John Raphael Smith after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The Earl of St. Vincent.

17¾ x 25¼ inches

Portrait of John Jervis, Earl of St. Vincent (1735-1823). In uniform.

This is not a man you wish to cross. What he lacks in nobility of birth he makes up for in determination, grit and sheer will power. Instead of following his father to the Bar he literally ran away to sea and joined the navy at the tender age of ten. By 25 he was a captain and by his 60s he was First Lord of the Admiralty. You might notice the thick set neck and rugged features alongside the maritime iconography that leave us in no doubt that John Jervis was a force to be reckoned with on the high seas. From The Seven Years War to The American War of Independence to the French Revolutionary Wars, Jervis was there. He received his greatest notoriety and an earldom for his spectacular defeat of the Spanish fleet at the Cape of St. Vincent in 1797. Feared and revered in equal measure he promoted talent over social rank and laid claim to being the man who reformed the modern navy.