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16  LADY ANNE CLIFFORD 7 FIG 7 Lady Anne Clifford (1590–1676), Countess of Dorset, c. 1619, attrib. to Paul van Somer (c. 1577–1621), oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, private collection FIG 8 Lady Anne Clifford (1590–1676), Countess of Dorset, c. 1620, attrib. to Paul van Somer, oil on panel, 75 x 62cm, Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire Photo: © National Trust made at Knole at around the same time – in the early part of the summer of 1618. Although stylistically consistent with Larkin’s known work, the portrait of Trayton is something of an exception. It is, for example, the only portrait by Larkin to contain a coat of arms and include a specific date of production. The fact that the central board of the panel support came from a tree felled soon after the year 1390 suggests that it was a recycled piece of wood and that Larkin may not have anticipated having to make this portrait when he left from London.22 This painting should be seen in the context of other portraits of members of the Earl and Countess of Dorset’s household recorded in an inventory of Buckhurst of January 1619.23 Among the pictures at Buckhurst were a full-length portrait of Lady Anne Clifford and a ‘great picture conteyninge two portraites in a guilt frame’, which can plausibly be identified as Larkin’s double portrait of 8 the first Earl of Dorset and his secretary (probably John Suckling) now at Sissinghurst.24 The style of the costume worn by the secretary suggests the painting dates from the second decade of the 17th century, and consequently was made after the death of the first earl in 1608. It is possible, therefore, that the third earl commissioned this portrait from Larkin to celebrate his grandfather’s achievements. Unusually, the 1619 inventory also records portraits of household servants and acquaintances. There was a portrait of a ‘Mr. Singleton’, a portrait of ‘Mr. Gravenier’ (a gentleman usher to the third earl) and a portrait of ‘Mr Larkine the picture maker’. This is the only record of a portrait of the painter, although the picture itself has disappeared. That the Earl and Countess of Dorset owned his portrait attests to the esteem in which he was held in the family. Larkin’s admission to the Painter-Stainers’ Company by redemption in July 1606 had been sponsored by Edward Seymour, first Earl of Hertford, whose grandson Edward Seymour married the third Earl of Dorset’s sister Anne (1586–1664) in 1609. Larkin’s portrait of her is now at Petworth. The third earl was clearly fond of his sister and his brother-in-law, and let them use Dorset House as their London home.25 Remarkably, of the four pictures in the third earl’s bedroom at Buckhurst recorded in an inventory of 1619, three depicted members of the Seymour family, the other being a portrait of his father, the second earl.26 Given that there were no familial ties between the Sackvilles and Seymours prior to the marriage of Anne Sackville to Edward Seymour in June 1609, these portraits were presumably acquired by the third earl to celebrate the union of the two dynasties. It may have been that the third earl felt that the Howard side of the family was sufficiently well represented in the portrait set that was originally incorporated into the decorative scheme in what is now known as the Cartoon Gallery at Knole.27 Lady Anne Clifford’s diary for 1619 also records the third earl’s patronage of the Antwerp-born portraitist Paul van Somer, who had arrived in London by December 1616 and quickly established himself as one of the most popular
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LADY ANNE CLIFFORD  17 9 10 artists at court, no doubt filling the berth created by the death of William Larkin in spring 1619. On 22 July 1619, Lady Anne recorded that her young daughter began to sit for van Somer, while on 30 August of that year, she wrote that the third earl ‘sat much to have his picture drawn by Van Somer and one picture was drawn for me’.28 On 24 November 1620 a warrant was signed by the third earl for a payment of £42 to van Somer for portraits of him, his wife, his daughter ‘and others’.29 On 25 November 1621 an additional warrant was made for the payment of £10 to ‘Ambrose Lupo to the use of Mr vanzomer picture drawer’ in full payment of all reckonings made between the artist and the third earl.30 None of van Somer’s portraits can readily be identified as portraits of the third earl or of Margaret. However, the full-length portrait of Lady Anne (Fig. 7) and another, heavily abraded, portrait of her now at Nostell Priory (Fig. 8) would appear to relate to these payments.31 The costume worn by Lady Anne matches the fashion of around 1620 and the two paintings are ostensibly the same likeness, the full-length portrait on canvas recycling the image made for the smaller version on panel. By 1620 her husband’s affair with Martha, Lady Penyston (née Temple; 1594–1620) had reached its conclusion. That summer Lady Anne recorded in her diary that ‘Lady Penniston was at the Wells near Tunbridge drinking the Waters.’ The distasteful proximity of Dorset’s mistress to Lady Anne at Knole was ‘much talked of abroad and my Lord was condemned for it’. Subsequently, Sackville curtailed his visits to Penyston at her mother’s lodgings on the Strand.32 A portrait of 1619, signed and dated by Cornelius Johnson, of a young woman wearing an earring that takes the form of a Cornish chuff (the Penyston crest) can for the first time be suggested as a portrait of Martha (Fig. 9). Once in the Lenthall collection at Burford Priory, it now resides at the Yale Center for British Art, along with a portrait of her uncle Sir Alexander Temple, also from Burford.33 A version of the portrait of Martha Penyston is in the possession of a direct descendant of the Penyston family, as is a portrait of her husband, Sir Thomas Penyston of Leigh, first baronet (1591–1644), who was the stepson of Sir Alexander Temple (Fig. 10). Thomas Penyston also happened to be 11 a gentleman in the third earl’s household and his tenant at Bruce Castle in Tottenham. Another portrait by Cornelius Johnson, this time at Knole, has been misidentified as depicting Spencer Compton, second Earl of Northampton (1601–43), the father-in-law of Lady Isabella Sackville (1622–61), Lady Anne Clifford’s second daughter. However, the sitter’s high forehead and waning hairline, doleful brown eyes, strong nose and long face indicate that the person depicted must be Richard Sackville, third Earl of Dorset (Fig. 11).34 Although the portrait is not signed, the handling in the face and the ruff and the grey-brown feigned oval are typical of Johnson’s early works on panel of around 1620.35 The portrait at Knole does not bear an inscription, and there is no record of a payment to Johnson in what survives of the third earl’s accounts. However, there is a letter in the Sackville papers that may be relevant. Sent by Richard Rosseter in London to Richard Downes at Knole, it gives instruction to ‘tell my lord that the picture w[hich] h[is] l[ordship] should have from Mr Johnsons is not readye, but on Friday they shalbe sent without fail by one of the Rippers, w[hich] being carefully packed up will take noe harme’.36 No portrait of Lady Anne by Johnson is known to survive. Although it was only later in life that Lady Anne was at liberty to realise her ambition to restore her ancestral homes in the North, her first marriage brought her into contact with a series of talented artists and provided her with first-hand experience of the ways in which portraiture could help foster allegiances and garner support for her cause. Her first husband’s exuberance ruined his estate, but his patronage of William Larkin, Paul van Somer and Cornelius Johnson underscores his importance as a patron at the court of James I, confirming Henry Peacham’s memory that ‘Rare Poet was DORSET, therefore hee; Was great MÆCENAS of all Posie; What state, what Traine, what Order, House kept hee; At his fair KNOWLE, a Paradise to mee; That seem’d for site, a Court for greatest Prince; The House of Honour and Magnificence.’37 FIG 9 Portrait depicting an unknown subject, possibly Martha Penyston, 1619, Cornelius Johnson (1593– 1661), oil on panel, 73.7 x 66cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven FIG 10 Sir Thomas Penyston (1591–1644), 1619, Cornelius Johnson, oil on panel, 68 x 50.8cm, private collection Photo: the author FIG 11 Called Spencer Compton, second Earl of Northampton (1601–43) but here identified as Richard Sackville, third Earl of Dorset (1589–1624), c. 1620, Cornelius Johnson, oil on panel, 67.5 x 50cm, Knole, Kent (loan from the Trustees of the Sackville Estate) Edward Town is the Head of Collections Information and Access at the Yale Center for British Art and Assistant Curator for Early Modern Art.

