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A section for all you budding etymologists where each week the origin of a word or phrase is investigated.
This week it is..... Warts and all
The whole thing; not concealing the less attractive parts.
This phrase is said to derive from Oliver Cromwell’s
instructions to the painter Sir Peter Lely, when
commissioning a portrait.
At the time of the alleged instruction, Cromwell was
Lord Protector of England. Lely had been portrait
artist to Charles I and, following the restoration of the
monarchy in 1660, he was appointed as Charles II’s
Principal Painter in Ordinary.
Charles IILely’s painting style was, as was usual at the
time, intended to flatter the sitter. Royalty in particular
expected portraits to show them in the best possible
light, if not to be outright fanciful. Lely’s painting of
Charles II shows what was expected of a painting of
a head of state in the 17th century. It emphasizes the
shapely royal calves - a prized fashion feature at that
time.
Cromwell did have a preference for being portrayed as
a gentleman of military bearing, but was well-known
as being opposed to all forms of personal vanity. This
‘puritan Roundhead’ versus ‘dashing Cavalier’ shorthand
is often used to denote the differences in style of the
two opposing camps in the English Commonwealth
and subsequent Restoration. It is entirely plausible
that he would have issued a ‘warts and all’ instruction
when being painted and it is unlikely that Lely would
have modified his style and produced the ‘warts and all’
portrait of Cromwell unless someone told him to.
We have Cromwell’s death mask as a reference. From
that it is clear that Lely’s portrait is an accurate record
of Cromwell’s actual appearance.
Despite the plausibility of the account, there doesn’t
appear to be any convincing evidence that Cromwell
ever used the phrase ‘warts and all’. The first record
of a version of that phrase being attributed to him
comes from Horace Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting
in England, with some account of the principal artists,
1764. Walpole’s authority for the attribution came from a
reported conversation between John Sheffield, Duke of
Buckingham, the first occupant of Buckingham House,
now Buckingham Palace, and the house’s architect,
Captain William Winde. Winde claimed that:
Oliver certainly sat to him, and while sitting, said to
him - “Mr Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to
paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at
all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts
and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never
pay a farthing for it.”
That was published in 1764 - over a hundred years after
Lely painted Cromwell. Walpole included no evidence
to support the attribution, nor any explanation of why
no one else had mentioned the phrase in the preceding
hundred years - this despite Cromwell’s life being the
subject of minutely detailed historical research and over
160 full-length biographies. We can only assume he was
indulging in a piece of literary speculation rather than
historical documentation. The first known citation in
print of the actual phrase ‘warts and all’ is from a ‘Chinese
whisper’ retelling of Walpole’s story - an address given
by an Alpheus Cary, in Massachusetts, in 1824:
When Cromwell sat for his portrait he said, “Paint me
as I am, warts and all!”
It may well be the case that Oliver Cromwell preferred
portraits of him to be accurate, but it is most unlikely
that he ever uttered the words ‘warts and all’.
Is there an English phrase or saying that you would
like to know more about?
Email it to us on [email protected]
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