A three-quarter-length portrait of Augustus John Hervey, third earl of Bristol (1724–1779), in captain’s undress uniform, 1748–67, holding a sword at his hip in his right hand. His left hand rests on a cannon and holds a rolled plan of the bombardment of Morro Castle on 1 July 1762. The plan is labelled with the names of the three ships in Hervey’s squadron for the bombardment: the ‘Dragon’, 74 guns, in which he hoisted a commodore’s broad pennant, the ‘Marlborough’, 80 guns, and the ‘Cambridge’, 80 guns. The bombardment is represented in the background. Lettered beneath the image with Hervey’s coat of arms and the title, which does not refer to the bombardment represented in the portrait and instead refers to the sitter’s subsequent command in the Mediterranean: ‘The Honble Augustus Hervey Captn in His Majesty’s Navvy, Colonel of Marines and Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Ships in the Mediterranean, 1763.’ Also lettered with the production and publications details: ‘J. Reynolds pinxt. / E. Fisher sculpt. / Printed for Bowles & Carver, Map & Printsellers, No.69 St Paul’s Church Yard, London.’ This portrait was engraved by Edward Fisher in 1763 after Joshua Reynolds’s painting of 1762, which is now owned by the St Edmundsbury Heritage Service and on loan to the National Trust at Ickworth. Fisher published some impressions of the print himself (see PAF3442) but this version was published, with an amended publication line, by Carington Bowles and Henry Carver. The ships in the background of Reynolds’s portrait may have been painted by Richard Paton, or were at least copied from Paton’s oil painting of the bombardment (see BHC0407). Hervey – later 3rd Earl of Bristol – was a charismatic, attractive and capable officer, but also a notable womaniser, whose amorous adventures are recorded in his fairly frank surviving journals. (Updated April 2019.)