National Portrait Gallery Acquires Lost Portrait of Britain's Wealthiest Woman and Early Feminist

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a re-discovered painted portrait of the seventeenth-century patron, builder and conservationist, Lady Anne Clifford. A rare woman fighting a male-dominated establishment, Clifford is now seen as a proto-feminist, determined not to be bullied or coaxed into accepting less than she believed to be her due. At her death she was probably the wealthiest woman in England.

Previously lost, recorded only through literary references, the portrait of Lady Anne Clifford was discovered by Mark Weiss of The Weiss Gallery in a European private collection and sold to the National Portrait Gallery for £275,000. The purchase was funded with £70,000 given by the Art Fund and the remainder from the Gallery's Portrait Fund and acquisition budget and over £45,000 from private donations.

Lady Anne's diary entry records that she sat for the artist William Larkin during the summer of 1618, at the age of twenty-eight. Larkin produced two portraits, one that stayed at Knole in Kent, and this one which was sent to her cousin. It is of outstanding quality for a work of this period and is clearly recognisable as Anne by comparison with other portraits and with her own description: 'the colour of mine eyes was black like my father's and the form and aspect of them was quicke and lively like my mother's. The hair of my head was brown and very thick... with a peak of hair on my forehead, and a dimple in my chin.'

Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset and later Countess of Pembroke (1590 - 1676) was well-educated and intelligent; her knowledge and conversational abilities were commented on by John Donne: 'she knew well how to discourse of all things, from predestination to slea-silk'.

Her life was dominated by her extended and very public attempts to claim what she believed was rightfully her inheritance from her father, George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland, who had left her money, but left his very extensive properties to Anne's uncle. Through archival research, legal disputes and astonishing persistence, she was able to establish the justice of at least part of her claims. Her unhappy marriages to Richard Sackville, Third Earl of Dorset, and subsequently Philip Herbert, Fourth Earl of Pembroke, were both help and hindrance in these disputes.

She eventually inherited most of the disputed estates on the death of her uncle and cousin, and became famous in her latter years for her very extensive building and restoration works on her castles and churches in the north of England. Her patronage also extended to commissioning a substantial number of works of family history, among them three 'Great Books' of record (including an autobiography), a book about her father's voyages, and a book of her mother's letters. She kept her own diary, parts of which have survived and are important records of early seventeenth century aristocratic life and she commissioned a large number of portraits of herself, including a huge triptych, now at Abbot Hall in Cumbria, recording her own appearance at different ages, as well as that of various family members.

William Larkin (d. 1619), one of the most prominent and influential artists of the early seventeenth century, is currently represented in the National Portrait Gallery only by a head-and-shoulders portrait of Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset and a full-length portrait of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham. Both appear to be largely studio works, of much lower quality than the present portrait. In particular, comparison of the faces in the three portraits emphasizes the exceptionally subtle and sophisticated modelling in the portrait of Lady Anne.

The National Portrait Gallery currently has one portrait of Lady Anne Clifford, a record of her appearance later in life, which is a copy of a portrait by Sir Peter Lely painted in the 1640s.

Catharine MacLeod, Curator of Seventeenth Century Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: 'It is very exciting to be able to represent such a fascinating and prominent seventeenth-century woman with such a beautiful portrait. The modelling of the face is particularly refined and subtle, conveying a sense of individuality and personality unusual in English portraiture at this time.'

Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: 'Lady Anne Clifford painted by William Larkin is a fascinating portrait of an important woman, and I am very grateful to the Art Fund and our generous individual supporters who have made the acquisition possible.'

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said: 'The high quality of William Larkin's work, combined with the compelling story of its subject, Lady Anne, makes this a fine addition to the National Portrait Gallery's seventeenth-century collection. The Art Fund is very pleased to have played a part in its acquisition.'

Lady Anne Clifford by William Larkin will go on display in the Gallery from spring 2014.

NPG 6976: LADY ANNE CLIFFORD (1590-1676)

Countess of Dorset and later Countess of Pembroke

by William Larkin (c.1580-c.1619), 1618

Oil on oak panel, 575 x 435cm

Acquired with support from the Portrait Fund, the Art Fund, Richard Aylmer, Linda Brownrigg, Sir Harry Djanogly, the Golden Bottle Trust, Terry and Maria Hughes, Lady Rose Monson, Sir Charles and Lady Nunneley, Sir David Scholey, an anonymous donor, and in memory of the late David Alexander, President of the Gallery's American Friends from 2003 to 2010.

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place WC2H 0HE, opening hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10am - 6pm (Gallery closure commences at 5.50pm) Late Opening: Thursday, Friday: 10am - 9pm (Gallery closure commences at 8.50pm) Nearest Underground: Leicester Square/Charing Cross General information: 0207 306 0055 Recorded information: 020 7312 2463 Website/Tickets: www.npg.org.uk

The Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art, helping museums to buy and show great art for everyone. Over the past 5 years we've given over £26m to help museums and galleries acquire works of art for their collections and placed hundreds of gifts and bequests, from ancient sculpture and treasure hoards to Old Master paintings and contemporary commissions, with 25% of grants going towards works by living artists. We also help museums share their collections with wider audiences through supporting a range of tours and exhibitions, including the national tour of the Artist Rooms collection and the 2013-2014 tours of Grayson Perry's tapestries The Vanity of Small Differences and Jeremy Deller's English Magic, the British Council commission for the 2013 Venice Biennale. Our support for museums extends to the Art Guide app - the comprehensive guide to seeing art across the UK, promoting a network of over 650 museums and galleries throughout the country, and the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year - an annual celebration of the best of UK museums, won in 2013 by William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. We are independently funded, the majority of our income coming from over 100,000 members who, through the National Art Pass, enjoy free entry to over 220 museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK, as well as 50% off entry to major exhibitions. Find out more about the Art Fund and the National Art Pass at www.artfund.org

The Weiss Gallery is supporting the forthcoming exhibition of Elizabeth I and Her People, which opens to the public on Thursday 10th October 2013. Mark Weiss is acknowledged as a leading authority in early British and Old Master portraiture, renowned for dealing in the finest examples. As well as selling works to the National Portrait Gallery - most recently a rare and highly important miniature by Isaac Oliver (1556 - 1617) of Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses that will be exhibited inElizabeth I and Her People - he has also sold important Tudor and Jacobean portraits to other major British institutions, including Tate Britain, English Heritage, The National Maritime Museum, The Burrell Collection and Historic Scotland.