Barrington then acted as second-in-command at Byron's disastrous action with d'Estaing off Grenada in 1779. He refused command of the Channel fleet during the courts martial following the Battle of Ushant but served as second-in-command to Howe at the relief of Gibraltar in 1782. This portrait was returned to Reynolds within months as the blue sky turned green, owing to the painter's inadvertent use of a defective colour sold to him as genuine ultramarine, and it had to be repainted.

In 1740 Reynolds was apprenticed to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson and after early work in his native Devon travelled to Italy in 1749. He became the first President of the Royal Academy in 1768 and was knighted in 1769. He was the most influential figure of the century in elevating British painting and portraiture. Reynolds borrowed poses from the old masters and by 1759 he had created social portraits in a new style that were deemed fresh and modern, and yet dignified the status of the sitter.