John Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Mount Edgcumbe (1716–1761)

Reynolds painted John Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Mount Edgcumbe, around 1743, one of his very earliest documented works produced when he was only twenty years old and still working at Port Eliot under the patronage of the Eliot family. The Edgcumbe family of Mount Edgcumbe House across the Tamar from Plymouth were Reynolds's near-neighbours and natural early patrons; their distinctive headland overlooking Plymouth Sound remained a family seat for three centuries and is now a country park. This extremely early portrait — painted before Reynolds had any formal training beyond what he had absorbed from local painters in Plymouth — demonstrates the intuitive visual talent that his training under Thomas Hudson and his Italian study would systematically develop. The sitter's pose and costume reflect the English Baroque conventions Reynolds would have encountered in engravings and in the portraits hanging in west-country country houses, providing his earliest compositional models. Mount Edgcumbe House, where the painting remains in the family or associated collection, preserves this very early work in an appropriate regional context.

Executed in Oil on canvas, the work showcases Joshua Reynolds's experimental pigments, with particular attention to the interplay of light across the sitter's features. The handling of drapery and accessories demonstrates the technical refinement expected of formal portraiture.