0:00:02 > 0:00:06# Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
0:00:06 > 0:00:10# Old time is still a-flying
0:00:11 > 0:00:15# And this same flower that smiles today
0:00:15 > 0:00:20# Tomorrow will be dying. #
0:00:21 > 0:00:26In 1642, a terrible civil war broke out in England.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33Brother attacked brother.
0:00:33 > 0:00:38Friend betrayed friend. The nation was torn in two.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46To ensure this dark moment was never forgotten,
0:00:46 > 0:00:47Britain needed an artist
0:00:47 > 0:00:50to step forward and witness her turmoil.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57Fortunately, such a man was found.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13History doesn't often feel
0:01:13 > 0:01:17graspable, does it? Touchable. Under your nose.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22It's something that takes place far away, out there...
0:01:22 > 0:01:23in the past.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26You can read about it in books,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29you can learn about it from David Starkey on the telly...
0:01:29 > 0:01:33but where it really counts, in here, you can't really feel it.
0:01:39 > 0:01:40Unless, that is,
0:01:40 > 0:01:46something, or somebody manages to bring it to life for us...
0:01:46 > 0:01:49make it tangible... give it flesh.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56There's only one way that can be done - with art.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01It's what art's really good at. Capturing the moment.
0:02:01 > 0:02:02Taking you there.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09If an artist is eloquent enough, talented enough,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12then even an event as chaotic and unruly
0:02:12 > 0:02:14as the English Civil War
0:02:14 > 0:02:17can be brought back to life, and felt again.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30This is a film about a lost genius of English art,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33a painter of deep and real talent,
0:02:33 > 0:02:36who was there, and who put a face
0:02:36 > 0:02:40to a particularly traumatic moment in our history.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49His name was William Dobson.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51He's the one in the middle.
0:02:51 > 0:02:57The handsome one with the Cavalier ringlets and that combative stare.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Dobson was the first truly great British painter -
0:03:02 > 0:03:04our first native genius.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11If you've never heard of him before, don't beat yourself up about it.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Most people haven't.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17History isn't always fair to its heroes.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21And William Dobson was certainly one of those.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28DOOR CREAKS
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Dobson had an exciting life, to go with his exciting talent.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39It was short and fateful
0:03:39 > 0:03:43because these were not relaxing times.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Dobson was born in London in 1611,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52and baptised in this fine city church -
0:03:52 > 0:03:56St Andrew's, Holborn - on March 4th.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01The register of his birth has survived.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05It's one of just half a dozen documents of the times
0:04:05 > 0:04:07that bear his name.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14We know that his father, also called William Dobson, was prosperous.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17'A gentleman' it says here.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20But he frittered away the family fortunes
0:04:20 > 0:04:23on what his contemporaries called 'licentious living'.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29Dobson senior, it seems, wasted his estate on women.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37And you know what they say about the sins of the father,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41how they're visited again upon the son.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Well, that certainly seems to have been true in this case.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Our William Dobson, the first great English painter,
0:04:49 > 0:04:53would also gain a reputation for loose living.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59We don't know exactly what went wrong
0:04:59 > 0:05:01with the Dobson family fortunes,
0:05:01 > 0:05:06But something did. And in around 1625
0:05:06 > 0:05:11Dobson junior was forced to start making his own living.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15So he decided to become something rather ungentlemanly
0:05:15 > 0:05:16and un-English...
0:05:16 > 0:05:19He decided to become a painter.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Mind you, William Dobson could not have picked a better time
0:05:28 > 0:05:29to become an artist
0:05:29 > 0:05:33because there hasn't been a better time.
0:05:39 > 0:05:44The English king, Charles I, was an unusually cultured monarch.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Charles loved art with a passion
0:05:47 > 0:05:50that England had never seen before in a king.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56Look how superbly he rides into history in this fine Van Dyck
0:05:56 > 0:05:59that now hangs in Buckingham Palace.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Buckingham Palace hadn't even been built in Dobson's time
0:06:05 > 0:06:10and the king didn't think much of this place, either - Windsor Castle.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13He allowed it to fall into ruin.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17Instead, the king preferred to reside in another of his
0:06:17 > 0:06:21sumptuous palaces, one which isn't even there any more,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24at Whitehall in London.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Whitehall Palace was the largest palace in Europe.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Located roughly where 10 Downing Street is today,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39it burnt down in 1698.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Bigger than the Vatican, bigger than Versailles,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47It stretched all the way down to the river.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Whitehall was gigantic.
0:06:53 > 0:06:59It had 1,500 rooms. Yes, 1,500.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04And the plushest of them were filled to the rafters with great art.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12If you think Windsor Castle looks impressive today,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17you should have seen Whitehall Palace in around 1630,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21when William Dobson must first have encountered it.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29All these Mantegnas were in Charles' collection - nine of them.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34The first Rembrandt ever to leave Holland hung in Whitehall
0:07:34 > 0:07:37in the longest gallery.
0:07:38 > 0:07:44And naughty Veroneses, displaying such un-English nudity.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50And this famous Leonardo, now so popular in the Louvre in Paris.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59Then there were all these Raphaels showing the Gospels of the Apostles,
0:07:59 > 0:08:04the finest cycle of Renaissance art ever to leave Italy.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12What an education a young painter starting out on the road of art
0:08:12 > 0:08:18would have received in here just by wandering about and looking.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Dobson must have done more than that.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28Somehow, he got the opportunity
0:08:28 > 0:08:31to study the royal collection in depth.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38And he studied it so fiercely that he ended up as good as this.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45This is such a revolutionary image.
