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A three-quarter-length portrait to right in a grey velvet coat with looped gold braid detailing round the buttons, ending in an elaborate knot of sequins. The coat is lined with red silk and waistcoat and breeches are of the same material. White lace froths at the cuffs and collar. Smith wears a grey full-bottomed wig and leans on the plinth of a broken column, holding a telescope in his left hand. Through attention to detail and the use of rich fabrics, the artist reveals the status of the sitter. His taste for good living is implied by the open buttons of his waistcoat barely concealing his ample girth. When Smith was a junior lieutenant in the 'Gosport', 43 guns, in 1728, he achieved some notoriety by forcing a French corvette visiting Plymouth to salute him and dip her pennant on her departure.