Gerard Soest 1600-1681

The sitter served with Sir Walter Raleigh and later with the Duke of Buckingham.  In 1627 he captured twenty French ships near Le Havre and this may be the action depicted in the present painting.  In 1642 he was appointed Lord High Admiral by Charles I.  There is a portrait of him by Jonson at Muncaster Castle, and a version at Petworth.

When the painting was exhibited at the important National Portraits Exhibition in 1866 it was attributed to Van Dyck.  It has subsequently been attributed to Van Dyck's English follower, William Dobson, but it is certainly by Gerard Soest, who came to England from Holland in the mid-1640s.