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Question 1: Does Lady Clara (as in Tennyson's poem) belong to the de Vere family that became Earls of Oxford?
Answer: Lady Clara Vere de Vere was a fictional character but, yes, she was represented to be a descendant of the longest line of nobles known in England, the earls of Oxford. "Vere de Vere" is a name showing double or multiple descent, so Lord Tennyson could not have chosen a more suitable name for his purpose of describing Lady Clara as a special inbred cultivar. I have read somewhere the name of a lady identified as the primary inspiration for Tennyson's 1842 poem, but I can't find it now. She was not named Clara de Vere, though.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere,
I know you proud to bear your name,
Your pride is yet no mate for mine,
Too proud to care from whence I came.
Question 2: Was she ever painted by Burne-Jones?
Answer: According to the National Portrait Gallery in London, "Mrs. Keene (neither her first or married names are known) and her daughter Bessie both modelled for Burne-Jones." I don't know if they both modelled for paintings as Lady Clara Vere de Vere, nor whether Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones ever painted Lady Clara, but Mrs. Keene did pose as Lady Clara Vere de Vere for 19th century female photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. This picture was an Albumin print photograph made in June 1866.
Trust me, Clara Vere de Vere,
From yon blue heavens above us bent
The gardener Adam and his wife
Smile at the claims of long descent.
Howe’er it be, it seems to me,
’Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.
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