0:08:45 > 0:08:46You have to remember
0:08:46 > 0:08:50that Charles believed in the divine right of kings.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54That he's been put on Earth by God to command the English,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56and educate them.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Charles lavished all this money on art
0:08:59 > 0:09:02because he thought it was his divine duty to do so.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07It's what God wanted him do, whatever the cost.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14But Dobson didn't paint a divine monarch. That wasn't his way.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18Dobson gives us a small and troubled man,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21so nervous, so unsure.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24These are sensitive insights
0:09:24 > 0:09:27and they're completely new in British art.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34The question is, how did William Dobson get to be this good?
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Not knowing the exact details of Dobson's apprenticeship
0:09:47 > 0:09:49is very annoying.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53I've stomped through the stately homes of Britain,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56but the information just isn't there.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03You'd have thought an artist of William Dobson's importance,
0:10:03 > 0:10:04a man who changed British art,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08would have had everything about him noted down.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15But these are turbulent times he was living through.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18And when history swallowed up William Dobson,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20it swallowed up his past as well.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28One exciting story about him is that he worked for
0:10:28 > 0:10:31the royal tapestry works at Mortlake in London
0:10:31 > 0:10:37and was somehow involved with the design of these stunning hangings.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49Another story about Dobson doing the rounds is that he was actually
0:10:49 > 0:10:52a pupil of Van Dyck, the king's official painter
0:10:52 > 0:10:56who came over to London from Antwerp in 1632.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02And who proceeded to lord it over Charles' great Golden Age.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Van Dyck was the king's flatterer-in-chief,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11the official improver of the Royal image.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18This is his portrait of Charles' detested Queen,
0:11:18 > 0:11:23Henrietta Maria, a Catholic from France whose teeth,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25according to the Venetian ambassador,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28stuck out like the guns on a battleship.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35But that was in real life, not in Van Dyck's portrayals of her.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43But if Dobson really was Van Dyck's pupil,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47he was headstrong enough to see things very differently
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and become his own man.
0:11:50 > 0:11:56For one thing, Dobson could not, or would not, flatter.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58He just couldn't do it.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Instead, his art makes a bee line for character and truth,
0:12:02 > 0:12:08for plainness, bluffness and even ugliness.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17Telling it like it is is a uniquely British talent.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20And to show it off properly,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23you need a uniquely British situation.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29So, having finally found an artist who could paint with the best,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33the Fates decided to test him mightily
0:12:33 > 0:12:37by dumping him in the middle of some of the most traumatic events
0:12:37 > 0:12:38in British history.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49There are many complicated reasons why, in 1642,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53a savage civil war broke out in England,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57why Parliament took on the king, Royalist took on Roundhead
0:12:57 > 0:13:00and Cavalier took on Puritan.
0:13:01 > 0:13:07# In 1642 I knew what I had to do
0:13:07 > 0:13:12# Leave my home and family, too And fight for good old Charlie
0:13:12 > 0:13:15# Toorah loorah loorah ley... #
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Charles had become a deeply irritating monarch.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24People didn't like his Catholic wife.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29They didn't like his foreign policy, his taxes were unpopular.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33They really didn't like that immodest claim of his
0:13:33 > 0:13:36to be God's representative on Earth.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39But, perhaps what galled them most,
0:13:39 > 0:13:43was his extravagant appetite for art
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and the huge amounts of money that had been spent on it.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49# Many men died to uphold the law
0:13:49 > 0:13:51# Fighting for old Charlie
0:13:51 > 0:13:54# Toorah loorah loorah ley
0:13:54 > 0:13:57# Toorah loorah loorah ley... #
0:13:57 > 0:14:01Art was an affront to Puritan thinking.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05The second commandment actually bans the making of it.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09"Thou shalt not make any graven image," it says,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13"of anything that is on Earth, or in the sea below."
0:14:13 > 0:14:18So for the Puritans on parliament's side,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22art wasn't just immodest, and Popish,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25it was actually sinful.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29# I thank God I'm still alive Fighting for... #
0:14:29 > 0:14:34The most notorious of all the Puritan art-haters, William Prynne,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36published a thousand-page book on the subject,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40in which he stamped on dance, theatre, painting
0:14:40 > 0:14:43and men with long hair.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46"The gates of heaven," spat Prynne,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50"will always be closed to the Morris dancers."
