Charles Beale 'the Elder'

Flatman was a lawyer and poet and was not dependent on his art for a living. However, he may have intended the effect, deliberately coarsening his brushstrokes to give a scratched, quick result. The purpose would have been to avoid the professional norm of smooth and blended brushwork and the impression of a lingering vanity given by more finished products. Flatman was in effect drawing attention to the techniques and materials of his art, deliberately aiming for a form of rough, graphic honesty. This portrait of Beale is typical of Flatman's unflattering style, in which he neither ignores nor disguises Beale's three warts.

The miniature is inscribed on the back, giving it a date of 1660. The miniature is however also dated on the front, lower left, 1664. It is catalogue number 117 in John Murdoch “Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum” (1997). (Murdoch incorrectly notes the date on the front as "1660").