES304225"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1867","earliest":"1862-01-01","latest":"1871-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by John Forster","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"36.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"60","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Measurement taken at time of assessment prior to BH decant - Frame Dimensions (mm): H-1243 W-1837 D-93;\nPainting Dimensions (mm): not measured"}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <i>Summary catalogue of British Paintings</i>, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bequeathed by John Forster, 1876","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Oil painting on canvas, 'The Deathbed of Cromwell; Ministers at Prayer in an Adjoining Room - Whitehall Friday 3rd September 1658', David Wilkie Wynfield, ca. 1867","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Rogers, David, <i>For King or Parliament: Attitudes of 19th Century Painters to the Civil War</i>, Wolverhampton: Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 1978.","id":"AUTH348026"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"When Wynfield exhibited the painting at the Royal Academy in 1867 it had the title 'Oliver Cromwell The Night Before His Death'.  It has since been listed in the <i>Summary catalogue of British Paintings</i>, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973 as 'The Deathbed of Cromwell; Ministers at Prayer in an Adjoining Room - Whitehall Friday 3rd September 1658'","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Cromwell, Oliver","id":"N1996"}],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Cromwell, Oliver","id":"N1996"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"bed","id":"AAT38697"},{"text":"bed hangings","id":"AAT204122"},{"text":"armchair","id":"AAT37776"},{"text":"panelling","id":"AAT14658"},{"text":"paintings","id":"AAT33618"},{"text":"women","id":"AAT25943"},{"text":"men","id":"AAT25928"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"prayer","id":"x37360"},{"text":"death","id":"x30761"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Thomas Carlyle (probably a passage from <i>The Life and Letters of Oliver Cromwell</i>, 1845)"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["F.44"],"accessionNumberNum":"44","accessionNumberPrefix":"F","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-10","recordCreationDate":"2006-02-15","availableToBook":true}}