0:14:50 > 0:14:55# He's come too late Fighting for old Charlie... #
0:14:55 > 0:14:58The extravagant years of Charles I
0:14:58 > 0:15:02had found a magnificent witness in Van Dyck.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04How effortlessly he seemed to capture
0:15:04 > 0:15:07the elegance and swagger of Charles's court.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12# But we'll fight on for Charlie... #
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Van Dyke was the perfect painter to record Charles's Golden Age.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19The days of elegance and extravagance.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21But when the Civil War broke out,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23somebody up there realised
0:15:23 > 0:15:27he was no longer the right artist for the job.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30And with a sense of symmetry that's almost scary,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32in December 1641,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36just a few weeks before the Civil War broke out,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40the Fates arranged for Van Dyck to die
0:15:40 > 0:15:44and for a vacancy suddenly to appear for the king's painter.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Dobson took over Van Dyck's job
0:15:51 > 0:15:55and became Charles I's serjeant painter.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00It should have been a cushy job, a job for life.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Painting royalty for royal wages.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07But history had other plans.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09# Roundheads, they were after me
0:16:09 > 0:16:12# For we were on a winning spree
0:16:12 > 0:16:15# Fighting for old Charlie
0:16:15 > 0:16:17# Toorah loorah loorah ley
0:16:17 > 0:16:21# Toorah loorah loorah ley
0:16:21 > 0:16:23# Toorah loorah loorah ley
0:16:23 > 0:16:27# Fighting for old Charlie. #
0:16:31 > 0:16:35The first pitched battle of the Civil War was fought here,
0:16:35 > 0:16:40at Edgehill, on 23rd October, 1642.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42A Sunday.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57The king's forces were gathered up here on Edgehill itself,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59so they had the advantage from the start.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05The cavalry, commanded by the king's dashing nephew, Prince Rupert,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07charged down on the Parliamentarians,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09coming in from over there,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11the south-west, and sent them scattering.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18But the Parliamentarians fought back
0:17:18 > 0:17:22and the battle was to splutter on all day long,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26ending uncertainly with a small advantage,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29perhaps, to the Royalists.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Charles's eldest son, the Prince of Wales,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45the future Charles II, was at Edgehill with his father.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47He was just 12 years old
0:17:47 > 0:17:50and he watched the opening cavalry charges
0:17:50 > 0:17:52with a schoolboy's excitement.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58The Prince narrowly escaped death
0:17:58 > 0:18:01when an enemy cannonball just missed him.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03And he was nearly captured, as well,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07in a frenzied Parliamentarian counter-attack.
0:18:10 > 0:18:15Afterwards, to commemorate the Royalist successes at Edgehill,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17and the presence there of the Prince of Wales,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21the King commissioned a portrait of his son
0:18:21 > 0:18:23from his new official painter.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28The Englishman born and bred into whose hands the Fates
0:18:28 > 0:18:33had unexpectedly thrust the English Civil War.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39This is Dobson's first Great War painting.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44And look at the explosion in him of colour, confidence, bravado.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47A new mood has entered Baroque art
0:18:47 > 0:18:51and it's unmistakably an English mood.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Direct, four-square, in your face.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06Young Charles stands commandingly at the front of the battle,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09as Edgehill rages behind him.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15His page holds up his helmet, and the king-to-be fixes us
0:19:15 > 0:19:17with a forceful stare.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21But this isn't just a portrait.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26It's a picture loaded with symbolic meaning. Packed with it.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30In the end, it's not even a picture about war, really,
0:19:30 > 0:19:35but a superb slab of Royalist propaganda about peace.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41The Prince of Wales, the future Charles II,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45represents England's best hopes for the future -
0:19:45 > 0:19:48the nation's salvation.
0:19:48 > 0:19:49See down here,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53the madly grimacing Fury with the snakes in her hair.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58She represents the strife and chaos in the land.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04But look how firmly Charles commands her to stay.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07He's like a man ordering a dog to sit.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17And in the background, above the stormy skies gathered over England,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20a break in the clouds has appeared.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24The storm is abating.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Peace is at hand.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34It's a great painting, but a lousy prediction.
0:20:43 > 0:20:50Parliament was in control of London so the king needed a new base.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52He chose Oxford.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57It was excellently located, easy to guard and all those rich colleges
0:20:57 > 0:21:03could be transformed into makeshift palaces.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07So, for the next four years of the war, this was to be home
0:21:07 > 0:21:09for the king and his court,
0:21:09 > 0:21:14including the new royal painter, William Dobson.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20Dobson's job was to paint the king
0:21:20 > 0:21:25and all the other court worthies who turned up in Oxford.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30He was, if you like, artist in residence to the Royalist cause.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37He painted the king's diplomats, come hither to serve their monarch.
0:21:37 > 0:21:44The haughty administrators working in the king's ramshackle new court.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48A ship's captain who had lost his boat.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51A musician who had lost his joy.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57Poets, princes and family supporters.
0:22:00 > 0:22:06But above all, Dobson painted the soldiers coming in from battle.
0:22:06 > 0:22:12The Royalist heroes, the fighters. The Cavaliers.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Is this a picture that means something special to you?
0:22:19 > 0:22:23This is one of the portraits I remember from childhood.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27For the unartistic reason that the man in it has a long neck.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31I remember being intrigued, was it real or artistic licence?
0:22:31 > 0:22:35It is one of the earliest memories I have from the collection,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38this portrait of Colonel Russell.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41And when you began finding out abut who Colonel Russell was,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44what sort of image did you create of him?
