John Tracy (1722–1793), 7th Viscount Tracy

Thomas Lawrence's portrait of John Tracy, 7th Viscount Tracy of around 1800 depicts a member of the English Catholic nobility whose recusant family had maintained their faith through centuries of legal disability. The Tracys represented the continuity of English Catholicism through the penal period, and their portraits carry the dignity of a family that had sacrificed social advancement for religious conviction. Lawrence's treatment creates a portrait of aristocratic gravity appropriate to a family whose history embodied complex questions of loyalty and identity.

The portrait is a competent example of Lawrence's standard format for male peers, with warm flesh tones against a neutral dark ground. The handling is professional and assured without reaching the heights of inspiration that Lawrence achieved with his most compelling sitters.