Anthony van Dyck

Mountjoy Blount, Ist Earl of Newport
c. 1637-38
85 x 51 in. (215.9 x 129.5 cm)

Mountjoy Blount (c.1597-1666) was the illegitimate son of Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire and 8th Lord Mountjoy, and Penelope, Lady Rich (she was the sister of the famed Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, lover of Queen Elizabeth I). Blount enjoyed great favor with Charles I throughout the 1620s, and was made an earl in 1628, taking his title from Newport on the Isle of Wight. He poses for this portrait as Master of the Ordinance, a position the king granted him for life in 1634, and in which he made himself a vast fortune.