The portrait is dated here on stylistic grounds to c.1730. Traditionally, the sitter has been identified as ‘Thomas Hawkins (son of John)’. A more plausible identification, however, is Christopher Hawkins (1694–1767), the father of Thomas Hawkins (TN22). To date the only comparison with a known likeness of Christopher Hawkins is the portrait by Ramsay (TN53), which depicts Christopher Hawkins aged about fifty. Even so, there is sufficient likeness between the two sitters to affirm that the present sitter is Christopher Hawkins. In addition, the sitter resembles the gentleman in TN69, who, it is suggested, is also Christopher Hawkins. Given that the present portrait and TN27 are in matching Rococo pierced frames, they may well have been treated as pendants, and TN27 may be a portrait of Christopher Hawkins’s wife, Mary Hawkins.

The portrait was recorded as being on display in the Dining Room in 1928: the inventory of March that year, when the portrait still hung in the Dining Room, states, ‘Thomas Hawkins of Trewinnard, died 1716, half length, full bottom wig, brown velvet coat and white jabot, 30in by 24in’.