John Trant, in blue coat with black collar, white waistcoat and knotted cravat, fair hair and sideburns

The paper label on the reverse suggests that the present sitter was the brother of William Trant, father of Madalina Elinor who married Neil Benjamin Edmonstone (1813-1864) of the East India Company. Madalina and her mother sat for George Chinnery in Calcutta in 1815 (see Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London, 1979, illustrated p. 378, pl. 285). The Edmonstone children, including Neil Benjamin, were also drawn by Chinnery (M. Archer, op. cit., p. 379, pl. 287).