Captain Edward O'Brien of the Monarch

A painter of miniatures, John Smart also produced detailed drawings such as these portraits of commanding officers of the British navy. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, British hostilities with France continued during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. British ships engaged the French enemy and her allies from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. Portraits of naval commanders served not only as tributes to these British heroes, but also as individual mementos of loved ones. For those who remained at home, Smart's delicate pen and pencil strokes captured the likenesses of those men who risked their lives at sea.