Scratched letter state. A three-quarter-length portrait of George Bridges Rodney (bap. 1718, d. 1792) in flag officer’s undress uniform, 1748–1767, leaning his right hand on the fluke of an anchor in front of an overhanging cliff and a view of the sea. Scratched letters beneath the image: ‘Painted by Sr. J. Reynods. / J. Watson sculpsit. / Published May 1st 1778 by John Boydell Cheapside London.’ This portrait was engraved by James Watson after Joshua Reynolds’s oil painting of 1756–9, now at Petworth. The plate was initially published by William Wynne Ryland and Henry Bryer in 1762 (see PAG6409) and subsequently re-lettered and republished by John Boydell in 1780 (see PAG6408). (Updated May 2019.)