Field Marshal Jean Louis Ligonier (Later Lord Ligonier) (1680–1770)

Reynolds painted Field Marshal Jean Louis Ligonier around 1755, depicting the Huguenot-born military commander who had served with distinction in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. Ligonier, who rose to be Commander-in-Chief of the British Army despite his French origins, epitomized the cosmopolitan military culture of eighteenth-century Europe. Now in the National Army Museum, the portrait documents one of the senior military figures of Georgian England.

The portrait is rendered with experimental pigments that characterizes Joshua Reynolds's best work. Oil on canvas provides a rich ground for the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.