Livesey fought as a soldier on the side of Parliament throughout the Civil War. In 1648 he was one of the ‘regicides’ who tried King Charles I and signed his death warrant. He became a Commissioner of the Admiralty about three months before Charles II’s Restoration in 1660 but soon afterwards fled abroad.
He is shown seated wearing three-quarter armour. On the table on the right are his close helmet, a gauntlet, a goblet and a very unusual pair of flintlock pistols, the butts in the form of a crocodile’s head whose open jaws enclose a seated lion. The painting, formerly in the collection of Lord St John of Bletsoe, was acquired without a frame in 1954 and only had one made when it was first displayed in the Museum's 'Sea of Faces' exhibition in 2001.
Sir Michael Livesey (1611-1663?)
Date
circa 1645
date QS:P571,+1645-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
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Identifier
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Acquisition Number: OP1954-20 id number: BHC2843
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Oil paintings
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