0:22:44 > 0:22:48Well, I think the portrait shows a man who looks rather
0:22:48 > 0:22:52self-important and without any form of humour.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55But when you read about him,
0:22:55 > 0:23:00he was in the vanguard of the great years of the Royalist cause.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04And he was a hero of the cause and a great man in his own right.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08And he was in charge of one of the crack regiments of the infantry
0:23:08 > 0:23:10the Royalists had, so the more I delved in,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15the more I realised this was not a courtier having his portrait painted
0:23:15 > 0:23:20in a battle pose but a genuine soldier who saw some tough action.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27You get such a sense of glamour from these Cavalier portraits of Dobson's.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31We forget looking at these handsome men with ringlets
0:23:31 > 0:23:36and swaggering air, really what tough times they have to go through.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38It was a really brutal time, the Civil War.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43You can glamorise it is much as you want but it was vicious.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47And Russell's regiment, when they went hand-to-hand in one fight,
0:23:47 > 0:23:50they were fighting with each other's muskets
0:23:50 > 0:23:53and staving each other's heads in.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55It wasn't lots of fancy cavalry charges,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59it was brutal fighting.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02And I think you can see in Colonel Russell's face
0:24:02 > 0:24:05a sort of battle weariness already.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09That is a lot for a painter to suggest. You sound like someone
0:24:09 > 0:24:15who shares my admiration for the often-forgotten, unfairly-so, William Dobson.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20I'm a great fan of Dobson and I think that he's very underrated and,
0:24:20 > 0:24:25sadly, I think his name has no recognition around Britain today.
0:24:25 > 0:24:32British people should know that he is the best painter that Britain had produced up until that point.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48The king lived here at Christchurch -
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Oxford's poshest college...
0:24:50 > 0:24:52- Good morning.- Good morning.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55..and he brought with him the House of Commons.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58which met over there in the Great Hall.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06The Queen was here, at Merton College.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15She took over all these rooms here
0:25:15 > 0:25:18and they're now called the Queen's Rooms.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Dobson, meanwhile,
0:25:33 > 0:25:35had to make do with lodgings in the town.
0:25:35 > 0:25:41All we know is that he lived off the High Street, up against St Mary's church.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44So that's somewhere around here.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Dispersed pleasantly about Oxford,
0:26:00 > 0:26:02the Strangers - as the king and his court were called -
0:26:02 > 0:26:07tried at first to pretend that all was well in the land.
0:26:08 > 0:26:15In modern parlance, they were in denial. And this chap in particular,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Endymion Porter,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22seemed determined to prove that nothing of significance had changed.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30Porter was a pampered courtier. A royal favourite.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35Before the Civil War, he'd been one of the king's main art buyers,
0:26:35 > 0:26:37a friend of artists and poets.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46There's a fine portrait of him in the Prado by van Dyck
0:26:46 > 0:26:49in which the suave Porter and van Dyck himself
0:26:49 > 0:26:52buddy up together in an elegant oval.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Porter saw himself as the king's Maecenas -
0:26:57 > 0:26:59a fixer and tastemaker -
0:26:59 > 0:27:04he's the embodiment of the smarmy royal lickspittle
0:27:04 > 0:27:08clinging to the king's side like a barnacle to a ship's hull.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16When he wasn't collecting art or writing egregious plays,
0:27:16 > 0:27:18Porter loved to hunt.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22And when Dobson came to paint him in Oxford,
0:27:22 > 0:27:27it wasn't as a soldier or a dashing cavalier...
0:27:27 > 0:27:30but as an English squire, out hunting,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32as if nothing had happened.
0:27:34 > 0:27:40Those people who admire William Dobson - and there aren't nearly enough of them -
0:27:40 > 0:27:47will generally tell you that this is his finest painting.
0:27:47 > 0:27:52Dobson's masterpiece. It is definitely one of them.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Porter stands there with his musket,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01while his page brings him the hare he's just shot.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05His loyal gundog looks up adoringly.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08And to show what a fine patron of the arts Porter was,
0:28:08 > 0:28:15Dobson has placed a bust of Apollo, the god of arts, at his shoulder.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21If you examine the symbolic figures on which he leans,
0:28:21 > 0:28:27you'll find embodiments of painting and sculpture and poetry.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35So all this stuff down here, this busy collection of symbols,
0:28:35 > 0:28:40has been put there to tell us what a cultured fellow Porter was,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43to advertise his great love of the arts.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46And all that's fascinating of course.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49But what I find even more interesting about this picture
0:28:49 > 0:28:54is what it tells us about the way Dobson actually painted -
0:28:54 > 0:28:57the character of his art.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00Since Van Dyck painted Porter as well,
0:29:00 > 0:29:05we're in a position here to make a telling comparison.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Van Dyck makes Porter thin and elegant.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12He brings out the greyhound in him.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Dobson, meanwhile, puts a stone or so onto him.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19Maybe even a couple of stone.
0:29:21 > 0:29:27He notices something English, beefy and robust about Porter.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34Dobson nearly always used a square canvas,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38and most of his sitters were painted from the knees up,
0:29:38 > 0:29:39from about here,
0:29:39 > 0:29:44which makes them look chunky and solid, like me.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46Van Dyck, on the other hand,
0:29:46 > 0:29:50was the master of the elegant full length.
0:29:50 > 0:29:57He preferred elongated canavases that made you look finer and taller.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00The Van Dyck approach is back here.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05But the Dobson approach is here.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13Dobson's fine portrayal of Endymion Porter
0:30:13 > 0:30:19gives British art its first country gent. Red-faced and solid.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26But the leisurely rural mood he captures here
0:30:26 > 0:30:28couldn't and wouldn't last.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37Back at the front line of the Civil War,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40reality had returned from the hunt
0:30:40 > 0:30:45and Oxford was too busy with its war effort
0:30:45 > 0:30:48to pretend that nothing had changed
0:30:55 > 0:30:57All Souls was where the arsenal was
0:30:57 > 0:31:00where they kept the muskets and pistols and pikes.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09New College was the magazine where they stored the gunpowder.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12All the brass cooking vessels belonging to the townsfolk
0:31:12 > 0:31:15were melted down and used as bullets.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Armies need uniforms,
0:31:26 > 0:31:31so the Schools of Astronomy and Music were taken over by tailors
0:31:31 > 0:31:33busily sewing buff coats and tunics.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39And in the School of Logic
0:31:39 > 0:31:43they stored the horse fodder for the cavalry
0:31:43 > 0:31:48as Oxford gave its all for the Royalist cause.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00Someone once said,
0:32:00 > 0:32:02"The weak only repent",
0:32:02 > 0:32:06meaning only weak people say sorry. Do you know who said that?
