Portrait of Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, 1737

A portrait of Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford (1593-1641), 1737.

The engraving depicts a middle-aged white male looking to the left with long hair, a moustache and goatee, and wearing a black jerkin and a white capelet. The image sits within an oval frame as if suspended on a stone wall, adorned by drapes and books and the royal crest.

Francis Russell succeeded to the Barony of Thornhaugh in 1613. After serving as an MP for Lyme Regis, and as Lord Lieutenant of Devon (1623), he became Earl of Bedford in 1627, upon his cousin Edward's death. In 1631, he was responsible for commissioning the piazza in Covent Garden and the church of St Paul's. Additionally, his efforts to drain the fens of Cambridgeshire inspired the landscape's alternate name "The Bedford Level." He was a Parliamentarian during the English civil war, and by 1640 he was generally regarded as their leader. In 1641, he became a member of the Privy Council, but he died shortly afterwards in a Parliamentary struggle. His tomb is in the "Bedford Chapel" in St. Michael's Church, Chenies, Buckinghamshire. 

The portrait artist, George Vertue (1684-1756), was an English engraver who worked for several years under Michael Vandergucht. Over eight hundred portraits are attributed to him, alongside various other works of architectural prints and illustrations.He served as the first official engraver to the Society of Antiquities of London from its revival in 1717. He is buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey, along with his wife, with the inscription, “With manners gentle, and a grateful heart, and all the genius of the graphic art, his fame shall each succeeding artist own, longer by far than monuments of stone.”

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