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Ernest Crofts. Leading English Civil
War military artist whose military paintings of the English Civil War
extended to over 32 military paintings, many of which have been reproduced
as quality military art prints and canvas prints by Cranston Fine Arts.
The English Civil War of 1642 to 1651. The
Friction between King Charles Ist and the Parliament. became civil war in
1642, sometimes referred to as "The Great Rebellion". The
Monarchy was supported by Anglican episcopacy, while the Parliament has
the backing of the Presbyterians. The Kings Forces known as
the Royalist were strong in the west of England and in the North. But in
1644 after the Battle of Marston Moor a Victory for Oliver Cromwell and
the parliamentarian army, (known as the New Model Army). the Royalists
lost control of the North. King Charles the 1st had to surrender
after the Royalist defeat at Naseby in 1645. The
war started again when King Charles escaped and made an alliance
with the Scots who invaded England. But the Scots and Other
Royalist forces were defeated by Oliver Cromwell. King Charles the
first was tried for treason and beheaded in 1649. |
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Cromwell at the Storming of Basing House by Ernest Crofts.
The siege is shown at the last days, as Oliver Cromwell is shown urging his troops forward.
Open edition print. Image size 30 inches x 19 inches (76cm x 48cm). Price £51.00
Open edition print. Special Promotion : This print is 30% off for a limited time only! Image size 12 inches x 8 inches (31cm x 20cm). Price £10.92
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 36 inches x 24 inches (91cm x 61cm). Price £500.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 30 inches x 20 inches (76cm x 51cm). Price £390.00
ITEM CODE DHM0131
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Oliver Cromwell after the Battle of Marston Moor by Ernest Crofts.
At the Battle of Marston Moor, July 1644, prince Rupert had nearly won the battle after an initial cavalry charge routing three quarters of the Parliamentary Army, But he continued the pursuit to far. The remaining part of the New model army, including Cromwells regiment. after a long hard fight won the day.
Open edition print. Image size 30 inches x 19 inches (76cm x 48cm). Price £51.00
Open edition print. Image size 21 inches x 14 inches (53cm x 36cm). Price £43.00
**Open edition print. (2 copies reduced to clear) Image size 21 inches x 14 inches (53cm x 36cm). Price £28.00
ITEM CODE DHM0096
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The Boscobol Oak, By Ernest Crofts.
The younger Charles, after escaping the Worcester rout, is hiding in a pollard oak, with the Roundheads hunting for him.
Open edition print. Image size 30 inches x 20 inches (76cm x 51cm). Price £51.00
Open edition print. Image size 24 inches x 15 inches (61cm x 38cm). Price £43.00
Open edition print. Special Promotion : This print is HALF PRICE for a limited time only! Image size 12 inches x 8 inches (31cm x 20cm) (No title on border). Price £7.80
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 40 inches x 30 inches (102cm x 76cm). Price £590.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 30 inches x 21 inches (76cm x 53cm). Price £390.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 36 inches x 26 inches (91cm x 66cm). Price £500.00
Original oil painting by Ernest Crofts. Size 54 inches x 40 inches (137cm x 102cm). Price £24000.00
ITEM CODE DHM0203
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Outpost of the New Model Army on the Eve of the Battle of Naseby by Ernest Crofts.
The New Model Army was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration. It differed from the other armies in the Civil war in that it was intended as an army where its soldeirs were liable for service anywhere in the country, instead of restricted to a local area or garrison. This meant that the soldiers of the new Model Army would be full time professional soldiers instead of part time militia. It was also intended that its officers were to be professional soldiers, not having seats in either the Houses of Lords or Commons. Here a Cavalry sentry is shown before the battle of Naseby, which would become a key battle of the English Civil War. On 14th June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was completely destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.
Open edition print. Special Promotion : This print is 30% off for a limited time only! Image size 8 inches x 12 inches (20cm x 31cm). Price £10.92
ITEM CODE VAR0427
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The Surrender of York to the Roundheads, by Ernest Crofts.
After Oliver Cromwells success at the Battle fo Marston Moor, York surrendered to the Parliamentarians, which gave them control over the North.
Open edition print. Image size 16 inches x 23 inches (41cm x 58cm). Price £43.00
Open edition print. Image size 8 inches x 12 inches (20cm x 31cm). Price £14.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas print. Image size 36 inches x 26 inches (91cm x 66cm). Price £500.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 22 inches x 30 inches (56cm x 76cm). Price £390.00
ITEM CODE DHM0094
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A scene From the Civil War by Ernest Crofts.
Open edition print. Image size 32 inches x 17 inches (81cm x 43cm). Price £51.00
Open edition print. Image size 23 inches x 14 inches (58cm x 36cm). Price £43.00
Open edition print. Image size 12 inches x 6 inches (31cm x 15cm). Price £14.00
Limited edition of 200 giclee canvas prints. Image size 40 inches x 28 inches (102cm x 71cm). Price £590.00
Limited edition of 20o giclee canvas prints. Image size 30 inches x 19 inches (76cm x 48cm). Price £390.00
**Open edition print. (3 copies reduced to clear) Image size 23 inches x 14 inches (58cm x 36cm). Price £30.00
ITEM CODE DHM0173
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Cromwell at the Sign of the Blue Boar by Ernest Crofts.
