Portrait of George Gostling, half-length, a drawing of the Madonna and Child in his right hand

Nathaniel Hone was the best known Irish portrait painter of his generation. Born in Dublin, he trained under Robert West. Like many of his fellow countrymen, as a young man he moved to England, where the market offered greater possibilities. Hone initially specialised in painting portrait miniatures but gave this up in the 1760s to concentrate on life-scale portraiture. He built up a fashionable portrait practice, and was one of two Irish founding members of the Royal Academy, the other being George Barret.