Portrait of John Smeaton (1724-1792), three-quarter-length, seated with the Eddystone Lighthouse, Devon in the background

The prime version of this type appears to have shown a water mill wheel in the background rather than the Eddystone lighthouse. The lighthouse appeared in a later version commissioned from Brown by Alexander Robert who gave the work to the Royal Society (see D. Evans, Mather Brown, Early American Artist in England, Middletown, 1982, pp. 93-95 and 228).