Cromwell questioned as a prisoner. Painted in 1883, this painting hangs in the Dudley Art Gallery.
Open edition print. Image size 23 inches x 15 inches (58cm x 38cm). Price £43.00
Open edition print. Image size 12 inches x 8 inches (31cm x 20cm). Price £14.00
ITEM CODE DHM0329
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Roundheads Returning From a Raid by Ernest Crofts.
Parliamentarian Cavalry shown returning from a sortie. The name Roundhead was given to the supporters of Parliament during the English civil war . The name, which originated in1641, and referred to the short haircuts most of the Roundheads had.
Open edition print. Special Promotion : This print is HALF PRICE for a limited time only! Image size 16 inches x 17 inches (41cm x 43cm). Price £22.80
Open edition print. Image size 8 inches x 11 inches (20cm x 28cm). Price £14.00
ITEM CODE DHM0409
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Charles I on His Way to Execution by Ernest Crofts.
Open edition print. Special Promotion : This print is 30% off for a limited time only! Image size 24 inches x 15 inches (61cm x 38cm). Price £31.92
Open edition print. Image size 12 inches x 7 inches (31cm x 18cm). Price £14.00
**Open edition print. (2 copies reduced to clear) Image size 24 inches x 15 inches (61cm x 38cm). Price £30.00
ITEM CODE DHM0471
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Whitehall by Ernest Crofts.
The execution of Charles I, January 30th, 1649.
Open edition print. Image size 17 inches x 23 inches (43cm x 58cm). Price £43.00
Open edition print. Image size 9 inches x 12 inches (23cm x 31cm). Price £14.00
**Open edition print. (Three copies reduced to clear) Image size 17 inches x 23 inches (43cm x 58cm). Price £32.00
ITEM CODE DHM0408
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Funeral of Charles I, St Georges Chapel, Windsor by Ernest Crofts.
The body of King Charles the first is brought by his supporters to St Georges Chapel at Windsor after his execution at Whitehall on the January 30th, 1649.
Open edition print. Image size 24 inches x 15 inches (61cm x 38cm). Price £43.00
Open edition print. Image size 12 inches x 7 inches (31cm x 18cm). Price £14.00
**Open edition print. (Two copies reduced to clear) Image size 24 inches x 15 inches (61cm x 38cm). Price £34.00
ITEM CODE DHM0470
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Cromwell at the Storming of Basing House by Ernest Crofts
The siege is shown at the last days, as Oliver Cromwell is shown urging
his troops forward. Print is available in two sizes.
Oliver Cromwell after the Battle of Marston Moor by Ernest Crofts.
At the Battle of Marston Moor, July 1644, prince Rupert had nearly won
the battle after an initial cavalry charge routing three quarters of the
Parliamentary Army, But he continued the pursuit to far. The remaining
part of the New model army, including Cromwells regiment. after a long
hard fight won the day
The Boscobol Oak, By Ernest Crofts The younger Charles, after escaping the Worcester rout, is hiding in a
pollard oak, with the Roundheads hunting for him.
Cromwell at the Sign of the Blue Boar by Ernest Crofts
Cromwell questioned as a prisoner. Painted in 1883. This painting hangs
in the Dudley Art Gallery. Available in two sizes: |
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ERNEST CROFTS
B. Leeds 1847; D. London 1911.
Crofts was one of the leading military-historical painters of the late Victorian
and Edwardian periods, exhibiting well over 40 paintings at the Royal Academy
and numerous scenes at other exhibitions depicting soldiers in battle or on
campaign. And, unlike many of his contemporaries, he had had the luxury of
actually witnessing soldiers in battle during the Franco-Prussian War.
After his early schooling at Rugby, the young Yorkshireman moved to Dusseldorf
in 1870 to study art with the German military artist, Emile Hunten (1827-1902),
and spent almost ten years there before returning to England to study with the
historical genre painter, Alfred Barron Clay. During his stay in Germany, he
accompanied Hunten to various battlefields during the war with France and was
present at the battle of Gravelotte, but not being a war correspondent, had to
remain on the other side of the Moselle River. He did witness the battles around
Saarbruck and Borny, and these experiences helped to mould the young man's ideas
with the result that his early paintings represented scenes from the war. One
such painting entitled One touch of nature makes the whole world kin represented
a Prussian soldier offering water to a wounded Frenchman, and won for the artist
a silver medal at the Crystal Palace in 1874. At the Royal Academy in the same
year he showed a scene depicting the French retreat from Gravelotte. However, in
the following year, he turned his attention to a more historical military scene
with his representation of the battle of Ligny in 1815, showing Napoleon
surrounded by his staff surveying the battlefield while columns of infantry
advance to the front. This was to be the first of no fewer than twelve paintings
shown at the Royal Academy by the artist between 1875 and 1906 representing the
events surrounding the Waterloo campaign, the one exception being his 1887
rendition, Napoleon leaving Moscow.
