A three-quarter-length portrait to right, wearing a blue velvet coat lined with red silk, blue breeches and a red waistcoat laced with gold. His dress wig is white and he reclines against a gun barrel gesturing to the right with his left hand to warships in action behind. He lost his right hand when a midshipman in an engagement with a French ship in 1697 and the background may allude to this. Unlike Lely's earlier double portrait of Sir Frescheville Holles and Sir Robert Holmes in elaborate 'Turkish' dress (BHC2770), in which the former's missing left arm is concealed by being out of sight behind his body, Ramsay has used a more naturalistic approach, making Stewart's loss clear by placing it to the fore, only hidden in the coat's right sleeve. The fifth son of Lord Mountjoy, Stewart commanded a squadron against the Barbary pirates in 1720. He became Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies from 1729 to 1731, and second in command of the fleet under Sir John Norris in 1734. He became Vice-Admiral of the White in 1735 and Member of Parliament for Portsmouth from 1736 until his death. The portrait, which is signed and dated 1740, shows the sitter in old age.