Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery (1590-1676)

This is one of many head and shoulders portraits of Lady Anne Clifford by John Bracken which were based on her full-length portrait in the right hand panel of The Great Picture. The prototype portrait, attributed to Jan van Belcamp, was the only portion of The Great Picture that was possibly painted from life, rather than worked up from existing likenesses.

It is clear that Lady Anne Clifford favoured this particular likeness, which became her ‘stereotype’ image. The local painter John Bracken was employed to reproduce Lady Anne’s likeness in numerous portraits identical to this one, which were presented to local families in order to disseminate her image throughout the districts of Westmorland and Craven.