A three-quarter-length portrait of John Lockhart Ross (1721–1790) in captain’s undress uniform, 1748–1767, standing beside a rocky, ivy-covered cliff, holding a cane in his left and pointing with his raised right arm towards a ship in the background, possibly representing the ‘Tartar’, 28 guns. Lettered beneath the image with the title: ‘John Lockhart Esqr. Late Commander of His Majesty’s Ship Tartar.’ Also lettered with the production details and the publication line, ‘J. Reynolds pinxt. / Js. McArdell fecit. / Published Augt. 8th. 1821, by Richard H. Laurie, No. 53, Fleet Street, London.’ This portrait was engraved by James Macardell in around 1762 after Joshua Reynolds’s oil painting of 1760–2 (private collection). Early impressions of the print do not include a publication line and were probably circulated privately (see PAG9393). The plate was eventually published by Richard Holmes Laurie in 8 August 1821 (see this impression). The sitter came from an aristocratic Scottish family and had a distinguished naval career. The inscription refers to the sitter’s service in the ‘Tartar’, 28 guns. Lockhart commanded this fast-sailing ship in the Channel between March 1756 and January 1758, during which time he captured a large number of French prizes, including notably the ‘Melampe’, 36 guns, a privateer from Bayonne, on 2 November 1757. His success earned him public renown and promotion to the command of the ‘Chatham’, 50 guns, in which he fought at the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759. Born John Lockhart, he took the surname Ross in September 1760 as a condition of his succession to the Ross-shire estate of Balnagowan on the death of his brother James. He later served in the American War and inherited his father’s baronetcy in 1777, his elder brothers having died without male issue. (Updated May 2019.)