Robert Williams Vaughan (1803–1859), Bt

Samuel Drummond painted this portrait of Sir Robert Williams Vaughan in 1825, when the artist was at the height of his career as one of London's most sought-after portrait painters. Drummond had been exhibiting at the Royal Academy since the early 1790s and by this point had accumulated an impressive roster of sitters, including Walter Scott, Elizabeth Fry, and Marc Isambard Brunel. Vaughan, born in 1803, would have been around 22 years old when he sat for this portrait, still a young man but already bearing the baronetcy he would carry until his death in 1859. The National Library of Wales holds this work, which speaks to Vaughan's significance as a Welsh figure, likely connected to the landed gentry of north Wales.

Drummond trained at the Royal Academy Schools starting in 1791, after an unusual early life that included several years working Baltic trade routes at sea, followed by a brief stint as a clerk. That maritime background fed directly into one strand of his work, the large historical naval paintings for which he became known. But portraiture was his bread and butter, and in works like this one you can see the careful attention to likeness and the sober directness that made him a reliable choice for families wanting to document a young heir or newly titled gentleman. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1808.