0:32:06 > 0:32:11It was Byron. Lord Byron, the poet.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17Now Byron was actually the 6th Baron Byron,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21so he would have known something about a notorious ancestor of his,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24the 1st Baron Byron.
0:32:24 > 0:32:30John Byron, the man they called Bloody Byron.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36Byron was one of Charles's most loyal supporters.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40He fought bravely for the king at Edgehill, Marston Moor
0:32:40 > 0:32:47Nantwich and here too, at Burford, on 1st January, 1643.
0:32:50 > 0:32:56Byron was in command of a small Royalist garrison of 14 men
0:32:56 > 0:33:01when 2,000 Parliamentarians from Cirencester
0:33:01 > 0:33:04launched a surprise attack.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07GUNFIRE AND SHOUTING
0:33:07 > 0:33:12The 14 Royalists defended the town fiercely
0:33:12 > 0:33:16and beat back the 2,000 rebels.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23At the height of the battle, Byron was hit in the face with a halberd.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26He was almost knocked off his horse, but he survived.
0:33:26 > 0:33:31A few months later, the king made him a Baron
0:33:31 > 0:33:37and Dobson commemorated this honour and the great defence of Burford
0:33:37 > 0:33:41with a supreme piece of English Baroque portraiture.
0:33:48 > 0:33:54We're in the presence of such a haughty warrior.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57A black page brings him his horse.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04While Byron himself points to the background
0:34:04 > 0:34:08where the scene of his bravery at Burford is re-enacted.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Those big twisty columns that Byron's standing in front of
0:34:23 > 0:34:26are called Salomonic columns.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Because people believed the columns that
0:34:29 > 0:34:32stood in front of Solomon's great Temple in Jerusalem.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44They were popularised in England by Raphael
0:34:44 > 0:34:48in those superb tapestry designs in the royal collection.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55And they were favoured too here in Oxford
0:34:55 > 0:34:58in the porch of St Mary's Church
0:34:58 > 0:35:02next to where Dobson was living.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12These Salomonic columns had a big symbolic meaning.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16They embodied Solomon's famous wisdom and steadfastness,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19which is why Dobson put them in the backgrounds of several of his best pictures
0:35:19 > 0:35:25to represent the wisdom and streadfastness of the king's men.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36The Parliamentarians didn't like them, though.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38They were too Popish.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41And see the bullet holes up there in the statue of the Virgin and Child?
0:35:41 > 0:35:44Those were made by Cromwell's soldiers,
0:35:44 > 0:35:46shooting at this Popish porch.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56The Parliamentarians didn't like the 1st Baron Byron either.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00In fact they hated him with a rare vigour.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05They called him 'The Bloody Braggadochio'.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08The Braggart with Blood on his Hands.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12He was notoriously arrogant and cruel.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16And Dobson captures that, doesn't he?
0:36:20 > 0:36:24I have an instinctive fondness for most of Dobson's cavaliers,
0:36:24 > 0:36:26but not for this man.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30He's too proud and showy.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33Standing there like a Roman emperor.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55Dobson's pictures tell us so much about the people who were here.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58He really brings them to life.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03But what about Dobson himself, what was he like?
0:37:03 > 0:37:06And what sort of life did he lead?
0:37:13 > 0:37:16Very little information has survived
0:37:16 > 0:37:20We know that he came here with his entire family
0:37:20 > 0:37:24because the church records here at the church
0:37:24 > 0:37:30show that his little daughter, Judith, died here in 1644.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33A year later, his father-in-law died
0:37:33 > 0:37:37presumably, from one of the many plagues they had at the time.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42Usually typhoid caused by the cramped and squalid living conditions.
0:37:59 > 0:38:00We know when he got married
0:38:00 > 0:38:03because the wedding records have survived.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07And we also know what his wife looked like
0:38:07 > 0:38:08because he painted her.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16Her name was also Judith.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21And she's exactly the kind of woman I imagine him falling for,
0:38:21 > 0:38:26bold, brassy and magnificently bosomy.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32Judith Dobson would look good in a tavern, wouldn't she?
0:38:32 > 0:38:35She's the first such wench in British art
0:38:36 > 0:38:40and her descendents are still pulling pints today
0:38:40 > 0:38:43in the Rover's Return and the Queen Vic.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49Dobson himself had what they call an irregular lifestyle.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52He was certainly bad with money,
0:38:52 > 0:38:54probably liked a drink,
0:38:54 > 0:39:01and it seems he was fond of bad company. As for his looks,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04well, there we don't need to speculate
0:39:04 > 0:39:10because he's left us a dramatic and swaggering self-portrait.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13I think it's my favourite self-portrait
0:39:13 > 0:39:15in the whole of British art.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22It hangs at Alnwick Castle
0:39:22 > 0:39:24in far off Northumberland
0:39:24 > 0:39:26surrounded by great Van Dycks
0:39:26 > 0:39:28and dramatic Canalettos.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35But when I come to Alnwick, what I head for is this.
