Hon. Dr. Brownlow North (1741–1820), Dean of Canterbury (1770–1771)

Brownlow North held the deanery of Canterbury briefly in 1770-71 before going on to a distinguished ecclesiastical career that culminated in the Bishopric of Winchester, one of the wealthiest sees in England. George Romney's 1776 portrait, now at Canterbury Cathedral, was made five years after North's departure from that deanery — presumably a retrospective commission for the Cathedral's portrait collection. North was the half-brother of Lord North, the Prime Minister, and his rapid advance through the church hierarchy benefited from family connections as much as personal distinction. Romney's Canterbury Cathedral commission is among his more significant institutional ecclesiastical portraits, documenting a senior clergyman for a great English cathedral. The 1776 date places the work in Romney's early mature period, when he was establishing his London reputation but before the flood of aristocratic commissions that characterised his peak decade.

The 1776 date shows Romney's developing mature style — more assured than his earliest London work but not yet at the full fluency of the mid-1780s. The clerical subject's formal dress imposes compositional requirements different from his secular portraits. The face is given careful attention, with the modelling developing the individual character beneath the formality of clerical presentation.