Portrait of Samuel Rose (1767-1804), in a black coat and white stock, seated at a red draped table, with books and a stack papers

Friends from early in his life with Adam Smith and Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling, ths sitter was called to the bar in 1786, was 'encouragingly noticed' by Lord Kenyon, and appointed counsel to the Duke of Kent. His most famous client was William Blake, whom he defended from the charge of treason at the quarter sessions in Chichester in 1804. Rose was a close friend of William Cowper, and arranged for the poet's portrait to be painted by Lawrence in 1793.

Rose's sister Sarah married Charles Burney, a classical scholar and brother of the novelist and diarist Fanny, and this portrait passed through the Burney family until sold at Christie's in 1925.