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SIR ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599 - 1641) THE COUNTESS OF CLANBRASSIL Canvas, 83 inches by 50 inches

Full length, standing to left in landscape, head turned toward the spectator; blue low-cut dress, pearl ornaments. She is holding a cloak. Mentioned in Smith's Catalogue Raisonné, No. 586. Mentioned in "Anthony van Dyck," by Lionel Cust, F.S.A., p. 124. Mentioned in Guiffrey's "Van Dyck," No. 49. Exhibited at the British Institution, 1824. Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1900. Exhibited at the Guildhall Flemish Exhibition, 1906. Exhibited at the Brussels Exhibition of 17th Century Flemish Art, 1910. Collection of the Earl of Denbigh. Anne, eldest daughter of Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth, by Martha, daughter of Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex. In 1641 she married (at Rickmansworth, Herts) James Hamilton, Viscount Clandeboye, who was created Earl of Clanbrassil in 1647. He was a royalist, and owed his elevation to the fact that both himself and his father had suffered in the royal cause. He was born in 1601 and died in 1659. His widow, the subject of this portrait, married Sir Robert Maxwell, Bart. of Warrenstown, Co. Down, in 1668. She died in 1688. The Clanbrassil title was extinguished by the death of her son, Henry, but was revived in 1756 in favor of a collateral branch of the Hamilton family. This son, having married Alice, the sister of the Earl of Drogeda, died in January, 1675, and was supposed to have been poisoned by his wife. 155 DS