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Secondary sourcePaintingcirca 1690

William Petyt holding a copy of Magna Carta

Richard van Bleeck · circa 1690

An oil portrait of the lawyer and political writer William Petyt, painted around 1690, showing him holding a copy of Magna Carta.

A portrait of a 17th-century lawyer shown with a copy of Magna Carta, showing how the charter was used in political argument.

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Oil portrait of a man in a long brown periwig and dark gown with a white cravat, holding a rolled scroll inscribed with partial text. A red lion coat of arms appears at upper left against a dark background.
Richard van Bleeck, William Petyt holding a copy of Magna Carta, c. 1690.

About this source

What it is

This is an oil portrait of William Petyt, an English barrister, writer and Whig political propagandist, painted around 1690. It is attributed to Richard van Bleeck. Petyt is shown in a long brown periwig and a dark gown with a white cravat, holding a rolled scroll with partial text. A red lion coat of arms appears in the upper left corner against a dark background.

Why it matters

Petyt lived from about 1640 to 1707, a period of political conflict in England between Whigs and Tories. Showing a lawyer with Magna Carta was a way of claiming that the charter supported arguments about the rights of the people and the limits of the king's power. The portrait therefore reveals how the 1215 charter was used in political debate more than four centuries after it was agreed.

Look closer

  • What does holding the scroll tell you about the message the painter wanted to send?
  • Why might a political writer want to be shown with an ancient charter?
  • What does the portrait leave out about Petyt's actual arguments?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Magna Carta on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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