Sir Joseph Banks, Bt

Joseph Banks first sat for Reynolds in November 1771, a few months after he came home on the Endeavour. He had spent three years in the Pacific as the naturalist on Captain Cook's voyage, and London had made him a celebrity. That winter he was invited to sail with Cook again, and the paper under his hand carries a line from the Roman poet Horace, Cras ingens iterabimus aequor, tomorrow we will sail the vast sea once more. The voyage never happened for him. Banks demanded so much room on board for his party and equipment that in May 1772 he withdrew, and spent the rest of that year travelling to Iceland and the Scottish islands instead. Back in London he went straight to see Reynolds again, the last sitting came in March 1773, and the picture went on show at the Royal Academy exhibition that same year.