Portrait.

A full-length portrait of Adam Duncan (1731–1804) in admiral’s full-dress uniform, 1795–1812, 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. Duncan leans on a telescope with his right hand and stands on a rocky beach. Behind him there is a distant view of a naval engagement. Lettered beneath the image with the title, ‘Duncan’, and with the production detail and publication line, ‘Peint par J. Hoppner. / Gravé par J. C. Bock / Nuremberg chez J. F. Frauenholz 1799.’ This portrait was engraved in stipple by J. G. Bock after John Hoppner’s full-length oil painting of 1798, which is now in Forfar Town and County Hall in eastern Scotland. Bock’s source was probably James Ward’s mezzotint after the painting, published in March 1798 (see PAH5451), rather than Hoppner’s original picture. This German print was published in Nuremberg in 1799 by Johann Friedrich Frauenholz. Hoppner’s painting was commissioned in November 1797 by the Corporation of Freeholders, Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Supply of Forfarshire to commemorate Duncan’s victory over the Dutch at the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October 1797. Following the death of his older brother on 31 August 1796, Duncan had succeeded to his family’s estate at Lundie in Forfarshire and was therefore a local landowner. The Corporation voted unanimously on 13 November 1797 to present him with a gift of plate and to commission his portrait for Forfar Town and County Hall in order to mark ‘the pride and satisfaction they feel that a native of this county has distinguished himself so gloriously and rendered such essential service to his King and country’. Duncan was given the freedom to choose his own artist and selected Hoppner, a leading London-based portrait painter and Royal Academician. Hoppner exhibited the finished painting at the Royal Academy in 1798. Adam Duncan entered the navy in 1746 under the care of his maternal uncle, Captain Robert Haldane. He then served under the Honourable Augustus Keppel until promoted to the rank of commander on 21 September 1759, being present at the expedition to Basque Roads in 1757, the reduction of Gorée in 1758 and the blockade of Brest in 1759. While in command of the 'Valiant', he played an important part in the reduction of Belle Isle in June 1761 and Havana in August 1762. After 1763 he was on half pay for fifteen years until 1778. After his return to employment he sat on the court-martials of Keppel and Palliser. In the 'Monarch', he was part of the squadron sent to relieve Gibraltar and took part in the action off St Vincent on 16 January 1780. In the 'Blenheim' he again relieved Gibraltar in 1782 and took part in the action off Cape Spartel. He was promoted to flag rank on 24 September 1787. In February 1795, he was appointed commander-in-chief in the North Sea and charged with blockading the Dutch in the Texel. His fleet was joined by an allied Russian squadron in spring 1797, leading Emperor Paul I to appoint Duncan to the Russian Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky, the ribbon and sash of which he wears in Hoppner’s portrait. In October 1797, Duncan’s fleet achieved a crushing over the Dutch at the Battle of Camperdown, after which the admiral came ashore for several months and sat for a number of portraits. He continued in command of the North Sea fleet until 1800, which marked the end of his active career. He died suddenly in August 1804. (Updated June 2019.)