As the leading English portraitist of his generation, Reynolds did much more than faithfully render the features of his sitters. He had a profound awareness of his artistic heritage and made constant references to his predecessors in his paintings, thereby hoping to raise the status of British portraiture. His likeness of Charles Brandling derives from Van Dyck's portrait of Philip, Lord Wharton, which in turn was based on a Greek statue in the Vatican. Charles Brandling, presented here as the ideal country gentleman, was a banker and an eminent member of Parliament.