Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, a country gentleman and Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in 1640. He became a radical Puritan and was an outspoken critic of King Charles I. When civil war broke out in 1642, although he had no military experience, he created and led a cavalry force, the 'Ironsides', and rose from the rank of captain to that of lieutenant-general in three years. He established the New Model Army which won the decisive victory over the King's forces at Naseby in 1645 and he was instrumental in the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649. Cromwell then defeated the supporters of the King's son, Charles II, and effectively ended the civil war. In 1653 he dissolved parliament and made himself Lord Protector but refused the offer of the crown in 1657. Cromwell died on 3 September 1658 in London.

This portrait is a copy of the artist Samuel Cooper's unfinished miniature of Cromwell in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch, painted around 1650. The artist, Christian Richter (1678-1732), was born in Stockholm and settled in London in 1702 where his compatriots, Hans Hysing and Michael Dahl, had thriving British practices. Many of Richter's miniatures are copies from full-scale portraits by leading artists. Richter began his career as a silversmith then moved to miniature painting, first on vellum and later on enamel. George Vertue, the engraver and antiquary, described Richter's style: 'his Manner of Painting very tender and Curious, his tincts had a great variety his pencil regular and neat, his lines of drawing very just & toucht with freedom'.