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John Milton

Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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Milton is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and a master of political pamphleteering. Forceful and idealistic, he served the Commonwealth as Latin Secretary but was arrested upon the restoration of Charles II. The tragic circumstances of his life – an unhappy marriage, the premature death of his second wife and his eventual blindness in 1652 – are reflected in the often despairing tone of his work. Milton is best known for his epics, Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (1671). This portrait was recorded by John Aubrey: 'His [Milton's] widow has his picture drawne very well & like when a Cambridge schollar. He was so faire that they called him the Lady of Christ's coll[ege]...'.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

John Milton

Date

c.1629

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 59.7 x W 48.3 cm

Accession number

4222

Acquisition method

Purchased, 1961

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

National Portrait Gallery, London

St Martin’s Place, London, Greater London WC2H 0HE England

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