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16  LADY ANNE CLIFFORD

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FIG 7 Lady Anne Clifford (1590–1676), Countess of Dorset, c. 1619, attrib. to Paul van Somer (c. 1577–1621), oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, private collection FIG 8 Lady Anne Clifford (1590–1676), Countess of Dorset, c. 1620, attrib. to Paul van Somer, oil on panel, 75 x 62cm, Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire Photo: © National Trust

made at Knole at around the same time – in the early part of the summer of 1618.

Although stylistically consistent with Larkin’s known work, the portrait of Trayton is something of an exception. It is, for example, the only portrait by Larkin to contain a coat of arms and include a specific date of production. The fact that the central board of the panel support came from a tree felled soon after the year 1390 suggests that it was a recycled piece of wood and that Larkin may not have anticipated having to make this portrait when he left from London.22 This painting should be seen in the context of other portraits of members of the Earl and Countess of Dorset’s household recorded in an inventory of Buckhurst of January 1619.23 Among the pictures at Buckhurst were a full-length portrait of Lady Anne Clifford and a ‘great picture conteyninge two portraites in a guilt frame’, which can plausibly be identified as Larkin’s double portrait of

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the first Earl of Dorset and his secretary (probably John Suckling) now at Sissinghurst.24 The style of the costume worn by the secretary suggests the painting dates from the second decade of the 17th century, and consequently was made after the death of the first earl in 1608. It is possible, therefore, that the third earl commissioned this portrait from Larkin to celebrate his grandfather’s achievements.

Unusually, the 1619 inventory also records portraits of household servants and acquaintances. There was a portrait of a ‘Mr. Singleton’, a portrait of ‘Mr. Gravenier’ (a gentleman usher to the third earl) and a portrait of ‘Mr Larkine the picture maker’. This is the only record of a portrait of the painter, although the picture itself has disappeared. That the Earl and Countess of Dorset owned his portrait attests to the esteem in which he was held in the family. Larkin’s admission to the Painter-Stainers’ Company by redemption in July 1606 had been sponsored by Edward Seymour, first Earl of Hertford, whose grandson Edward Seymour married the third Earl of Dorset’s sister Anne (1586–1664) in 1609. Larkin’s portrait of her is now at Petworth. The third earl was clearly fond of his sister and his brother-in-law, and let them use Dorset House as their London home.25

Remarkably, of the four pictures in the third earl’s bedroom at Buckhurst recorded in an inventory of 1619, three depicted members of the Seymour family, the other being a portrait of his father, the second earl.26 Given that there were no familial ties between the Sackvilles and Seymours prior to the marriage of Anne Sackville to Edward Seymour in June 1609, these portraits were presumably acquired by the third earl to celebrate the union of the two dynasties. It may have been that the third earl felt that the Howard side of the family was sufficiently well represented in the portrait set that was originally incorporated into the decorative scheme in what is now known as the Cartoon Gallery at Knole.27

Lady Anne Clifford’s diary for 1619 also records the third earl’s patronage of the Antwerp-born portraitist Paul van Somer, who had arrived in London by December 1616 and quickly established himself as one of the most popular

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