A half-length portrait of Admiral Charles Middleton, Lord Barham (1726-1813) in flag officer's full-dress uniform, 1795-1812. Presented by Sir James Caird in 1939 and formerly in the collection of the Countess of Gainsborough. The received information from the 1961 NMM portraits catalogue is that it is a posthumous image, the head being copied from a full-length by Isaac Pocock (1782-1835) although the location of this is not given and the information may derive from the fact that the NMM collection holds a related print. Middleton was most notable as a skilled though domineering administrator and, with James Gambier, one of the Navy's leading evangelical Christians. He was Comptroller of the Navy 1778-90 and, in 1805-06 (from just before to just after Trafalgar) was briefly first Lord of the Admiralty, when he began to repair the damage caused by the misplaced reforming zeal of his predecessor but one, Earl St Vincent.
Isaac Pocock was the eldest surviving son of Nicholas Pocock and a pupil of Romney and Beechey. He ceased painting and exhibiting on inheriting his namesake uncle's substantial Maidenhead estate in 1818. He is in fact better known as a playwright, from c.1810 to his death. [PvdM 1/05]