Portrait of Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellamont (1738-1800), in Robes of the Order of the Bath

In 1773 London was busy mocking its dandies, the macaronis, young men of fashion with towering wigs and too much lace who kept turning up in satirical prints. Charles Coote, an Irish earl, was cut from that same cloth, and when Reynolds painted him he leaned right into the vanity. Coote lounges at full length in the pink satin robes of the Order of the Bath, one hand resting easily on his sword, his rosetted shoes turned out for us to admire. He is the only knight of that order ever shown actually wearing its ridiculous ostrich-plumed hat. Reynolds sent the picture to the Royal Academy in 1774 with 12 other works. And low in the shadows he tucked a private joke, a coot, the water bird, a pun on the earl's own name.