He painted portraits, including of George II, David Garrick (in the National Portrait Gallery), the 1st Duke of Northumberland, a series of scenes from Shakespeare, some of which afterward appeared in Boydell's Shakespeare, and historical compositions, including Lord Rodney Aboard the Formidable, which is now housed at Town Hall in Kingston, Jamaica.
Pine was active in the society of artists and learned gentlemen in London, in particular the circle of the anatomist, William Hunter.
[4] Pine held radical political opinions; he painted John Wilkes, MP, during his imprisonment and political exile,[5] and his unfashionable views likely led to his exclusion from the founding group of the Royal Academy of Art in 1768.
Pine's views led him to friendships with others in England sympathetic to the cause of the American Revolution, such as the merchant, Samuel Vaughan, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, both of whom he painted.
[6][7] Around 1784, Pine travelled to America, taking with him an exhibition of a series of paintings depicting scenes and characters from William Shakespeare's plays and settled in Philadelphia, where his time was completely taken up with portraiture.