It's a warts-and-all portrait of a 'middle-class climber' whose legacy is one of Norfolk's best-known landmarks.

And now the earliest-known portrait of Sir Henry Hobart, painted in 1616, has gone on show for the first time inside the stately home of Blickling Hall.

Megan Dennis, the National Trust's Blickling property curator, said she was delighted visitors could now see the portrait, which is being displayed in the lower ante room of the manor.

Ms Dennis said: "The team are testing a range of interpretation approaches, including a tactile version of the portrait, touch panels, easy read text and positioning the portrait in a location that is accessible for a wider range of visitors.

“To accompany the exhibition of the portrait a number of different activities will be taking place in the house during half term, including the Hobart Bull Trail, I Spy Henry, Living History, a selfie station, and a chance for visitors to feedback.”

The trust has recently acquired the portrait, thought to be the work of a follower of the royal court painter William Larkin.

Fine details such as Sir Henry's veined hands, facial warts and wrinkles are depicted, along with his elaborate ruff and silken jacket.

The expensive clothing showed he could afford luxurious fabrics and fashionable tailors, but the not-so-flattering skin details indicate he wanted people to know he was not a proud or vain man.

Sir Henry bought Blickling in 1616 and built the iconic red-brick structure on the footprint of an earlier manor, where Anne Boleyn and her siblings were born at the dawn of the 16th Century.

Sir Henry, a successful lawyer, could be considered a middle-class climber – keen to be seen as rich and powerful.

He had been buying land at Blickling for many years before he was able to buy the hall, so this portrait marks a turning point in his ambitions.

Sir Henry was knighted in 1603 at the coronation of James I, and he later became attorney general and lord chief justice of common pleas.

He was married in the nearby St Andrew's Church in 1590, where he was also buried after his death in 1625.