Admiral Harry Paulet (1719/20–1794), Sixth Duke of Bolton

This portrait depicts Admiral Harry Paulet, 6th Duke of Bolton, painted by Francis Cotes around 1760. Cotes was one of the leading English portraitists before the rise of Reynolds and Gainsborough, and was a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768. Bolton served as a naval officer and later became Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, and this portrait captures him in the dignified manner expected of Georgian aristocracy.

Cotes employs his characteristic smooth handling of oil paint with luminous flesh tones and careful rendering of textile textures. The composition uses a conventional three-quarter format with restrained coloring typical of mid-eighteenth-century English portraiture.