Tyrrel was wounded several times and lost three fingers of his right hand, a mutilation clearly visible in the portrait. The action was particularly creditable because the Frenchman carried over 200 men more than the 'Buckingham'. In the following year Tyrrell assisted Commodore Moore to reduce Guadaloupe and brought home the dispatches. After the peace he went out again as Commander-in-Chief at Antigua and died at sea while returning home. There are signs that the portrait was originally of Tyrrell as a captain and it was probably altered at a later date, before he went to the West Indies for the last time. The painter, Hudson, was both pupil and son-in-law of another notable portraitist, the elder Jonathan Richardson, and was in turn the early master in London of Joshua Reynolds. Regarded as a safe man for a dignified and flattering likeness, he was the leading society portraitist of his time, with a huge practice. Although he painted his sitters' faces, his use of assistants to paint much of the rest of his portraits was well known although far from unusual.