The Earl of Stafford

This 1725 portrait of the Earl of Stafford depicts a member of one of England's most ancient noble families, whose history stretched back to the fourteenth century and whose coat of arms carried the bloody hand of Ireland as a mark of their involvement in that island's colonization. The Stafford earldom's history of attainders, reversals, and restorations across successive political regimes made it a subject of particular legal and constitutional interest, and the family's survival into the Hanoverian era required the same political navigation that all ancient Catholic or Tory families undertook. Kneller's late portrait of this titled sitter demonstrates his practice extending to the end of his life in 1723.

The aristocratic portrait presents the Earl with appropriate noble bearing, Kneller's late style showing the broad, efficient brushwork and standardized composition of his most prolific period.