A three-quarter-length portrait to right in lieutenant's undress uniform, 1748-67, with a gold-laced hat. The sitter wears his own hair and has a telescope in his right hand and crooked in his arm. He stands against a background of rock and foliage and in the right distance is a two-decker. The portrait was probably painted at Port Mahon, Minorca, in 1749. Reynolds had been apprenticed to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson in the early 1740s, before practicing as an artist in Plymouth for several years. In 1749, he met Commodore Augustus Keppel, with whom he travelled to the Mediterranean in the 'Centurion', 50 guns. Keppel's fleet anchored at Minorca between August and December 1749 and, during this time, Reynolds set up a temporary studio at Port Mahon, where he painted portraits of officers in the British garrison. In January 1750, Reynolds left Minorca for Italy, where he stayed for two years of travel and study. Returning to England in 1752, he set up in London and rapidly made a name as a portrait painter, profoundly influenced by his time in Italy. He borrowed poses from the old masters and by 1759 had created social portraits in a new style that were deemed fresh and modern, and yet dignified the status of the sitter. He became the first President of the Royal Academy in 1768 and was knighted the following year. Reynolds was the leading portrait painter of his day and the most influential figure of the century in elevating the status of British painting and portraiture. (Updated April 2019.)
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London