Portrait of Charles Chadwick (1753-1829), half-length, in a brown coat, yellow waistcoat and gown, wearing a mortar board, Emmanuel College, Cambridge beyond

Painted in 1779, the year after Downman’s arrival in London, this beautifully preserved picture is a fine example of the artist’s small-scale portraits on copper. A preparatory drawing of the sitter, executed in 1778 when Downman was still based in Cambridge, is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum (Complete List of Portraits in the Sketch Books from Butleigh Court, Second Series, Volume the Fourth, no. 2, where erroneously described as ‘Mr Craddock of Emmanuel College’).