A three-quarter-length portrait seated to left and cross-legged. He wears a brown coat laced with silver and with broad lapels. His waistcoat and breeches are black and his white stockings are shown pulled over the knees. He wears his own ginger hair and his left arm, in the crook of which he holds a long telescope, leans on the downward-tilted muzzle of a cannon. His right hand is outstretched towards a sixth-rate in the left background, which may be the 26-gun 'Winchelsea', on which he served as a lieutenant under Capt Henry Dyve off the north coast of Scotland, in the North Sea and the Channel. On the 19 November 1746, whilst cruising off the Isles of Scilly, 'Winchelsea' was involved in action against the French frigate 'Subtile', during which Hood was slightly wounded in the hand. 'Subtile' surrendered and was later bought into the Royal Navy as the 'Amazon'.

The sitter was the elder brother of Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport. He had an eventful career during the Seven Years War, 1756-63, was in command on the North American Station in 1767-80, gained a baronetcy in 1778 and was promoted Rear-Admiral of the Blue in 1780. Appointed to command a squadron sent out to reinforce Rodney's fleet in the West Indies, he arrived at St Lucia in January 1781, and had a very active year culminating in his part as second-in-command at the Battle of the Saints in April 1782, when the French flagship 'Ville de Paris' struck to him. On his return to England in September, he became an Irish peer and was given the freedom of the city of London. King George III entrusted to him the naval education of his son, Prince William Henry (later William IV). At the same time, Hood also took the young Horatio Nelson under his care, and so began an association that lasted until Nelson's death. Hood also pursued a political career and was returned to parliament for Westminster in 1784. He continued in active service, including two more spells in Portsmouth as commander-in-chief, with 'Barfleur' as his flagship, and was promoted Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 24 September 1787. In July 1788, Hood was appointed to the Board of Admiralty. In 1793 his final active service was in command of the expedition that took Toulon at the start of the French Revolutionary War. In 1796 he was created Viscount Hood of Catherington, became an Elder Brother of Trinity House and Governor of Greenwich Hospital, in which role he received the body of Nelson when it was brought to lie in state in the Hospital's Painted Hall in December 1805. He died at the age of 92, still in post, on 27 January 1816 and was buried (as was his wife) in the officers' Mausoleum of the old Hospital burial ground, beside the National Maritime Museum.

The artist was the son of a portrait painter. He left for America around 1749, soon after painting this portrait, and worked there as an itinerant portrait painter in New York. He moved to the West Indies in around 1758 and returned to England in 1767. The painting is signed and dated, 'J.Wollaston. Pinx. 1748.'.