A three-quarter-length portrait showing the sitter turning to the right but facing towards the left. He wears flag-officer's undress uniform of 1767 to 1783, of blue jacket and gold braid with the ribbon and star of the Order of Bath and a tie-wig. He holds his sword in his right hand and stands against a rocky background with, on the left, the fleet at anchor together with a barge flying the Union flag. Hawke is best known for his defeat of the French fleet in Quiberon Bay in November 1759 – an extremely hazardous action fought close in on a rocky coast, in the fading light of a November evening. Cotes was a pastellist who turned to oil painting to enable him to execute larger-scale works. In 1765 he became a director of the Society of Artists, with whom he had exhibited since 1760, and became an important figure in the London art world.