This miniature by Robert Bowyer (c. 1758-1834) is the artist’s first portrait of Viscount Nelson. The sittings for the miniature took place at the same time as Bowyer’s adopted daughter, Catherine Andras, was creating a wax relief profile which was later used for the Trafalgar medal. (This was presented to the men who fought under Nelson at Trafalgar). The author of biographical anecdotes about Bowyer, the Bowyer Memorials, relates: ‘When Miss Andras was working at the medallion of the hero, the celebrated miniature painter Robert Bowyer happened to be painting the other side of the great Admiral’s face upon which Nelson laughingly remarked that he was not used to being attacked in that manner starboard and larboard at the same time’.

Robert Bowyer (c. 1758-1834) is said to have started his career by painting his own portrait for his sweetheart, Mary Shoveller, who later became his wife. He was taught miniature painting by John Smart and was appointed guardian to Smart’s children when Smart travelled to India. He exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1782 and at the Royal Academy between 1783 and 1828. Bowyer was appointed miniature painter to King George III after the death of Jeremiah Meyer in 1789. He turned to publishing at one point in his career, and was partly responsible for David Hume’s Illustrated History of England (1792-1805). In 1796, his only daughter died and following this tragedy Bowyer and his wife took into their household a young orphan, Catherine Andras,who was a wax modeller from Bristol.