Le commodore The Honourable Augustus Keppel

In 1749 Reynolds was 26 and barely known. A naval officer named Augustus Keppel offered him a berth on his ship bound for the Mediterranean, and Reynolds went, painting this portrait of Keppel at Port Mahon on Minorca along the way. Keppel stands with a hand tucked into his waistcoat, a pose that then read as quiet confidence, his squadron of ships behind him. The voyage set the course of Reynolds's life, carrying him within reach of Italy, where he spent the next two years studying the old masters in Rome, the schooling that made him. This was the first of many portraits he would paint of Keppel, who became a lifelong friend.