Portrait of Anne Capel, three-quarter-length, seated by an orange tree, in a white dress with a pink wrap, holding an orange blossom in her left hand, a landscape beyond

Anne Capel, later Mrs Strangways, was the youngest daughter of Arthur Capel, 1st Baron Capel, and Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of Sir Charles Morrison, Kt. of Cassiobury, Hertfordshire. Arthur Capel was an ardent Royalist, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was beheaded in Old Palace Yard for the cause, 9 March 1648/9. His eldest son Arthur, 2nd Baron Capel, (brother of Anne), was created Viscount Malden, Essex, and Earl of Essex, 20 April 1661. He commissioned a number of portraits of his family from Lely in the 1650s, including the present work and also a double portrait of his other sisters, Mary (1630-1715), later Duchess of Beaufort, and Elizabeth (1633-1678), Countess of Carnarvon (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). George Vertue, the contemporary art historian and critic, saw the portraits in the library at Cassiobury, describing the set as among Lely's finest.
Although the date of Anne's marriage to John Strangways of Melbury-Sandford is unknown, it is likely that the present work is a celebration of her betrothal. She holds a sprig of orange blossom, attribute of the Roman goddess Pomona, symbolising marriage and purity, while the fruit in the background represents fertility.