—- Captain the Hon. George Edgcumbe– Joshua Reynolds (1748) (x)

“George Edgcumbe was second son of Richard, 1st Baron Edgcumbe, and the background appropriately contains several allusions to his life, since the painting was commissioned for the Corporation of Plympton. The two columns probably imply that the setting is the family home, Mount Edgcumbe House overlooking Plymouth Sound, with the guns of the battery below in the left foreground. The ship shown in the distance is the ‘Salisbury’, 50 guns, of which Edgcumbe was captain in 1747 when he captured a wealthy French East Indiaman. The African long-tailed paradise wydah bird that perches on the trailing ivy growing up the wall, top right, may have come from this ship, since Indiamen often brought home exotic species. Edgcumbe was commodore of a small squadron in the Mediterranean, 1752-56, and was in Port Mahon, Minorca, when the French appeared to attack the island. In 1758 he assisted at Boscawen’s capture of Louisbourg and in the following year, in command of the ‘Hero’, 74 guns, he shared in Hawke’s victory in Quiberon Bay. He was also MP for Fowey from 1746 until he became 3rd Baron Edgcumbe and Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall on the death of his elder brother Richard in 1761. He was made Viscount Mount Edgcumbe in 1781 and raised to an earldom in 1789. Because his father was Reynolds’ early patron, George Edgcumbe probably knew the artist since they were boys.” (x)

—- Captain John Bentinck and his son William Bentinck- Mason Chamberlin (1775)

“John Albert Bentinck (29 December 1737 – 23 September 1775) was an officer of the Royal Navy, an inventor and a Member of Parliament.” (x)

“A double full-length portrait showing Captain Bentinck seated on the left facing right in captain’s full-dress uniform, over three years, 1774-87, and a grey wig. William, his son, is standing facing left towards his father, holding a model yacht, in the uniform of the Naval Academy at Portsmouth. They are shown in the captain’s cabin of the ‘Centaur’, 74 guns, which was the guardship at Portsmouth. On a table to the left, John Bentinck’s right arm rests on a pile of books and plans, which denote his various mechanical inventions, and he holds a rolled-up plan in his right hand. He improved the design for the chain pump which bore his name and also of pulley blocks, one of which is shown in the painting next to the sleeping spaniel, curled under the table. The painting shows a close bond between father and son as well as a strong family likeness. John Bentinck died in September 1775, only a short time after this portrait was painted, leaving a widow and seven young children. William himself was to be a naval captain and the National Maritime Museum also has his portrait by George Romney, see BHC2551.” (x)