A three-quarter-length portrait of George Bridges Rodney (bap. 1718, d. 1792) in flag officer’s full dress uniform, 1767–1783, with the sash and star of the Order of the Bath, leaning his right hand on the fluke of an anchor in front of an overhanging cliff and a view of the sea. Lettered beneath the image with the title, ‘The Right Honble. George Brydges, Baron Rodney, of Rodney Stoke, and Baronet. Knight of the most Honble. Order of the Bath, Admiral of the White, and Vice Admiral of England.’ Also lettered with the publication details: ‘Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles. / No.69 in St Pauls Church Yard, London. / Published as the Act directs.’ This print was published by Carington Bowles around 1782. The portrait is after Joshua Reynolds’s oil painting of 1756–9 (now at Petworth), although it may have been derived indirectly via James Watson’s mezzotint of 1762 (see PAG6409). The sash and star of the Order of the Bath have been added to Reynolds’s image, following Rodney’s appointment as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath in November 1780. Furthermore, the admiral’s uniform has been updated to match patterns in use at the time of the print’s publication and his face has been aged through the addition of wrinkles on his forehead and around his eyes. The inscription refers to the sitter as ‘Lord Rodney’, indicating that the print postdates his creation as 1st Baron Rodney on 19 June 1782. His peerage was awarded in recognitiion of his fleet’s victory over the French at the Battle of the Saints in April 1782. Bowles also published a smaller version of this image (see PAD4629). (Updated May 2019.)
Plate 419.