Lieutenant Waghorne, RN

Lieutenant Waghorne of the Royal Navy sat for Hayter in 1844, a period when the painter was combining royal commissions with a steady flow of military and naval portrait work. The portrait’s location at the Guildhall Museum in Rochester, a historic naval town on the Medway, suggests a local connection. Hayter’s facility with military and naval portraits reflected the Victorian public’s appetite for images of imperial service. George Hayter was the preeminent British history and portrait painter of the early Victorian era, appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841.

The naval officer’s uniform is painted with crisp attention to insignia and braid, set against a plain background that emphasizes the sitter’s bearing. Hayter’s late technique is efficient and assured.