Cromwell on his Farm (1874) is a painting by Ford Madox Brown which depicts Oliver Cromwell observing a bonfire on his farm and thinking of a passage in the Book of Psalms: "Lord, how long wilt thy hide thyself - forever? And shall thy wrath burn like fire?" (Psalm 89). The words are inscribed on the painting's frame along with a quotation from one of Cromwell's speeches, in which he describes his life before entering into politics: "living neith...
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Cromwell on his Farm (1874) is a painting by Ford Madox Brown which depicts Oliver Cromwell observing a bonfire on his farm and thinking of a passage in the Book of Psalms: "Lord, how long wilt thy hide thyself - forever? And shall thy wrath burn like fire?" (Psalm 89). The words are inscribed on the painting's frame along with a quotation from one of Cromwell's speeches, in which he describes his life before entering into politics: "living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity, I did endeavour to discharge the duty of an honest man."
The painting depicts Cromwell as a country squire on his lands in Cambridgeshire before he became a national figure in the power struggles which culminated in the English Civil War. Cromwell's identity as a leading revolutionary had been affirmed by Thomas Carlyle's biography Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches, with elucidations (1845), in which his reluctance to take up the role of leader was emphasised. Carlyle was an important...
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