English: A full-length portrait slightly to left in vice-admiral's full-dress uniform, 1783-87, with the star and ribbon of the Order of the Bath and a white wig. His right hand rests on a long, tasselled cane and also holds orders clearly inscribed to him as Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, 1778-83: 'On His Majesty's (Service) to Sir Edward Hughes, KB Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Ships ordered to sail (to be ) employed in the East Indies'. In the left background is his flagship, 'Superb', 74 guns, and another English ship at anchor. The uniform is the new type of flag officer's full dress, with its distinctive pattern of lace authorized in 1783 and which only lasted four years.

Hughes was promoted lieutenant for his services under Admiral Edward Vernon at Porto Bello in 1740. He was later with Mathews when he blockaded Toulon in 1744 and Boscawen at Louisbourg in 1758, where he commanded the 'Somerset', 64 guns. He was in the same ship under Sir Charles Saunders at the taking of Quebec in the following year. In 1782-83, as Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, he was engaged in five hard-fought actions with the Bailli de Suffren off eastern India and Ceylon. In these neither side took a ship nor achieved a decisive advantage, although de Suffren had the best of it strategically. Hughes returned home immensely rich from prize money and other perquisites. The fact that he is shown holding a letter may refer to the same feature in the portrait of him by Violante Siries in 1761 (BHC2793) which he is presumed to have commissioned in Florence when still captain of the 'Somerset'.

In 1740 Reynolds was apprenticed to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson (1701-90) and after early work in his native Devon travelled to Italy in 1749. In 1753 he set up in London and rapidly began to make a name as portrait painter, profoundly influenced by his time in Italy. He became the first President of the Royal Academy in 1768 and was knighted in 1769. He was the most influential figure of the century in elevating British painting and portraiture. Reynolds borrowed poses from the old masters and by 1759 he had created social portraits in a new style that were deemed fresh and modern, and yet dignified the status of the sitter. The sitter, who was Admiral of the Blue at his death, bequeathed this portrait and other paintings to Greenwich Hospital in 1794, though apparently informally or as a gift from his widow since they are not mentioned in his will.

Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, circa 1720-94