We believe that this is a portrait of Samuel Richardson. Richardson was one of the 18th Century’s most famous novelists. His first job was as a printer in Fleet Street. While working on a book of model letters for those unskilled in the art of writing letters he began to write the fictional letters of a young servant girl. This became the novel, 'Pamela', published in 1741.

A successful career as a novelist grew after 'Pamela'. His most famous work is 'Clarissa'. He married a woman from Bath and became part of the literary group in 18th-Century Bath. He remained surprised by his success, saying once when going to dine with Ralph Allen:

‘Twenty years ago I was the most obscure man in Great Britain; and now I am admitted to the company of the first characters of the Kingdom’.