0:39:38 > 0:39:39Before Dobson appeared,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43British painters didn't generally do self-portraits.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Their task was to paint others, not themselves.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53And they certainly didn't consider themselves to be artistic heroes.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56That would have seemed un-English, immodest,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00and perhaps even a touch Pope-ish.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02But not to William Dobson.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09See those cascading ringlets, that unwavering gaze,
0:40:09 > 0:40:14with its delightfully British soupcon of nervousness.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19He rates himself, doesn't he, and strikes me
0:40:19 > 0:40:23as the type of chap who checks himself in the mirror.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33This is first truly cocky British self-portrait,
0:40:33 > 0:40:36the first attempt by a British painter to make himself
0:40:36 > 0:40:39the hero of his own art.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43But as you can see, there are two others in the picture.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46So who are they and what are they here for?
0:40:49 > 0:40:52The fellow on the left - Mr Chubby in satin -
0:40:52 > 0:40:57is Nicholas Lanier, Charles I's musical supremo,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00the first Master Of The King's Music.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05- STRING MUSIC PLAYS - Hear that tune playing around me.
0:41:05 > 0:41:06That's by Lanier.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09He was a skilled composer and musician,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12and also a collector and an art dealer.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17It was Lanier who pioneered the collecting
0:41:17 > 0:41:19of Renaissance drawings in Britain,
0:41:19 > 0:41:24which is why Dobson has stuck a drawing of Venus in his hand
0:41:24 > 0:41:28and given him a bust of Apollo, the god of art, to lean on.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37The other fellow, the thin one, is Sir Charles Cotterell,
0:41:37 > 0:41:41who was Master of Ceremonies for the king in Oxford,
0:41:41 > 0:41:44a friend and supporter of Dobson's.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50So why has Dobson put the three of them in this picture
0:41:50 > 0:41:52and huddled them up like this?
0:41:54 > 0:41:58The answer lies in this sumptuous painting by Veronese
0:41:58 > 0:42:01that's now in the Frick Collection in New York,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04but which once hung in Britain,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08in the palace of the Earl of Arundel,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10where Dobson must have seen it.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16The Veronese depicts a popular Baroque subject -
0:42:16 > 0:42:18the Choice of Hercules.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25Hercules - that's him in the middle -
0:42:25 > 0:42:29has been forced to choose between two symbolic women
0:42:29 > 0:42:32representing Pleasure on the left
0:42:32 > 0:42:35and Virtue on the right.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39He goes for Virtue,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42as you'd expect Hercules to choose.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50So Dobson has adapted Veronese's pose,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52swapped the women for men
0:42:52 > 0:42:57and turned it into this supremely cocky piece of self-promotion.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59There he is in the middle,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02the hero, the Hercules of Oxford -
0:43:02 > 0:43:05loyal to his king, loyal to his country
0:43:05 > 0:43:07and choosing Virtue,
0:43:07 > 0:43:11represented by the lean Sir Charles Cotterell in black,
0:43:11 > 0:43:16over Pleasure, represented by the plump Nicholas Lanier,
0:43:16 > 0:43:21with his double chin, and his rich and expensive satin suit.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30Of course, this isn't a real quarrel we're watching -
0:43:30 > 0:43:32it's all symbolic.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38The three temporary Oxfordians are pals in it together,
0:43:38 > 0:43:40acting out a crucial Civil War choice
0:43:40 > 0:43:44in which Virtue triumphs over Vice...
0:43:44 > 0:43:48as it must also triumph in the nation at large.
0:43:50 > 0:43:55And will you look at William Dobson at the centre of all this attention?
0:43:57 > 0:43:59Isn't he just loving it?
0:44:10 > 0:44:14# The glorious lamp of heaven
0:44:14 > 0:44:16# The sun... #
0:44:16 > 0:44:20Music played a crucial role in the Oxford court.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24The Civil War was tearing England apart,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27but the band played on.
0:44:31 > 0:44:36The court was full of it - chamber music, psalms, masques.
0:44:36 > 0:44:41The puritans may not have approved, but Charles adored English music
0:44:41 > 0:44:45and was famed for encouraging the writing and playing of it.
0:44:51 > 0:44:56So when the court came to Oxford, the royal music came with it
0:44:56 > 0:44:59and did what it could to raise everyone's spirits.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06We have very little information
0:45:06 > 0:45:09about who was in Oxford playing what,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13which is why a particularly mysterious Oxford painting
0:45:13 > 0:45:18by Dobson has remained one of the biggest puzzles in his career.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27It now hangs at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31and is called - oh, so unhelpfully - The Unknown Musician.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38See the symbolic embodiments of music
0:45:38 > 0:45:43gathered, in typical Dobson fashion, at the back of the picture.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49A singing goddess,
0:45:49 > 0:45:51and, if you look carefully,
0:45:51 > 0:45:55the fragmentary remains of a shadowy lute player.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02Who is this dark and sober figure in black,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06this particularly mysterious musical Cavalier?
0:46:06 > 0:46:12The answer began winking at me several years ago, back in 2002,
0:46:12 > 0:46:18when a hitherto obscure English composer called William Lawes
0:46:18 > 0:46:20was plucked out of the ether
0:46:20 > 0:46:23and dangled tantalisingly before us.
