A half-length portrait to left wearing a green riding coat. Placed within an oval, the painting is the counterpart to BHC2846, and shows Locker dressed in civilian clothes and older in the face, yet it is likely that the two commissions are related.

Nelson became one of Locker's lieutenants in the 'Lowestoffe' in 1777, and they remained lifelong friends. Locker's interest in art is reflected in his friendship with the marine painter, Dominic Serres, who also painted his portrait. As Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital from 1793, he conceived the idea of a naval picture gallery in the Painted Hall. The plan was eventually put into effect by his son, Edward Hawke Locker, in 1823-24. He was Governor of Greenwich Hospital when he died.

Stuart was an American painter who was also active in England and Ireland. He was in London from 1775 until 1787, where early in 1775, he entered the studio of Benjamin West, 1738-1820, for whom he painted drapery and finished portraits. Stuart exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in the spring of 1787. He maintained an expensive London establishment and had considerable success as a fashionable portrait painter to both English and American sitters who found themselves in London. However, in 1787 Stuart fled to Dublin-almost certainly to escape his creditors-and where he remained for five years. In the spring of 1793, he returned to America, leaving behind scores of unfinished canvases. He subsequently lived and worked in New York, and then Philadelphia, where George Washington posed for him during 1795. He moved to Boston in 1805, where he remained for the rest of his life, both painting and advising fellow artists. The painted is inscribed top-left, 'Captain William Locker R.N. Born Feb. 1730-31 died December 26 1800. (Framed)