David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty

David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, was the most celebrated British naval commander of the First World War — commander of the Battle Cruiser Fleet at Jutland in 1916 and First Sea Lord from 1919 to 1927. Lavery painted him in 1917 as part of his war artist work, at the height of Beatty's fame following Jutland and his appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet. The portrait belongs to a series of naval and military commissions that placed Lavery among the most significant documenters of British wartime leadership. Beatty's dashing, informal style and his jaunty cap became national icons, and Lavery's portrait engages with that public image while seeking the man beneath it. The National Portrait Gallery holds the work.

Lavery employed a relatively informal, direct compositional approach suited to the wartime setting — no elaborate studio backdrop, the emphasis on the admiral's face and bearing rather than ceremonial regalia. Naval uniform is handled with attention to its functional authority without becoming an inventory of decoration. The paint is applied with confident, fluid strokes.