Technique includes etching. A head-and-shoulders portrait showing Nelson facing to the right, within a circular border. It is placed against a highly romanticized setting of sea, waves, sky and rocks. The letters ‘NELSON’ are inscribed on the rock as a form of ‘in memoriam’. This theme is continued with the laurel wreath surrounded by a burst of sunrays in the sky above his head. The print is probably from, ‘An Impartial History of the Naval, Military and Political Events in Europe, from the commencement of the French Revolution to the entrance of the Allies into Paris and the conclusion of a general peace ... Embellished with fine engravings.’

The artist, William Marshall Craig, was one of the most celebrated miniature painters of his day. He was drawing-master to Princess Charlotte of Wales and miniature-painter to the Duke and Duchess of York. He also exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy.