Sketch for a Portrait of Captain Philemon Pownall, RN

Reynolds employs a loose, preparatory approach typical of his sketching practice, using broad brushwork to suggest form and fabric rather than detailed finish. The palette is restrained, dominated by the deep blue of the coat and muted earth tones of the background, aligning with the Rococo’s lighter, elegant aesthetic while retaining Reynolds’s emerging portraiture conventions.

The sketch forms part of Reynolds’s early output before his election as the first president of the Royal Academy. It entered the Ashmolean Museum’s collection, where it remains accessible for study, illustrating the artist’s developmental process and his role in shaping British portraiture in the mid‑eighteenth century.