0:46:28 > 0:46:322002 was the 400th anniversary of Lawes' birth.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35Records were issued, articles written
0:46:35 > 0:46:37and portraits dug up...
0:46:38 > 0:46:41..including this one of the very young William Lawes
0:46:41 > 0:46:46that's been in the music school at Oxford since the 17th century.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54William Lawes and his more famous older brother, Henry Lawes,
0:46:54 > 0:46:59spent almost all of their careers working for Charles I
0:46:59 > 0:47:02as court musicians and composers.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Young William Lawes, a lute player,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08was a particular favourite of the king's.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13And I'm now pretty certain that The Unknown Musician in Hull
0:47:13 > 0:47:17is a portrait of him when he wasn't so young any more.
0:47:17 > 0:47:19# Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
0:47:19 > 0:47:21# Old time is still a-flying... #
0:47:21 > 0:47:25Some of Lawes' finest music was written for the church.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31And this sad English tune, Gather Ye Rosebuds,
0:47:31 > 0:47:33is his most famous lyrical setting.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36# ..The glorious lamp of heaven... #
0:47:36 > 0:47:40It's soppy, I know, but heartbreakingly lovely.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46William Lawes fought for the king on the battlefield
0:47:46 > 0:47:47as well as in his songbook,
0:47:47 > 0:47:52and in 1645, just a few months after this was painted,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55he was killed at Chester,
0:47:55 > 0:47:57upholding the Royalist cause.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01The king was devastated
0:48:01 > 0:48:05and was said to have mourned him fiercely when he died.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09He called William Lawes "The Father of Music".
0:48:15 > 0:48:19So for me, the clearest evidence that this is William Lawes
0:48:19 > 0:48:24is the mysterious bust on which he rests a caring hand.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Do you recognise him?
0:48:28 > 0:48:31It's the king himself, Charles,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33lightly disguised as a classical god,
0:48:33 > 0:48:38seen from the side and crowned with laurel.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43A particularly loyal musician
0:48:43 > 0:48:48is swearing his allegiance to a particularly musical monarch
0:48:48 > 0:48:53in a painting which, like so much of Dobson's Oxford work,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56brings an unexpectedly personal touch
0:48:56 > 0:48:58to this huge historic moment.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11Fortune is a fickle friend
0:49:11 > 0:49:15as the Royalists in Oxford were now discovering.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20In the Cavalier skies, storms were gathering.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23DRUMS BEAT, SWORDS CLASH
0:49:25 > 0:49:27Over there, on that horizon,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30is where the Battle of Naseby was fought,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34on June 14th 1645.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Naseby was a disaster for the Royalists.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Outnumbered, out-fought, they were comprehensively routed.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46A thousand killed, 5,000 captured.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50In just three hours of fierce morning combat,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54the hopes of the Cavaliers were crushed.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00For Dobson, too, the end-game was at hand.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06You can actually see his art changing...
0:50:08 > 0:50:10..its mood darkening,
0:50:10 > 0:50:16the canvases growing smaller, scratchier, gloomier.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29The usual interpretation of this change in his art
0:50:29 > 0:50:33is that it was part of a more monumental failure.
0:50:33 > 0:50:38The Royalist cause was falling apart and so was Dobson.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42But I prefer to see it as something more impressive than that -
0:50:42 > 0:50:46as proof of his sensitivity,
0:50:46 > 0:50:51this unique relationship he had with the times that spawned him.
0:50:51 > 0:50:57Dobson was as sensitive to failure as he was to triumph.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03'This is Rockingham Castle in Leicestershire.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07'They have two Dobsons here and they're both late works.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13'They're not always on show...' Basil!
0:51:13 > 0:51:17'..but I know the archivist, Basil Morgan,
0:51:17 > 0:51:19'and he's always welcoming.'
0:51:19 > 0:51:21- Take me to those Dobsons! - The Dobsons. This way.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31Where are we exactly in the house now?
0:51:31 > 0:51:33I find it confusing getting around it.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35The actual Dobsons are in the wing
0:51:35 > 0:51:39which was put on in the mid-19th century.
0:51:39 > 0:51:40And there it is!
0:51:40 > 0:51:46One of the last Dobsons painted, his celebrated portrait
0:51:46 > 0:51:49of Lewis Watson, First Lord Rockingham.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52What can you tell us about Lewis Watson, Basil?
0:51:52 > 0:51:56Well, he'd been a courtier under James I and Charles I,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00in his younger days. And when the Civil War came up in 1642,
0:52:00 > 0:52:04he was very lukewarm as far as Royalists were concerned.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09- So he wasn't a fervent Royalist? - He wasn't an active Royalist, no.
0:52:09 > 0:52:15And in 1643, the castle was taken by the local Parliamentarian commander.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19And what is more, the king, who thought he'd been feeble
0:52:19 > 0:52:23about defending Rockingham, carted him off to Oxford,
0:52:23 > 0:52:25where he had to plead his case
0:52:25 > 0:52:29for a couple of years to be let off punishment, basically.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33So this castle, Rockingham Castle, was taken over
0:52:33 > 0:52:36- by the Parliamentarians during the Civil War?- In 1643, yes.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38And Watson himself, he was here at that time?
