A half-length portrait in captain's full-dress uniform, over three years,1774-87. The sitter is shown facing left in 'kit-kat' style (with one arm showing): he wears his own hair, powdered, and a scratch wig, and holds a telescope in his visible left hand. Stirling had a slow career: he became a lieutenant only in February 1746, towards the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, a commander in December 1756 suring the Seven Years War and a captain in January 1759. In 1780, when he was 62, he was captain of the 'Gibraltar', 80 guns, under Sir Samuel Hood and was present at Rodney's contoversial capture of St Eustatius in the West Indies, from the Dutch in 1781. Rodney gave him the honour of taking home the subsequent dispatches and was knighted on arrival. In 1782 he was Commander at the Nore in the temporary rank of Commodore, but died before reaching flag rank by seniority promotion. He is shown against a rocky shoreline background with a glimpse of the sea on the left. The portrait bears a later inscription reading 'Sir Walter Stirling of Faskine, Commander-in-Chief at the Nore 1781-d.1786'.

The artist was a pupil and assistant of Reynolds, and practised portraiture at Plymouth until 1777, when he went to Italy to study before settling in London in 1781.