Sir Edward Pellew is best known for his bombardment of Algiers in 1816, which forced the release of several thousand Christian slaves. Lawrence’s portrait may commemorate an event of 1797 when he was captain of the frigate ‘Indefatigable’ and drove the much larger French ship, ‘Droits de l’Homme’, aground on the Brittany coast. Romantic images made Lawrence the leading portrait painter of the Regency period and he later became President of the Royal Academy. The original owner of the portrait is said to have been Captain William Locker who died in 1800, but is perhaps more likely to have been Edward Hawke Locker, who established the collection of naval paintings at Greenwich Hospital in 1823. In 1804 Locker had become Pellew’s civil secretary, a position he held until 1814 and it is possible that Pellew gave Locker the portrait in this year, especially as Charles Turner’s mezzotint was published in 1815 and may have been commissioned by Locker.