Portrait of Richard Paul Jodrell (1761-1831), half-length, in a black coat, against a red curtain

The sitter, a classical scholar and dramatist, was the elder brother of Sir Paul Jodrell (d. 1803). Educated at Eton and Oxford, he was called to the Bar in 1771 from Lincoln's Inn. In 1772 he married Vertue (d.1806), eldest daughter and co-heir of Edward Hase, of Sall, Norfolk, and niece of John Hase, later Sir John Lombe, 1st Bt.. The sitter was a friend of Dr. Johnson and, in 1790, was elected Member of Parliament for Seaford, Sussex. He suffered from mental disease for the last ten years of his life and died in Portland Place. He was survived by five sons and two daughters.
This portrait is dateable to 1810. There is also a portrait of the sitter painted by Gainsborough in the 1770's in the Frick Collection, New York.