State before letters. A three-quarter-length portrait of Samuel Hood (1724–1816) in admiral’s undress uniform, 1767–87, holding a letter in his right hand and leaning on a rock with a naval engagement in the background representing the French flagship, the ‘Ville de Paris’, 110 guns, striking to Hood’s flagship, the ‘Barfleur’, 89 guns, at the Battle of the Saints on 12 April 1782. This print was engraved by Henry Robinson after an oil painting by Joshua Reynolds, probably painted in 1783. Reynolds’s painting is now in the collection of Manchester City Galleries but at the time of engraving it was owned by the sitter’s sister-in-law, Maria Sophia, Viscountess Bridport. It was published by Harding & Lepard on 1 January 1831 and as an illustration in Edmund Lodge’s ‘Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain’ (London: Harding and Lepard, 1834), volume 12. (Updated May 2019.)
Technique includes etching.