The grandson of Captain Alexander Hood (1758-98), he entered the navy when he was 12. He fought with the Naval Brigade in the Crimean War, 1854-55. In 1885 he became First Sea Lord, but left the Admiralty when he reached the age of 65 in 1889. The portrait is signed and dated 1891, the year in which it was exhibited at the Royal Academy. J. Sydney Willis Hodges (1829-1900) was a successful society portrait painter.