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Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565-1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d'état against the government and was executed for treason.
This is a three-quarter-length variant that Gheeraerts and his studio produced, deriving from the artist's famous full-length which has descended in the collection of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. That painting was commissioned soon after the earl's triumphant return to England following the capture of Cadiz from the Spanish in August 1596.
In the portrait Essex wears a black velvet riding cloak, and the choice of the black and white costume is a clear allusion to colours favoured by Elizabeth I, alluding the purity of the Virgin Queen.
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