Admiral John Markham

Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1769–1830

ca. 1793

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

A man with powdered white hair and rosy cheeks looks directly at the viewer. He wears a dark blue naval uniform with gold trim and buttons, and a white ruffled cravat. The second son of William Markham, Archbishop of York, John Markham (1761–1827) entered the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen, served in North America and the West Indies, and rose to the rank of post-captain in 1783. Around the time this portrait was painted, Markham was in command of HMS Blonde, serving in 1793 under Admiral Sir John Jervis (later Lord St. Vincent) at the so-called reduction of Martinique during the French Revolutionary Wars. Thomas Lawrence also painted a portrait of John’s younger brother David, an army officer who was killed in combat in Haiti in 1795, at the same time as the present picture. Both portraits hun