0:52:38 > 0:52:42No, he was in prison. He was captured by the Royalists, funnily enough,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46who thought he'd been feeble about letting this place go.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50Of course, you are very lucky, because not only do you have
0:52:50 > 0:52:51this superb late portrait by Dobson,
0:52:51 > 0:52:53but you have another one as well,
0:52:53 > 0:52:55the picture of his wife, Lewis Watson's wife.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58- Yes.- What can you tell us about her?
0:52:58 > 0:53:02She's a Manners from the Belvoir Castle family.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06The family, traditionally, are Parliamentarian.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09- She came from a Parliamentarian family?- Yes, and so,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11one of the charges against him was
0:53:11 > 0:53:14that she had actually led Lord Grey in by the hand
0:53:14 > 0:53:17when the castle was captured by Parliament.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19You're saying that when the Parliamentarians
0:53:19 > 0:53:24surrounded the castle, not only did the Watsons not put up a fight,
0:53:24 > 0:53:27but that Lady Watson actually led them in by the hand?
0:53:27 > 0:53:29That was the charge, yes.
0:53:34 > 0:53:40Dobson's final paintings at Oxford are such sad and quiet things.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45So small and almost see-through.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56The fact is, he was running out of materials.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00By the summer of 1645, Parliament's forces were closing in
0:54:00 > 0:54:04on the city, and everything was in short supply.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06No paints. No canvas.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11The mood in Oxford had grown gloomier, too.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16Even the most stubborn Royalist was having to accept,
0:54:16 > 0:54:17they were losing the war.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24This forlorn portrait of the king was painted round about now.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29The royal confidence has drained away.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31And the spirit of the times,
0:54:31 > 0:54:36as always with Dobson, seems to guide the painter's hand.
0:54:41 > 0:54:46They lasted the winter, but only just. After months of hesitation,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50the king finally sneaked out of Oxford
0:54:50 > 0:54:58in the small hours of April 27th 1646, disguised as a servant.
0:55:00 > 0:55:06A few weeks later, the city fell to the Parliamentarians.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09And those Royalist supporters who remained,
0:55:09 > 0:55:11among them William Dobson,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15slipped discreetly out of Oxford, and returned home.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21CLOCK CHIMES
0:55:25 > 0:55:31Dobson arrived back in London in the summer of 1646.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35He seems to have made some sort of attempt to continue his career
0:55:35 > 0:55:37because his name appears in the records
0:55:37 > 0:55:41of the Painter-Stainers Company, the artists' guild.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46But there was no point, really,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49- because three months later... - CLOCK CHIMES
0:55:49 > 0:55:51..he was dead.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57Don't ask me how or why. No-one knows.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59There's no description, no evidence,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03just the bare facts of his passing,
0:56:03 > 0:56:07supplied curtly in the parish records.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11October 28th 1646.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17Before he died, Dobson was imprisoned for debt.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21And according to a brief note from his first biographer,
0:56:21 > 0:56:26he died very poor, at his house in St Martin's Lane just over there.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31He was aged just 36.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38They buried him here, in his local church, St Martin-in-the-Fields.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Although inside there's no record of him.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47They're rather chuffed, though, that Nell Gwyn,
0:56:47 > 0:56:52Charles II's notorious mistress, is buried here.
0:56:52 > 0:56:57And that famous maker of English chairs, Thomas Chippendale.
0:56:57 > 0:56:58But of William Dobson,
0:56:58 > 0:57:03the man who put a face to the English Civil War, there's nothing -
0:57:03 > 0:57:06which can't be right.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12A century before Hogarth,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16England had a painter who painted like an Englishman -
0:57:18 > 0:57:21robust, earthy, in-your-face.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26Destiny singled him out
0:57:26 > 0:57:29and dumped him in the middle of the most tumultuous events
0:57:29 > 0:57:31in British history.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36He was there. He saw it. He recorded it.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43In its tragic way, it's the perfect career.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49There should be monuments to William Dobson
0:57:49 > 0:57:52out there in Trafalgar Square.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55His face should be on our banknotes,
0:57:55 > 0:57:57his name on all our lips.
0:57:57 > 0:58:03Instead, there's just me wandering about in this empty church,
0:58:03 > 0:58:04banging on about him.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11# In sixteen-hundred and 42, I knew what I had to do... #
0:58:11 > 0:58:16But hang on. That's wrong. Of course there's more than that.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21Out there, scattered about the land,
0:58:21 > 0:58:23perhaps in a great house near you,
0:58:23 > 0:58:28there's a handful of the finest paintings that any British artist
0:58:28 > 0:58:30has ever produced.
0:58:30 > 0:58:35# ..In sixteen-hundred and 43, those Roundheads they were after me... #
0:58:35 > 0:58:42So go on. Find one. Admire it, love it,
0:58:42 > 0:58:43and show you care.
0:58:45 > 0:58:47# ..Toorah loora loora ley
0:58:47 > 0:58:50# Fighting for old Charlie!
0:58:50 > 0:58:53# In sixteen-hundred and 44
0:58:53 > 0:58:55# We fought a battle at Marston Moor
0:58:55 > 0:58:58# Many men died to uphold the law
0:58:58 > 0:59:00# Fighting for old Charlie!
0:59:00 > 0:59:04# Hey, toorah loora loora ley
0:59:04 > 0:59:06# Toorah loora loora ley
0:59:06 > 0:59:10# Toorah loora loora ley
0:59:10 > 0:59:15# Fighting for old Charlie! #