For whatever reason, Crofts produced a series of accurate retrospective scenes
of the Waterloo campaign right down to the minutest detail. Gone were the
sweeping panoramic battle scenes of the early 19th century. The focus now was on
the incident. Crofts had the skill and eye to produce these masterpieces of late
Victorian battle art equaled only by Lady Butler. He himself built up a large
collection of original uniforms and accessories, many of which were exhibited at
the Royal Military Exhibition held at Chelsea Hospital in 1890. Many of his
surviving sketches of figure studies attest to his fine draughtsmanship. It is
quite probable that Crofts visited the battlefield of Waterloo and vicinity to
gather sketches of the various locales he intended to depict. Other places were
visited in order to obtain particular information such as details of Napoleon's
coach at Madame Tussaud's for his 1879 work, On the Evening of the Battle of
Waterloo. In this painting, Napoleon, bareheaded and forlorn, escapes from his
carriage just before it becomes the booty of the Prussians. His troops are being
routed an are in an utter state of confusion although several ranks of the old
guard vainly attempt to present a hasty line of retreat. Two paintings dating
from 1876 and 1878 represent the events before the battle. In the scene entitled
On the morning of the battle of Waterloo, Crofts depicted the centre of the
French position at break of day on June 18, 1815, under a dull sky laden with
rain. Napoleon, surrounded by several marshals makes preparations for the final
inevitable struggle. The Emperor, pale but undaunted, sits at a table near a
farmhouse consulting a map while questioning a local farmer named Decoster. All
around, the French army nervously awaits its fate. The painting of 1878 was
entitled Wellington's March from Quatre Bras to Waterloo and featured a group of
French prisoners being escorted by soldiers of the 79h Highlanders at the moment
when the Duke of Wellington salutes a troop of passing Royal Scots Greys,
Wellington appears in other paintings by Crofts including At the Farm of Mont
St. Jean painted in 1882. Other paintings of the battle represented the fighting
around Hougoumont, the capture of a French Battery by the 52nd Regiment (1896),
and Napoleon's Last Grand Attack (1895).
While Crofts represented scenes from the wars of Wallenstein, Marlborough, and
even a painting of the Sikh War, Charge of the 3rd King's Own Light Dragoons,
Moodkee, it was the events of the English Civil War which, like Waterloo,
captured the artist's imagination. In fact it was his Royal Academy picture of
1877 - Oliver Cromwell at Marston Moor - that brought the artist to the
attention of many art critics. Similarly it was another Civil War scene, his
1898 painting To the rescue: an episode of the Civil War, which he painted on
election to the Academy itself, the only late nineteenth century military artist
to achieve this honour. Most of the major battles of the war such as Edgehill,
Marston Moor and Naseby were painted by the artist as well as siege related
scenes, i.e. Oliver Cromwell at the Storming of Basing House, painted in 1900,
The Surrender of Donnington Castle, painted three years later, and The surrender
of the city of York to the Roundheads, exhibited only three years before the
artist's death. Crofts painted a trilogy of canvases surrounding the execution
of Charles 1 as well as scenes representing the campaigning at Worcester such as
Charles 11 at Whiteladies (1898) and The Boscobel Oak (1889).
Crofts died on March 19, 1911 at Burlington House where he had lived as Keeper
of the Royal Academy. Three years later and almost a century after Waterloo,
Europe went to war again on a scale unimagined by the artist. The Great War
inspired a vastly different type of art focusing on the horrors rather than the
glory of war. While Crofts' pictures had been popular in the 1870's and 1880's,
the public lost its appetite for war pictures in the early years of the 20th
century and during the hideous war in South Africa. While Crofts continued to
paint scenes of war within the confines of the Royal Academy exhibitions, the
public lost interest in his work and today, with the exception of a handful of
canvases in public galleries, his paintings are more or less forgotten but they
deserve greater attention if only for their wealth of detail and as windows on
late Victorian attitudes to war and history.
(c) Peter Harrington 1991The English Civil War of 1642 to 1651. The
Friction between King Charles Ist and the Parliament. became civil war in
1642, sometimes referred to as "The Great Rebellion". The
Monarchy was supported by Anglican episcopacy, while the Parliament has
the backing of the Presbyterians. The Kings Forces known as
the Royalist were strong in the west of England and in the North. But in
1644 after the Battle of Marston Moor a Victory for Oliver Cromwell and
the parliamentarian army, (known as the New Model Army). the Royalists
lost control of the North. King Charles the 1st had to surrender
after the Royalist defeat at Naseby in 1645. The
war started again when King Charles escaped and made an alliance
with the Scots who invaded England. But the Scots and Other
Royalist forces were defeated by Oliver Cromwell. King Charles the
first was tried for treason and beheaded in 1649. |
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