A three-quarter-length portrait of a man leaning on his right elbow and turning his face to right. He wears a waistcoat decorated with loops of gold lace and tassels, a plain coat, gloves and a tricorn hat. Signed and dated on the back, ‘Charles Forrest fecit 1759’. This portrait is drawn with black and white chalk and grey wash on laid paper. It is catalogued as depicting the naval officer Charles Saunders (circa 1713–1775), although the sitter is not depicted in naval uniform. Saunders was promoted vice-admiral of the blue on 14 February 1759 and sailed for the St Lawrence river in North America three days later. He supported General James Wolfe at the capture of Quebec in September 1759 and remained in the St Lawrence River until 18 October, arriving back at Dublin on 15 December 1759. Several artists called Charles Forrest are recorded in the eighteenth century and there is some confusion between them. An Irish artist called Charles Forrest is known to have worked in Dublin between 1765, when he was enrolled as a pupil at the Drawing School of the Dublin Society, and about 1780. He produced portrait drawings in pastels, chalk, charcoal and wash, favouring the grisaille technique used by a number of artists in the Irish school at this time. This portrait uses a similar technique and the supposed subject, Charles Saunders, is known to have been in Dublin in 1759, the year the portrait was produced. One possibility is that Charles Forrest was active as a portraitist at an earlier date than has previously been assumed. Alternatively, the portrait may have been produced by another artist with the same name – not necessarily in Dublin. (Updated May 2019.)