A full-length portrait of Adam Duncan (1731–1804) in profile to left wearing admiral’s full-dress uniform, 1795–1812, and cockade hat with a flag officer’s gold medal for the Battle of Camperdown and the sash and star of the Russian Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Holding a telescope and pointing with his right hand, he stands on the deck of a ship with a naval engagement in the background, alluding to the victory of his fleet over the Dutch at the Battle of Camperown on 11 October 1797. Lettered beneath the image with the engraver’s name and the date, ‘I. Kay. 1797.’ This portrait was drawn and etched by John Kay in late 1797 to celebrate Duncan’s victory at the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October that year. Kay’s print catered to the public interest in the admiral that arose in the aftermath of the battle. John Kay was a barber-surgeon turned self-taught caricaturist and printmaker who sold his etchings of notable figures in Scottish society from his shop at 10 Parliament Close in central Edinburgh. His print may have been based on personal acquaintance with Duncan, who owned a townhouse in Edinburgh in addition to his inherited country estate at Lundie, near Dundee, in Forfarshire. In 1798, Kay produced another three-quarter-length portrait of the admiral, possibly to coincide with the civic celebrations of Duncan’s victory in February 1798. (Updated June 2019.)
Technique includes aquatinting and engraving.