(bc.1600/10; dJul./Dec. 1658). English portrait painter. He has a certain niche in history as he was the portraitist most favoured by Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians during the Interregnum (1649–60), but his work is generally dull and derivative (mainly of van Dyck). A few of his pictures, however, are more personal, including a portrait of the diarist John Evelyn (1648, NPG, London), showing him posing languidly with a skull.
Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)
