A full-length portrait of Admiral Sir Peter Parker showing him facing slightly to the left. He wears an Admiral's full-dress uniform of 1795-1812, although the cuffs have not been correctly portrayed since they lack the fourth ring necessary for full dress. He wears a white waistcoat and breeches, shoes with gold buckles and a wig. In his right hand he holds a hat, and in his left his sword, decorated with an anchor and visible above his fingers. He is portrayed at the Portsmouth Battery standing in front of a cannon, which points out to sea to the left of the picture. His flagship, the Royal William, flies the Union flag, visible to the left, in the background, behind his right knee. The Royal William, 84 guns, was guardship at Portsmouth in 1799, although it had been cut down to a two-decker. The Union flag flying at the main mast signifies his rank as Admiral of the Fleet, which Admiral Parker became, as senior Admiral of the Red, on 16 September 1799. At his death, Parker owned the Clare Hall plantation on Antigua and the enslaved people on it. He appears to have purchased a mortgage of £6000 for the estate when it was sold by Oliver Nugent to Robert Skerrett in around 1765. Parker foreclosed on the mortgage in 1776 and took possession of the estate (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146661273). The portrait’s artist, Abbott, established his first studio in London around 1780. He painted relatively few women and seems to have specialised in male portraiture, finding particular favour among naval officers. Standing unsuccessfully for election as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1788 and again in 1798, Abbott failed to gain admission to the inner circles of the artistic establishment but he was recognised for his remarkable skill in capturing likenesses. In his ‘Anecdotes of Painting’ (1808), Edward Edwards wrote that ‘the heads of [Abbott’s] male portraits were perfect in their likenesses, particularly those which he painted from the naval heroes of the present time.’ Suffering from mental illness, Abbott was certified insane in July 1798 and died in what was described by the diarist Joseph Farington as ‘a state of insanity’ in 1803.