Portrait of a Gentleman

Thomas Beach 1738-1806

Oil on canvas

Late 18th century

An 18th century oval portrait. The sitter wearing a high collared red coat with a white cravat. The verso with two unidentified wax seals and labeled “Thomas Beach, Major Earl Hawker”. Marjor Earl Hawker (sometimes spelt Erle) was an English officer who fought in the Americas, he was captured at Saratoga in 1777 then imprisoned in Cambridge Massachusetts and pardoned in 1780.