Portrait of Admiral Rodney

{{Short description|Painting by Thomas Gainsborough}}

{{Infobox artwork

| image_file=File:Admiral of the White by Thomas Gainsborough.jpg

| image_size=250px

| title=Portrait of Admiral Rodney

| artist= Thomas Gainsborough

| year= 1783

| type=Oil on canvas, portrait painting

| height_metric=71

| width_metric= 40

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| width_imperial=

| metric_unit=cm

| imperial_unit=in

| museum=Private Collection

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}}

Portrait of Admiral Rodney or Admiral Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes is a 1783 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Gainsborough featuring the British admiral George Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney.Whitley p.211Corbett p.206 It depicts his April 1782 victory at the Battle of the Saintes in the Caribbean Sea during the American War of Independence. Rodney led the Royal Navy to a decisive victory over the French fleet commanded by the Comte de Grasse by "breaking the line".Grant p.168 Rodney is shown on the deck of the de Grasse's captured flagship Ville de Paris with the ship's Fleur-de-lis ensign behind him, as smoke from the battle swirls in the background. In 1788 the artist's nephew Gainsborough Dupont produced a mezzotint based on the picture.https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1881-1112-229

Rodney was also notably painted by Gainsborough's contemporary and rival, Joshua Reynolds, who exhibited his painting at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in 1789. Reynolds similarly included action from the Battle of the Saintes in the background. Commissioned by the Prince of Wales, it remains today in the Royal Collection.{{cite web | url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/405899/george-brydges-first-lord-rodney-1719-92 | title=Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92) - George Brydges, First Lord Rodney (1719?-92) }} A later copy is in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.{{cite web | url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-14444 | title=Admiral George Brydges Rodney (1719-92), 1st Baron Rodney | Royal Museums Greenwich }}