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Lot Essay
Captain Thomas Smith (1706-1762), later Admiral, was one of Wilson's close friends and his most important early patrons. Smith was the son of Thomas Lyttleton, Bt. He entered the Navy in 1728 as a Junior Lieutenant aboard the Royal Oak and earned the popular nickname of "Tom of Ten Thousand" for having made the captain of a French corvette haul down his pennant and fire a salute. He was later promoted to Commodore and Commander-in-Chief in the Downs aboard the Royal Sovereign, and Commander-in-Chief for the coast of Scotland between 1745-1747. The following year he was made Vice-Admiral of the White.
This unpublished painting is the earliest known portrait of Smith. A full-length portrait in the collection of Vicount Cobham, signed and dated, was painted in November 1744 on the occasion of his promotion to Commodore. In this portrait Smith is shown with his new command, the Royal Sovereign, in the distance (see W.G. Constable Richard Wilson, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953, p. 151, no. 2b). A three-quarter-length portrait in the Greenwich Museum of around 1747 portrays Smith in his Admiral's uniform (op. cit., p. 151, no. 2a.). Two preparatory drawings for these portraits are known, one in the National Gallery of Scotland (op. cit., p. 151, no. 2c) is particularly close to the present painting.
This unpublished painting is the earliest known portrait of Smith. A full-length portrait in the collection of Vicount Cobham, signed and dated, was painted in November 1744 on the occasion of his promotion to Commodore. In this portrait Smith is shown with his new command, the Royal Sovereign, in the distance (see W.G. Constable Richard Wilson, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953, p. 151, no. 2b). A three-quarter-length portrait in the Greenwich Museum of around 1747 portrays Smith in his Admiral's uniform (op. cit., p. 151, no. 2a.). Two preparatory drawings for these portraits are known, one in the National Gallery of Scotland (op. cit., p. 151, no. 2c) is particularly close to the present painting.