It depicts the British painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, the President of the Royal Academy.

Reynolds was a leading portraitist and had been a founder of the Royal Academy and became its first president 1768.

[1] While he produced a number of self-portraits, Reynolds rarely posed for other artists.

It was one of fifteen portraits of celebrated artists displayed in the gallery.

[2] Today it is the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., having been acquired in 1942.