A head-and-shoulders sketch facing right. The head is a sketch for a full-length portrait which is in St Andrew's Hall, Norwich. The portrait was painted after Copenhagen in 1801, when Nelson destroyed the Danish fleet and with it the Armed Neutrality of northern powers, engineered against Britan by Tsar Paul of Russia, who was himself assassinated just after the battle.

The artist trained as a lawyer before entering the Royal Academy Schools, London, in 1772 where he may have studied with Johan Zoffany. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776 and throughout his career he produced competent portraits since he had no shortage of clients throughout his long career. In 1793 he was named portrait painter to Queen Charlotte, and undertook a number of royal commissions. His straightforward style perfectly suited the stolid and conventional taste of the royal family. In 1795 John Opie described Beechey's pictures as 'of that mediocre quality as to taste & fashion, that they seemed only fit for sea Captains & merchants'.